Momentum building for state wolf hunt
RON SEELY
This story first appeared in the Sunday edition of the
Wisconsin State Journal newspaper.
With the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on the verge of removing
the gray wolf from endangered status, more calls are being heard in
Wisconsin for a hunting season on the once rare animal.
“No question about it,” Ed Harvey, chairman of the Wisconsin
Conservation Congress, said of increasing pressure and support for
a wolf hunting season.
Recommendations calling for more control of the state’s wolves,
now numbering more than 800, and a reduction in the population were
approved in all 72 Wisconsin counties by members of the
Conservation Congress earlier this spring. The organization advises
the state Department of Natural Resources on outdoor sporting
issues.
Adding to a backlash against the wolf is an increase in the
number of livestock, hunting dogs and pets being killed by wolves,
especially in northern Wisconsin. And last winter, the DNR had to
seek special permission from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to
kill a number of wolves that appeared to be growing unafraid of
humans in Jackson and Price counties.
“I would say that, absolutely, people want a hunt,” said Arnold
Popp, a hunter who lives near Mercer on the Turtle Flambeau
Flowage. “I don’t mind when there are a few wolves, but I talk to a
lot of people around here and they’re pretty much upset with the
number of wolves we have here.” Popp said he has talked with people
who have seen wolves kill deer in their backyards.
Adrian Treves, a researcher with UW-Madison who surveys public
opinion on wolves, said his work shows growing concern about the
number of wolves and their presence in populated areas.
“There is a dramatic increase in the number of people who have
heard or seen wolves on their lands,” Treves said. “That’s feeding
their fears.”
Despite pressure to establish a hunt, it would be years before a
season could be put in place, according to Adrian Wydeven, a wolf
ecologist who oversees the state’s wolf recovery project. He said a
hunt would require the DNR to establish rules and hold public
hearings to help resolve such issues as how a season should be
structured, how big the state’s wolf population should be, and how
many hunting permits would be issued. A wolf hunt also would
require approval by the state Legislature.
Hunt would be uphill battle
The debate over a wolf hunt is likely to be long and loud.
Groups such as the Humane Society of the United States have
challenged delisting in courts, arguing that removing protections
would lead to hunting seasons and the reduction of recovering wolf
populations at a time when those populations may not be sizeable
enough.
Such groups, for example, are once again opposing the federal
government’s efforts to delist the wolf throughout the U.S.,
including in the Great Lakes states. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service announced Wednesday that it will again try to remove the
wolf from endangered status.
But Noah Greenwald, with the Center for Biological Diversity,
said wolves in the Upper Midwest, despite impressive gains in
recent years, remain threatened by disease and killing by people.
He said that, in states such as Wisconsin, delisting could lead to
actions that would “drastically reduce wolf populations.” In
Minnesota, he said, there has even been a discussion of reinstating
a version of the bounty system by paying state-certified predator
controllers $150 for each wolf killed.
“While there have been important strides in wolf recovery over
the past several decades, the job is far from complete, and lifting
protections now is a big step in the wrong direction,” Greenwald
said.
Wolves nearly disappeared from Wisconsin by the 1950s after
hunting and trapping, fueled by bounties, dramatically reduced
their numbers. But in the 1980s, with more forested habitat
protected and wolves again moving into the state from Minnesota,
the DNR started a recovery plan under which the animals were
protected.
Wolf populations have grown steadily, surprising even wildlife
biologists with their unanticipated ability to adapt to more
populated areas.
‘Hearing more complaints’
That growth, combined with the wolf’s protected status and the
DNR’s resulting inability to kill problem animals, has led to an
outcry against the number of wolves and the state’s management of
the population.
“We’re hearing more complaints, no doubt about it,” said Tim
Andryk, a lawyer with the DNR. “Social tolerance is not very good
right now.”
Even some out-of-state groups, including a Western-based
organization called Lobo Watch, are becoming involved in the state,
encouraging a hunting season and a drastic reduction in the state’s
wolf population. A Facebook page in Wisconsin also encourages a
hunting season and runs photos of hunting dogs that have been
attacked by wolves as well as posts supporting hunting. The page is
indicative of the anger toward the animals, especially in northern
Wisconsin, and includes one post in which a person wrote “Kill ’em
all!”
But even the broader public in Wisconsin would apparently
support a hunt, according to surveys conducted by Treves at
UW-Madison. He said a wolf hunt is supported by a majority of
people he surveyed if it is aimed mostly at removing problem wolves
and if the population is high enough to remain healthy even if some
wolves were killed during a hunting season.
How many wolves?
At the heart of the discussion about a possible wolf hunt will
be determining just that: how many wolves should there be in
Wisconsin and how big does the population need to be to allow a
hunting season?
Tim Van Deelen is a UW-Madison wildlife ecologist who has
conducted population studies of Wisconsin’s wolves. He said
establishing a hunting season would require changing the population
goal of 350 wolves that is now in the state’s wolf management
plan.
“I just have real doubts about whether we would be responsible
as wildlife stewards to hunt the population back down to 350
animals,” said Van Deelen.
Determining what the new population goal should be would require
a better understanding of how many wolves the Wisconsin landscape
is capable of sustaining — the carrying capacity, as scientists
say.
Arriving at that number is made difficult, Van Deelen said,
because it is not clear exactly what the southernmost range of the
wolf will be and because wolves are still moving into the state
from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
Van Deelen added, however, that growth of the state’s wolf
population appears to be slowing as it crests 800. Perhaps, he
said, the state could sustain a population of about 700 wolves
without experiencing too many livestock killings and other
human-wolf conflicts.
At 700 animals, he said, the wolf population could probably
sustain a hunt of between 30 and 60 wolves without harm to its
reproductive capacity, Van Deelen said.
But arriving at those final figures will require years of study
and debate and, as with everything else related to the wolf, an
emotional outpouring on both sides.
“I think we are on the verge of a heated public debate,” said
the DNR’s Andryk.
