Elk foundation rips wolf management
By Kevin Naze • Press-Gazette correspondent
As officials in Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota await word whether the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service again will take wolves off the endangered species list, there’s growing concern among hunters about wolf impacts on big-game animals.
Hunting forum message boards and letters to the editor in outdoors publications long have been filled with anti-wolf comments, yet major conservation organizations representing hunters have been quiet as the storm brewed.
That changed Thursday when the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation — a 158,000-member-strong group that has protected or enhanced 5.7 million acres of wildlife habitat and helped restore elk to Wisconsin — said pro-wolf supporters are party to what may become “one of the worst wildlife management disasters since the destruction of bison herds in the 19th century.”
David Allen, president and CEO of the Missoula, Mont.-based RMEF, was responding to a letter from the Rocky Mountain Region Defenders of Wildlife and Western Wildlife Conservancy. He told the groups they’re cherry-picking data to make it appear elk are flourishing where wolves are present.
Allen said elk numbers in the Northern Yellowstone herd have dropped from nearly 19,000 elk in 1995 before the introduction of the Canadian gray wolf to just more than 6,000 elk in 2008, while moose populations have decreased to almost zero.
In addition, two other herds (Gallatin Canyon and Madison Firehole) have seen numbers plunge from a combined 1,700-plus to about 445 in 2008.
Allen said calf survival rates for the same elk herds are extremely low, amounting to as little as 10 percent or less recruitment or survival rate. Acceptable wildlife science says a 25 to 40 percent survival rate is necessary for herd sustainability, he said.
Allen said sportsmen, ranchers, wildlife conservationists and the public were told 30 breeding pairs and 300 total wolves was the goal when wolves were released in 1995. Today — according to the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks — there at least 1,700 wolves in the region.
Wisconsin DNR wolf biologist Adrian Wydeven said he wouldn’t speculate whether the state’s wolf population has increased dramatically in the past year. He’ll know Friday when staff and volunteers get together in Wausau to compare winter survey results from aerial and on-the-ground tracking efforts.
Last year’s count jumped 20 to 25 percent, about twice the average of recent years.
The DNR estimated there where somewhere between 630 to 680 wolves in about 160 packs in northern and central Wisconsin forests. Depending on if it’s an average increase or a large one, this year’s count could be somewhere between 700 and 800 wolves.
On Saturday, also in Wausau, a wolf stakeholders meeting will focus on updates on wolf management and federal delisting efforts, as well as a review of the draft 2010 Wisconsin Wolf Management Plan.
Wisconsin has applied for a federal permit to control problem wolves. Through this week, the DNR has not received a reply.
WDNR did get a federal grant of $140,000 to help livestock producers undertake proactive, nonlethal activities to reduce the risk of livestock loss from predation by wolves, or to compensate them for livestock losses caused by wolves.
Wydeven said special fencing, scare devices, guard animals and rubber bullets are among the nonlethal possibilities.
In other news, a wolf weighing 140 pounds was shot recently in northwestern Illinois. Photos of the dead wolf are available with an Internet search. Two years ago, a 145-pound wolf was shot in Illinois and was confirmed as part of the Great Lakes population originating in Wisconsin, Michigan or Minnesota.