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JOIN IN OUR EFFORTS TO PROTECT WOLVES AND GRIZZLIES

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The gray wolf species in the Northern Rockies has faced its most severe threat in a century. While a lawsuit recently restored protections for wolves in 44 states, due to a series of administrative and legislative maneuvers over the past decade, wolves remain unprotected in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and portions of several adjacent states. It is time for these Northern Rockies states to end their hostility toward wolves.

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Grizzly bears are an essential piece of the American West, a wildlife icon that has been integral to the Yellowstone region for centuries. They embody true wilderness. 

In the late 19th and early 20th century, grizzly bears were nearly wiped out in the lower 48 states. There were an estimated 50,000-100,000 grizzlies throughout the West, but unregulated killing, bounties, habitat destruction, and fragmentation reduced bears to fewer than 800 bears, mostly in Yellowstone and Glacier national parks and surrounding wildlands. Through diligent work and the protections of the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA), grizzlies have come back to these core areas. Today there are an estimated 1,900 bears in the Northern Rockies, and they are slowly expanding into suitable habitats in some areas. But the job of recovering grizzlies is far from done, as continued development, more human presence, and hostile state legislatures and wildlife officials work to keep grizzlies in isolated populations, with bare minimum numbers.