One of the biggest sources of conflict around wolf issues in their association with government overreach and the subsequent tension between federal and state governments. Underlying this political battle is the disconnect between federal protection and state management and the different motivations behind each. Federal Protection Wildlife protection at the federal level is by far … Read more
Humans respond in fear; we try to control the things we don’t understand, and we often destroy the things we can’t control. That is exactly what we’ve done with the wolf. Throughout history, humans have always struggled to coexist with the world around us. We seem to have a natural instinct to exert control over … Read more
Wolves have always received a disproportionate amount of attention compared to other wildlife and have come to symbolize the wild itself. But in more recent years, they’ve also become an extremely politicized topic that is connected to much larger issues like federal overreach, government regulation, and public land use. As wolf conservation efforts trigger emotions … Read more
Wolves have been villainized in the media throughout our history, dating back to the Bible and classic battle between the wolf and the shepherd. This early association of the wolf with evil would lay the groundwork for centuries of fear and persecution. Early literature often used wolves to embody danger, the wild, and even satanic … Read more
Like all other things with wolves, our shared history has two extremes. Symbiotic Coexistence In many indigenous cultures, wolves are admired and respected. The Ojibwe creation story tells the story of the first man who wandered the earth with his brother Ma’iingan, the first wolf. They eventually went their separate ways, but the creator told … Read more
How emotions, politics, and human perceptions have shaped wolf management in North America, creating generations of anger and resentment and fueling ongoing conflict How It Began A good place to start is the Yellowstone Wolf Reintroduction Project in 1995, because this is really where the modern wolf conflict began. The reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone … Read more
A new solution has been proposed to solve the conflict around wolves. The debate over wolf management in the United States has been one of the most emotional and polarizing issues in modern wildlife conservation. As wolves have been reintroduced into ecosystems where they were once eradicated, conflicts have arisen between various stakeholders—ranchers, hunters, conservationists, … Read more
Throughout the history of humanity, we have often looked at our relationship with wild animals as us vs. them. This has never been truer than with our perception of wolves. It began as an issue of survival, when losing sheep meant starvation and the sound of wolves howling at night meant danger. They hunted the … Read more
