One Wolf's Incredible Journey

and the federal and state protection that made it possible

While I usually send only one “Love the Wild” each week, here’s a bonus newsletter based on my blog post this week. As the US Fish and Wildlife Service comes under increasing pressure to put wolves in the Northern Rockies back under Endangered Species Act protection, this story takes on more importance and should be told and circulated.

I'm going to recount some of the story of a wolf called OR-7 (pictured above). You may recall that he became famous for his years-long journey of thousands of miles and numerous incredible firsts. But many people are not aware of how he was protected throughout his journey by the federal and state laws that traveling wolves need to survive. 

This story begins before OR-7’s birth, before his incredible journey. This story begins with the incredible journey of his mother, Idaho wolf B-300 (pictured below). 

In January 2008, B-300 was spotted by Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) about 100 miles from her last known location in Idaho. To cover those miles, she had descended into treacherous Hells Canyon, the deepest river gorge in North America, swam across the Snake River, and climbed out of the gorge into Oregon. 

B-300 was alone but would not be for long. Another Idaho wolf—a male—also negotiated Hells Canyon. Protected by the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA), the two would somehow find one another, become the first breeding pair in Oregon since 1947, and begin the state’s wolf recovery. Both would be collared; B-300 would become OR-2 (the second wolf collared by ODFW) and her mate would become OR-4 (pictured below). 

These two dispersers would create the Imnaha pack. Their successful dispersal would strengthen the survival of their species in a number of ways, according to a 2021 study. Dispersal allows genes to flow between populations and helps animals survive disease and environmental disruptions such as those caused by climate change. Dispersal can keep small local populations from vanishing. Dispersal enables the colonization of new habitats.  

But dispersal, especially crossing invisible state lines, requires protection, and In March of 2008 wolves in the Northern Rockies lost ESA protection. The Northern Rockies includes Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, a corner of Utah, the eastern portion of Washington, and the eastern portion of Oregon where OR-2 and OR-4 were getting acquainted. 

Conservation groups challenged the delisting and ESA protection was restored by July. But the seemingly endless fight over whether to protect or kill wolves had just begun.

In January 2009 while OR-2 and OR-4 were close to breeding, the Bush administration—just days before leaving office—tried again to remove ESA protection from wolves in the Northern Rockies. When the Obama administration took office, an order was issued temporarily stopping the proposed delisting.

But in March when OR-2 was staying near her den with the birth of her pups just weeks away, Obama’s Interior Secretary affirmed the removal of endangered species protections. 

On May 4, 2009, when OR-2 and her weeks-old pups were snuggled in their eastern Oregon den, Northern Rockies wolves officially lost ESA protection. Thankfully, OR-2 and family were protected under Oregon law.

One of her pups would grow up to become the famous OR-7. But when little OR-7 stepped out of the den in 2009, he entered an increasingly dangerous world without ESA protection. 

Just how dangerous would become obvious by September when a federal judge ruled the delisting was likely illegal but the wolf hunts in Montana and Idaho could still go on. Hunters hungry for wolves bought more than 29,000 wolf tags for Idaho's upcoming hunt. From that hunt and other human causes, 249 Idaho wolves would perish in 2009, according to Idaho Fish and Game (IDFG) records. 

In August 2010 a federal judge restored ESA protection for Northern Rockies wolves. While conservation groups had won that battle, the war against wolves was far from over.

In February 2011, OR-7 was collared with a radio transmitter.  He was the seventh wolf collared in Oregon.

Just two months later, in April, when 90-pound OR-7 turned two, Montana Senator Jon Tester and Idaho Representative Mike Simpson inserted a rider on a must-pass appropriations bill so that wolves in the Northern Rockies lost ESA protection again. This was the first time that Congress had legislatively delisted an endangered species. And the rider stated that the delisting “shall not be subject to judicial review.” This decade-old protection from judicial review is the reason that conservation groups can’t fight for Northern Rockies wolves in court but instead must demand that the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) relist them. 

In August a federal judge upheld the legality of congress delisting a species. This paved the way for more fall wolf hunts in Montana and Idaho. 

As those hunts began in September of 2011, OR-7 left his birth pack. Now a little over two years old—typical disperser age—he was following his biological drive to find a mate. Obviously, he knew nothing of the battle in congress and courtrooms over whether to protect or kill him and his kind. Had he headed east through Hells Canyon and into unprotected Idaho crammed with armed wolf hunters, he could have died along with the 281 wolves that Idaho reported killed that year. 

Instead, for reasons only he knew, he headed southwest and then west. He crossed Interstate 84 and US Hwy 395, the high-speed, north-south road that USFWS considers the arbitrary dividing line between eastern and western Oregon. Eastern Oregon is in the Northern Rockies; western Oregon is not. 

As OR-7 continued west, he went up and over the rugged Oregon Cascades and became the first wolf west of those mountains since 1946. He turned southward, continued his protected journey across private and public land, and eventually entered Umpqua National Forest.

Between November 8 and December 23, OR-7 slowed down and occupied a broad area in southwestern Oregon that includes the Sky Lakes Wilderness and Crater Lake National Park. But he wasn't ready to stop. On December 28, 2011, he crossed into California near the small town of Dorris and became the first wolf in California in 80 some years. While gray wolves are native to California, they had been hunted and trapped to extinction in the state by the mid-1920s.

Wolves in California would not be protected by state law until 2014, but OR-7 was protected under the ESA since he was not in the Northern Rockies. During his California time, he mainly stayed on public lands while exploring all kinds of territory: ponderosa pine forests, mixed conifer forests, lava flows, sagebrush shrublands, juniper woodlands, and agricultural lands. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) says that no public safety incidents or agricultural losses from wolf damage were reported while OR-7 was in the state for over a year.

But by early 2013, OR-7 appeared to be wandering and wondering where to call home. He crossed the California-Oregon border several times before he finally found a mate and settled down in southwestern Oregon. In spring of 2014, OR-7 and his mate gave birth to three pups and created Oregon’s Rogue pack, the first wolf pack in western Oregon in more than 60 years. While OR-7's journey was over, his impact had just begun. One male from the Rogue’s first litter would follow in his father’s paw prints. He would disperse from Oregon, travel to California, and become a breeding male. He would create California’s second wolf pack, the Lassen pack. He would sire litters in 2017, 2018, and 2019. He and his mate would produce thirteen pups (some pictured below in 2017). 

OR-7's son was no longer with the Lassen pack after the spring of 2019. Though gone from the pack, he would--like his father--live on through his offspring. One female from OR-7's son's last litter became a member of California's new Beckwourth pack.

While his dispersing offspring colonized California, OR-7 stayed in Oregon. He lived eleven years, a very long life for a wild wolf. He is assumed to have died by April 2020, perhaps of old age. His longevity was in part due to his living in and traveling through areas where he was protected by state or federal law.

The legacy of OR-7 the disperser continues. In May of 2021, a female genetically related to the Rogue pack joined with other dispersers to form another new California wolf family, the Whaleback pack. She gave birth to seven pups. Some of them will disperse and spread the family genes.

Six months after OR-7’s death, the Trump administration finalized a rule removing ESA protections for all gray wolves in the Lower 48 except for Mexican gray wolves. That delisting became official in January of 2021, the final days of the Trump administration. Conservation organizations challenged the delisting and a court overturned it on February 10, 2022. 

Unfortunately, because of the wording of that 2011 congressional delisting, wolves in the Northern Rockies are still not protected by the ESA. 

If a wolf from unprotected eastern Oregon disperses and heads east seeking a mate, the wolf will enter Idaho—probably the most deadly place for wolves in the Lower 48, with Montana now a close second. But if that wolf instead heads west and crosses US Hwy 395 and enters western Oregon, it will be protected by the ESA. It can then do as OR-7 did: safely disperse, find a mate and help build the tiny wolf populations in protected western Oregon, western Washington, and California. 

For more posts about protecting and coexisting with wolves, see my blog.

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