There are just three wolves surviving at Isle Royale National Park, an island ecosystem and World Heritage site locked within Lake Superior in Michigan. That’s down from 50 some years ago, and the surviving three wolves show signs of inbreeding. Since the wolves have all but vanished from the island, the moose population has doubled, and an ecosystem that once had a strong balance of predator and prey has been thrown out of whack.

The United Tribes of Michigan (comprising 12 recognized Indian tribes in the northern part of the state) recently adopted a resolution opposing removal of federal protections for wolves and calling on people to recognize the historical and ecological significance of wolves.

The Humane Society of the United States and 21 other organizations — including the Detroit Zoo, the Center for Biological Diversity, the Wisconsin Federated Humane Societies and the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians — have petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to down-list wolves from "endangered" to "threatened" status across most of their range in the lower 48 states.

The November election results are indisputable. Voters repealed Proposal 1 (moving the wolf to the game species list) with a 55 percent “no” vote, and they defeated Proposal 2 (giving the NRC the authority to decide which species can be hunted), with a 64 percent “no” vote. Proposal 2 was defeated in 69 of 83 counties, in a landslide rejection of NRC decision-making power.

This afternoon, we received the very welcome and far-reaching news that a federal judge just issued an order requiring that sport hunting and trapping of wolves in the Great Lakes region must end immediately, in response to our legal action.

A federal judge on Friday threw out an Obama administration decision to remove gray wolves in the western Great Lakes region from the endangered species list — a decision that will ban further wolf hunting and trapping in three states.

The order affects wolves in Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin, where the combined population is estimated at around 3,700. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service dropped federal protections from those wolves in 2012 and handed over management to the states.

The three R's of electoral democracy are respect, responsibility, and right.

Right as opposed to wrong.