Mission Statement

The Wood River Wolf Project promotes the coexistence of livestock and wolves by proactively using nonlethal measures to prevent depredation.

The Wood River Wolf Project began in 2008 as a field study. Our short term goal was to determine if nonlethal methods could effectively deter wolves from preying on livestock on a large scale mountainous landscape containing tens of thousands of sheep during the summer and early autumn grazing season.

It was the worst case scenario as more sheep are killed by native predators than other types of livestock. At the time we began, this had never been tried before. Even the wolf managers and scientists thought we would fail. That was 13 years ago. Since that time, we have proven that our methods are at least 3.5 time more effective than traditional lethal control measures.

And we’re still improving on them.

Historic Background

In the 1930s gray wolves (Canis lupus) were almost eradicated from the lower 48 states, mainly to protect livestock producers from the threat of depredation. However, in 1974, wolves gained protection under the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA). At that time, there was evidence that wolves were crossing from Canada into northwest Montana. It wasn’t until the mid-1980s that the first litter of pups would be documented in Montana. These wolves, called the Magic Pack, were the first documented family of wolves to return to the US Rockies. In order to enhance recovery of wolves, 66 were reintroduced to central Idaho and Yellowstone National Park in 1995 and 1996. The wolves in Idaho were managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Nez Perce Tribe and those in Yellowstone by the National Park Service. In Idaho and Montana, wolves were removed from federal ESA protection by Congress in 2011. Since delisting, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game has managed wolves in the state including initiating the first hunt on wolves in the lower 48 states during the last century.

In 2002, sheep ranchers, in the Wood River Valley, began experiencing depredation on their livestock. Then in the summer of 2007, a newly-formed family of wolves began killing sheep in larger numbers along central Idaho's "sheep superhighway" just north of Sun Valley, after a rancher released several thousand sheep. Normally, under these circumstances, members of the pack or the entire depredating family of wolves would be killed in response. However, a group of collaborators from the wolf conservation and ranching groups developed a proposal to use nonlethal deterrents to keep wolves from killing livestock across a wide area.

Our founders, regional wolf conservationist Suzanne Asha Stone; Mike Stevens, president of Lava Lake Land & Livestock; and Rick Williamson, USDA Wildlife Services nonlethal specialist in Idaho created the idea for the project as a way for bringing the community together to study the effectiveness of nonlethal deterrents to prevent losses of sheep and wolves. Their efforts were supported by Blaine County officials and federal wildlife agencies.

Since our foundation, conservation organizations, ranchers, scientists, federal government agencies, and county officials collaborated to implement nonlethal deterrent strategies in the Wood River Valley to prevent further losses in Blaine County. This area is also known as Idaho’s “sheep superhighway” in the Wood River watershed of the Sawtooth National Forest due to the thousands of sheep that are present during the summer grazing season. Because of this evolving partnership, state and federal wolf managers decided not to destroy wolves while these methods were tested.

Based on the successful application of nonlethal deterrents, the Wood River Wolf Project was formed in 2008. Over the next several years, documented sheep losses to wolves in the Project Area were 90% lower than the rest of Idaho according to the USDA National Agriculture Statistics Service (NASS). 

While tens of thousands of sheep graze annually in the project area, an average of just under 4 sheep per year are killed by wolves. Over the 12 year history of the project, one wolf has been killed in response to sheep attacks. Comparatively, neighboring grazing areas have experienced ten times higher sheep losses despite killing entire packs of wolves.

Please see our research publication for more details.

We have found that using nonlethal methods reduces management costs and social conflict while maintaining the wolf’s important ecological contributions. The Project uses a wide range of deterrents such as increasing human presence, flexible grazing routes, livestock guardian dogs, Foxlights, noisemakers, and fladry, to prevent predator - livestock interaction. In addition, the Project seeks to bring people with different opinions and interests together to pursue common goals by engaging in stakeholder empowerment and trust-building.

Beginning in 2008, Defenders of Wildlife, led by Suzanne Stone, their former Northern Rockies Wolf Coordinator, served as fiscal sponsor for the WRWP. Working together with collaborators from the USDA Forest Service, Wildlife Services, the National Wildlife Research Center and US Fish and Wildlife Service, the project provided training for field staff and herders to respond to wolf activity within the Project Area. In 2015, the Lava Lake Institute for Science & Conservation assumed the role of 501.C.3 fiscal agent for the Project from Defenders. 

The Wood River Wolf Project field staff and regional Defenders’ staff. 

The Wood River Wolf Project has been featured in documentaries addressing the importance of predator and livestock coexistence.