Photo Gallery

Click any
thumbnail
to view

Historically, wolves roamed North America from the Pacific to the Atlantic and from the Arctic to Mexico, playing a critical role in regulating herds of grazing animals such as elk, moose, deer, and bison and commanding a well-deserved reputation as a top predator. In the 19th century, westward settlement, the introduction of domestic livestock, and aggressive predator eradication programs sponsored by federal and local governments pushed the wolf to the edge of extinction in the contiguous United States. The Endangered Species Act (1973) finally protected the wolf.

In the early 1980s wolves from Canada started to establish a population in the area surrounding Glacier National Park in Northwest Montana. In the early 1990s biologists estimated a population of approximately 65 animals. At this same time wolf sightings in Idaho were occurring more frequently. Initially only solitary animals were spotted, but in the early '90s pairs of animals were confirmed to be traveling together. In 1995 and 1996, after much controversy, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service introduced two groups of wolves, 31 and 35 animals respectively, from northern Canada to Yellowstone National Park and remote U.S. Forest Service lands in central Idaho.

In December of 2002 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimated populations in excess of 250 wolves in Idaho and the Greater Yellowstone area. The ESA also provided the protections necessary for the wolf populations in the upper Midwest to begin their recovery. Minnesota's Department of Natural Resources estimates a wolf population of more than 1,500 animals. Wisconsin and the upper peninsula of Michigan, which did not have breeding wolf populations in 1973, support wolf populations of approximately 320 and 270 animals.

Even with the protection of the ESA, the wolves of the northern Rockies face many threats; habitat loss and conflicts with livestock are the biggest. Earthjustice attorneys in Bozeman and Denver are defending the wild public lands that provide critical habitat for the gray wolf from oil and gas development, road building, and commercial development.