As Colorado is immersed in a relatively early stage of bringing wolf packs back to our nature, it’s heartening to remember that the first major wolf recovery effort yielded astonishingly positive, measurable results for biodiversity and ecosystem health, despite major political controversy and setbacks.

Daily Camera readers can witness firsthand how our nation’s wildly successful wolf recovery project inside Yellowstone National Park occurred, as documented in a new film, “Lost Wolves of Yellowstone.” This new documentary is being presented at the Dairy Center as the opening night film for Boulder’s Environmental, Nature, and Outdoors Film Festival. While opening night on July 17 is already sold out, the directors have added a second screening on Saturday, July 19, with tickets available.

It’s titled “Lost Wolves” because wolf packs of Yellowstone were lost when the last two pups were shot by park rangers circa 1926, following an era of relentless and wanton killing by trophy hunters and park administrators pressured by powerful ranching lobbyists.

One of the key players is Mollie Beattie, who in 1995 carried the first wolf into the park’s acclimation pens prior to release. That wolf, Alpha Female #5, was captured along with her mate in the remote Canadian wilderness, and this matriarch wolf would soon rebuild what mankind had destroyed so callously over decades.

While there have been many films about the wolves of Yellowstone, this one is unique, as it intertwines the fate of the wolves with the endearing story of Beattie, who was the first female director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. This experimental project was 20 years in the making, when, under Beattie’s leadership, wolves were finally on the ground in Yellowstone despite protests of wolf detractors. And just 18 months later, Beattie would succumb to cancer in June 1996, but her legacy lives large. The week before Mollie died, the first and most successful wolf pack in Yellowstone — the one born from Number 5 — was renamed Mollie’s Pack.

I asked Beattie’s husband, Rick Schwolsky of Lafayette, what she would have liked us to know about this film today.

“I think Mollie would be thrilled to see the wolves thriving in Yellowstone, and while she’d take great pride in this film, she’d be embarrassed to be featured so prominently and deflect credit to Mike and Doug, and the countless advocates who worked for two decades to achieve this goal,” Schwolsky said, referring to world renowned biologists Mike Phillips and Doug Smith who are featured in the lost footage.

“I think this film gives us all a chance to fall in love with the story of the wolves and Mollie’s role in helping get them back to where they belong.”

A lot of credence is given to the phrase the “balance of nature” when it comes to the role of wolves as apex predators, but what exactly does this mean?

I found out when I recently attended a slide presentation on the wolves of Yellowstone at the Boulder Optimist Club given by ecologist Delia Malone.

When wolves were extirpated from the park, we can actually go back in time to witness aerial views of the major losses of young willow along the stream banks, browsed by elk, more stagnant without predatory pressure from wolves to move around seasonally. Beavers depend on young willow to survive winters, while fish and songbirds depend on the beavers to build dams and ponds to store water for them to flourish and thrive.

We can and should marvel at these cascading effects, among others; the positive ecological transformations from having wolf packs on the landscape.

The evidence is unambiguous.

Despite mankind’s drive to falsely vilify and kill predators, nature has indeed shown us a bigger, better design of complex connectivity with life-affirming consequences we are only now starting to comprehend. Rather than kill, we must invest in apex predators, especially as we face a dire climate crisis without borders.

Stories are powerful. Having this viewpoint brought to us in “Lost Wolves of Yellowstone” is extremely helpful for Colorado, as we grapple with what is truly an unwarranted controversy over wolves. I can attest that wolf advocates are working positively with ranchers for coexistence. We just don’t hear about it in the media. Nor do we hear about the vast benefits of wolves at a time we need them most.

A good friend and compassionate human, Ryan Sedgeley of the Endangered Species Coalition, puts it plainly, “We just need to learn to share, as we were taught in kindergarten.”

He’s correct. Sometimes what seems complex is really that simple: Be kind to your neighbors, including wildlife. Do the work to coexist. Respect sentient creatures that are here — designed by nature to support the water, air and land we all share and depend upon to survive. Together.

Let’s not repeat mistakes of the past, but rather turn to nature as our teacher, with a good dose of humility and love for the planet and for one another.

Julie Marshall is Director of Wildlife & Ecology for the Center for a Humane Economy.