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Jonathan Wood is vice president of law and policy at the Property and Environment Research Center.
This month, a lone gray wolf was spotted in Los Angeles County for the first time in more than a century. That sighting would have been unimaginable a generation ago. In the mid-1990s, when endangered gray wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park, the only state in the Lower 48 with a population greater than a few dozen was Minnesota. Today, more than 6,000 gray wolves roam 10 states — up from about 1,500. It’s a spectacular success story but also a reminder that conservation works best when the federal government treats private landowners as partners, not obstacles.
