About

About

The National Wolf Conversation is an unprecedented effort to convene people across the nation to engage around the longstanding conflict about wolves in the lower 48. Spanning three years, the conversation aims to give voice to all perspectives, build understanding, and determine a shared path forward.

Starting with you. We all designed the process.

We began this process by learning first and foremost from you.

Over the past year, we engaged directly with over 7,400 people who contributed to creating the criteria below that was used to select 25 individuals from across the nation that best represent the many views, values and perspectives across the nation.

Every aspect of this effort was about designing this process for you and what you care about. So, while the United States Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) had the vision and engaged us to convene this national conversation, it’s important to emphasize that this was not a government-led or driven process. Additionally, this was and is a separate process from the other regulatory processes or treaty obligations of the USFWS and the federal government. As neutral conveners, Francine and Kim required and received the autonomy and mandate to engage, design and plan according to what the people of this nation wanted. One example of that autonomy is that this process originally focused on gray wolves, but Americans told us they wanted to include red and Mexican gray wolves—so we did!

Criteria At A Glance

Over 7,400 Americans contributed to creating the criteria below that was used to select 25 individuals that best represented the many and most requested views, values and perspectives from across the nation. This is not an exhaustive list of all criteria met by these 25 individuals, but rather a matrix that highlights the criteria most often cited by people across the country.

✔ Cross Section of the Nation

✔ Tribal/Indian

Representatives that:

  • Reflect the diversity within and among Tribes, recognizing that Tribes are as diverse both internally and among different tribes.
  • Acknowledge that Tribes are sovereign nations, with inherent rights to govern their people, lands, and natural resources.
  • Are co-managers of these resources, Tribes play an essential role in the stewardship of wildlife, including wolves.
  • View wolves as sacred or culturally significant
  • View wolves not as separate from, but as one of many species, including people, that must share the landscape in the modern world
  • Value lethal management or control of wolves
  • Value natural ecological balance without lethal intervention or without much lethal intervention

✔ Hunters / Trappers / Outfitters

Representatives that:

  • Hunt/trap for food
  • Hunt/trap as a part of their culture or traditional practices
  • Do/do not hunt wolves and other apex predators
  • Practice principles of “fair chase”
  • Participate in or support local, national, and international hunting organizations

✔ Livestock Producers

Representatives that:

  • Sheep, cattle and horses
  • Experienced impacts from wolves
  • Use and value non-lethal wolf management tools
  • Use and value lethal wolf management tools
  • Different scales of operations e.g. small- and large-scale
  • Family and generational producer/ranchers
  • Operations in different climates e.g. arid and wet climates
  • Operations that are located solely on private land and those on both public and private lands
  • Participate in or support local and national agriculture organizations

✔ Wolf Advocates

Including:

  • Wolf biologists/ecologists (from different states, geographies and independent and/or retired)
  • Wolf advocates from different geographic regions including those that live with and do not live with wolves
  • Eco-tourism businesses that rely on wolves
  • Animal rights and welfare advocates
  • Wolf trustee (people who represent animals in moral, legal and political deliberations)
  • Local, national and international NGOs – wolf and wildlife advocacy organizations who engage in wolf issues, both with & without litigation
  • People who value wolves for keeping landscapes healthy
  • People who value wolves for their intrinsic worth
  • Individuals who support and do not support lethal management of wolves through regulated hunting

✔ State Agencies

Including:

  • Active/retired staff
  • Experience across multiple states including states where wolves are under federal protection and state management
  • Different experiences, positions and knowledge: wolf biologists/ecologists, wildlife biologists/ecologists, public engagement specialists, staff leadership and wildlife commissioner roles

✔ United States Fish & Wildlife Service

Including:

  • Leadership & field staff
  • Representation of staff who work on all species of wolves including gray wolf, Mexican gray wolf & red wolf
  • Experienced with the Endangered Species Act

✔ Different Demographics

Including:

  • From all regions of lower 48 – the Northeast, Southeast, Northwest, Southwest, and the Intermountain West
  • Rural, urban, suburban
  • Spectrum of political ideologies
  • Range of age-groups
  • Indigenous perspectives
  • Cultural and ethnic heritage
  • Socio-economic backgrounds
  • Gender balance
  • Other identities

✔ Different Perspectives on Wildlife & Wolves

✔ Representatives with Different Views and Values

Including people who view wolves as:

  • Sacred or special
  • A threat to their way of life
  • Essential to their way of life

Believe wolves:

  • Should be treated like every other wildlife species we recover, conserve and manage
  • Should be restored to their historical range
  • Cannot be restored to their historic range due to human population and development
  • Can be supported if limited and controlled
  • Are valued by tourists seeing them in their natural habitat

✔ Qualities of Representatives

Representatives who have a:

  • Proven ability to collaborate effectively
  • Willingness to listen
  • Willingness to share thoughts openly and honestly
  • Commitment to the process without using it to make a stand
  • Reputation for working in good faith (e.g. avoids sensationalism)
  • Focus on constructive dialogue
  • Sense of humility (e.g. willing to acknowledge mistakes, apologize, and hold themselves accountable)

Meet the 25: Voices from Across the Nation

25 people were selected to join the National Wolf Conversation’s three-day opening conversation.

*We fully and humbly recognize that the 25 participants in the National Conversation cannot and do not represent the exact population percentages of wolf advocates, government agencies, hunters, scientists, eco-tourism businesses, Tribal Nations, or livestock producers across America. Given the complexity of the issues at hand, it would be impossible to create a meaningful conversation that perfectly reflects the proportional numbers or divides of each ‘side.’ Our aim was to select participants who, as best we could, represent the range of views, values, experiences, and perspectives necessary for a meaningful dialogue.

Filming the opening conversation. Sparking more conversations across the nation.

The entire three-day opening conversation was filmed by independent filmmakers.

We are committed to sharing this transparently and are supporting the filmmakers in securing the necessary funding to turn hundreds of hours of film from five cameras into a documentary series, so you can experience the unfolding of the conversations as they happened – and together, we can keep sparking more conversations around the nation!

If there’s one thing that emerged from this national conversation, it’s that there IS hope of bridging the divide, of building mutual respect and shared understanding, of finding and building on common ground and of sharing a laugh with your adversary and finding friendship where it once seemed impossible…and that all of it can lead to shared problem-solving around difficult issues.