Controversial Comeback

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Wolves in Yellowstone: A Short History - Controversial Comeback

Written by Nelson King

Article Index
Wolves in Yellowstone: A Short History
Killing Varmints
Controversial Comeback
The Battle Raged
Post-Reintroduction
After Ten Years
Conclusions
All Pages

Page 3 of 7

For a variety of reasons wolf packs break up and individuals, pairs, or sub-packs disperse. After wolves were largely extirpated from the United States (excluding Alaska), wolves from Canada dispersed into areas near the border. A few packs were seen in Northern Minnesota and then Northwest Montana. Eventually individual (non-breeding) wolves dispersed southward into Montana and by about the mid-1980s reached the Greater Yellowstone Region.While this was occurring, the United States passed the Endangered Species Act of 1973, which provided laws and regulations concerning the protection and encouragement of plants and animals threatened with extinction. The gray wolf was one of the animals immediately listed as endangered.

The Endangered Species Act also included provisions for protection of the environment in which the endangered species lived.The Endangered Species Act made it a federal mandate for the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to do what it could to repopulate the gray wolf, which in practical terms meant reintroduction. Exploration of this possibility began as early as 1975 with the formation of the Rocky Mountain Wolf Recovery Team. The beginnings were relatively quiet, but the release of the first report in 1980 launched what has become known as the Wolf Wars.

Almost everything in Yellowstone National Park is under the magnifying glass not only of rangers and scientists, but also hunters, farmers, ranchers, corporate interests, tourists, conservationists, and politicians. Very little occurs in Yellowstone that does not provoke a reaction. This is particularly true of animals. Even the hint of reintroducing wolves to Yellowstone (the first report made no recommendations) was enough to polarize the situation.

Through the next fifteen years (1980-1995), the battle over wolves in Yellowstone (also for Idaho and Montana) involved hundreds of debates, town meetings, editorial commentary, media coverage, legal maneuvering, political posturing, back-room dealing, and an act or two of Congress. The vibes, good and bad, which propagated from the controversy, are still reverberating.

The controversy had many facets: Farmers and ranchers quite realistically knew that wolves would kill livestock and could threaten their livelihood. Hunters feared that wolves would reduce the availability of game animals. Lots of people just feared wolves, period. Beyond the wolves themselves, the controversy quickly involved age-old animosities between agencies of the federal government and many individuals and organizations in the West. Political battles about states’ rights, government interference in the lives of people, and the validity of scientific knowledge were drawn into the mix.

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