By Suzanne Asha Stone
From wolf recovery college intern to Idaho and Yellowstone wolf reintroduction team member, national wolf advocate, mentor, and international coexistence leader
From wolf recovery college intern to Idaho and Yellowstone wolf reintroduction team member, national wolf advocate, mentor, and international coexistence leader
Suzanne checking on a sedated wolf from the Yellowstone/Idaho wolf reintroduction. Photo credit: US Fish and Wildlife Service
Gray wolves once numbered in the hundreds of thousands in the continental USA. Centuries of persecution led to their eradication from the nation leaving only a few hundred in northern Minnesota. They faded into the realm of fairy tales for generations until a group of visionary scientists and activists joined together in the 1970s to secure Endangered Species protection wolves. Two decades later, those actions led to the restoration of wolves to the northern Rockies where they had been once been abundant before being eradicated by poisons, traps and bounties. The few that survived escaped into Canada where wolf populations continued to thrive.
Over the last twenty years, I've worked with a progressive team of scientists, ranchers, and wildlife managers to develop nonlethal methods that allow ranchers to proactively protect their livestock from wolves and other native predators. While these methods were initially met with skepticism, they are now helping protect wolves and other imperiled wildlife around the world while demonstrating greater effectiveness in protecting livestock than the brutal predator killing programs in use today.
Over the decades, I've collected stories, video, images, audio and more to build a living archive of the history of the return of wolves to the American West. This is my story of the people, the wolves and the events that shaped history.
Over the last twenty years, I've worked with a progressive team of scientists, ranchers, and wildlife managers to develop nonlethal methods that allow ranchers to proactively protect their livestock from wolves and other native predators. While these methods were initially met with skepticism, they are now helping protect wolves and other imperiled wildlife around the world while demonstrating greater effectiveness in protecting livestock than the brutal predator killing programs in use today.
Over the decades, I've collected stories, video, images, audio and more to build a living archive of the history of the return of wolves to the American West. This is my story of the people, the wolves and the events that shaped history.
“Of all the native biological constituents of a northern wilderness scene, I should say that wolves present the greatest test of human wisdom and good intentions.”
Paul L. Errington
The inside story of the return of the wolf
As an intern for the Nez Perce tribe and federal US Fish and Wildlife Service, my first lesson in howling to monitor for wolves ended in rifle bullets whistling over my head. I also documented the last known naturally occurring wolf pack in Idaho days before they fell victim to illegal poisoning. Years later, I served on the team that captured wolves in Canada and set them free in Idaho and Yellowstone National Park, securing their recovery across the Western USA. But like all great efforts, I didn't do it alone. My mentors Jay Gore, US Fish and Wildlife Service biologist, Nez Perce chairman Charles "Pete" Hayes who both worked to ensure wolves would also be restored to central Idaho's vast wilderness and national forest lands, and unlikely ally Carter Niemeyer, former USDA Wildlife Services predator control specialist, helped me turn my passion for wolves into pragmatic leadership on their behalf. For those who enjoy wolves in Yellowstone today, much of the credit belongs to Renee Askins, founder of the Wolf Fund, who plowed forward the path that led to the return of wolves to Yellowstone. And it was Aldo Leopold, the wolf trapper turned visionary scientist whose land ethic changed our nation's cultural views of wolves, land use and human accountability to nature. His work led to a national definition of our relationship with nature.
“We abuse land because we see it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.”
― Aldo Leopold
Restoring wolves to the West was one of our country's greatest wildlife achievements but it almost didn't happen. Countless times, it appeared that it would never happen. Yet, at every juncture that threatened to stop the return of wolves to their historic homeland, key people emerged to help move the effort ever forward. This is my personal perspective as the longest full time boots-on-the ground wolf advocate in the West. This is the story of the first wolves to reclaim their ancient homeland and the people and events that made that possible.
“We abuse land because we see it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.”
― Aldo Leopold
Restoring wolves to the West was one of our country's greatest wildlife achievements but it almost didn't happen. Countless times, it appeared that it would never happen. Yet, at every juncture that threatened to stop the return of wolves to their historic homeland, key people emerged to help move the effort ever forward. This is my personal perspective as the longest full time boots-on-the ground wolf advocate in the West. This is the story of the first wolves to reclaim their ancient homeland and the people and events that made that possible.
A wolf howls...
You are invited to be part of the next step of this journey.
My goal is to build and publish this part of history
as a living archive for generations to come.
My goal is to build and publish this part of history
as a living archive for generations to come.