Nina Fascione, Defenders of Wildlife, 1101 14th Street NW, Suite 1400, Washington, DC 20005, USA

In the 1992 Recovery Plan for the Eastern Timber Wolf, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) identified the Adirondack Park in upstate New York and two areas of New England as potential sites for wolf (Canis lupus) recovery. Conservation groups and private citizens have since been working to promote wolf restoration in these areas. However, because of the contentious nature of wolf conservation, the public discourse on this issue has been emotionally and politically driven. In order to help foster productive dialogue on this subject, Defenders of Wildlife has initiated measures to engage the public in the wolf recovery process.

In 1995, Defenders offered to fund a scientific feasibility study to investigate the biological and social potential for restoring wolves to the Adirondacks. To ensure that public concerns would be addressed in the study, Defenders worked with Paul Smith's College (PSC) of the Adirondacks to create a Citizen's Advisory Committee (CAC) on the wolf issue. The committee is comprised of representatives of 18 stakeholder groups and is chaired by a PSC faculty member. The committee worked cooperatively to develop a list of issues to be addressed in the study, evaluated research proposals, interviewed prospective contractors and selected two organizations to conduct the study. The study will be completed by late 1999. The CAC process has been widely praised as a model for encouraging divergent interests to work together on controversial wildlife issues.

In New England, wolf recovery has made recent headlines both because of the FWS's tentative plan to downlist the wolf in the northeastern U.S. and because biologists and conservationists are investigating the possibility of restoring wolves to this region. To help answer questions, alleviate unnecessary fears, understand stakeholder concerns and generally gauge public opinion on this issue, Defenders and the FWS organized a stakeholder meeting in the fall of 1998 and are working with the relevant state agencies to plan a four-day stakeholder workshop to be held in January 2000. The goal is to provide a means for community participation in this wildlife restoration effort.