Wolves, People, and the Changing West
by Seth Randal
Wolves were already a hot topic when I started working in Idaho news.
It was the summer of 1995. Earlier that year, 14 gray wolves had been brought into Yellowstone National Park, while wolves were also being reintroduced into central Idaho as part of the broader recovery effort. It was the beginning of a reintroduction effort that would change the American West.
Over the next three decades, I've watched the wolf story evolve from a wildlife story into something much larger — a debate involving conservation, ranching, hunting, science, government, politics, and competing ideas about what the future of the West should look like.
I've had a front-row seat to another important moment in conservation history. I was a reporter when the peregrine falcon was removed from the endangered species list, and I interviewed then-U.S. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt about the decision. That experience gave me a look at another side of the conservation story: what happens when a species moves from crisis toward recovery, and how complicated that process can be even after the immediate threat.
The peregrine’s recovery involved science, government protections, private conservation organizations, and people who had deeply different ideas about what recovery should look like. I began to see that wildlife stories are rarely just about wildlife. Rather, they are about the relationship between people, animals, and the places we share. That perspective has stayed with me as I’ve followed the wolf story over the past three decades.
With the wolf issue, there are many stakeholders. Ranchers are worried about livestock. Wildlife biologists are studying wolf populations. Hunters and landowners have their own experiences and concerns. Conservationists see wolves as an important part of the ecosystem. And, young people are growing up in the middle of all of it.
The wolf debate just entered another national chapter. On September 4, President Trump signed an executive order directing the Interior Secretary to determine within 90 days whether gray and Mexican wolves meet the criteria for delisting or downlisting under the Endangered Species Act. The order also calls for recommendations concerning state protections and lethal removal.
Whatever ultimately comes from that process, the underlying debate is familiar to anyone who has followed wolves in the West.
Our documentary follows Idaho teenagers growing up inside this debate. They aren't professional politicians or wildlife experts. They're young people trying to understand an issue that has been part of their state's culture and politics for all their lives.
The debate over wolves has been going on for decades. Children of the Wolves asks what it looks like through the eyes of the next generation.
