By Keith Matheny
Detroit Free Press staff writer
The Michigan Department of Natural Resources today announced a delay in the start of wolf hunting license sales from this Saturday to Sept. 28, to better prepare for the expected crush of demand for the first-come, first-served licenses.
The announcement comes as wildlife managers in Minnesota, which had its first wolf hunt last year, are cutting their wolf quota nearly in half for this fall’s hunt there, after surveys showed a big drop in the wolf population. That’s caught the attention of Michigan wolf hunt opponents, whose claims include that the hunt could harm a wolf population in the Upper Peninsula that they still see as precarious.
“Minnesota’s rush to a hunt is now causing them to backpedal. And that’s something we can’t afford to do here in Michigan because we have so many fewer wolves,” said Jill Fritz, Michigan director of the Humane Society of the United States, who is spearheading a second statewide petition effort to put Michigan’s wolf hunt to a public vote.
Adam Bump, the Michigan DNR’s bear and furbearer specialist, said in a statement that the agency anticipates many people will try to buy the 1,200 licenses available in a short time.
“This is a first-come, first-served purchase, unlike other limited-license hunts that require an application and drawing process, so it presents a new challenge for our retail sales system,” he said. “We want to make sure the system is equipped for the high volume so sales go smoothly and everyone has an equal chance to get a wolf license.”
The wolf hunting season is slated to begin on Nov. 15 in three zones of the Upper Peninsula, and will run through December or until 43 wolves, the quota set by the DNR, are harvested. Opponents of the hunt note that wolves were a federally protected endangered species until last year.
The UP was known to have only three wolves as recently as 1989. The population today stands at 653 wolves. The wolves have made an even more substantial recovery in Wisconsin and Minnesota, states that held their first wolf hunts last year.
Minnesota Department of Natural Resources officials on Thursday announced they will cut nearly in half the number of wolves allowed for harvest in their wolf hunt starting Nov. 9, from 400 wolves to 220, after surveys noted a declining wolf population.
The Minnesota DNR’s 2013 wolf population survey estimated 2,211 wolves last winter compared with 2,921 in the winter of 2008.
Minnesota DNR spokesman Pete Takash said biologists there do not attribute the declining population to the hunt, but to a reduced population of a primary wolf food source, white-tailed deer, in Minnesota’s northern forests.
“It’s affected pack nutrition, which in turn affected pack reproduction,” he said.
Some 413 wolves were killed in Minnesota’s first hunt, along with 300 additional wolves killed last year through federal and state agencies and landowners with permits to take problem wolves, Fritz noted.
“They basically rushed into an aggressive season on the species that had just been removed from the endangered species list without understanding the consequences on pack dynamics and the wolf population,” she said. “Michigan should not go down that same road.”
Bump told the Free Press in May that Michigan’s hunt quota will have little impact on its wolf count.
“We’re pretty confident the hunt will not affect the trend of the wolf population in the UP,” he said.
In addition to ensuring that technology is up to speed for wolf license sales, the Michigan DNR plans to put adequate Saturday staffing in place to make the license-buying process as fair and efficient as possible, officials said.
Wolf licenses will be available for purchase beginning Sept. 28 at noon Eastern time until Oct. 31, or until the license quota of 1,200 is met. Wolf licenses cost $100 for residents and $500 for nonresidents.
For more information about the Michigan hunt’s regulations, see the 2013 Wolf Hunting Digest, available online at www.michigan.gov/dnrdigests or at any location DNR licenses are sold.