Description
In June 1981 Terry Grosz assumed responsibility for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's Division of Law Enforcement in the Denver regional office, putting him in charge of an eight-state area. He would spend the final 17 years of his career there, until retiring in 1998. From this vantage point, he had the opportunity to work with legions of dedicated conservation law enforcement officers at both the state and federal levels, and in The Thin Green Line he describes how the best of them worked heroically to preserve our national wildlife heritage. One program brought together state and federal agents in Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho-plus the unexpected and invaluable help of the Audubon Society-to curb the illegal and unnecessary slaughter of grizzly bears, an endangered species now enjoying a comeback in that region, thanks to the added protection. The San Luis Valley Operation, the centerpiece of this collection, is a fascinating account of an enormously complex two-and-a-half-year undercover operation to protect the wildlife that had been devastated for decades in southern Colorado and northern New Mexico. One morning, some 275 law officers from a variety of state and federal agencies converged on the valley to arrest 108 alleged law-breakers. Nobody got hurt, and all but a very few of the cases stood up in court. From a legal and logistical standpoint, the operation was a spectacular success. But pandering politicians and sensationalist media ultimately undermined the object of the exercise-the defense of wildlife. Of course, a book by Terry Grosz wouldn't be the same without its fair share of stories from the field, by turns hair-raising, hilarious, or heart-wrenching. In this, The Thin Green Line doesn't disappoint-it's a stirring celebration of a great career spent in defense of wildlife and a stern warning that the battle is far from won.
