Uhmmmm..........because it is politically correct and, your federal boys knew that if they introduced a bunch to the area (to help supplement the existing wolves and the ones that were already migrating your way from Alberta and BC) they would expand quickly under federal protection and start hammering the hell out of the elk and bison around Yellowstone. That it would go a long way towards ending the depredation problems by wildlife from a federal park on state land (both public and privately owned).
Wolves could do what hunters could not ..... hunt in a national park or certain wildlife refuge areas..............not to mention that the new land owners from Kalifornia and anti-hunters are making it tougher all the time for hunters to access the migrating herds as they leave the park and or drop into wintering areas surrounded by acreage owners.
Unfortunately............the wolves just kept expanding and eating elk. Not really a tough sequence of events for them to have foreseen, but apparently it was acceptable collateral damage.
Sounds like some kind of conspiracy theory doesn't it?!
