'Ozarks Autumn Panorama - November 2012' courtesy Mark Corder

Hello. My name is Rachel Guthrie. This is the story of my journey to founding American Wolf Foundation.

As a child, I wanted to be a veterinarian. But my interests expanded in college, and I went to law school to work on endangered species issues. After several years of law practice specializing in environmental contamination, I wanted to return to my roots and work with endangered species. On Giving Tuesday in November 2017, I started by directing all my charitable giving to the most endangered species on the planet and donated to the International Rhino Foundation for its work with Javan and Sumatran rhinos. But then I asked ‘What is the most endangered species in the United States?’ The answer to my question led me to the creation of American Wolf Foundation.

I learned that the American red wolf (Canis rufus) is the most endangered species in the United States and the world’s most endangered wolf. Recently, a once-successful reintroduction effort has collapsed and the wild population has dwindled to only a handful of wolves, threatening a second extinction in the wild.

The more I researched, the more personally connected I felt to the red wolf and the more I felt compelled to act. I founded American Wolf Foundation in March 2018 in Kansas City, Missouri. Why, you may ask, did I create a foundation for wolves in a state that has no wolves? Because it once did, and it can again. Missouri was once the epicenter of canid diversity in the United States, at the intersection of the historic ranges for gray, red and Eastern wolves, coyotes, and gray and red foxes. The Ozarks region was a last stronghold before the species was declared extinct in the wild in 1980. I am a child of the Ozarks myself, born in Arkansas and raised in Southwest Missouri. Red wolves were still roaming free in Missouri and Arkansas when my grandparents were young. My father adopted a domesticated wolf that I named Sheba when I was a child. She was likely an Eastern wolf hybrid, a close relative of red wolves. My relationship with Sheba inspired a life-long fascination with predators.

I grew up hearing the long, mournful howl of a wolf in my back yard. My dream is for my daughters to hear red wolves howl throughout their historic range in my lifetime.