WildEarth Guardians

A Force for Nature

Select Page
Photo Credit: Jackson Hole Magazine

Humans and wolves history: from destruction to protection and back again

Humans Versus Wolves: A History
Europeans brought a “Little Red Riding Hood”-style intolerance for wolves with them to North America, resulting in the near-annihilation of wolves.

In 1630, only a decade after coming to the continent, settlers in the Massachusetts Bay Colony passed laws that awarded a bounty to anyone who killed a wolf. In the western U.S., wolf killing reached a high point in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Both private citizens and the federal government took part in the slaughter using traps, guns, poisons, and snares.

By the 1940s and 1950s, wolves were virtually eradicated from the lower 48 states. The gray wolf was among the first species protected under the Endangered Species Act after it passed in 1973.

In the western United States, gray wolves live in Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, and California. Gray wolves are beginning to disperse into other Western states, occasionally traveling to Utah and Colorado as well. New Mexico and Arizona are home to the critically imperiled subspecies of gray wolf, the Mexican wolf.

In recent years, however, wolf preservation efforts have come under attack. Under increasing pressure from a few hostile but powerful groups, including the livestock industry and some trophy hunting and gun advocates, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has attempted to strip away wolves’ protections. In response to legal victories overturning those efforts, Congress stripped some wolves of protections in 2011.

With more power in the hands of states hostile to native carnivores, including Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana, we have seen a return to the unsustainable violence against wolves that nearly eliminated them from the continental U.S. in the first place.

Defend the Endangered Species Act

The Endangered Species Act is our country’s most essential environmental law protecting plants and animals, yet some members of Congress want to weaken the law. Tell Congress you value native wildlife and want to see all imperiled species protected.

SEND A LETTER

How You Can Help

Help protect the incredible, vulnerable wildlife of the West! Be a guardian for the wild by joining the conversation, learning about current issues, and making your voice heard. Together, we're a powerful force for nature.

Recent Stories From Wildlife

Help us to Oppose Montana House Bill 372

March 13, 2023

HB 372 would open the door for catastrophic consequences to our native wildlife, providing a right to “hunt, fish, trap, and harvest wild fish and wildlife.”

Read more >

Wildlife Press

More work remains to ensure lobo survival

Santa Fe New Mexican | Mar 29, 2023

This week marks the 25th anniversary of the first Mexican wolves being reintroduced into the wilds of the United States. And the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently released its annual count of lobos in New Mexico and Arizona.

Read more >

All Wildlife Op-Eds

Jared Polis supports Endangered Special Act rule, but not Colorado bill tied to it

Colorado Politics | Mar 30, 2023

While Gov. Jared Polis backs the state Division of Parks and Wildlife obtaining a rule allowing Colorado to move forward on its plan to reintroduce wolves, a spokesman said today he does not support the process outlined in a bill introduced yesterday.

Read more >

All Wildlife In the News