(raven calls) Hi I'm Richard Nelson. On a recent summer morning I was camping with my good friend Hank Lentfer on a little island far off the beaten path in Glacier Bay National Park. We woke up to the dawn chorus of the songbirds and Ravens, crawled out of the tent, launched our kayaks, and paddled toward the nearest Mainland Shore. Now Hank and I were collaborating on a project called voices of Glacier Bay. Our work involved using sensitive microphones and digital recorders to capture the sounds of nature. So,we spent our days and nights listening in idyllic bays and Coves; in Hidden valleys; in Alder thickets and mossy forests and along the way we learned that Glacier bay is not just one of the most spectacular and dynamic wild places in the world it also sings with a voice entirely its own an immense intermingled chorus of cascading water chanting thrushes trumpeting whales huffing Bears wailing loons and of course the thundering ice. Over two summers Hank and I recorded more than a thousand tracks for Glacier Bay's library of natural sounds and we each had moments that are going to live inside us forever. For me there's one sound one amazing convergence one moment of incredible grace in nature that stands out Above All the Res. The whole experience unfolded after Hank and I left our Island camp on that June morning as we kayaked over toward the mainland we decided to separate so we could each record in a different place along the shore a short time later I paddled into to a small Cove it had Forest on either side and an open gravelly spit at the far end. When I was approaching the spit in my kayak, I caught a movement in the corner of my eye and then I realized that's a big gray wolf! I stopped paddling, fixed my eyes on the wolf, and everything went silent. The wolf paused and stared at me. He seemed interested but not really concerned as if the kayak was just maybe a chunk of driftwood what happened next was totally unexpected and astonishing the wolf leaned his head back looked up toward the sky and broke into a long mournful deep voiced howl. I already had the recorder on my lap in the kayak but it wasn't hooked onto the cable from the parabolic microphone we use to amplify sounds and in my frantic haste to plug in that cable I dropped the connector end into the water it was a huge mistake because you can't plug a wet salty connector into a recorder immediately I put the connector in my mouth to rinse off that salt water and then I tried to dry the connector with the edge of my t-shirt all this while I had a wild Alaskan wolf pouring out full-throated howls right in front of me. Well finally I plugged in the cable hit the record button and this is what I heard through the headphones. That static meant the connector was still wet and the recording was a noisy mess. Now I was in a complete panic I unplugged the cable stuck the connector back in my mouth and very carefully very meticulously this time I dried it off but while I was busy doing that the wolf finished his long chorus of howls and as I watched from the kayak he walked casually toward the forest, and I figured he was about to disappear. But instead, he stopped and he laid down in in plain sight not more than 50 ft away from me. Now I carefully plugged in the microphone to give it another test and through the headphones I heard perfect clear sounds with no static at all. (bird songs) I was beside myself with relief and excitement, but the wolf just laid his chin on his paws like a dog relaxing on a living room floor watching me without making a sound well this went on for a pretty long time I sat there adrift in my kayak and the wolf daydreamed with apparently no inclination to howl again. Finally, after maybe 20 minutes I decided I've got nothing to lose here so I'm going to take a big risk very gently sort of like singing into a baby's ear I made a soft soft howl about like (mimics howling sound). The wolf instantly perked his ears and his golden eyes held me in an intense protracted stare but he stayed as silent as ever after another long wait I decided it's time to pull all the stops and I let out a sustained full volume howl for a long minute nothing happened and then the wolf, still lying on the ground, lifted his muzzle toward the sky and he started to howl. (wolf howling) I clutched that microphone I held it as steady as possible and I savored one of the most remarkable moments I've ever had in a lifetime of experiences in wild country. The wolf's voice filled every cranny of that little cove. It rang off into the surrounding forest, it overflowed all my senses, and it seemed to speak for everything that remains wild in our world. Again and again the wolf howled and while I was immersed in the haunting power of that sound I remembered that within very recent times the wolf's howl could be heard almost everywhere throughout the Northern Hemisphere nearly all of Alaska and Canada and the rest of the United States far down into Mexico and then across Europe, across Russia, and Siberia; South into the Middle East and India. The wolf was the most widely distributed land mammal on earth. Over millions of years wolves had evolved into one of the most brilliantly adapted creatures that has ever existed. And then the wolf encountered its nemesis. Modern industrial humankind in one place after another like lights winking out in the night wolves vanished and where their voices once rang out now there was only silence. Because of this, we're incredibly privileged that wolves still live in parts of the United States. Most of them are here in Alaska in places like Glacier Bay National Park, and because these national parks are public lands, they're open to everyone who wants to experience the original untamed unbroken American earth places where we can savor the peace and beauty of true wildness which is embodied Above All Else by the howling of wolves.
And if we do things right, if we carefully protect our natural inheritance in places like Glacier Bay, our children, and children of generations far into the future are going to have the same privilege that we have today to visit a place like this one and to hear the most iconic wild voice of all a wolf howling in the pristine vastness. (wolf howls)
