Panels
This panel will provide attendees with an understanding of varying degrees of stewardship, cultural and spiritual perspectives of Native/First Nations people towards gray wolves. Stewardship values differ between Native tribes, and this panel exposes that reality for our attendees so that they have a more balanced appreciation of the complexities of wolf recovery as it relates to Natives. As a lead-in to the panel, an expert will speak to various issues regarding sovereignty, working relationships between the United States government agencies, individual states and the tribes, and the need to become both aware of and respect Native values. Tribal representation is drawn from three geographical regions where wolf recovery has proceeded in the past fifty years. These include: Anishinaabe (Upper Great Lakes); Nez Perce (The Northern Rockies/Pacific Coast); and White Mountain Apache (Mexican wolf range). Each will present their tribe’s status as a sovereign nation, their relationship to landscapes, whether a reservation, ceded territories with certain granted rights, or whether both or neither exist. Each will also address whether the tribe has stewardship agreements with the United States or State agencies and whether the tribe engages in big game hunting enterprises and rearing livestock.
Panelists:
- Sarah E. Rinkevich – Assistant Research Scientist University of Arizona, School of Natural Resources and the Environment
- Gage Hollingsworth – Wolf Biologist/Sensitive Species Coordinator White Mountain Apache Tribe Game and Fish Department
- Richard Whitney – Wildlife Division Senior Manager, Fish and Wildlife Program, Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation
- Kelly Applegate – Commissioner of Natural Resources for Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe
This panel of experts will provide information on red wolves, Algonquin (eastern) wolves and Mexican wolves. The updates by each panelist will include: status update, ecology as it relates to human-dominated landscapes, and present-day challenges and acknowledgement of collaborators.
Panelists:
- John Oakleaf – Senior Wolf Scientist, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services, Mexican Wolf Program
- Brent Patterson – Research Scientist, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources
- Joey Hinton – Senior Research Scientist, Wolf Conservation Center
- Joe Madison – North Carolina Program Manager, Red Wolf Recovery Program, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Panelists will provide an update on the Colorado reintroduction work. One will summarize reintroduction efforts; another will evaluate accomplishments to date vs. where planners anticipated the recovery effort would be, and a third will summarize various social issues and the realities of putting wolves on the ground.
Panelists:
- Eric O’Dell – Wolf Conservation Program Manager, Colorado Parks and Wildlife
- Gary Skiba – Board Treasurer and Policy Advisor, Board of Directors, Rocky Mountain Wolf Project
- Courtney Vail – Chair, Board of Directors, Rock Mountain Wolf Project
Plenary Speakers
This presentation will touch on the following topics:
- What makes wolf recovery in certain areas “successful”?
- Why can’t wolf recovery targets, where they have been restored, be met?
- Where should future effort be exerted, and where not?
Presenter:
- John A. Vucetich – Distinguished Professor, Michigan Technological University
This talk will be an update on the status of gray wolves in Europe.
Presenter:
- Ilka Reinhardt – Senior Researcher/Chair at LUPUS German Institute of Wolf Monitoring and Research
Presenter:
Daniel MacNulty – Professor, Department of Wildland Resources Quinney College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Utah State University
Banquet
Evening includes a presentation of the L. David Mech fellowship and a celebration of 60+ years of wolf research.
Movie
“A Good Wolf is a feature-length documentary film that follows three groups of Alaskans as they find diverging ways to navigate a volatile controversy surrounding a single tract of land adjacent to Mount McKinley (Denali) National Park—a struggle between state and federal authorities, fur trappers and wildlife advocates, and competing human interests on public lands. Hanging in the balance are some of America’s most iconic animals and wild places.”
Director/Producer: Ramey Newell.
Introduction and Q & A
- Bridget Borg – Wildlife Biologist, National Park Service, Denali National Park and Preserve
Keynote Address
This presentation will review the age-old controversy surrounding wolves and the perceived and real impacts they have on recreational deer hunting opportunities. Attendees will be given an historical perspective of the early efforts undertaken to understand wolf predation on deer by IWC founder, Dr. L. David Mech and others, what they learned, and the gains made in recent time utilizing technological developments that have allowed researchers to ask more penetrating questions – and get the answers. Finally, this presentation will explore the manners in which messaging of scientific investigations can reach broader audiences, including deer hunters.
Presenter:
- Tom Gable – Project Lead, Voyageur Wolf Project