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Email: timberwolfinfonetwork@gmail.com
Email: timberwolfinfonetwork@gmail.com

DNR proposes quota of 201 wolves

By Paul A. Smith of the Journal Sentinel

The Department of Natural Resources has proposed a harvest quota of 201 wolves for the Wisconsin hunting and trapping season scheduled to begin in October.

The quota was announced Tuesday as the agency works to finalize rules for the state’s first regulated wolf harvest.

The wolf was removed from federal protections of the Endangered Species Act in January and returned to state management. The Wisconsin legislature passed Act 169 in April that established many aspects of the hunting and trapping season, including a 4 1/2 month season and the use of dogs to hunt wolves.

The DNR was directed to implement the season and establish wolf harvest quotas and zones.

The proposed harvest is divided into the following zones: 65 wolves in Zone 1, 35 in Zone 2, 37 in Zone 3, 10 in Zone 4, 25 in Zone 5 and 29 in Zone 6.

The department believes this harvest level would “begin to reduce the wolf population,” according to the proposal. The state had between 815 and 880 wolves in 213 packs in late winter.

Kurt Thiede, administrator of the agency’s Land Division, said the state is managing the wolf population toward a minimum goal of 350 animals.

Thiede said the proposed quota is based on scientific literature that suggests wolf populations are not reduced by human take up to 23 to 29% of the population, as well as preliminary population modeling by the University of Wisconsin Department of Forestry and Wildlife Ecology.

A public meeting on the proposed harvest quota and zones is planned for 9 a.m. on July 17 in at the Holiday Inn and Convention Center, 1001 Amber Ave., Stevens Point. The Natural Resources Board will vote on the proposal at the meeting.

The 2012 wolf hunting season proposal is a temporary framework known as an emergency rule. Over the next two years, the DNR will be working with groups to develop a more permanent wolf hunting season framework.

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