This paper focuses on wolf recovery in the Western Great Lakes Region. It covers several topics, including habitat quality and distribution, population projection estimates, population growth and viability estimates, wolf population growth and overall biodiversity, and wolf recovery and ecosystem management.

Researchers found that wolf packs tended to avoid certain land cover classes, such as agriculture and deciduous forest, and favored forests with at least some conifer component, such as mixed deciduous-conifer forest areas and forested wetlands.

Two methods were used to estimate potential wolf populations: estimating the overall wolf population by relating total potential habitat area to mean pack territory size, and spatially estimating potential wolf density by considering wolf population and prey density relationships. Potential time to carrying capacity for different habitat classes were calculated. Population growth rates and human-caused mortality were found to be factors in the time necessary for wolf populations in Wisconsin and Michigan to reach or exceed the size estimates reported here.