Gray wolf reintroduction and protection – the wild needs wolves!
Protecting and Reintroducing Wolves
WildEarth Guardians is working hard for wolves on the Western landscape by advocating in the courts, enforcing existing legal protections, pressing for prompt wolf reintroduction, and protecting the wild places upon which wolves depend.
Vision
We know that wolves need the wild and the wild needs wolves.
We believe wolves should be allowed to work their ecological magic. Wolves should be present on the landscape in sufficient numbers to keep elk and deer alert and moving, allowing willow and aspen regrowth and supporting healthy streams and songbird habitat, and creating a host of other positive cascading effects throughout the ecosystem.
Strategies
On the Ground
We are building and mobilizing grassroots support for wolf recovery across the West.
In the Southwest
We are working to improve the Mexican wolf’s protections under the Endangered Species Act and pressing for more Mexican wolf releases into the wild.
In the Northern Rockies
We are challenging wolf-killing plans and advocating for greater tolerance and understanding on the ground.
In the Southern Rockies
We are pressing for the return of the wolf through additional releases of Mexican wolves and reintroductions of gray wolves where they remain absent and for improved safeguards for wolf habitat.
In the Gila
We are advocating for voluntary permanent grazing permit retirement to reduce conflicts with wolves and ensure their recovery.
Accomplishments
In spring 2018, Guardians won our challenge to inadequate protections for Mexican wolves. We are currently challenging the woefully flawed 2017 Mexican wolf recovery plan.
In December, 2015 we won our challenge to the federal wildlife killing agency, Wildlife Services’, wolf killing plans in Washington state.
In April 2014, Guardians brokered the first voluntary grazing permit retirement on the Gila National Forest, returning nearly 50 square miles of wolf country to the wild. We have another permit retirement agreement signed and are collaborating with ranchers across the region to resolve resource challenges and recover the Mexican wolf.
Throughout 2014, Guardians tabled for wolves at 46 events in Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico, collecting 2,587 postcards asking Interior Sec. Sally Jewell to maintain endangered species protection for wolves and taking 252 “Kids Love Wolves” photos.
Guardians rallied wolf supporters to testify at two Mexican wolf hearings to improve protections for the wolves; one in Pinetop, Arizona, and one in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. Pro-wolf speakers outnumbered anti-wolf speakers 2 to 1. We subsequently won our challenge to the Fish and Wildlife Service’s inadequate protections for Mexican wolves.
In February 2012, Guardians helped convince the Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks commission not to extend a wolf-hunting season in the West Fork of the Bitterroot.
In April 2011, Guardians secured a legal settlement on the Gila National Forest in New Mexico that requires the Forest Service to more carefully consider the needs of wolves in key areas.
