The ‘Mythical Wolf’ and the Politics of Wolf Conservation in the U.S.
“Wolves are likely to remain a political football in the larger predator political arena for quite some time to come”
In this essay, I look at some of the recent political controversy surrounding the reintroduction of gray wolves in the U.S. I focus on wolves here, but I think public discourse around wolves sheds light on the broader political challenges facing the conservation of apex predators around the world in a time of growing political polarization and environmental crisis.
On February 10, 2022, a U.S. federal judge restored protections for gray wolves in much of the United States after gray wolves had lost protections under a Trump policy to delist them from the Endangered Species Act.
- One caveat: Wolves in Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming aren’t included because they were delisted in those states by Congress in 2011. For example, it’s still completely legal to aerial hunt wolves from planes in Montana, and the governor of Idaho recently signed a bill to kill 90% of wolves in the state.
Journalist Joshua Partlow reported on the story in a February 2022 piece in The Washington Post, writing that “The controversy over wolf hunting this year has been particularly intense in…
