By CHUCK QUIRMBACH
Three of the six wolf hunting zones in Wisconsin are now shut down for the season. Two more zones are pretty close to their quota, but one zone is far short.
The DNR’s Bureau of Wildlife Management director, Tom Hauge, says if he had had a wolf permit earlier this month, he’d have headed first for the now closed zones, which have a lot of wolves and public land. “Zone 3 is characterized as having much more private land. So unless you know somebody who owns land in the zone, you have to start by first developing and gaining permission to access land.”
If Zone 3 — or any other zone — still has available wolves about a month from now, hunters could use dogs there, unless there’s a court ruling blocking dogs. But Hauge says the predominance of private land in zone 3 could make dog use a problem. “Somebody intending to use dogs would wanting to be using them in a area sufficiently large, so that if they are using dogs, they’re not trespassing or some situation like that.”
Wolf kill quotas went up in a lot of state zones this fall, as hunting groups demanded a larger wolf harvest overall. But the quota nearly quadrupled in zone 3, as the DNR took aim at a part of the state where the agency says wolves killing livestock has been a big problem.
The rest of the wolf season will determine if the state aimed too high.