A Chronology of Wolf Recovery in the Northern Rockies

2008

• January 24 – FWS finalizes a revised rule governing the management of wolves while they remain on the endangered species list, dramatically broadening the circumstances under which wolves may be killed. Defenders' Press Release on the 10(j) Rule
• January 28 – Defenders files suit against the revised 10(j) rule. Press release.
• February 13 – Defenders helps to fund Montana’s new state-managed program for compensating ranchers for livestock losses due to wolves. Press release.
• February 20 – Montana finalizes its wolf hunting season plan, which bars trapping for the first two years.
  
  Defenders of Wildlife and Natural Resources Defense Council petition the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to develop a national recovery plan for wolves in the United States.
• February 21 – FWS releases the final rule removing gray wolves from the endangered species list. The rule takes effect in late March. Press release.
• February 27 – Defenders and 10 other conservation groups file a 60-day notice of intent to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over the delisting of Yellowstone-area wolves. Press release.
• July 18 – Judge Donald Molloy of the U.S. District Court in Missoula granted a preliminary injunction placing Northern Rockies wolves back under federal protection. Press release.
  
  The first known wolf pack in Washington state in nearly 70 years was documented near Methow, Washington in the northern Cascade Mountain range. The alpha pair were radio-collared and their six pups were filmed by a remote sensor video camera. Learn more.
  
  Oregon state wolf biologist Russ Morgan documents first pack of known wolves in Oregon since the species was eradicated in the western USA in the 1930s. The pack was found using howling survey methods and is thought to be dispersers from the Idaho wolf population. The pack and their pups were found in the Wenaha range in northeastern Oregon north of La Grande. Press release.

2007

• January 11— Idaho Governor C.L. "Butch" Otter says he wants hunters to kill all but 100 of the state's gray wolves after the federal government strips them of protection under the ESA.
• February 8 — FWS announces its proposal to de-list gray wolves in Idaho and other parts of the northern Rocky Mountains under the ESA.
• May 24 – Wyoming and FWS reach an agreement regarding Wyoming’s management plan, opening the door for FWS to finalize its delisting plan.
• November 19 – Idaho releases a wolf management plan that would allow aerial gunning of wolves and potentially reduce the state’s wolf population to just 15 breeding pairs. Defenders Comments on Idaho’s Wolf Management Plan
• December 20 – Montana releases a plan for a wolf hunting season that could reduce the state’s wolf population to just 15 breeding pairs.
  Defenders Comments on Montana’s Wolf Hunting Plan 
• Defenders makes 123 payments totaling more than $204,000.

2006

• In January, Secretary Norton signs a MOU with the state of Idaho that hands wolf management for much of the state over to Idaho Department of Fish and Game.
• In January, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game (IDFG) announces a plan to kill 75% of the wolves within the Clearwater National Forest's Lolo district for the next five years, blaming wolves for low elk numbers despite overwhelming evidence that habitat conditions, not wolves, are limiting those numbers.
• In February, IDFG receives 42,500 comments regarding the Clearwater proposal, the vast majority of which oppose the plan (more than 41,000 as a result of a Defenders e-alert campaign).
• February 8 — FWS announces its intention to establish a Distinct Population Segment for the gray wolf in the Northern Rocky Mountains, and then to de-list this population.
• April 10 — Defenders Comments on the Proposed Delisting Rule FWS find that Wyoming’s petitioned action to establish the Northern Rocky Mountain gray wolf population as a DPS, and to remove this DPS from the list of endangered and threatened animals, is not warranted.
• In September, FWS rejects Idaho's Clearwater Forest wolf culling proposal.
• Defenders makes 86 payments totaling $143,423.

2005

• January 31 — A federal district court rules that the FWS violated the ESA when it reduced protections for gray wolves across most of the lower 48 states. The court's decision ensures the highest level of federal protection for wolves and requires that the government continue its efforts to recover the species throughout its historic range.
• An estimated 1020 wolves in 71 breeding pairs are counted in the tri-state Rocky Mountain Wolf Recovery Area at the end of the year.
• Wyoming petitions FWS to establish the Northern Rocky Mountain gray wolf population as a Distinct Population Segment (DPS), and to remove this DPS from the list of endangered and threatened animals.
• Defenders makes 73 payments totaling $100,086, and spends $25,786 on eight wolf proactive projects.

2004

• Defenders of Wildlife issues its first State of the Wolf report.
• The states of Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming submit wolf management plans to the FWS. FWS approves Idaho and Montana state plans and rejects Wyoming’s.
• FWS announces it will not proceed with a delisting proposal until the Wyoming plan and state laws are amended and approved.
• FWS proposes a new 10j amendment to wolf management regulations under the ESA. The new amendment would strip the wolves of much of their legal protection.
• An estimated 835 wolves in 66 breeding pairs are counted in the tri-state Rocky Mountain Wolf Recovery Area at the end of the year.
• Defenders makes 87 payments totaling $131,421, and spends $65,947 on 12 proactive wolf projects.

2003

• In April, FWS releases its final plan to down-list wolves across much of the lower 48 states. Wolves in the northwest Montana federal recovery area are to be managed as threatened.
• In October, Defenders and 18 co-plaintiffs file a lawsuit arguing that the Service's decision to downlist the wolf is not based solely on the best available science, as required by the ESA.
• The states of Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming submit wolf management plans to FWS.
• Defenders Comments on the MT State management plan.
• Defenders Comments on the WY State management plan.
• Dr. Bill Ripple of Oregon State University finds that wolves may be helping to reverse a trend in the seven-decade long decline of vegetation, particularly aspen and willow, in Yellowstone National Park. As a result of wolves pressuring elk to disperse from overgrazing fragile meadow ecosystems, a host of other species appear to benefit from the return of the wolf, including beaver, songbirds, and fish.
• An estimated 761 wolves in 51 breeding pairs are counted in the tri-state Rocky Mountain Wolf Recovery Area at the end of the year.
• Defenders makes 44 payments totaling $56,519, and spends $23,295 on 10 wolf proactive projects.

2002

• An estimated 663 wolves in 43 breeding pairs are counted in the tri-state Rocky Mountain Wolf Recovery Area at the end of the year.
• FWS determines that wolves have met the biological requirements for recovery in the Northern Rockies.
• Idaho releases state wolf management plan.
• Defenders makes 40 payments totaling $59,124, and spends $30,006 on wolf proactive projects.

2001

• The Montana State Legislature removes the gray wolf from Montana’s list of predatory species once the wolf is de-listed. Upon delisting, wolves are legally reclassified in Montana as a species in need of management.
• FWS estimates that 35 breeding pairs of wolves in 51 packs are in the tri-state Rocky Mountain Recovery Area; a total of approximately 550 wolves.
• Defenders makes 30 compensation payments totaling $43,703, and spends $8,254 on three proactive wolf projects.

2000

• The Montana Governor appoints 12 Montana residents, including a representative from Defenders, to the Montana Wolf Management Advisory Council. The council helps guide Montana, Fish, Wildlife and Parks on wolf management issues in anticipation of future state management.
• FWS estimates that there are 30 breeding pairs of wolves in the tri-state Rocky Mountain Recovery Area of Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.
• In July, FWS releases a proposal to reduce protections for gray wolves by "downlisting" the wolf from "endangered" to "threatened" under the ESA across much of the country, and to eliminate federal protections completely in other areas.
• Defenders makes 36 compensation payments totaling $47,046, and spends $11,112 on five proactive wolf projects

1999

• Defenders' Wolf Compensation Trust is expanded to $200,000. To date, Defenders has reimbursed 85 ranchers more than $80,000 for verified wolf depredation to livestock since the program's inception in 1987.
• After wolf B45 from Idaho wanders into neighboring Oregon, Defenders commit to pay for verified predation by any wolves that migrate into Oregon, Colorado, California, and Washington.
• Defenders makes 38 compensation payments totaling $34,071.

1998

• June 22 — Defenders and National Wildlife Federation (NWF) file intervenor-appellants brief.
• July — Farm Bureau plaintiffs/appellees file their brief.
• September — Friends of Animals files its amicus brief. The brief supports the district court’s decision that naturally occurring wolves be accorded full protection under the ESA. Plaintiffs/Appellees James and Cat Urbigkit file their opening brief. The brief supports the district court's ruling that FWS violated section 10(j) of the ESA.
• October-November — The Urbigkits file motion seeking an order enjoining the destruction of any naturally occurring wolf of unknown origin within the designated wolf recovery areas pending resolution of the appeals. Defenders, NWF, National Audubon and others file an opposition to the Urbigkit's emergency injunction. Judges deny Urbigkit motion.
• Defenders makes 15 compensation payments totaling $17,364.

1997

• September 24 — The Yellowstone wolf population briefly reaches 100, with 64 wolves being pups of the year.
• December 12 — Judge Downes rules on the three-year-old lawsuit brought against the reintroduction by the American Farm Bureau Federation. He finds that the FWS establishment of a nonessential experimental population of gray wolves in Yellowstone National Park is unlawful and orders the removal of the reintroduced non-native wolves and their offspring from the Yellowstone and central Idaho experimental population areas, pending appeal.
• December 30 — Defenders files notice of appeal.
• The Defenders of Wildlife Wolf Compensation Fund officially becomes a trust. Defenders make 21 compensation payments totaling $26,065.

1996

• January 22 — Second shipment of wolves is sent to Yellowstone and central Idaho. A U.S. Forest Service plane carries 20 wolves from British Columbia to Bozeman, Montana. Eleven of these wolves are taken to Yellowstone, and nine to Missoula. Bob Ferris, Species Conservation Director for Defenders of Wildlife, is among the volunteers processing animals in British Columbia. Montana Stockgrowers Association files for temporary restraining order in Billings.
• February 26 — Chad McKittrick is sentenced for the April 1995 wolf killing in Red Lodge, Montana.
• March 29 – Judge Downes denies motion for preliminary injunction by Montana Stockgrowers Association, meaning that the second shipment of wolves will be released. No word yet on a final decision on the merits regarding the first suit challenging the first reintroduction brought by the Wyoming Farm Bureau.
• March 30 — Female wolf #11of the Soda Butte pack was found shot to death near Meeteetse, Wyoming. Jay York, an employee of the Deseret Ranch, soon turns himself in claiming he thought the animal was a coyote. April 2 — The Nez Perce and Rose Creek acclimation pens are opened, and eleven wolves are released. Ten days later, the Chief Joseph Pack, which was held at the Crystal Bench acclimation pen, is transported and released approximately 25 miles south of Mammoth. In another three days, the Lone Star Group, originally known as the Blacktail Pair, is released from their acclimation pen. Later, the pack is renamed the Leopold pack after Defenders’ president Rodger Schlickeisen suggested the name to honor pioneering conservationist Aldo Leopold, who called for the restoration of wolves to Yellowstone in 1944. Still no decision from Judge Downes on the Wyoming Farm Bureau's first complaint and motion for injunctive relief.
• April 15 — The U.S. Attorney's office fines Jay York $500 for the killing of wolf #11.
• October 7 — Soda Butte Pack is released in southeast Yellowstone.
• Defenders makes nine compensation payments totaling $7,483.

1995

• January 12 — First wolves arrive in Yellowstone National Park after capture in Alberta, Canada. Fourteen wolves, comprising three family groups, are not released but are placed in acclimation enclosures. Secretary Bruce Babbitt, FWS Director Mollie Beattie and Defenders of Wildlife president Rodger Schlickeisen are on hand.
• March 19 — Federal district judge in Wyoming denies the American Farm Bureau's motion for a preliminary injunction to stop release of wolves from the Yellowstone acclimation pens.
• March 21 — Doors to Yellowstone acclimation pens are opened.
• April 26 — Discovery of the radio-collar of an adult male wolf in Red Lodge, Montana, indicates first illegal wolf mortality in Yellowstone. Defenders of Wildlife immediately offers a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the wolf killer. An informant comes forward, and the wolf's head and hide are soon discovered in a cabin. The shooter, Chad McKittrick, claims he thought the animal was a dog.
• August 25 — President Clinton and his family visit an adult female wolf and her pups in the Yellowstone Park acclimation pen. The President also meets with environmental leaders, including Defenders' president Rodger Schlickeisen and Northern Rockies representative Hank Fischer. Defenders pays out $1,633 from Wolf Compensation Fund. Anticipating the reintroduction of the Mexican wolf, Wolf Compensation Fund is expanded to cover potential losses in the Southwest.
• Following the government shutdown in December 1995, Defenders contributes much needed staff and funding through 1996 to complete the second reintroduction of wolves to the Northern Rockies.