Photo by iStock.com/Stock Photos | Wild Dog
In my office in Bozeman, Montana, I have a bumper sticker with a silhouette of a wolf and the words “Wolves Belong.” It’s something I look at and think about frequently—how wolves have become such a symbol for different deeply-held perspectives and why there can be such antipathy toward them, as seen in very disturbing new laws passed in Montana and Idaho aimed at decimating wolf populations in the Northern Rockies.
By no means do I have the answers to all of these questions, but I know in my heart—and science confirms—that wolves are critical to healthy ecosystems. Yes, wolves do truly belong.
Wolves were an important part of promoting biodiversity and the overall health of ecosystems including where I live, in Greater Yellowstone, before they were nearly driven to extinction by humans a century ago. Since wolves’ reintroduction in the mid-90s, other plant and animal species are again thriving in Yellowstone, and once again we can see and hear wolves, along with all the wildness that they represent. In my work as a wildlife and public lands advocate, I’ve seen firsthand that people across the Mountain States share a love for wildlife and wild places, and want their children to experience the same thriving ecosystems as they did. But today, we face overlapping climate and extinction crises that threaten our ability to promise our children any such thing. If we want to protect biodiversity and the habitat that species need to survive, we must increase protections for wolves and other species at risk of extinction, as well as protect the places they depend upon.
That’s why the Sierra Club joined our partners at the Center For Biological Diversity and the Humane Society of the United States yesterday in calling for an emergency relisting and reinstatement of Endangered Species protections for gray wolves in the Northern Rockies.
Newly-passed laws in Montana and Idaho— intended to reduce the wolf populations in those states by 80 percent and 90 percent respectively— are taking us back 100 years to when wolves were driven to near extinction in this country. Without reinstatement of Endangered Species protections, wolf populations in the Northern Rockies will be decimated to a fraction of what is needed for biological recovery. Under Montana’s new extreme laws, the state can reduce the population to just 150 wolves and 15 breeding pairs, meaning that approximately 700 wolves could be killed. These new laws also allow unethical methods such as baiting, spotlighting wolves at night, and allowing a single license holder to kill an unlimited number of wolves.
In a bad flashback to the 1800s when bounties were offered for killing wolves, hunters and trappers can now be reimbursed for their expenses killing wolves in Montana; this is already allowed in Idaho. Despite an outpouring of public opposition, Governor Greg Gianforte signed all of these bills into law; no surprise, since he also illegally shot a collared Yellowstone wolf in a trap earlier this year.
In Idaho, the state legislature recently passed Senate Bill 1211, meaning approximately 1,300 of Idaho’s 1,500 wolves could be killed, including by private contractors hired by the state. Idaho’s law allows even more unethical methods for killing wolves than Montana’s.
These recently-passed laws are just as horrendous as they sound. Even mainstream hunting groups such as the Montana Wildlife Federation strongly and vocally opposed these bills. Both states already have very liberal wolf hunting and trapping seasons; hundreds of wolves are killed each year already under existing laws.
In both states and elsewhere, recovering wolf populations successfully coexist with livestock. In Montana, only half of one percent of sheep that died were killed by wolves in 2019; similarly, just one half of one percent of cattle in 2015 (the last year for which data was available) that died were killed by wolves. The vast majority of livestock were lost to disease, respiratory issues and harsh weather. Elk populations are thriving in both states, and “hunter success” is high.
These extreme bills could only pass because wolves in Montana and Idaho were delisted in 2011 through a rider in a “must-pass” appropriations bill. Wolves— and the ecosystems on which we depend— will pay a steep price if federal Endangered Species protections are not reinstated.
The petition filed yesterday calls for relisting of wolves in Northern Rockies states. Separately, the Sierra Club is challenging the Trump Administration’s 2020 delisting of the gray wolf across the lower 48 states (including Midwest states) in court.
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Photo by: Tracy Brooks, courtesy of Mission Wolf/ USFWS
Today, wolves only occupy approximately 15 percent of their historic range in the US. Decimating Northern Rockies wolf populations has consequences far beyond the region; Montana and Idaho wolf populations are critical to wolf dispersal and to establishing thriving wolf populations along the West Coast. With potentially as few as 300 wolves left in the Northern Rockies, wolves in Oregon, Washington, and California could never recover. This will have ripple effects, preventing healthy wolf populations from being established in the Southern Rockies as well. What’s happening in Montana and Idaho show why wolves need reinstatement of Endangered Species protections to ensure their populations can fully recover.
Our government also has a duty to honor the rights and sovereignty of Indigenous Nations who consider the wolf a sacred relative. Two hundred Tribal Nations opposed the Trump administration’s delisting of the gray wolf in 2020 and co-signed a Wolf Treaty to unite in defense of the wolf and to underscore the wolf’s immense cultural significance to a multitude of Indigenous cultures.
As a country, we have invested for 50 years in the recovery of the gray wolf. We are teetering on the edge of that investment being completely reversed. Wolves belong on the landscape; they play a critical role in maintaining ecological balance and in reducing the spread of fatal chronic wasting disease. Wolves are a keystone species; without healthy populations of these native carnivores, entire ecosystems unravel. The Sierra Club and our partners are committed to continuing to fight for full recovery of gray wolves. Each of us has a responsibility and a role to play in slowing the mass extinction crisis. In this moment, wolves— and the biodiversity that they help promote and upon which we all depend— need us.
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