State overwhelmingly favors wolf hunt
Brown County showed approval for a state ban on deer baiting
By Kevin Naze
Press-Gazette correspondent
State Department of Natural Resources mammalian ecologist Adrian Wydeven of Park Falls said any public hunting or trapping season for gray wolves in the state is likely years off — if it happens.
Wydeven, the state’s top wolf expert, spoke Tuesday after seeing voting results from a pair of Conservation Congress advisory questions at Monday’s annual spring fish and wildlife rules hearings across Wisconsin.
One of them, asking if a season framework and harvest goals should be initiated to maintain the wolf population within established goals, passed in all 72 counties by a vote of 4,848 to 772.
Another, seeking to allow people to shoot wolves in the act of attacking a dog on public land passed 4,416 to 995, missing a unanimous run across the state by just one vote in Dane County.
Wydeven said any hunting season on wolves would be far from a free-for-all.
“There are quite a few hurdles that would have to be jumped,” Wydeven said. “Without a highly regulated permit quota system, DNR would not feel comfortable about adequately managing the harvest. The risk of overharvest would be real high.”
Wydeven will be leading stakeholders in the state’s annual wolf population count meeting in Wausau Friday.
While the official overwinter wolf population estimate won’t be known until all data from state and volunteer trackers is compiled, Wydeven is guessing the numbers are going to be similar to last year — somewhere in the mid-500s to 600 range.
Forty-one wolves have been legally killed in the past year in livestock depredation situations, 38 of them by federal trappers and three by landowners.
Even before answering questions from media and preparing for the spring wolf meeting, has had quite a wild week.
Even before answering questions from media and preparing for the spring wolf meeting, has had quite a wild week.
On Saturday, Wydeven spotted bear prints in the snow outside his home in Bayfield County, then saw a bear on his father-in-law’s land next door — soon discovering it had destroyed about half of their maple syrup collection bags.
On Monday, Wydeven was on the phone trying to track down information on a large cougar shot by police in northern Chicago, believing it could be the same one seen in Rock and Walworth counties last month. Meanwhile, Monday night’s meeting attracted close to 150 residents in Brown County. Voters were there for more advisory questions asking if they favored more aggressive wolf management, 127-19; for a deer baiting and feeding ban, 110-36; and against making public access mandatory on Managed Forest Law lands.
The statewide baiting and feeding ban was approved 3,092 to 2,678, passing in 43 counties, while citizens said no on the Managed Forest Law question by a 2-to-1 margin.
Voters were in favor of extending the fall turkey hunting season and phone registration of turkeys, prohibiting paintball activity on DNR-managed lands and designating Manger Lagoon at Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary in Green Bay as an urban fishing water.
The 15-acre lagoon in Green Bay would offer year-round fishing, but be restricted to youth and disabled anglers. The daily limit would be three trout, one game fish (such as bass) and 10 panfish, with no size limit on any species.
The vote totals, which are nonbinding, will be presented to the state Natural Resources Board May 28 in Milwaukee. State fish and wildlife managers will analyze the tallies and develop recommendations in the coming weeks.