Resurgence of wolf is trouble for Wisconsin
Many in state want animal off federal protection list
By CHUCK HAGA
MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE
CLAM LAKE, Wis. — By most accounts, the revival of the timber wolf in
northern Wisconsin is a success story: From no wolves 50 years ago to 400
of the majestic, elusive animals roaming the woods today.
But wolves recently killed and nearly devoured a prized bear-hunting dog.
It was one of at least 11 expensively trained trail hounds killed this
year by Wisconsin wolves.
The state Department of Natural Resources has cautioned against “wolf
hysteria,” but it also has confirmed 21 cases of wolves killing farm
livestock this year, up from 14 cases last year and eight in 2002.
The state pays farmers for those losses, but the amount will be topped
this year by compensation paid to trail dog owners, whose radio-collared
hounds sortie deep into the woods in pursuit of bears.
Rob Stalsholt owned the latest dog to be killed by wolves. He returned to
the hunt last weekend with a new pack of trail hounds, carries large color
photographs of his mutilated dog to argue for increased controls on
wolves, which could include giving landowners who lose livestock or pets
authority to shoot or trap problem wolves themselves.
That would require removal of the wolf from the federal list of threatened
species in Wisconsin. State authorities already have taken that step, but
the federal protections take precedence.
Paul Jaeger, from Mellen, Wis., said he knows other hunters who have lost
dogs to wolves this year. Wolves also have killed house pets within town
limits, he said, and he hit a wolf with his van entering the village of
Pence.
“Loggers have been treed, and deer have been taken down within 100 feet of
where kids were playing,” Jaeger said. “It’s just a matter of time before
we have a bow hunter out tracking a deer after dark, and the hunter
becomes the hunted.”
Wisconsin removed the wolf from the state endangered and threatened
species list in March, and hearings have been held on taking the wolf off
the federal threatened list as well.
When the wolf was removed from the more protective federal endangered
species list in April 2003, state biologists gained some flexibility in
dealing with problem wolves, including authority to destroy wolves that
kill domestic animals. Removing the animal from the federal threatened
list would allow the state to authorize trapping of wolves before they
cause problems or even a public hunt to reduce numbers.
In the early 1700s, between 3,000 and 5,000 wolves roamed the area that
would become Wisconsin. But by the mid-1800s, settlers and others were
killing off the animals as well as their main food sources, buffalo and
elk. In 1957, the wolf was declared eradicated from the state. New wolf
packs were found in Wisconsin in the early 1970s, almost certainly
migrants from Minnesota. The animal was added to Wisconsin’s endangered
species list in 1975.