DNR considers wolf-hunting season to control population
By Lee Bergquist of the Journal Sentinel
New Richmond — The Department of Natural Resources is considering a hunting and trapping season to control the burgeoning gray wolf population, but officials said Tuesday a season wouldn’t start for at least five years.
A wolf season has been under review for years, but the urgency has intensified among some hunters and livestock operators who want new controls as wolf numbers grow.
The final over-winter estimate of Wisconsin’s wolf population rose to a range of 626 to 662. That’s 17% above the same period last year. An earlier estimate released last month suggested the winter population might have jumped as much as 26%.
A wolf season would require new laws from the Legislature and administrative rules by the DNR. In both cases the public would be asked to comment. The DNR says the entire process would take five years.
Minnesota authorities agreed to wait five years after wolves are definitively removed from the federal endangered species list before starting their own season.
If a hunting and trapping season proceeds in Wisconsin, DNR biologists wouldn’t want the wolf population to fall below 500, in part because wolves play a role in controlling deer numbers. The agency’s goal for recovery has been 350, but the DNR now believes that far more wolves can flourish on the landscape.
Adrian Wydeven, a wolf ecologist for the DNR, said that hunting and trapping would require a permit and the use of a lottery system. He envisioned no more than 30 permits issued in a year. Most permits would be issued for forests in the north and central parts of the state.
The DNR is also mulling the possible use of trappers to kill wolves in areas with high populations before a formal season becomes a reality.
Animal rights groups such as the Humane Society of the United States are opposed to a season for hunting and trapping wolves.
The group filed a lawsuit on June 15 challenging the federal government’s most recent decision to remove protections for the wolf in the western Great Lakes region. The legal battle began when the wolf was delisted on March 12, 2007, re-listed as a federal endangered species on Sept. 29, 2008, and then removed again by federal authorities this spring.
The legal battle has frustrated many conservation groups, and livestock operators in northern Wisconsin that have been harmed by depredating wolves. Last year, 43 farm animals, mostly calves, were killed by wolves. Also, 21 dogs were killed, according to the DNR.
On Tuesday, a representative of hunting and fishing groups called on the DNR to expedite things. Ed Harvey, chairman of the Conservation Congress, predicted that as wolf numbers grow, so will illegal killing of wolves.
Of the 94 wolves found dead last year, 14 were killed illegally, according to the DNR. For those convicted of killing a wolf, the cost of fines and penalties total more than $2,000.
“We are going to be testing the level of human tolerance,” said Harvey, whose group advises the DNR on hunting and fishing matters.