The Wolf Connection

Eleri Lopp is a photographer, videographer, and nature guide in Estonia. She has been tracking wolves for over a decade and observing ecological changes happening within her country. 

Eleri described wolf populations and movements within Estonia, the difference between EU protections and Baltic countries enforcing them for wolves, and the underfunding of science and research to conduct research on carnivores within Estonia. 

Eleri Lo...

Eleanor Keisman is an American writer living in Vienna, Austria. She holds a BA from The New School and an MFA in creative writing from Drexel University. Her short stories, poetry, and essays have appeared in Litro Magazine, The Bangalore Review, Tough Crime, Last Stanza Poetry Journal, and The Wild Umbrella, as well as adapted for "The Other Stories" podcast. New Animal is her first novella.

Eleanor described her path to...

Paul Koberstein cofounded Cascadia Times in 1995 and has been its editor ever since. Paul, a journalist for forty years, was a staff writer for The Oregonian and Willamette Week in the 1980s and 1990s. He is the co-author of Canopy of Titans examining the global importance of the Pacific Coastal Temperate Rainforest that stretches from Northern California to Alaska. 

Paul discussed the book Canopy of Titans which details the threats...

The Anderson family is a multi-generational ranching operation in Tom Miner Basin, the grizzly bear corridor near Yellowstone National Park's northern boundary. Rather than dominate nature, the Andersons work to prevent predation of livestock by coexisting more harmoniously with wildlife. 

Malou has implemented holistic regenerative grazing management so that these grasslands become more abundant and draw down more carbon into ...

Doug Smith retired as the Senior Wildlife Biologist in Yellowstone National park after 28 years of service where he supervised the wolf, elk, and bird programs. Doug has studied wolves for 44 years, done over 2,000 interviews, and appeared on numerous documentaries about wolves and birds for National Geographic, BBC, and CBS 60 Minutes. He is a member of the Mexican Wolf Recovery Team, the Re-Introduction Specialist Group, and the ...

Annick Hus is a Belgian Freelance Journalist who has studied Animal Welfare Science and Ethics and Law at the University of Winchester. Arie Trouwborst is a Nature Conservation Law Professor at Tilburg University. They have both chronicled the political, societal, and legal perspectives of wolves naturally recolonizing Europe. 

They both discussed the challenges within each of these categories, as each country within the European Un...

John Potter grew up in the Upper Great Lakes region, spending his formative years immersed in the lush forests of the Great Northwoods, where he developed a profound love for the natural world that continues to inspire his work today.

After a successful 20-year career as an award-winning illustrator, John transitioned to painting full-time in 2002. 

John visited Wolf Connection for 3 days, immersing himself in the on-site programs, i...

Melissa Smith is the Executive Director & Founder of Friends of the Wisconsin Wolf & Wildlife and has served on D.C. environmental committees with a deep understanding of the Endangered Species Act.  

She explored the significance of sociological sciences within state policy management of species, how this influences the effectiveness of State Endangered Species Acts (SESA) and State Wildlife Action Plans (SWAP), and the way...

Dr. John Vucetich has been working on the Isle Royale Wolf & Moose Project for over 30 years. He is a distinguished Professor at Michigan Technological University where he teaches Wildlife Ecology and Environmental Ethics. 

We discussed the global biodiversity crisis we are currently in at the moment, the value of species within the context of an environment, his co-authored paper titled Government agencies in the United States ...

Leo Miranda was the USFWS Southeast Regional Director from 2018-2022, and is the Founder and CEO of Leo Miranda LLC which creates innovative wildlife conservation policy solutions. He also serves at the Executive Director for Conservation Without Conflict, a proven approach to conservation and a coalition of public and private partners with highly diverse goals who are united in their commitment to conserving wildlife while keeping...

Adam Bronstein has been with Western Watersheds Project since 2020 and is the Oregon Director for the organization. Adam grew up exploring the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York, and received a BS from SUNY ESF in Syracuse, NY in Environmental Studies and Geographic Information Technologies.

He discussed the parameters of the Roadless Rule, explained specifics on protections for Inventoried Roadless Areas (IRAs), impacts loggi...

Lizzy Pennock has been the Carnivore Coexistence Attorney for WIldEarth Guardians for 4 years. Earlier in August, a federal district court in Missoula ruled that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service violated the Endangered Species Act (ESA) when it determined that gray wolves in the western United States do not warrant federal protections. 

Lizzy went into great detail describing Senior District Judge Donald Molloy's reasons for ...

Axel Hunnicutt has been with California Department of Fish & Wildlife for over 4 years and is the State Gray Wolf Coordinator. He has previously worked in Africa with multiple endangers and threatened species, protecting habitats and wildlife while promoting coexistence benefits to the surrounding communities. 

Axel discussed the recolonization of wolves in California, their territories, pack sizes and possible dispersal pattern...

James Holt has been a tribal member of the Nez Perce for 13 years and has worked in Environmental Sciences & Tribal Community Engagement for nearly three decades. He also specializes in tribal public policy, including natural resources and water policy development; climate change planning; wilderness management; and utilities administration for the Nez Perce. 

James shared insights into his upbringing with the lessons and guidan...

Laurie Cousins is a Trauma-Informed Mindfulness Teacher who has been with Wolf Connection since 2018. Known for her work in healing trauma and addiction recovery, Laurie focuses on treating the cyclical root causes of compulsive behaviors while building self-love and resiliency. 

She spoke about the ways that nature based therapy can help us reconnect with the environment, how those practices intertwine with the programs at Wolf Con...

Alma "Rosie" Sanchez is the Carnivore Biologist for the Nez Perce Tribe and is also a PhD student at The University of Colorado Boulder. She combines Indigenous political ecology and carnivore ecology in both fieldwork and research. Rosie has focused on revitalizing management plans, deploying field projects to determine occupancy and migration, and expanding opportunities for community involvement in conservation. 

She sp...

Nita Strauss is a Los Angeles born guitarist who has toured around the globe, playing with musical artists like Demi Lovato and Alice Cooper, while releasing two solo albums Controlled Chaos (2018) and The Call of the Void (2023). She was also the first female to have a signature guitar through Ibanez guitars, the Ibanez JIVA. 

We spoke with Nita about her creative process, both in her instrumental work and collaboration with vocali...

Hannah Rheaume has been a professional photographer for 5 years. She has traveled the globe, sharing her stories through the lens of her camera, while aiming to explore the complexities of humans and their impact on the natural world. 

Hannah spoke about her interactions with the pack at Wolf Connection, the photo workshop she hosted in Yellowstone, and her encounter with a yearling wolf inside the park. 

Check out @thewolfconnection...

Dan Flores is A. B. Hammond Professor Emeritus of the History of the American West at the University of Montana-Missoula. He has authored ten books, including his New York Times Bestseller Coyote America, along with American Serengeti and Wild New World. 

We had a powerful conversation about how coyotes have shaped both Indigenous and early American storytelling, the rise and impact of extirpation campaigns against them and other No...