A Milestone in Red Wolf Country
I first started scouting the Albemarle Peninsula in North Carolina in 2019 for the most endangered wolf in the world, the Red Wolf. I had my doubts that any wolves still existed on the landscape; they were true phantoms. It took me two years to finally see and photograph my first Red Wolf, and I was hooked.
Fast forward almost five years, I have been privileged to photograph several Red Wolves, including the first litter born in the wild since 2018. I watched those puppies and their parents form a pack. I also witnessed the maddening and senseless car strikes that have killed so many wolves, and I have worked through the difficult lows those of us who work in conservation—especially with wolves—are familiar with.
All of that to arrive at this moment of pure, unfiltered, and overwhelming joy.
Since my last article in June, with the guidance, leadership, and fundraising efforts from the Center of Biological Diversity, Wildlands Network, and the Tuscarora Nation of North Carolina, a $2 million donation was made by an anonymous donor, and more than 13,000 small donations raised an additional $2 million. Thousands of people took it upon themselves to donate their hard-earned money, time, and voices to let the world know that Red Wolves need our help.
As a result, 13 wildlife underpasses have been approved for construction in Red Wolf Country!
The North Carolina Department of Transportation was recently awarded a $25 million federal grant through the Federal Highway Administration’s Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program to build these vital crossings and funnel fencing. This is truly a cosmic shift in the mission to save and protect America’s wolf.
In addition to Red Wolves, these underpasses will also protect other species that call the peninsula home—from bobcats and black bears to white-tailed deer, otters, beavers, and numerous snake and reptile species. With more than 12,000 cars per day using Highway 64 to reach the Outer Banks during peak tourist season, fewer people will have to worry about potential fatal car collisions with wildlife once the underpasses are complete.
As we celebrate this incredible win, one that Red Wolves and Red Wolf advocates desperately needed, we cannot become complacent in protecting, speaking up, and fighting for Red Wolves. We need to use this monumental victory to motivate ourselves for when times get tough, and they will. Red Wolves will still be killed or injured by humans, it will be sad, it will be frustrating, and it will be easy to give up.
When those difficult times come, remember that in the very near future, somewhere in the silent early morning in North Carolina, with the pocosin trees looking on as they have for centuries, a Red Wolf will come to the road, curious and roaming by nature, and take a step forward. But instead of walking onto a dangerous two-lane highway that has killed so many of its kind before, it will sleek through an underpass to live another day, to roam, to hunt, to form its own pack, to provide hope for its species’ survival.
You helped build that future, and the Red Wolf survives.
Information about the Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program and the 2024-2025 grantees is provided below:
The Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program approved more than $125 million in funding for 16 projects nationwide in fiscal year 2024-2025. The US-64 Red Wolf Crossings Project received the second-highest grant after the Mariposa Preserve Wildlife Overcrossing Project in Oregon, which will protect deer, bear, elk, cougars, and other large animals.
Eric Trefney grew up in Michigan in the metro-Detroit area, where he would often camp and canoe with his family and friends. After finishing graduate school in 2015, Eric joined the Peace Corps where he was assigned to Senegal, Africa, in the Sahel desert region. Eric practiced and trained in agroforestry techniques with local Senegalese partners as well as women’s financial literacy. In 2018, after his 2 years of Peace Corps service, Eric moved to the Washington D.C. area and was gifted a camera by his dad. After learning about the critically endangered red wolves in North Carolina, Eric’s passion project became photographing, educating, and advocating for the red wolf’s survival. Eric and his partner Dani currently reside in Virginia and are often out enjoying the state’s beautiful parks and rivers.
This is of course very good news! However, we must also realize that it just provides somewhat of a fix for a symptom. The real problems here are the roads and the cars that drive on them. Many roads like this need to be closed, period. Humans need to start taking responsibility for their actions, such as refraining from just doing whatever and going wherever they want. We need to leave some of this planet for the nonhumans, they have just as much right to live and thrive as humans do, and they’re necessary parts of the ecosystems upon which we depend for our very lives.