The story I'm sharing is woven from my own experiences but it is certainly not just my story.
It's about the wolves and the people who played significant parts in their return. Events that happened often behind the scenes but ultimately led to the successful return of wolves to the Western USA.
These triumphs and tragedies, sacrifices and rewards, old prejudices and new understandings
affected both human and wolf alike.
The dream of righting a terrible wrong and replacing it with a new coexistence paradigm is still unfolding today.

This is our story.

Chapters

Chapter I - The First Wolves
Chapter II - Encounters
Chapter III - Best Laid Plans
Chapter IV - The First Sacrifice
Chapter V - Fort St. Johns
Chapter VI - Tracking the Wolves
Chapter VII - Buying Tolerance
Chapter VII - On a Hill
Chapter VIII - Armed and Dangerous
Chapter IX - Silver Tears
Chapter X - The First Fladry Ranch
Chapter XI - Chico
Chapter XII - Oregon's First Wolf
Chapter XII - Secrets Known to Wolves
Chapter XIII - Running Amuck
Chapter XIV - The Wedge Pack
Chapter XV - Journey
Chapter XVI - Losing Federal ESA Protection
Chapter XVII - The Phantom Wolves
Chapter XVIII - The Dingo
Chapter XIX - The Czech Republic, France, and Poland
Chapter XX - Israel, Morocco and Spain
Chapter XXI - A Broken Path
Chapter XXII - The World Vision

Notes:

Encounters (Texas wolf, Mission Wolf, Nez Perce, flight over central Idaho, bullets overhead, howling with wolves/poison, central Idaho Steering Comm interviews/Wisconsin research, trapping wolves and skunks, Idaho's first wolf conference - Pete Hayes, Jay Gore, Adrian Wydeven, black wolf.)
Chapter two: Best laid plans (the Wolf Fund, Senator McClure's plot/wolf committee, Michael Blake/Dances with Wolves, USFWS EIS, a sea of cowboy hats and angry men, a new pack spotted, Washington DC and Senator Byrd's trashcan - Michael Blake, Renee Askins, Carter Niemeyer, Little John).
Chapter three: Unlikely Bedfellows (Farm Bureau and Sierra Club litigation, George Wuerthner's "kill them all and blmae the ranchers, Nez Perce tribal council, 60 Minutes exposes FB, petitions to Chicago/"I love wolves, I hate my job", reintroduction moves forward - allies in hidden places, Mission Wolf's Kent Weber, Tracey Brookes, Sila, Shaman and Peaches)
Chapter four:
Chapter five: The next wolves (release of the next 4, dream and death, stand off at the ranch, tracking the wolves, livestock battles begin. the Nez Perce tribe takes the lead in Idaho, Washington's swimming pool wolf - Curt Mack, Carter Niemeyer, Russ Morgan.)
Chapter six: Amelia and her grandmother (western congressmen plot to stop second year wolf reintroduction, Bonnie Raitt fundraiser, Post office funds pour in/Amelia and her grandmother, Amex in hand/BC here we come, Fort St James and 50 below zero, taking the wolves home, snowmobiling them to release in the Frank Church, bathtub blues, first camp with baby Sierra hearing wolves at dawn - most of the reintroduction team were volunteers and need to be highlighted for their work).
Chapter seven: Buying tolerance (joining Defenders, reimbursing ranchers for livestock depredations, Oakleaf and the Jureano Mountain pack, B45 first wolf in Oregon, Fladry and Rick Williamson's dream, Northern Rockies wolf conference, back to school, Glacier wolves, kids/teacher dead wolves, Oaxaca and the United Nations - Rick Williamson, black wolf's silver tears, wolves eating coyote pups in Yellowstone. Linda Thurston).
Chapter eight: Nonlethal strategies (new deterrents emerge, the sushi pond and fladry, Helicopters and fladry, the Wood River Wolf Project begins, the Paradise valley wolf wars, kitchen tables, Madison Valley and Red Lodge range riders, the first livestock council, Montana's approach, Wyoming and Idaho's anti-wolf plans, aiding Mexican wolf biologists/pens for dogs, losing the Whitehawk pack.)
Chapter nine: Who says it can't be done if you haven't tried it? (The Wood River Wolf Project's first years, battles with Peavey/ringing the dinner bell, battles with Faulkner/saving the pack, carcass pit blues in Oregon, winning the legal battle against wolf delisting, off to Oxford - Doug Honnold, Chat Chaaht's pack, Rick Williamson, Pete Haskill, Larry Schoen).
Chapter ten: Conventional wisdom (studying the tools and methods, eureka moments, challenging conventional wisdom, maligning with new progressive partners in ranching, wolves reestablishing Oregon, the loss of ESA protection/Idaho begins hunting wolves - Weyekin, the wolves of Bear Valley, Levi Holt/Black Beaver)
Chapter eleven: Oregon Sunsets (wolves expand range in Oregon/range riders, the new Oregon wolf plan, Journey's visit to California, Dead dingoes and Australian FoxLights, new research on lethal control, ending the compensation program - Jason, Arian Wallach, Rob Wielgus, Hank Seipp).
Chapter twelve: 26 miles (Wyoming wolves lose ESA protection, snowmobile 26 miles to kill a wolf, poisoning dogs trying to kill wolves, snares and traps return, year 5 of Wood River Wolf Project, KKK and wolf in Jackson, Internal politics/Jamie and Amaroq/coffee mug names, alone in the desert, Tester funds for coexistence, connecting with the Quileute elders).
Chapter 13: 7 years and counting (Wood River Wolf Project research and publishing/no more $upport from Jamie, the Smithsonian, wolves of the Czech Republic, wolves of Yellowstone, Senator Crapo's Salmon meeting, Busting the Washington wolf control scam, Journey and the Rogue female have pups, wolves visit Quileute tribe - Rob Klavins, Roblyn Brown, Harriet Allen, Diane Gallegos, Story Warren).
Chapter 14: Judas wolf (USDA Wildlife Services aerial gunning packs in the Lolo, USFWS/state legislature wipe the hands, Project wolf beaten near death by USDA WS lethal specialist, Rick leaves USDA, illegal killing and blaming wolves for elk declines, wolf wars in France, talks of bounties begin, Oregon's wolf plan round two, 20th anniversary of the wolf reintrodution, Yellowstone reunion/apologies from USFWS legal council).
Chapter 15: Bounties (Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation helps fund first bounties on Idaho wolves, New Montana WS director, the Tom Miner Basin Project expands, Blackfoot Challenge adds wolves to their predator nonlethal program, delisting talks move forward in Oregon, first wolf/livestock conflicts in SW Oregon, North Carolina/Bob Wielgus/tea with Arian, more wolves die in NE Washington - Hilary Zaranek and Andrew Anderson, O6 and her death).
Chapter 16: Nonlethal takes the lead (Montana WS first in nation nonlethal program, Oregon advances new tools, five new ranchers emerge, wolf packs killed in grazing areas adjacent to Wood River Wolf Project, a wolf pup called Boise, Wolves in Poland, attacks from George Wuerthner, armchair psychologist Marc Bekoff, and what's his name - Josh Adler, Brenda Peterson, Shane Stevenson, Cameron Krebs, Blue Mountain wolf packs.)
Chapter 17: Back to DC (Montana range rider workshop, Capitol Hill nonlethal coexistence presentation, Oregon wolf workshops "By Gawd, we need to hear it!", a large bequest for coexistence, Australian Compassionate Conservation Conference, Israeli wolves, Moroccan wolves, and open season in Idaho, SW Oregon training ranchers, Oregon wolf plan meetings, 20th anniversary of the Coex program, proposing a Coex conference, Louise starts her study - Louise, Arian/Josh in Golan Heights, Itamar's wolves.)
Chapter 18: Honor the Path (Walking away from the table, Colorado wolf gala, internal delays and indecision, toxic environments and Craig's illness, taking a stand, designing a new state coexistence program in Oregon, false accusations and Oregon FW Commission, dumpster blues, a port in the storm, limbo... limbo...limbo, exclusion, support from where it counts, gathering the materials for the book, HSUS allies, Colorado wolf reintroduction/Pathways, reuniting with friends, breathing again, more limbo.
Chapter 19: 25th Anniversary of the wolf reintroduction. A new global coexistence network emerges. Finishing the book.

The wolves and the people who changed history