Gary Ferguson, a prolific writer and former naturalist for the U.S. Forest Service, was uniquely positioned to offer a behind-the-scenes account of the tumultuous first year in the Yellowstone wolf reintroduction project. Living, as he does, near the northern border of Yellowstone National Park, Gary was well versed in the emotional arguments both for and against wolves, and when a wolf from the project was shot just outside his home town of Red Lodge, Montana, he was able to capture both the larger conservation implications of the loss and the human drama of the senseless killing.

"The Yellowstone Wolves marked a shift in my writing, from what I consider 'wilderness reflection'—going out and contemplating nature and how it makes me feel—to looking at how nature affects other people," says Ferguson. "In this case it was the tracks that wolves leave in people's lives that made this story so compelling—both the people in Yellowstone, spending days observing wolves, and people on the other side, investing wolves with evil characteristics."

Gary has been a full-time freelance writer for 16 years, and his science and nature articles have appeared in more than 100 national magazines, including Outside, Sierra, and Travel-Holiday. He is also the author of more than a dozen books on nature and science, including Hawk's Rest: A Season in the Remote Heart of Yellowstone (National Geographic Adventure Press, 2003), The Yellowstone Wolves: The First Year (Falcon Publishing, 1996), The Sylvan Path; A Journey Through America's Forests (St. Martin's Press, 1997), Spirits of the Wild: The World's Great Nature Myths (Clarkson Potter, 1996), and Walking Down the Wild (Simon & Schuster, 1993). Gary regularly reads his essays and commentaries on National Public Radio, and he hosts his own Web site, which offers more information about his books and interests.

He lives with his wife, Jane, who is a ranger in Yellowstone and a teacher for Outward Bound. In their free time they tend to have backpacks on, exploring the vast wilderness areas of the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem.

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