Mech is the founder of the International Wolf Center and is the vice-chair of its board of directors. The project to create the facility, which he started in 1985, was a natural outgrowth of his wolf research as well as his ambition to educate people about the nature of wolves that they may come to respect the creature through understanding.
He has published eleven books about wolves and other wildlife, including ''The Wolf: The Ecology and Behavior of an Endangered Species'' (1970, University of Minnesota Press) and ''Wolves: Behavior, Ecology, and Conservation'' which he co-edited with Luigi Boitani (2003, University of Chicago Press). Both books remain in print as of 2017. The 1997 book ''The Arctic Wolf: Ten Years with the Pack'' received an Honorable Mention by the National Outdoor Book Award (Nature and the Environment category). His latest book with Doug Smith and Dan MacNulty is ''Wolves on the Hunt: the Behavior of Wolves Hunting Wild Prey''.
