Where Wolves Roamed
Under the
government’s current wolf reintroduction program, wolf populations
in the lower 48 states will reach only 5 percent of their historic
numbers at best, says Matt Dietz. A graduate student at the
University of Montana, Dietz worked with the Bozeman, Mont.-based
Predator Project on a 46-page study of wolf reintroduction
alternatives. By concentrating on ecology, he identified 19
potential locations that were previously overlooked. He suggests
restoring wolves to such areas as the San Juan Mountains of
Colorado, northeast Utah, central Idaho, northern New England and
even the Florida Everglades. Dietz also calculates that remote
areas in northern Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont could sustain up
to 800 wolves. The problem with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
studies, he concludes, is that they place too much emphasis on
public acceptance and political constraints. “Without the wolf,”
Dietz says, “an ecosystem is less than it was and could be, for it
is an ecosystem without all of its parts.” Copies of Matt Dietz’s
Initial Investigations of Potentially Suitable Locations for Wolf
Reintroduction in the Contiguous United States are available from
the Predator Project, P.O. Box 6733, Bozeman, MT 59771
(406/587-3389).
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Where wolves roamed.
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