Protecting Imperiled Wolves in the Northern Rockies Region Through Compassionate Conservation
- Nature Conservation
- Wildlife
- Mammals
- Ecosystem Restoration
- Species Rewilding
- Women
- Grasslands
- American West
- Northern America Realm
- Daughters for Earth
| Bioregion | Northern Prairie & Aspen Forests (NA12) |
| Category | Nature Conservation Our project categories represent one of three core solutions pathways to solving climate change. Energy Transition focuses on renewable energy access and energy efficiency. Nature Conservation includes wildlife habitat protection and ecosystem restoration, as well as Indigenous land rights. Regenerative Agriculture supports farmers, ranchers, and community agriculture. |
| Realm | Northern America The Project Marketplace is organized by the major terrestrial realms divided into 14 biogeographical regions – N. America, Subarctic America, C. America, S. America, Afrotropics, Indomalaya, Australasia, Oceania, Antarctica, and the Palearctic realm, which coincides with Eurasia and is divided into Subarctic, Western, Central, Eastern, and Southern regions. |
| Status | urgent Seed indicates an early stage project that needs some level of support to develop into a larger funding proposal. Active indicates any project that needs core programmatic funding. Urgent indicates a short-term project initiated in response to a natural disaster or other impending risk. |
| Partner | Project Coyote |
One Earth’s Project Marketplace funds on-the-ground climate solutions that are key to solving the climate crisis through three pillars of collective action — renewable energy, ecosystem conservation, and regenerative agriculture. This project protects wolves and their habitats through community action, education, and awareness.
Removed from Endangered Species Act protections by the Trump administration, a policy continued with strong support from the Biden administration, wolves are now in crisis in the US. States like Montana and Idaho have created legislation that paves the way for the near extermination of the packs living in the Northern Rockies.
As apex predators that play vital ecological roles in promoting biodiversity and ecosystem health, wolves need federal protections and a national recovery plan to stop egregious killing across their range.
Support for this project will help Project Coyote focus on immediate wolf protection efforts in strategic regions where they are most threatened by proposed trophy hunting and political ill will.
Yellowstone wolves howling to gather other pack members. Image credit: Courtesy of Sarah Killingsworth
Change policy and promote peaceful coexistence with wolves
Led by Dr. Michelle Lute, Carnivore Conservation Director, the main goals of this project are to list wolves in the Northern Rockies on the Endangered Species Act (ESA), halt the lethal legislation passed in Montana and Idaho, and promote respect and appreciation for wolves and their vital ecological role through community outreach.
To change policy regarding wolves, the team at Project Coyote will appeal to the Department Interior Secretary for emergency ESA listing. Funding will help local and remote organizers purchase support tools.
The outreach program to promote peaceful coexistence with wolves and compassion for the species will include billboards, newspaper advertisements, paid media promotions, film, video, social media campaigns, and Science Advisors' expert testimony. In-person workshops will also be held to spread awareness and deploy non-lethal deterrence toolkits.
Members of the Wapiti Lake pack play on a winter day. Image credit: Courtesy of Sarah Killingsworth
Motions are already underway in Montana
Following Project Coyote’s momentous legal victory to stop a hunting and trapping season for wolves in Wisconsin, they were approached by the same lawyers to bring a similar case for wolves in Montana.
Project Coyote, along with WildEarth Guardians and represented by GreenFire Law, filed a lawsuit against the State of Montana, the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, and the Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission alleging that the state’s current wolf hunting and trapping regulations violate numerous laws and the Montana constitution.
In November 2022, they filed a motion asking the court to prohibit the start of the state’s wolf-trapping season as well as to immediately halt the ongoing wolf-hunting season while the merits of a pending lawsuit are being considered. Support will help stop the mass slaughter of wolves in Montana using egregiously cruel methods.
A Wapiti Lake wolf walks in Yellowstone. Image credit: Courtesy of Sarah Killingsworth
Healthy wolves help humans and the ecosystem
The most direct beneficiaries of wolf protection are wolf individuals, families, populations, genetics, and the whole species' persistence in the Northern Rockies.
Human communities living with or near wolves will also benefit from increased ecotourism for wolf-watching. If recovery of these important apex predators can be ensured at a level at which they contribute to ecosystem balance and function, benefits will also flow to all humans who rely on the services provided by intact and healthy ecosystems in which wolves thrive.
Conservation for all carnivores
Supporting this immediate work will help save the lives of hundreds of wolves and their future offspring, contributing to flourishing wild ecosystems now and in perpetuity.
Enhancing the community of humans that value wolves will lay the groundwork for future initiatives to protect other carnivores and biodiversity broadly.“This project is essential to ensuring that state policies and practices are aligned with the ecological, moral, cultural and spiritual values that societies and diverse stakeholders hold for wolves and the vast life that is sustained by the ecosystems they engineer.” ~ Dr. Michelle Lute
As apex predators that play vital ecological roles in restoring and promoting biodiversity and ecosystem health and function, imperiled wolves need restored protections now. Compassionately conserving this keystone species is an integral component of any landscape-level plan designed to meet resiliency goals in the face of climate and biodiversity crises in the Northern Rockies.