Residents lobby for wolf delisting
By BETSY BLOOM — Of the Tribune staff
BLACK RIVER FALLS, Wis. – The gray wolf had few friends at a public
hearing here Thursday to discuss reducing the predator’s protected status
in Wisconsin.
“A lot of people in the big cities thought (bringing back the wolf) was a
neat thing to do,” said Jim Johnson Jr. of Hixton, Wis., member of the
Jackson County Conservation Congress. “I say, if they want them, they can
take them.”
Another member of the group, Darrell Eberhardt, held up a T-shirt that
stated, “If you want to hear a wolf howl … go to a zoo.”
The state Department of Natural Resources is considering delisting the
wolf in Wisconsin, a move that would make it easier to control the
population and deal with problem wolves, said Dick Thiel, the DNR’s
central forest wolf monitoring coordinator.
The public hearing at Black River Falls Middle School on Thursday was one
of five being held this week on removing the wolf from threatened status
in Wisconsin.
The gray wolf was considered extinct in the state from the 1950s to the
mid-1970s, when a few began wandering in from neighboring Minnesota, where
wolf numbers had remained fairly stable.
In 1989, 31 wolves were thought to be living in northern Wisconsin. Now,
between 35 and 40 make up several packs that wander Jackson County and
other parts of the state’s central forest, and a survey done last winter
placed the state’s wolf population at 335, well above the threshold set
for delisting when the DNR developed its wolf management plan in 1999.
Earlier this year, the wolf was removed from the federal Endangered
Species List, though it remains protected as a threatened species. This
allows the DNR to kill wolves confirmed to be preying on domestic animals
– this year, 17 wolves have been euthanized in the state – rather than
being restricted to non-lethal options such as relocation.
By delisting in Wisconsin, the DNR could destroy individual wolves on only
one incident of preying on domestic animals. Under current rules, two
kills must be verified for the DNR to capture and euthanize a problem
wolf, Thiel said.
Landowners also could be issued permits to shoot problem wolves, and would
have the authority to kill any wolf caught in the act of attacking
domestic animals on their property.
But as far as the crowd of about 30 at the school was concerned, the wolf
should never have been encouraged to return to the state in the first
place.
The group, many wearing caps or pants with hunting camouflage, detailed
their fears that more wolves would mean less deer and other game, and put
their livestock and dogs in danger.
“We don’t need to put these damn wolves on a pedestal,” said Lawrence Krak
of Gilman, Wis., who has a Web site titled “People Against Wolves.”
Only one person – Doug Moericke of the Timber Wolf Alliance – spoke in
favor of protecting the wolf. And even he agreed that the time has come
for the wolf to be delisted in Wisconsin, though he strongly objected to
any harvesting as a furbearer, as is done with coyotes and fox.
Although the DNR’s wolf management plan had stated harvesting of wolves
could be considered when the population reached 350, Thiel said the state
Legislature would have to approve opening the species to hunting.
Moericke’s statement was the only one to receive stony silence rather than
applause.
“Don’t get me wrong, I like to see a timber wolf,” said Werner Haas, who
has 800 sheep on his rural Taylor farm. “But I like to see a timber wolf
on state land.”
The delisting of the gray wolf is expected to ultimately be decided by the
state’s Natural Resources Board, said Dave Weitz, public affairs manager
for the DNR office in Eau Claire.