Vote to be held on hunting wolves
By Ron Seely
Mike Brust is a hunter and, if the state ever approves a hunting season on timber wolves, he will be in line for a permit.
“I hunt predators,’ Brust, of Wausau, said. “It ‘s a very intriguing hunt.’
A proposal to establish a hunting season on gray wolves will be up for a vote Monday night at the statewide spring meetings of the Conservation Congress, a powerful advisory group to the state Department of Natural Resources on outdoor sporting issues.
Brust, who chairs the Conservation Congress committee on wolves, said he expects the proposal to pass. If it does, the DNR will probably look more seriously at a hunting season on an animal that, less than two years ago, was still on the federal endangered species list.
Gray wolves, also known as timber wolves, have returned to Wisconsin in healthy numbers after being nearly eliminated from the state by 1957 by hunters who feared the animals were threatening the deer herd. That ‘s the same year that a bounty for wolves, $20 for adults and $10 for pups, was eliminated. Placement of the wolf on the state and federal endangered species lists and a ban on hunting helped encourage the return of the wolf, mostly from healthier populations in Minnesota, to Wisconsin. Last year ‘s surveys showed between 540 and 577 wolves in Wisconsin, according to Adrian Wydeven, a DNR mammalian ecologist and wolf expert.
Toll on livestock
The number of wolves in Wisconsin, as well as in Minnesota and in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, reached levels that prompted the wolf ‘s removal from endangered species designation last year.
Brust said that as wolf population numbers have climbed, depredation by some wolves on livestock, pets and hunting dogs has increased. A wolf hunting season, he said, would not only be a way to keep the population in check, it would also help retain support for the recovery program, especially in Northern Wisconsin. Farmers and others who have to deal with problem wolves were encouraged last year, Brust said, when the delisting of the wolf allowed them to shoot wolves on their land if they are killing livestock. A hunting season would be another important step.
“It ‘s a great success story,’ Brust said of the wolf ‘s return. “If we were to allow them to spread into areas where they don ‘t belong, it could jeopardize the program. It will give the public a sense that there is a means of control. Landowners have been frustrated but giving them the right to control wolves on their land has eased a lot of opposition. ‘ ‘
In addition to a proposed wolf hunting season, the Conservation Congress will also vote Monday on a proposal that would make it legal to shoot wolves on public land if they are threatening pets or livestock. That proposal took on additional meaning last week when the DNR reported that, earlier this month, two wolves in the Chequamegaon National Forest had killed a cocker spaniel that got ahead of its owner during a walk on a forest road.
Wydeven said such incidents do turn people against wolves. He said he has sensed an erosion in support for the wolf recovery program as wolf numbers have climbed.
Still, some are adamantly against hunting an animal whose demise in the state nearly came about because of hunting.
Gena Schroeder is with the national organization Defenders of Wildlife and said the group will be encouraging its members in Wisconsin to attend the Conservation Congress meetings and vote against the wolf hunting plan.
Schroeder said it was just a little over a year ago that wolves were removed from the endangered species list. Too few data exist, she said, on their current populations to justify a wolf hunt.
“We ‘ve always been concerned about the long-term survival of the wolf, ‘ ‘ Schroeder said.
Wydeven, however, said current wolf populations can stand up to a hunting season if that hunt is strictly regulated. Studies have shown, he said, that hunters could kill between 30 and 50 wolves and not harm the population ‘s future. Such studies, he added, take into account that the Wisconsin wolves are actually part of a larger population that extends into Minnesota and Michigan ‘s Upper Peninsula.
The procedure
Were Monday ‘s Conservation Congress to approve the hunting proposal, Wydeven said, the issue would be taken up by the group ‘s board at its meeting in May and the board would have to decide whether to forward the plan to the Natural Resources Board, which sets policy for the DNR. That board, Wydeven said, would then have to decide whether to direct DNR staff to set up regulations for a wolf hunting season.
Setting up such a season would take months, Wydeven said, and would require more population studies as well as many public meetings for gathering public opinion on the matter. A hunting season on wolves would also have to be approved by the Legislature, Wydeven said.
Wydeven said that, despite wolf numbers that could sustain a hunt, he understands how difficult it might be for some to accept a hunting season. The subject of wolves is emotional, he said, because of the myth and the legend that has grown up around the animal.
“The range of attitudes is so extensive, ‘ ‘ Wydeven said. “It goes from those who view wolves as saints and gods to those who seem them as devils and demons. Trying to walk a line between those attitudes and find a way to manage wolves is difficult. ‘ ‘
CONSERVATION CONGRESS MEETINGS
Anyone can cast a vote on questions considered during the spring Conservation Congress meetings, scheduled statewide for Monday night.
Meetings will be held in all 72 counties and all will begin at 7 p.m.
The Dane County meeting will be in Exhibition Hall at the Alliant Energy Center.
For more on the location of other county meetings as well as a list of questions that will be voted on, go to the Department of Natural Resources Web site at www.dnr.state.wi.us and follow the link under “Current Issues’ to more information on the Conservation Congrees meetings.