Waushara County on offense over wolves
By Patricia Wolff
of The Northwestern
WAUTOMA Wolves are not wanted in Waushara County.
Going on the notion that a good offense is the best defense, the Waushara County Board unanimously adopted a resolution last week that lets the folks at the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources know that if they were thinking of relocating problem wolves in Waushara County, they better think twice.
Were trying to beat them to the punch, said Marv Wagner, chairman of the countys legislative committee.
Although DNR officials insist they have no plans to transplant wolves to the county, the county board took up the resolution at the urging of the Wisconsin Bear Hunters Association.
Association members have launched a statewide campaign to stop relocation of problem wolves those that prey on pets and cattle and other domestic animals.
The associations membership sees the wolves as a threat to their hound dogs, said David Withers, chairman of the WBHAs wolf committee.
Once a wolf pack has killed a dog, that pack is more apt to kill a second time, Withers said.
Waushara County has nothing to worry about, said Adrian Wydeven, a mammalian ecologist with the DNR. The DNR hasnt relocated a wolf since 2002, he said.
We havent been relocating since 2002, and we certainly would not release in Waushara County. It wouldnt be a suitable area, he said.
Wydeven said the Bear Hunters Associations effort is driven, in part, by a concern that the state would restart its problem wolf relocation program if the federal government rescinded permission for the DNR to euthanize the animals.
Wolves were considered extinct in the state in 1960. In 1975 they began to move back into Wisconsin from Minnesota. Their numbers have gradually increased since.
The estimated number of gray wolves in Wisconsin through the late winter of 2005 was between 425 and 455, an increase of 14 percent from the previous year, Wydeven said.
Members of the WBHA believe the number of wolves in Wisconsin is twice what the DNR claims, Withers said.
The DNR and Animal and Plant Health Inspection Services, a federal agency in charge of problem wolves, have relocated wolves in other parts of Wisconsin in the past, and members of WBHA believe the agency is continuing the practice, Withers said.
Those of us who spend time in the woods and these animals think the DNR count is way low. There are at least twice as many out there, Withers said.
The DNR trapped and killed a problem wolf in the very northwest section of adjacent Marquette County a little more than a week ago. Wydeven suspects that one and a second one spotted with it lived in Waushara County.