It is no secret that wolves in this country have endured their share of both legal and illegal persecution. Organized wolf management in the United States is longstanding, and has often targeted this animal as a hated opponent of human beings. While reading the history of management actions in the United States, one quickly comes to the conclusion that an all out war has been waged against this magnificent creature. Whether competition for food source, a danger to livestock, or inhibiting the increased sales of animals like moose, caribou, and sheep, wolves have, perhaps, been mostly viewed as a threat to our pocketbooks; a crime that management policies show is most consistently punishable by death. While I grew up listening to the debates surrounding wolf management in Alaska, it is not until recently that I have learned the history of wolf management in the Southwest and the plight of our own Mexican Gray Wolf.
 
I first became aware of the struggles and efforts to recover this particular wolf species as an Environmental Studies major at Northern Arizona University. Armed with a predisposed fascination with wolves when I moved to Arizona from Alaska, I quickly became interested in the work of the Grand Canyon Wolf Recovery Project (GCWRP), a local Flagstaff organization working to recover Mexican Gray Wolf populations in the Grand Canyon Region. While they are based in Flagstaff, GCWRP impressively coordinates the efforts of numerous coalition partners throughout the entire Southwest. Partner organizations that some of you may be familiar with include the Tucson based Center for Biological Diversity, and other well known NGOs including Defenders of Wildlife, Grand Canyon Wildlands Council, the Animal Defense League of Arizona, and the Arizona Wilderness Coalition.
 
When I mentioned that a war has historically been waged against the wolves of this country, there is no better example of this war than the actions taken against the Mexican Gray Wolf which used to inhabit the Arizona and New Mexico backcountry. Beginning in the late 1800s, the livestock industry and government hunters initiated what would conclude as the complete extermination of the wolf in Arizona. While wolves were not the only target, and any animal that was viewed as a threat to, or in competition for food with domestic stock was slaughtered, the wolf seems to have been excessively marked. What continues to surprise me the most about this campaign was the 1906 decision to kill predators specifically at the Grand Canyon to “protect harmless game animals”, making it clear that the important role predators occupy in ecosystems was either not known or completely disregarded. In totality, thousands of coyotes, hundreds of bobcats and cougars, and every wolf were killed in the state of Arizona throughout the course of these management campaigns.
 
Fast forward to 1999, when efforts to fill the void created by the loss of this essential predator resulted in the reintroduction of a population of Mexican Gray Wolves bred in captivity. While the release of these animals within the Blue Range in eastern Arizona was a historic event, it did not come without compromise; restrictions that primarily took the form of definitive boundaries imposed on the wolves and the defining of the released population as “experimental and non-essential”. Despite the conditions placed on the release, the fact that these wolves were reintroduced and continue to exist in the wild today was and remains a huge achievement.
 
Two weeks ago I attended an Environmental Film Festival organized by GCWRP with proceeds directly benefiting recovery efforts. I had a great time at the event, and was very excited to see how many people came out to Flagstaff’s Orpheum Theater to participate. It was encouraging to be in the presence of so many who were actively celebrating the Mexican Gray Wolf. The evening was defined by the music of Dave McGraw and Crow Wing, an assortment of raffle prizes, great informational tables, and, of course, an impressive lineup of environmental films. Bookman’s was also present to help with festivities as an event sponsor as well as providing volunteers to help set up and distribute free door prizes. While the tone of the evening swayed back and forth between chipper excitement and concerned silence, the conclusion was a sobering one in that this year marks the lowest wild Mexican Gray Wolf count in the last seven years. Twenty percent of the wild population was lost this past year alone making the official February 2010 count forty-two. Much of this loss is suspected to be the result of poaching.
 
If these numbers alarm you in any way, and you would like to learn more about recovery efforts, management policy changes, habitat restoration, the illegal killing of these wolves, and upcoming events, I encourage you to follow up this blog post with a visit to both the Grand Canyon Wolf Recovery Project and Lobos of the Southwest websites to learn how you can help stop the second extinction of the Mexican Gray Wolf. Please save our Lobos!