New non-profit startup gains scrutiny

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

By PJH Staff

JACKSON, WYO. – An environmentally conscious ivy-league grad is taking unusual avenues to preserve habitat in Teton County, but the death of one of his workers is drawing criticism to his crusade.

A bizarre love triangle between one of the Fletcher Goode’s helpers, Al E. Best, and a female wolf has raised disturbing questions amongst local wildlife advocates about the legitimacy of his operation.

Best was eaten by the alpha male of a rival pack last Wednesday.
His mother spoke out against front-line animals communicating at a press conference in Jackson last Sunday.

“All of Al’s girlfriends looked like dogs, but I never knew his secret passions could kill him,” she said. “I should have said something earlier.”
Some wildlife experts say Goode is on a slippery slope to destruction.
“Animals don’t think,” said Ernest Wang, from the Wyoming Department of Game and Fish. “I don’t know who this Doolittle thinks he is, but he needs to go back to his teepee before he gets his butt bit off.”

Goode moved to Jackson four years ago to ski for one season. He hoped to hone his ski skills before becoming a real estate broker in Manhattan, like his father and brothers. After spending three winters in Jackson, Goode felt “jaded” on relevant pursuits in life, and decided to buff out the non-profit conservation scene with one more name, Jackson Associates for Wildlife Strategies, or JAWS. The group sends members into the backcountry to gauge herd size and “public opinion” of the animals.

Despite the abundant amount of local conservation, land use and special interest groups in Jackson Hole, Goode said, “No one else in the entire world is doing this.
“Jackson is on the cusp of conservation,” he said.

Each member goes through a rigorous “animal communicator” class near Santa Fe, N.M., before being sent out into the wild.

Goode said he learned to communicate with an old roommate’s guinea pig, Mort, three years ago. He then spent a spring in Great Britain studying the journals of Sir Stacey Yeats, the real-life inspiration for the literary figure Dr. Doolittle.

“Yeats’ journals were the Rosetta Stone through which I extrapolated gerbil-speak into the languages of cervids like antelope, moose, and elk, as well as canines like coyotes and wolves,” Goode said.
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