It’s not likely Michigan Tech biologist Rolf Peterson has had a chance to bask in the congratulatory comments pouring in on the
university’s social media posts following his selection last month as one of 2025’s Michiganians of the year.
The prominent wildlife authority is currently miles away from internet access, ensconced in his remote cabin on Lake Superior’s Isle Royale for another season of studying predatory wolves, the moose upon which they feed, and the habitat that supports them.
But at the recent awards ceremony in Detroit, Peterson relayed his gratitude for the honor, and the hope that any attention it brings will encourage continued support for the work of his lifetime.
What’s happening: The Detroit Regional Chamber, in partnership with
The Detroit News, named Peterson one of 10 recipients in its annual
Michiganian of the Year award for his “devotion to one of our state's most legendary, misunderstood creatures.”
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Courtesy of Wolf-Moose FoundationRolf PetersonThe study: A researcher and professor emeritus at Michigan Technological University in Houghton for more than 50 years. Peterson has led or co-led the
wolf-moose study, the world's
longest wildlife study. The study of Isle Royale’s wolves and moose entails collection and analysis of data such as moose bones, wolf scat, habitat growth and animal surveillance. It relies on teams of volunteers to help scientists like Peterson on the remote island, accessible only by plane or boat.
The island’s isolation has created an ideal natural laboratory for this study, scientists explain. On Isle Royale, wolves are the only predator of moose, and moose are essentially the only food for wolves. By tracking their activities and interactions, researchers can better understand the entire ecology of predation.
“The summer is already half over, but we've had about 60 volunteers helping us in the field so far, and they've found the moose are responding, as expected, to more and more wolves, fewer and fewer moose,” Peterson said in a telephone interview. “None of them are starving to death anymore, but quite a few are being killed by wolves, and wolves are putting a lot of pressure on the new moose calves, so we expect the moose population to keep going down for a while.”
Over the 66-year history of the project, Peterson says, “the goals haven't changed at all. What are the moose and wolf population levels like, and what's the effect of wolves on the moose population and on the ecosystem as a whole?”
Even this single predator-prey relationship has proven to be surprisingly complex. Typical 3-5-year wildlife studies, while valuable, can be limited in scope and miss important dynamics. Nature is messy and takes its own time. Answers and insights can take far longer than 3-5-years.
“What keeps me coming back is just the knowledge that there are new things emerging every year, and we just have to be observant enough, on the ball enough, to catch them,” Peterson explained in a video presented at the ceremony.
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Courtesy of Wolf-Moose FoundationMoosewatchers working at a site on Isle Royale National Park. Studying moose bones can have human health implications as well.
The back story: A book by Durward Allen, the Purdue University professor who began the Isle Royale wolf-moose study in 1958, first sparked Peterson’s interest in the study. Peterson earned a bachelor’s degree in zoology from the University of Minnesota-Duluth and in 1970 went to work as a graduate assistant for Allen at Purdue, where he earned his doctorate in wildlife ecology in 1974.
Since he took the reins of the wolf-moose study that year, Peterson’s work has shown patterns of natural change far more complex than previously understood. “The ups and downs in population have been very revealing,” he said, “and probably for me, the importance of wolf predation on the entire ecosystem of vegetation has been fascinating. When wolves are high, trees grow, and when wolves falter, the trees suffer because there's too many moose.
Yet, the relationships are far from predictable: Over time, the study has found that every five-year period in Isle Royale history has been different from every other five-year period – even after sixty-five years of close observation— “because the
most important events in the history of Isle Royale wolves and moose have been essentially unpredictable events – disease, tick outbreaks, severe winters, and immigrant wolves.”
Study funding: The Wolf-Moose Project has raised money through a patchwork of grants and donations to assure that good science can continue, but costs of research continue to rise and grants are getting scarcer. In 2023, the Wolf-Moose Project set up the Wolf-Moose Foundation, a non-profit to raise funds toward building an endowment of $2.2 million, which would enable the Wolf-Moose Project to operate independently of outside grant awards.
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Courtesy Wolf-Moose FoundationIsle Royale is only accessible by boat or plane, and even largely isolated from internet access.“Rolf requested that I mention the Foundation as part of the acceptance speech,” says Jeffrey Holden, board president of the
Wolf-Moose Foundation who accepted the Michiganian 2025 award on Peterson’s behalf.
The lessons learned by the continuity of the study go beyond wolves and moose on a remote Michigan Island. “Science and education foster understanding, supporting the ability to make informed decisions and to take effective action,” Holden says.
Public support of the Wolf-Moose Project, or research and science in general, is valuable as science helps define policy, ‘‘Without public knowledge and support this project, and other science projects, will suffer in the long run, and by extension our society and the country will suffer,” he says.
To donate,
click here.
What’s next: Peterson says he hopes that the island will persist as a natural area in spite of all the changes in the world, that there will still be wolves and moose there 50 years from now, and there'll still be opportunities for good science. “Looking back on 50 years, the most overwhelming feeling is just gratitude for having been fortunate enough to spend all that time getting to know one place on Earth really well, a place that's inherently natural,” he says.
Rosemary Parker has worked as a writer and editor for more than 40 years. She is a regular contributor to Rural Innovation Exchange and other Issue Media Group publications.