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Wolves in Yellowstone: A Short History - The Battle Raged

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
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Page 4 of 7

Waging a Battle Over Wolves

In the most polarized position, those who opposed wolves wanted no re-introductions anywhere in Idaho, Montana, or Wyoming (including Yellowstone); the wolves should be delisted as an endangered species (so they could be hunted at-will as predators); and those wolves already in the region should be left as is (except to be hunted).

Those who favored wolves preferred managed re-introductions throughout the Northern Rocky Mountains with wolves carrying the full endangered species protection. This point of view was riding the wave of environmental concern in the United States, and the growing awareness of vanishing wilderness and wildlife. If nothing else, the Wolf Wars helped galvanize public awareness of the issues—a national constituency (and votes) for the wolves developed, which eventually more than counterbalanced the politically organized but smaller local opposition.

Throughout the entire fifteen years there was a see-saw battle that was often very bitter and sometimes radical (on both sides). Environmental Impact Studies were conducted. There were court cases. National politics, such as who was President or in charge of Congress, affected the process. In the end, it came down to a very American solution: compromise.

Many of those who opposed wolf reintroduction became aware that it would only be a matter of time before native wolf packs developed throughout the Rocky Mountains. If these wolves were fully covered by the Endangered Species Act, it would be illegal to kill them for any reason. Worse, under the Endangered Species Act it would be possible to ban ranching, mining, logging, and hunting from areas where wolves were repopulating. Since environmental concerns were in the ascendency in the United States, and the Endangered Species Act itself was going to remain largely untouchable; compromise came to look like a better approach.

In order to get enough support for re-introducing wolves into Yellowstone and Central Idaho, four compromises were important: The first was that wolves outside Yellowstone Park would fall under a special amendment to the Endangered Species Act ("experimental non-essential population") and could be killed on grounds of livestock predation. The second was a policy that the presence of wolves would not curtail multiple use (hunting, logging, etc.) in the area outside the park. The third compromise was inclusion in the re-introduction plan that when the wolf packs at each location reached 100 individuals and 10 packs, wolves would be de-listed as endangered and their management would pass from the federal to state governments. Finally, the fourth piece of compromise consisted of the formation in 1989 of a private organization, the Trust Fund for Wolf Restoration, which agreed to pay ranchers and farmers at market value for livestock proven to have been killed by wolves.

As is expected with compromise, not everybody was happy. Many environmentalists objected to the open-ended ‘wolves are fair game’ aspect; ranchers and others found problems with the terms of compensation for predation and other restrictions. However, on March 21, 1995 the first batch of 14 wolves were released from holding pens near the Buffalo Ranch in Lamar Valley. Wolf packs returned to Yellowstone.

In 1995, 14 wolves were transported from the Canadian Rockies in Alberta and held ten weeks to acclimate to Yellowstone in three 'wolf pens' located in the Lamar Valley. They were the first to be released.

In 1996, 17 additional wolves from British Columbia, Canada were released from pens in the Blacktail Plateau and Firehole River valley.

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