Patrick Durkin
Three years into Wisconsin’s wolf hunting/trapping season, we’ve learned at least three things: It’s mostly a trapping season, it opens too early and it’s a fast-paced competition to get a wolf quickly enough to beat a season closure in four of the six management zones.
In other words, it’s time for the Legislature to concede it acted hastily when chiseling the season’s framework into stone in 2012, and that the Department of Natural Resources and Wisconsin Conservation Congress are better equipped to handle those responsibilities through their public-review process. After all, the DNR sets the dates and season lengths for all other hunting, trapping and fishing seasons.
Of Wisconsin’s first three wolf seasons, only the first — 2012 — provided long-term opportunities for hunters and trappers, even though its 116-wolf quota was the lowest of the three seasons. The quotas were 251 in 2013 and 150 this year.
The earliest closure among the six wolf zones in 2012 was Nov. 16, and four of six zones remained open throughout the late November firearms deer season. In contrast, three wolf zones closed before Halloween in 2013, two closed the week after and only one — Zone 3 — remained open for December’s hound-hunting season.
This year, trappers lined up for the Oct. 15 wolf opener as if re-enacting the 1889 Oklahoma Land Rush. They knew if they didn’t lay traps that Wednesday, the season might end by the weekend. Sure enough, Zone 2’s season ended Oct. 18; zones 1 and 4 ended Oct. 19; and Zone 5 closed Oct. 20.
In fact, because the rush was so widespread, it complicated the DNR’s season-closure system. The result was a nearly 2-1 overkill in Zone 2, where the quota was 15 wolves and the kill was 29; and an overkill in Zone 1, where the quota was 32 wolves and the kill was 36. Meanwhile zones 4 and 5 closed short of their quotas. Zone 4 had an eight-wolf quota and a kill of five, while Zone 5 had a 20-wolf quota and a kill of 18.
Although this year’s totals aren’t complete, there’s little doubt that trapping accounts for most of the kill. During Wisconsin’s inaugural wolf season in 2012, 67 percent of the kill occurred between the Oct. 15 opener and the gun-deer season, with trappers claiming 78 percent of the kill. In 2013, the pre-deer-season wolf kill jumped to 83 percent of the total, with trappers claiming 81 percent of it.
No one should be shocked, outraged or offended by those numbers. Managing wolf seasons is a learning process. Never before have we had a regulated wolf season, and we weren’t going to learn much until we held one.
Further, now that the season’s novelty has rubbed away, the pool of participants is narrowing to serious players, not just the curious. More than 20,000 hunters and trappers applied for Wisconsin’s first 1,160 wolf licenses in 2012. But even with more licenses available in 2013 (2,510) and 2014 (1,500) — and at less than half the price ($49 vs. $100), the number of applications declined to 16,000 in 2013 and 14,500 this year — a 27.5 percent decline from 2012.
The participation decline was about the only thing predictable about this season. A similar phenomenon occurred in 2003-04 when 22,770 hunters participated in our first mourning dove season. The numbers never again hit that mark.
Meanwhile, those who are most skilled and most interested in getting a wolf remain, and they’ve adapted by filling quotas faster each year in most areas. Wisconsin is home to about 18,500 experienced trappers, and even though they’d prefer to wait a few weeks for wolf pelts to become prime, the season’s competitive forces forbid it.
Therefore, they’re also risking the ire of upland bird hunters, who in 2013 reported 29 cases of bird dogs getting caught in leg-hold traps set for wolves. Contrary to what anti-trappers claim, the dogs weren’t killed or maimed, but fewer incidents would occur if wolf trapping didn’t start until November.
Likewise, the all-in Oct. 15 opener hasn’t benefited hunters who want to try calling wolves, or opportunistic deer hunters who’d like to hold a valid tag during November’s gun-deer season. Therefore, rifle-hunting opportunities are uncommon or nonexistent except in Zone 3 in near-northwestern Wisconsin.
If this were any other fish and wildlife season, the public could ask the Conservation Congress to work with the DNR to set more equitable regulations for wolf season. Everyone could share their ideas in public meetings and hearings, and eventually the seven-citizen Natural Resources Board would set a season and send it off for legislative review.
Instead, we must wait for lawmakers to rewrite the wolf-season law to their liking, or grant the DNR that responsibility. It’s time lawmakers realize their limitations in such matters.