Overview
- Park officials closed Three Mile Campground and nearby off-trail tent sites through July 31 to limit visitor exposure after staff recorded a wolf sniffing and pawing tents, dragging backpacks and entering a tent.
- The closure will keep shelters open and will be reevaluated on Aug. 1 while rangers increase nonlethal deterrence such as loud hazing, airhorns, paintball deterrents and motion-triggered noise devices at multiple campgrounds.
- Visitors must follow the park’s 2026 food-storage rules requiring lockers or animal-resistant containers, and staff have tightened trash and recycling controls to remove food attractants that are drawing the wolf to campsites.
- Park managers say lethal removal remains a last-resort option if the wolf’s bold, food-conditioned behavior continues, citing the euthanasia of a food-conditioned wolf in August 2025 as a precedent.
- Isle Royale has an unusually small, closely watched ecosystem where a recent rise in wolves and a decline in moose have increased pressure on predators and heightened the risk of human-wildlife habituation, which could affect visitor access and park management through the season.