State wolves may lose federal protection
DNR officials anticipate delisting announcement today
By Kevin Naze
Press-Gazette correspondent
Deputy Interior Secretary Lynn Scarlett and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director H. Dale Hall are expected today to make major announcements related to the status of gray wolves under the Endangered Species Act.
Department of Natural Resources wolf biologist Adrian Wydeven said he couldn’t say much until after today’s press conference, but noted Wisconsin officials are assuming it was to announce final de-listing of wolves in the western Great Lakes region as well as starting the de-listing process in the Northern Rocky Mountains region.
Any new rule would likely be published in the Federal Register within a few days, Wydeven said, then take effect 30 days later.
“Once de-listed, we’ll be able to issue permits to people for shooting wolves on their land if they’ve had a history of problems, and we’d also be able to again trap and euthanize depredating wolves through USDA-Wildlife Services,” he said.
The federal government changed the western Great Lakes’ wolf population from endangered to threatened in 2003. A year later, it began the process to remove the species from the threatened species list. That was expected to be done quickly, but a court challenge by animal rights groups in early 2005 re-listed wolves as a federally endangered species.
Court challenges could again be expected, Wydeven said, but most likely any groups would have to file an intent to sue with a 60-day notice, meaning the state would have, at minimum, at least 30 days of lethal control.
The only action that would require new legislation is if the state were to establish a public wolf hunting and trapping season, something that has been suggested to get the population down closer to its management goal of 350 animals.
“To some extent, when you get to the point of a public harvest, that means you’ve been successful,” Wydeven said. “The population’s recovered, and the species is at a level you don’t have to worry about it being endangered or threatened, it’s a highly secure level.”
Wydeven expects officials would try to shoot for a two- to three-year plan to get wolf numbers back to goal. If public trapping or hunting ever occurred, it would probably be through a limited drawing system.
Critics say the DNR count of wolves about 500 last winter is too low. “We constantly hear from people that believe there are more wolves than we say there are,” Wydeven said. “We have to constantly remind people that ours is the bottom end of the annual wolf population. It fluctuates a lot in the course of the year.”