DNR Secretary Continues to Push for Urgent Wolf Delisting
Wisconsin Ag Connection
For the second time in a month, Wisconsin’s natural resources secretary is speaking out about getting gray wolves removed quickly from the federal endangered species list in the upper Great Lakes states. Cathy Stepp sent a letter to federal officials this week, slamming efforts to delay the delisting process because of a new species of wolf that was discovered in the region.
“Farmers and dog owners are suffering intolerable losses from depredating wolves,” said Stepp in the letter. “We want to restate our strong disagreement with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service conclusion that a newly discovered species, the eastern wolf, exists in the Western Great Lakes as a separate species or population.”
The letter goes on to say that the western Great Lakes wolf population is of mixed genetics and should be treated as one population.
“This approach to delisting, if adopted, makes practical wolf management on the ground nearly impossible,” she wrote. “We need a solid and defensible delisting proposal.”
In an editorial penned by Stepp in August, she said it is critical that ‘we be allowed to manage wildlife populations within our borders’ and expressed concern over the fact that Wisconsin now has approximately 800 wolves.
“Wolf numbers far exceed the federal delisting recovery goal of 100 wolves for both Wisconsin and Michigan, and are causing real problems,” Stepp said last month.
The DNR chief says the ball is in the USFWS’s court, and hopes they will make the right decisions and to publish an effective delisting rule that will withstand challenges from those opposed to the delisting of wolves.