Why Wolves Still Matter
Some loves do not arrive all at once. They are simply there, woven into who we are before we fully understand why.
For me, wolves have always held that place.
Long before I became involved with the Wolf Education & Research Center, before I understood the politics, biology, fear, mythology, and misunderstanding that surround them, wolves had already found permanence in my heart. There was something about their intelligence, loyalty, wildness, and family structure that settled deep inside me. I fell in love with them because they were extraordinary.
That love eventually led me to the Wolf Education & Research Center, and to the former wolf sanctuary in Winchester, Idaho—a place that forever changed me.
For those who never had the chance to stand there, it is hard to fully describe. Wolf Camp was not a performance space. It was not a place where wolves appeared on command or existed for human entertainment. It was a place of respect. A place where people came to learn, and where any glimpse of a wolf was received as a gift.
You could stand quietly along the fence line, looking into the trees and meadow, knowing the wolves were there even if they did not appear. And that was part of the lesson. Wolves do not owe us a sighting. They move on their own terms, in their own world, with an awareness and dignity that asks us to become quieter, more patient, more humble.
The annual events at Wolf Camp became more than trips for me. They became part of my soul. The land, the people, the wolves, the conversations around camp, the chorus of a howl rolling through the Idaho night—all of it became deeply embedded in me.
The Wolf Education & Research Center began with the Sawtooth Pack: Wolves of the Nez Perce, whose lives helped introduce so many people to the complexity of wolf society. Later, WERC provided sanctuary to the Owyhee Pack, wolves who arrived from hardship and trauma and were given professional care, safety, and the chance to live as wolves should—within a pack, with space, structure, and respect.
That chapter of WERC’s work has now closed. The Idaho sanctuary is gone. The land has been returned to the Nez Perce Tribe. Although the wolves who were at the center of the mission have passed the importance of the work remains.
Wolves are still misunderstood. They are still reduced to symbols instead of being understood as living animals with ecological importance, social intelligence, and a rightful place on the landscape. They still sit at the center of one of the most emotional and divisive wildlife conversations in North America.
And that is why WERC’s work still matters.
Education is not a soft mission. It is essential conservation work. Before people will protect something, they have to understand it. Before communities can have honest conversations about coexistence, they need accurate information. Before students can inherit better decisions than the generations before them, they need to see predators not as villains, but as part of a larger ecological story.
WERC has never asked people to romanticize wolves. Wolves are not monsters. They are apex predators, family animals, teachers, survivors, and a vital part of wild systems that are healthier when all native species are allowed to play their role. The mission has always been about truth, balance, respect, and responsibility. And those are the very reasons I have stayed connected to this organization for so long.
Today, WERC continues that work through education, outreach, film, writing, and programs that reach far beyond the boundaries of the former sanctuary. The organization may no longer be caring for wolves on-site, but it is still caring for the future of wolves by helping shape how people understand them.
That matters to me deeply.
It matters because I have looked into the eyes of wolves who were given sanctuary. It matters because I have stood on land where people dedicated their lives to their care. It matters because I know what it feels like to hear a pack howl and understand, in your bones, that the world is larger and wilder and more connected than we often remember.
And it matters because where there is real love, there is also responsibility.
My love for wolves has always been part of my life, and it always will be. But love alone is not enough. We still need to support the work. We still need to defend science-based education. We still need to protect the gray wolf population and the ecosystems that depend on balance. We still need to help people move past fear, past myth, past politics, and toward understanding.
The Wolf Education & Research Center gave many of us more than knowledge. It gave us a relationship with the wild that changed how we see the world.
That is worth preserving.
That is worth supporting.
And that is why I continue to stand with WERC.
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