State DNR seeks OK to trap wolves
Agency also wants authority to kill problem animals
By LEE BERGQUIST
Madison – Stung by a court ruling that put the gray wolf back on the endangered species list in Wisconsin and other states, the Department of Natural Resources has asked federal authorities for approval to once again kill and trap problem wolves.
DNR officials briefed members of the natural resources and agriculture boards on Wednesday about their efforts to reclaim some of their authority after a federal judge’s ruling.
The agency has asked the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for permission to trap wolves so that the state could continue its monitoring program. Trapping also would allow the state to again move problem wolves to other parts of the state where it is believed they would be less of a nuisance.
The DNR also is asking federal authorities for approval to kill wolves where they have repeatedly killed farm animals.
Signe Holtz of the DNR said she expected approval to trap wolves to take place within a week. Approval to kill some wolves could be granted in March. Fish and Wildlife officials were not immediately available to comment Wednesday.
“This will allow us to continue to operate as we did before,” said Holtz, director of the Bureau of Endangered Species.
Last month, a federal judge in Oregon sided with 19 conservation groups and ruled that the Fish and Wildlife Service went too far when it “downlisted” wolves from an endangered species to a threatened species across the eastern United States.
The groups contended that the agency cast its net too broadly because it treated wolf-abundant states such as Wisconsin the same as New England, which has few, if any, wolves.
In April 2003, the Fish and Wildlife Service downlisted wolves in Wisconsin from endangered to threatened species. That allowed the DNR to take more of the effort to control the wolf population into its own hands.
When wolves were classified as endangered in Wisconsin, the DNR needed special permits to trap and kill wolves, said Adrian Wydeven, a wolf ecologist with the DNR. He said the DNR is asking for that authority again.
In addition, Secretary of Natural Resources Scott Hassett is talking to his counterparts in Michigan and Minnesota to ask the Fish and Wildlife Service to craft more protections for wolves in New England while recognizing the growing number of wolves in the Upper Midwest.
During the winter count of 2003, there were an estimated 400 wolves in Wisconsin and about 700 wolves in Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula combined.