A Wolf at the Door
A Response
Editors’ Note: We always welcome and encourage responses from our readers and our own editors. The following piece is a response to David Foster’s article Wolves are Expanding in Agricultural Denmark—Why Not New England? in this issue. See another response.
The dream of returning the wolf to New England glows like an ember. With a wisp of fresh air, the ember burns bright for a time before slowly fading into invisibility until that next wisp of air reinvigorates the dream. It’s been that way for several decades now.
That dream of restoring wolves (and cougars) to this landscape is indeed a powerful and persistent one. It taps into our hardwired urge to repair past harm and right the wrong of defining high-order predators as something negative and unnecessary. For others, the dream is a nightmare—especially knowing that the eastern coyote has evolved its way to New England and has essentially filled an ecological void in the absence of wolves. Their thinking is that there are enough problems with the eastern coyote, let alone wolves.
The grand Yellowstone National Park experience of returning wolves to that landscape (and Idaho as well) in the mid 1990s sparked a renewal of the dream with an even greater intensity since we now had real and voluminous evidence about the impact of the wolf’s historic return. More than evidence, there are now thousands upon thousands of people who have witnessed wolves on that landscape, providing a thrill of a lifetime and raising the question and hope of wolves existing beyond the borders of Yellowstone. There’s also something more. For many, there is healing in seeing these wolves roaming freely and without persecution in that spectacular landscape, especially considering the assaults we have committed upon the wild—and in particular, wolves. It’s something akin to righting a wrong, healing the open wound, and perhaps restoring a bit of ourselves as we restore an epic part of the landscape—especially at a time of so many environmental assaults. That is the promise that wolf recovery holds in New England, along with elevating any outdoor experience we might have in wolf country. It would put the wild in Wildlands.
“That dream of restoring wolves (and cougars) to this landscape is indeed a powerful and persistent one.”
Wolves are already knocking on our door—some dozen wolves have been killed in the northeastern United States over the last quarter century. Nature seems to recognize, as coyotes already have, the vacuum in apex predators in New England. The singular barrier to recovery of these apex predators is our public policy on coyotes. While agencies recognize the ecological benefits coyotes bring, they are aggressively managed largely as vermin. Shades of a century past. For example, in Vermont, they may be shot without limit 365 days a year, day or night. Distinguishing a large coyote from a wolf takes exceptional observation skills, so wolf dispersers are effectively doomed.
This situation is at odds with the values held by the majority of citizens in each of the New England states where, according to a major study on wildlife values, funded by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, mutualism (coexistence with wildlife as opposed to dominance over it) is the value held most predominantly. It is also worth noting that a 2024 survey conducted by Colorado State University found that nationally, 81.7 percent of respondents supported a state law restricting hunting season length for wild carnivores. And for the number of carnivores a hunter may kill in a year, there was 81.8 percent support for state laws enacting restrictions, with 77.5 percent support for a federal law doing so. Our public policies fly in the face of public values.
“For many, there is healing in seeing these wolves roaming freely and without persecution in that spectacular landscape, especially considering the assaults we have committed upon the wild—and in particular, wolves.”
Wolves would surely complicate the landscape for wildlife managers, and potentially for livestock owners as well. Conflicts will occur; however, the options for addressing conflicts have never been more available than they are today.
Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of a restored wolf population in New England would be the interactions between the eastern coyote (with its western coyote, wolf, and domestic dog genetic cocktail makeup) and a full-fledged wolf (a canid with predominantly wolf DNA). There would be an evolutionary dance that would shake out the “right” blend of apex canid predators on the New England landscape. Now that would be a movie to witness!
The wolves are knocking on our door, habitat is sufficient, there’s a vacant niche for a predator of larger prey, and the food supply is reliably strong. The questions are: Do we have the political will to bring coyote management policies into alignment with public values? Does our desire to live in a coexistence model with wildlife include a long-absent neighbor?
Walter Medwid served as Executive Director of the Adirondack Mountain Club, the International Wolf Center (IWC), Northern Woodlands, and other environmental organizations before retiring in 2020. He has studied wolves in Yellowstone National Park, the Northwest Territories, Minnesota, and Ellesmere Island in Canada’s High Arctic.
Walter is a co-founder of the Vermont Wildlife Coalition, serves on the Advisory Committee of Wildlife For All, is a member of IWC’s Education Committee, and serves on the board of his county’s Natural Resources Conservation District. He has spent the last 15 years attempting to influence Vermont’s wildlife management policies.
Walter lives in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom above Lake Memphremagog with his wife, rescue dog, and demanding vegetable garden.