Wolves

  

How can you help wolves?

  
 Rocky Mountain Wolf Action Fund cover page

Grey Wolf

 

Many concerned folks ask, "How Can I Help Wolves?".  Here's a comprehensive guide to resources and actions you can take to help wolves:

Learn About Wolves

Join, Volunteer & Stay Current

  • Join your Colorado Sierra Club and participate in your local Group meetings & events
  • Indicate your volunteer interest in “wolves” here
  • Volunteer with your local Colorado Sierra Club Group
  • Meet your local Colorado Sierra Club Group Project Wolf Team member
  • Sign-up for email updates from the Rocky Mountain Wolf Project
  • Follow the Rocky Mountain Wolf Project on Facebook and their events calendar
  • Sign-up for the weekly e-newsletter from the Timber Wolf Information Network

Gray Wolf - Maya

Spread The Word Everyday

  • Proudly display wolf-friendly bumper stickers (esp. “Colorado Needs Wolves Need Colorado” from the Colorado Sierra Club, and “Colorado Needs Wolves” from the Colorado Wolf And Wildlife Center)
  • Share posts & photos from reliable, factual sources and wolf-advocacy organizations on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter (one post/photo per week)
  • With the help of your local Colorado Sierra Club Group Project Wolf Team member, write timely letters to your local newspaper

Engage!

  • Keep track of wolf/wildlife legislation at local, state and national levels.
  • Sign online petitions, join campaigns and contact legislators.
  • Fight attempts to de-list wolves (all species) from the Endangered Species Act
  • Fight attempts to “de-fang” the Endangered Species Act
  • “Like” your local and state legislators on Facebook
  • “Like” wolf-advocacy organizations on Facebook:
    • Colorado Sierra Club (and your local Group), Defenders Of Wildlife, Rocky Mountain Wolf Project, Wolf Conservation Center
  • Participate in wolf-advocacy marches and demonstrations

  • Get Up Close And Personal

  • Visit a Colorado wolf sanctuary

 

Wolves, Delia Malone
 
 
 
 

from Delia Malone, 12/30/2025, 

Restoring Wolves has always been about restoring the Wild - without Wolves there is no Wilderness, no Wild. And that is exactly what colonialism’s “manifest destiny” sought to eradicate. The audacity of Wolves to say “no” - this land is our land. That is what riles opponents of Wolf restoration- Wolves won’t bow to colonialist domination of the Wild - and for that they’re persecuted.

The surprising way wolves have reignited a culture-war-style battle between ranchers and conservationists might be the single most important climate story you aren’t seeing on your timeline — and it calls into question everything we think we know about land, power, and ecological justice.
Wolves have been slowly returning across parts of the West and Upper Midwest — and with them, a political standoff. Conservationists argue wolves are essential to repairing damaged ecosystems. Ranchers and hunting groups say the costs are being pushed onto rural communities.
States like Colorado, Montana, and Wisconsin have turned wolf policy into a battleground, with ballot measures, court fights, and legislative showdowns. At the federal level, protections under the Endangered Species Act are still contested, with recurring efforts to strip wolves of safeguards and hand control back to the states.
The debate isn’t settled. It’s polarized. And it’s no longer just about wildlife — it’s about who gets to decide how wild the country is allowed to be.
New research from the University of Leeds found something unexpected: if wolves were reintroduced to the Scottish Highlands, they could unlock the recovery of native woodlands that have been choked out by overabundant red deer. Those woodlands, in turn, could sequester up to one million tonnes of CO₂ each year — about 5 % of the UK’s woodland carbon removal target on its own.
Why does this matter? Because most climate policy still focuses narrowly on technology or emissions caps while ignoring the power of nature itself to pull carbon out of the sky.
Reintroducing wolves changes the behavior — and numbers — of deer that have grazed saplings into oblivion for centuries, allowing forests to grow back naturally instead of relying solely on fences or planting schemes.
This isn’t a sci-fi climate hack; it’s rooted in a long line of ecological research. Wolves — as apex predators — reshape entire food webs. When they were reintroduced to Yellowstone in the 1990s, elk populations and behavior shifted, willow and aspen returned, beavers bounced back, and rivers even began to reshape as vegetation stabilized soils.
That’s the ecological mechanism behind “rewilding” — letting natural processes reboot landscapes. And rewilding isn’t some luxury campaign slogan. It’s now recognized as one of the nature-based climate solutions that can actually help mitigate climate change by restoring carbon sinks, increasing biodiversity, improving flood control, and building resilience in the face of warming.
Of course, this isn’t without controversy. In Europe and the U.S., wolves provoke strong reactions. Ranchers worry about livestock, hunters worry about game animals, and many rural communities feel left out of the climate conversation that so often centers urban sensibilities over rural realities.
In Germany and elsewhere, wolf populations have rebounded significantly, and while scientists emphasize the ecological benefits, debates about livestock losses and compensation continue.
Politically, wolves are a lens for deeper divisions about how we use land, whose voices count, and what we consider “progress.” In Colorado, a citizen ballot measure to bring back gray wolves passed — but barely — showing just how polarized these issues can be even among people who generally lean pro-environment.
But here’s the thread progressives should care about: science is painting a picture where ecological restoration is climate policy. It’s not about romanticizing wilderness; it’s about deploying real, measurable, natural mechanisms to capture carbon, rebuild soil health, and create landscapes that benefit both nature and people.
We can argue all day about subsidies, carbon markets, or corporate commitments — but if we ignore the role of ecosystems in climate stability, we leave powerful tools on the table.
Wolves and other keystone species aren’t just trivia for nature lovers; they’re part of a broader shift toward understanding that ecological health and climate resilience are inseparable.
The question of whether wolves belong on our policy agenda is really a question of what kind of solutions we’re willing to embrace — and whether we’re ready to let science, not fear or folklore, guide us.