Maybe, but they were nothing when compared to the largest sub species of grey wolf on the planet. North Idaho was home to the red wolves, but the sub species of coyote was larger. The ecosystem cannot support these large wolves and it shows. Washington introduces a non native species and Idaho spends millions of dollars cleaning up the mess.

There are dozens of organizations that are investigating the elk and deer population and reporting their data. Here's one:

https://www.rmef.org/elk-network/informing-misinformed-wolves/

I hate to be the guy with the controversial opinion but I'm going to have to say it.

The cattle farmers did use this land before these wolves were introduced to the area. Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho were home to a very large subspecies of coyotes up until 200 years ago.

In the 1990's and 2000's Washington State purchased these grey wolves (a subspecies from Canada known to be the largest wolves in North America) and introduced them to the ecosystem. They have wreaked havoc on deer, elk, bear and moose population through all of Idaho and Eastern Washington. It has completely destroyed ecosystems in many counties of Idaho and the government spends upwards of $125,000 an HOUR sniping them from helicopters.

Yellowstone National Park will tell you that the ecosystem has flourished since the introduction but that is simply because Yellowstone is a man-made and maintained ecosystem it is not natural and should not represent the whole introduction of a non native wolf to an area that never had wolves that size.