Not so long ago, the sighting of a wild gray wolf in the lower 48 states was nearly impossible. Now, their population in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan is healthy and strong. After receiving the protection of the Endangered Species List for 40 years and by the decades of hard work and cooperation from many organizations, agencies, and individual citizens, the federal government formally declared the gray wolf of the western Great Lakes region no longer endangered or threatened. On March 12, 2007 the federal government removed the wolf population in the Western Great Lakes Distinct Population Segment (DPS) from the Endangered Species list and passed wolf management to the states and tribes. A DPS describes a “significant and discrete population of vertebrate fish and wildlife occurring in a distinct portion of a species’ or subspecies’ range.” The Western Great Lakes DPS includes all of Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin as well as parts of North and South Dakota, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio where wolf packs may become established in the future. Although each state now has complete management authority on their respective wolves, the federal government will continue to monitor wolves in the DPS for five years following delisting to ensure that they gray wolf populations can sustain themselves without the federal ESA protection. Recovery of gray wolves is a high note for environmental conservation that sends a hopeful message as we work to save other species.
Wolves are found all around Lake Superior. Even the shape of Lake Superior looks like it is a wolf's head. Look for the barely-opened jaw divided by Michigan's Keweenaw Peninsula, the wolf's nose at Duluth, Minnesota and the wolf's eye distinguished by Isle Royale National Park. Learn more about the wolf populations in the three states and one province found within the Lake Superior basin:
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North Lakeland
Discovery Center