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SB 1135 is on Gov. Newsom’s desk—and time is running out.

The California Wildlife Coexistence Act would restore statewide support for proactive, nonlethal ways to prevent conflict and strengthen California’s wolf-livestock coexistence and compensation program.

@cagovernor has until Wednesday (September 30) to act! California needs tools that prevent conflict before it turns deadly—not more killing after the fact.

Call (916) 445-2841 and tell Gov. Newsom: Sign SB 1135. by @teamwolf

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5 hours ago

BREAKING—Montana Commission Rejects 24-Hour Trap Check Proposal on Public Lands.

On Sept. 24, the Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission unanimously rejected a citizen petition that would have required traps and snares on public lands to be checked at least once every 24 hours.

The proposal, submitted by Footloose Montana and the Gallatin Wildlife Association, did not seek to ban trapping. It sought to limit how long animals — including unintended non-target wildlife — could remain restrained before a trapper returned.

Animals caught in restraining traps or snares can remain injured, stressed or immobilized for prolonged periods. Even Montana FWP advises trappers to check traps early to reduce the amount of time animals remain restrained.

By rejecting the petition, the Commission left Montana’s existing trap-check rules in place rather than adopting a statewide 24-hour standard on public lands.

At the same meeting, commissioners also authorized FWP staff to begin drafting a broader predator-management policy. No new predator policy has been adopted yet.

A 24-hour check requirement would have been a basic animal-welfare safeguard. Montana chose not to require it. by @teamwolf

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Our incredible partners at @teamwolf have published the 2026 State Wolf Management Report Card.

Until now there was no standard for judging a state’s wolf plan. The report card sets one: twelve questions on science, transparency and humane treatment, scored against each state’s own published documents, with a source link behind every score.

Ten states graded. Not one earned an A.

See the full report card and every source behind it at the link in bio.

#TeamWolf by @teamwolf

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2 days ago

Washington is the highest-scoring state in the country at 3.72 out of 4, and it still didn't earn an A.

Team Wolf's State Wolf Management Report Card measures the ten states with established Gray Wolf populations against the same twelve questions, using each state's own published documents.

Here is what the best looks like. No hunting season. Trapping, snaring and poisoning banned outright. Lethal control only after non-lethal measures are documented. Ranchers reimbursed on a sliding scale up to double the animal's value, funded by the state. The plan goes through serious independent scientific review and the reviewers are named publicly, which no other state does. The agency funds and conducts its own research into whether non-lethal deterrents work. Goals written around a thriving population rather than a suppressed one.

And it still isn't an A. Washington reports its roughly 270 wolves and 49 packs as a year-end minimum count, without a margin of error. Without that, nobody outside the agency can properly test the trend.

Overall: A−. That is the point of a report card. Even the best state in the country has something left to fix.

See the full report card and its sources at the link in bio.

#TeamWolf by @teamwolf

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3 days ago

California does nearly everything right and will not say who checked its work.

Team Wolf's State Wolf Management Report Card measures the ten states with established Gray Wolf populations against the same twelve questions, using each state's own published documents.

Gray Wolves returned to California in 2011, when a single wolf called OR-7 walked across the Oregon border. The population is still small, around 50, with packs in the far north and the southern Sierra. California earns a straight A on ethical and humane treatment: trapping, snaring and poisoning are banned, there is no hunt, lethal control requires documented non-lethal measures first, and compensation works.

The two gaps are narrow and both are about showing your work. The plan does go through scientific review, but the state does not publish who the reviewers are, which makes it impossible to judge how independent that review was. And population counts are published without a margin of error.

Overall: A−. Tied for the best in the country, and two disclosures away from leading it.

See the full report card and its sources at the link in bio.

#TeamWolf by @teamwolf

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3 days ago

Colorado is the only state where the public voted wolves back, and it passed by less than two points. The program that vote created is strong. The money behind it is not.

Team Wolf's State Wolf Management Report Card measures the ten states with established Gray Wolf populations against the same twelve questions, using each state's own published documents.

Proposition 114 mandated reintroduction and the first wolves were released in December 2023. The population is small, around 32, and intensively tracked. The protections are genuinely strong: no hunt, no trapping, lethal control only after non-lethal measures are documented, and budget reporting that separates compensation from non-lethal funding, which most states never bother with.

The strain is in the fund. Compensation is generous on paper, up to $15,000 an animal plus indirect losses. But the fund was set at $350,000 and paid out more than $700,000 in 2025. A commitment to ranchers that runs out halfway through the year is the fastest way to lose them.

Overall: B+. The program is good. The budget has to catch up to it.

See the full report card and its sources at the link in bio.

#TeamWolf by @teamwolf

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3 days ago

Oregon protects its wolves about as well as any state in the country and can prove almost none of what it knows about them.

Team Wolf's State Wolf Management Report Card measures the ten states with established Gray Wolf populations against the same twelve questions, using each state's own published documents.

On ethical and humane treatment Oregon earns a straight A. Trapping, snaring and poisoning are banned. There is no recreational or mandated hunt. Producers have to document non-lethal measures before lethal control is authorised. Ranchers are compensated at market value through county programs, and the fund is growing. On transparency it earns an A−, with kills broken out by cause and confirmed depredations posted monthly on a public map.

Then the science column drops to a C−. No independent scientist has reviewed the plan. The state funds no research into how well non-lethal methods actually work. Population is reported as a year-end minimum count with no margin of error, which makes any trend analysis guesswork.

Overall: B. Oregon protects wolves well. It just can't show its work.

See the full report card and its sources at the link in bio.

#TeamWolf by @teamwolf

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3 days ago

Minnesota is home to the largest wolf population in the contiguous United States, around 2,919 animals, and it is the one population that was never fully wiped out. If any state should have the deepest science behind its plan, it is this one.

Team Wolf's State Wolf Management Report Card measures the ten states with established Gray Wolf populations against the same twelve questions, using each state's own published documents.

It doesn't. No independent scientist has reviewed the plan. The state spends nothing on researching non-lethal ways to prevent livestock conflict. Lethal control is permitted for verified conflict with wide latitude for landowners rather than strictly as a last resort. Confirmed losses are posted annually. Counts are published without a margin of error.

Minnesota does well on the ethical and humane criteria — no hunt, no trapping — which is why it still lands mid-table.

Overall: C+. The biggest population deserves the best science, not the least.

See the full report card and its sources at the link in bio.

#TeamWolf by @teamwolf

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Michigan's wolves live almost entirely in the Upper Peninsula, and the count has barely moved in over a decade — around 631 at the last survey. The numbers hold. The plan behind them does not.

Team Wolf's State Wolf Management Report Card measures the ten states with established Gray Wolf populations against the same twelve questions, using each state's own published documents.

The gaps are procedural, which makes them easy to ignore and easy to fix. Lethal control is permitted for verified conflict with wide latitude for landowners, rather than only after non-lethal measures are documented. Kills are reported lumped together rather than broken out by method. Confirmed livestock losses are posted annually rather than as they happen. Population counts are published without a margin of error. And no independent scientist has ever reviewed the plan.

Overall: C+. Michigan is one honest audit away from a much better grade.

See the full report card and its sources at the link in bio.

#TeamWolf by @teamwolf

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3 days ago

Wisconsin publishes more about its wolves than almost any state in the country. It is also the only one with a law that forces a hunt the moment federal protection lifts.

Team Wolf's State Wolf Management Report Card measures the ten states with established Gray Wolf populations against the same twelve questions, using each state's own published documents.

Wisconsin reports how many wolves are killed and by what method. It posts confirmed livestock losses. It holds hearings and names a contact. That earns a B+ for transparency, one of the strongest scores of the ten.

Then there is Act 169, which requires a hunting and trapping season as soon as wolves come off the federal list. Not permits it. Requires it. There is no trapping ban, and no independent scientist has reviewed the plan.

We already know what that produces. In February 2021 the season opened on a Monday morning and had to be shut down by Wednesday afternoon: 218 wolves killed in about 60 hours against a cap of 200 that had no scientific analysis behind it. A fifth of the state's wolves, inside a month of delisting.

Overall: C. Transparency is not the same thing as restraint.

See the full report card and its sources at the link in bio.

#TeamWolf by @teamwolf

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3 days ago

Wyoming runs two systems for the same animal and calls both "management." Near Yellowstone, wolves are classified as trophy game, with a set season and a cap on how many can be killed. Across roughly 85% of the rest of the state they are classified as predators, which means anyone can kill them, at any time, by almost any method, with no limit and in most cases no requirement to report it.

Team Wolf's State Wolf Management Report Card measures the ten states with established Gray Wolf populations against the same twelve questions, using each state's own published documents.

Trapping and snaring are legal. The hunt runs every year. Lethal control is the first tool reached for, not the last. The state funds no research into non-lethal alternatives, and its goals are written around holding the population down.

A distemper outbreak cut the statewide count to roughly 253 in 2025.

Overall: D+. Wyoming scores better than Idaho and Montana on transparency and still lands in the bottom three, because what it is being transparent about is the problem. One of only three states that currently manage their own wolves.

See the full report card and its sources at the link in bio.

#TeamWolf by @teamwolf

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3 days ago

Montana fails outright on half of what a good wolf plan needs.

Team Wolf's State Wolf Management Report Card measures the ten states with established Gray Wolf populations against the same twelve questions, using each state's own published documents.

Montana scores zero on six of those twelve — more than any other state graded. Trapping and snaring are legal. The hunting season runs every year. Killing wolves is their default method of "management." No independent scientist has reviewed the plan. The state spends nothing on researching non-lethal alternatives. And the plan's own language treats wolves as a problem to suppress rather than a population to sustain.

Montana's population estimate has been examined by outside researchers and found to run high, which matters a great deal when that number is what justifies the hunt.

Overall: D+. One of only three states that currently manage their own wolves.

See the full report card and its sources at the link in bio.

#TeamWolf by @teamwolf

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