2023 Impact for Wild Carnivores

2023 Impact for Wild Carnivores PROJEC TCOYOTE .ORG | ANNUAL R EPORT

2 | IMPACT FOR WILD CARNIVORES 2023

D. KOPSHEVER KATMAI NATIONAL PARK AND PRESERVE

NOTE FROM THE DIRECTOR

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REFRESHING OUR MISSION

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Vision

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Mission

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Tagline

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COEXISTING WITH WILDLIFE

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Coyote Friendly Communites

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Ranching and Farming with Wildlife

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CARNIVORE CONSERVATION

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Reforming Wildlife Governance

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Protecting America’s Wolves

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Ending Wildlife Killing Contests

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KEEPING IT WILD

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SCIENCE & ETHICS

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ARTISTS FOR WILD NATURE

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2022–2023 FINANCES

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PROJECT COYOTE’S FINANCIAL SUPPORT

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EARTH ISLAND INSTITUTE

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THE PROJECT COYOTE PACK

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GROW OUR IMPACT

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TM

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Dear Friends & Supporters, Thanks to you and the collective support of compassionate wildlife advocates across the country, we celebrated our 15th anniversary in 2023!

Fifteen years of promoting compassionate coexistence. Fifteen years of protecting our country’s most persecuted wild carnivores. Fifteen years of relentless work to ensure thriving ecosystems for future generations.

Project Coyote has created powerful change in those fifteen years, but we continue to face many challenges. Misconceptions, fear and violence continue to threaten wild carnivores and undermine the health of our ecosystems.

NOTE FROM THE DIRECTOR

Thankfully, our team’s love for the Wild Ones and the strong support from our national community of wildlife advocates enables us to work more expansively and ever more effectively with staff ranging from the West Coast to the Midwest and Northeast.

Our collective efforts in 2023 have led to countless victories for wild carnivores and I’m pleased to share some of those accomplishments here with you. Our full list of 2023 accomplishments is a testament to what we can accomplish together. Read more: projectcoyote.org/victories I am confident that with science-based activism and education, we can foster a culture of respect and appreciation for wild beings–instilling empathy and compassion, while changing hearts and minds. When a society protects its most vulnerable, all beings benefit.

As we look toward the next 15 years, it is our community’s shared love for our wild carnivores that will enable us to protect more wolves, coyotes, bears, bobcats, foxes, and mountain lions nationwide.

Here’s to many more shared victories for wildlife in the years to come.

With profound gratitude,

Camilla Fox Founder & Executive Director 4 | IMPACT FOR WILD CARNIVORES 2023

MISSION

To protect North America’s wild carnivores and promote compassionate coexistence through education, science, advocacy, and coalition building.

REFRESHING OUR MISSION After 15 years of expansive growth, historic achievements for wild carnivores, and continued thought leadership in the field of wildlife conservation and coexistence, we decided it was time to revisit our core statements, values, and messaging through an intensive Communications Audit. This was propelled by new Advisory Board Member Suparna Vashisht and Project Coyote’s communications team. Some aspects of this process, including developing formal position statements, refreshing our style guide, and updating our website, will extend into 2024. However, we are excited to share our updated mission, vision, and tagline. These new statements, while closely aligned with our original ones created 15 years ago, more accurately represent and encompass Project Coyote’s unique, pivotal role in advocating for the protection of North America’s most persecuted wild carnivores for their intrinsic and ecological value. We would like to give immense thanks to our advisors, volunteers, and donors who provided insightful feedback during this process through interviews and surveys.

Christopher Lile Operations & Communications Director

VISION

A North America where humans and wild carnivores coexist and ecosystems thrive.

© BIRDIEGAL (SHUTTERSTOCK)

TAGLINE

Project Coyote – Protecting Wild Carnivores, Fostering Thriving Ecosystems PROJECTCOYOTE.ORG

IMPACT FOR WILD CARNIVORES 2023 | 5

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Coexisting with Wildlife Project Coyote’s guiding principle is coexistence, and our Coyote Friendly Communities and Ranching and Farming with Wildlife projects represent a cornerstone of our essential efforts to promote coexistence within rural and urban communities.

Coyote conflict garnered significant attention this year, as many cities and landowners grappled with challenging situations. Gratefully, Project Coyote’s committed supporters nationwide consistently lent their voices to champion the cause of North America’s cherished song dog.

Coyote Friendly CommunitesTM • Over the past year, our team and an enthusiastic cadre of volunteers have delivered “Living with Coyotes” presentations in local communities throughout the nation, disseminated educational materials and signage, and assisted in the development of coyote coexistence plans for municipalities. From Belvedere, California to Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, down to Galveston Bay, Texas, and beyond – our team helps communities choose coexistence instead of killing.

• In February, we worked with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the National Animal Care and Control Association to organize the Southern California Coyote Summit.

This important event brought together leading human-wildlife conflict professionals across California to provide science-based information on best practices for living with coyotes. You can find a recording of the summit here.

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MATT KNOTH

BY NC ND

• We launched Project Coyote’s Community Action Network (CAN) on the Circle platform. CAN was launched in Marin County, California, as a response to Belvedere’s controversial decision to eliminate its local coyote population using sharpshooters, driven by a vocal minority. With Project Coyote’s support, local residents joined forces to reverse this decision and became a model for other communities considering coexistence instead of killing. In the coming year, we will be extending CAN invitations to communities, states, and regions far and wide.

BY LARRY LAMSA

Ranching and Farming with Wildlife • Through strategic planning efforts, we renamed our Ranching with Wildlife program to Ranching and Farming with Wildlife (RFWW). This name change is part of a larger effort to expand our coexistence efforts into the Midwest and Northeast.

• We expanded and enhanced our resource library with a new series of educational videos to support our efforts to enhance coexistence across working lands. These videos feature new interviews with wild canid ecologist, Project Coyote NH and VT representative Chris Schadler, who specializes in the natural history of eastern coyotes and wolves in the Northeast and co-founded New Hampshire Wildlife Coalition, as well as sheep farmer Liz Shaw, who operates a non-lethal coexistence model farm in Vermont.

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Carnivore Conservation In North America, we envision a shift in federal and state based carnivore policy away from current lethal management policies to a framework centered around human-wildlife coexistence, allowing for the flourishing of both humans and wildlife. We seek to protect wild carnivores like wolves, coyotes, and foxes from abuse and mismanagement by replacing killing with coexistence. Notably, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s “Wildlife Services” publicly funded killing program is responsible for the annual extermination of over 100,000 wild carnivores in the United States, primarily at the behest of ranchers and agribusiness interests. Our Carnivore Conservation program envisions a pivotal shift away from these detrimental policies, emphasizing the importance of peaceful coexistence with North America’s most persecuted wild carnivores.

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Reforming Wildlife Governance • Project Coyote has been actively involved in a multi-year campaign in partnership with Wisconsin wildlife advocates to bring about significant reform within the Wisconsin Conservation Congress (WCC). While there remains considerable work to be done, our coalition’s persistent efforts to reform the WCC are beginning to yield positive outcomes. Project Coyote will continue to advocate for changes to the WCC in the coming years until this institution is more democratic and accountable.

• Since our inception, Project Coyote has been dedicated to exposing and ending the indiscriminate and inhumane killing practices of the rogue federal Wildlife Services program on our public lands. This year, we saw immense progress in our efforts to ban M-44 devices, commonly known as “cyanide bombs.” In November, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announced a ban of M-44 devices across 245 million acres of BLM-managed lands. Canyon’s Law was also reintroduced in the 118th Congress to ban M-44s on all public lands. We organized the power of our supporters to send over 4,000 letters to their federal representatives in support of this important bill to protect our nation’s carnivores.

• Project Coyote, alongside coalition allies, submitted a petition for rulemaking to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), urging the agency for a comprehensive regulatory framework to govern the Wildlife Services program to ensure consistency with all relevant laws and policies. The petition urges the phase-out of lethal control of wild animals, including prohibiting specific practices such as neck snares, M-44 cyanide bombs, lead bullets, and more. It further requests the agency to set clear standards of conduct and enforcement to ensure the humane treatment of animals as well as to operate with greater transparency and accountability to the public.

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Carnivore Conservation Protecting America’s Wolves • In Montana, we continue to legally challenge the state over their aggressive wolf hunting and trapping policies. The lawsuit we filed in Fall of 2022 led to a short-lived temporary restraining order (TRO) granting temporary reprieve for Montana’s wolves and curbing some killing. Now our litigation continues in pursuit of a more permanent reprieve for Montana’s highly persecuted wolves. In response to Project Coyote’s ongoing lawsuit, Montana Governor Gianforte ordered an overhaul of their wolf management plan.

• In Colorado, we promoted the use of best available scientific and ethical considerations to inform the state’s Wolf Restoration and Management Plan. Our Science and Ethics Manager, Dr. SantiagoAvila led in drafting an independent scientists letter to Colorado Parks & Wildlife signed by more than 30 scientists. The letter outlines ethical and scientific errors and shortcomings in the plan, including ignoring scientific studies, favoring certain policies arbitrarily, and promoting biased views on wolves, interventions, and impacts.

• In Wisconsin, our coalition (Project Coyote, Great Lakes Wildlife Alliance, Animal Wellness Action, the Center for a Humane Economy, and Friends of the Wisconsin Wolf and Wildlife) strategically boycotted the Administrative Rules hearing for permanent wolf hunting rules. Instead, the organizations submitted comments on the rule asking the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) to reconsider changes to their Wolf Management Plan before submitting it to the Natural Resources Board (NRB). We expressed our concerns through a letter to NRB and WDNR, denouncing the policy process and outcome as unscientific, unethical, and racist.

PROJECTCOYOTE.ORG

• At the federal level, Project Coyote, allied with the Great Lakes Wildlife Alliance and Tribal members, fought against Senator Tammy Baldwin’s (D-WI) bill to force the removal of Endangered Species Act (ESA) protections for wolves in the Western Great Lakes. This proposed legislation completely disregards both the will of the broad public (the majority of voters support protection for wolves under the ESA) and Tribal support for wolves. Project Coyote supporters quickly mobilized against this bill, stalling its progress in the Senate.

• This year, we commemorated 25 years of Mexican gray wolves (el lobos) in the wild! Project Coyote joined The Rewilding Institute, and Lobos of the Southwest in celebrating this milestone by hosting an anniversary webinar with Project Coyote Science Advisory Board Member Dave Parsons who has led the fight for this imperiled species for more than three decades. We also celebrated the wild population reaching over 200 individuals for the first time since reintroduction while also noting the continued threats and challenges the population faces.

• Project Coyote remains at the forefront of efforts to facilitate the recovery of wolves in the Northeast. In partnership with regional and national allies, we continue to advocate for state agencies to increase protections for all canids, a crucial step to protect dispersing wolves as well as ecologically significant eastern coyotes. Our leadership extends to the newly established Northeast Wolf Recovery Alliance, a collaborative initiative uniting advocates dedicated to promoting wolf recovery across the expanse from New York to Maine.

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Carnivore Conservation

Ending Wildlife Killing Contests • On September 15th, the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission rendered a unanimous decision to ban inhumane wildlife killing contests targeting coyotes and other species considered unprotected mammals on public lands, making Oregon the 9th state to ban this egregious and ecologically destructive practice.

Project Coyote, alongside 21 local and national wildlife and conservation groups, as well as a coalition of hunters, wildlife management experts, scientists, veterinarians, and dedicated advocates across Oregon, presented compelling testimonies in favor of this important action.

10 | IMPACT FOR WILD CARNIVORES 2023

KATIE THEULE

• This year, we grew our coalition in Illinois to achieve a statewide ban of wildlife killing contests. Project Coyote, The Rewilding Institute, and The Illinois Chapter of the Sierra Club petitioned the Illinois Department of Natural Resources to prohibit wildlife killing contests through agency rule-making, as done by six other states.

Unfortunately, that petition was denied, and we now turn our advocacy to the state legislature during the upcoming General Assembly season. You can learn more about our ongoing efforts in Illinois by visiting our Illinois campaign webpage.

BY

• This summer, we successfully advocated for New York legislators to approve a bill (S.4099/A.2917) to ban wildlife killing contests.

Thanks to bill sponsors Assemblymember Deborah Glick and Senator Timothy Kennedy for their leadership in positioning New York to potentially become the tenth state to prohibit these cruel and ecologically disruptive contests. We are now actively urging Governor Hochul to sign the bill.

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Keeping It Wild In a world with increasingly scarce natural resources and as carnivores face rising threats, it’s more important than ever to inform, inspire and empower students to act conscientiously on behalf of animals and the planet.

Project Coyote’s “Keeping It Wild” program provides education about wild carnivores and coexistence, fosters respect and compassion for wildlife, and contributes to students’ environmental and scientific literacy. We also provide educators with tools to teach about the important role that predators play in ecosystem health and ways to live peacefully alongside wildlife.

© DAN LICHT

PROJECTCOYOTE.ORG

• From April-August Project Coyote and The Rewilding Institute held a monthly webinar series called ‘Connect the Heartland’. The webinars focused on wildlife and rewilding across the Mississippi River Watershed and how connections between wildlife, habitats, and humans can create thriving ecosystems. The 5-part series welcomed over 600 attendees with hundreds more watching the recordings, which you can view on Project Coyote’s webinars page.

• With gracious and generous support from The Schwemm Family Foundation and The Volgenau Foundation, we produced a new educational video, Ecosystem Allies: Large Carnivores & How They Benefit Us All, to educate new audiences about the essential role our wild carnivores play in creating and maintaining thriving ecosystems. This video will be integrated into educational presentations, emails, social media, classrooms, and beyond.

• “American Bolshevik”, released just this year, is an award-winning documentary that showcases the contributions of esteemed members of the Project Coyote team, including Chris Schadler, Dan Flores, and Camilla Fox. This compelling film chronicles the journey of the coyote, one of America’s most misunderstood and persecuted wild carnivores, and the efforts underway to study them and find effective, non-lethal solutions for coexistence. You can catch “American Bolshevik” on various streaming platforms like Amazon, Apple TV, Google Play, and VUDU. • Our staff and volunteer educators were hard at work this year presenting at numerous family and youth education events across the country. Our work inspiring the next generation of carnivore advocates is never ending and the new year will bring big changes to the KIW program.

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© JORGE CASTRO URBIOLA

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Science & Ethics We bring together renowned experts from diverse fields (ecology, ethics, philosophy, ethology, law, history, geography, animal studies) to advocate for a caring, responsible and modern approach to carnivore protection, multispecies coexistence, and conservation.

There is a broad problem of anthropocentric and scientifically biased wildlife policy by government agencies that fails to recognize the intrinsic value and crucial ecological roles of carnivores despite increasing multi/interdisciplinary academic advances arguing for their incorporation into policy. Our Science & Ethics program bridges the gap between wildlife policy and interdisciplinary scholarship by leveraging scholarly work in diverse fields to develop public information, materials, and events that educate decision-makers, agency staff and the public, and facilitate effective advocacy for the increased protection of wild carnivores and thriving ecosystems.

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• Our Science & Ethics Manager, Dr. Francisco J. Santiago-Ávila coled a peer-reviewed critique of Wisconsin’s new ‘scaled occupancy model’ used for estimating the state’s wolf population, exposing the method’s lack of accuracy, precision, and sensitivity to changing conditions which may lead to systematic overestimation of the state’s wolf population.

• Dr. Francisco J. Santiago-Ávila also contributed to a book chapter titled Ethics, Wellbeing, and Wild Lives in The Routledge Handbook on Human-Animal Interactions, Interventions and Anthrozoology and is co-editing a Special Issue for the journal Animals titled “Wild Canids of North America: Policy, Ethics, and Science” (currently accepting and reviewing submissions).

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Artists for Wild Nature

© GAIL HALM

© LARRY TAYLOR

Through Artists for Wild Nature, we partner with artists raising awareness of and appreciation for coyotes and other wild carnivores, including their role in sustaining thriving ecosystems. We believe artists are instrumental in shifting attitudes, evoking emotion, engaging the senses, and deepening the connection to Wild Nature through mediums including photography, video, music, poetry, storytelling, and other visual arts.

• In March, Project Coyote launched our wildly successful #CaptureCoexistence campaign. Over 2,800 wildlife photographers and videographers have signed our petition and over 50 contributors generously lent their words, photos, and videos to elevate the campaign. As we advocate for banning wildlife killing contests state by state, our #CaptureCoexistence community will continue to bolster these efforts by demonstrating that wild lives are worth more when shot through a camera’s lens than with a gun.

© GRETCHEN KAY STUART

• We developed and filled volunteer positions for a #CaptureCoexistence Campaign Coordinator and an Artists for Wild Nature Coordinator to help us grow and expand our efforts to leverage and highlight artists whose work for wild nature raises awareness for the plight of wild carnivores, while celebrating the beauty of the natural world.

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© JOSEPH GALKOWSKI

2022–2023 Finances Expenses

Revenue

Programs

Foundation Support

TOTAL REVENUE: REVENUE:

Philanthropic Giving

$807,867 $

%

Fundraising

TOTAL EXPENSES:

$801,898

EXPENSES:

$

Philanthropic Giving: 423,266 52.4

Programs:

675,789 84.3

Foundation Support: 384,600 47.6

Fundraising: Administration:

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Administration

9,139

% 1.1

116,970 14.6

OUTWARD_BOUND

BY NC ND

Project Coyote’s Financial Support Project Coyote relies entirely on the generosity of individual donors and foundations to support our work for North America’s wild carnivores.

We thank the following foundations for their support:

cottonwood foundation

fund for wild nature

jacob & terese hershey foundation

kirkpatrick foundation

sacharuna foundation

schwemm family foundation

summerlee foundation

volgenau foundation

one earth

(daughters of the earth)

woodtiger fund

© CHRIS DESBOROUGH (SHUTTERSTOCK)

PROJECTCOYOTE.ORG

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Project Coyote’s Fiscal Sponsor

Earth Island Institute’s Mission

Project Coyote is a fiscally sponsored project of Earth Island Institute, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.

All donations are tax deductible in the United States.

Earth Island Institute’s federal tax identification number is 94-2889684. Donations made to Project Coyote will show a charge to Earth Island Institute on credit card statements but are directed to Project Coyote’s account. Earth Island is an environmental organization providing fiscal sponsorship to more than 75 projects. They are committed to sound fiscal management, accountability, and transparency.

Earth Island is highly rated by the top charity rating services, and you can view their financial reports here.

Earth Island supports environmental action projects and celebrates the next generation of leaders in order to achieve solutions to the environmental crises threatening the survival of life on Earth.

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© MOLLY MCCORMICK

Earth Island Institute

The Project Coyote Pack We are blessed to continue growing our team each year. This year, we added new staff positions, new volunteer positions, new advisory board members, and a wonderful cohort of summer interns. Our full team and their bios can be found here: projectcoyote.org/about/our-people/ STAFF

ADVISORY BOARD

Camilla Fox, founder & executive director Christopher Lile, operations & communications director Renee Seacor,

Tom Bilello Heather Cammisa Sebastiano Cossia Castiglioni Peter Coyote Larry Fahn Gina Farr Felipe Gonzales Pam and Will Harte Daniel Kenyon Sarah Killingsworth Philip Tedeschi, PhD Suparna Vashisht Becky Weed

carnivore conservation manager

Dr. Francisco Santiago-Ávila, science & ethics manager Kelly Borgmann, education & outreach manager Keri Duckworth, social media & marketing coordinator Kristen Weiss, public engagement coordinator

Tamara Van Genderen, executive operations coordinator

Deb Etheredge, creative manager

Sarah Gorsline, multimedia associate

AMBASSADORS Brian May, CBE, PhD, FRAS Dan Flores, PhD Filipe De Andrade L. Martin Griffin Elijah Alexander Daniel Dietrich Sylvia Earle, PhD Melissa Groo

CORE VOLUNTEERS

INTERNS

Kim Boester, Dan De Vries,

Mack Cote, programs & campaigns intern Maggie Dean,

wildlife educator

social media intern

Matt Francis,

Erin Hauge,

Yunfeng (Carol) Ge, programs & campaigns intern Chloe Harvell, programs & campaigns intern Lindsay Hoppestad, programs & campaigns intern Tara Lay,

program associate

social media intern

Keli Hendricks, ranching & farming with

Melissa Varelas, programs & campaigns intern

program associate

program associate

Guy Galante, wildlife educator

Kézha Hatier-Riess, program associate

wildlife coordinator

SCIENCE & ETHICS ADVISORY BOARD

Laura Honda,

Marc Bekoff, PhD Bradley J. Bergstrom, PhD Jeremy Bruskotter, PhD Franz J. Camenzind, PhD John Hadidian, PhD Rick Hopkins, PhD Chris Mowry, PhD Michael Paul Nelson, PhD Paul Paquet, PhD David R. Parsons, MS Brad V. Purcell, PhD Jennifer Wolch, PhD John Vucetich, PhD George Wuerthner, MA

Sarah Killingsworth,

wildlife educator

keeping it wild coordinator

Jane McBride, illinois representative

Molly McCormick, #capturecoexistence coordinator John Maguranis, massachusetts representative

Joe Newman, creative associate

Rob Ruiz, wildlife educator

Chris Schadler, new hampshire & vermont representative

Fauna Tomlinson,

© JIM CUMMING (SHUTTERSTOCK)

sierra nevada representative

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Protecting Wild Carnivores, Fostering Thriving Ecosystems PROJEC TCOYOTE .ORG

© JOHN GALKOWSKI

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