The size and distribution of the wolf population in Wisconsin surprised even wildlife experts.
By Paul A. Smith of the Journal Sentinel
Over the last 30 years, Bill Vander Zouwen has worked in a variety of wildlife management roles for the Department of Natural Resources.
Three decades is long enough to provide valuable perspective and to see issues cycle back for second or third times or more.
But every so often something new and unexpected turns up.
Speaking Wednesday at the Natural Resources Board meeting in Wausau, Vander Zouwen remarked on the unanticipated and highly-scrutinized challenge that landed on the agency’s plate last year.
“I never imagined we’d be responsible for wolf management,” Vander Zouwen said, addressing the board.
Vander Zouwen was on the DNR staff in the days when the gray wolf, native to the state but considered extirpated in the middle 20th century, began to modestly increase its numbers.
Comeback thresholds were set at 100, then 250 and eventually 350. Given protection, the wolf population surpassed all the goals. Its growth in Wisconsin from the 1970s through 2010 looks like the stock portfolio of your dreams.
Truth be told, the size and distribution of the wolf population in Wisconsin surprised even wildlife experts.
Although the comeback of the wolf was well documented, a series of lawsuits prevented Wisconsin and other states from enacting their wolf management plans.
That all changed in January 2012 when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service removed the wolf from protections of the Endangered Species Act and returned management to states in the Western Great Lakes region.
So last fall, Wisconsin held the first regulated wolf hunting and trapping season in state history. Earlier efforts to kill wolves in the state were guided by bounties and a regard for the species as no more than a harmful varmint.
The transition from endangered species to game species has been difficult for many in the state to accept.
There’s a chasm among the Wisconsin public regarding wolf management. Unfortunately, the divide was made larger by the state legislature when in 2012 it quickly passed a wolf hunting and trapping law that included unpopular measures such as night hunting and the use of dogs.
When it comes to public attitudes on wolves in Wisconsin, at one end of the spectrum some say the species hasn’t recovered and should never be hunted or trapped. It’s hard, I acknowledge, to start killing a species you’ve worked so hard for so long to protect. But the fact is many people at this end would never advocate killing a wolf regardless of its population.
At the opposite end, some believe wolves are a threat to humans and kill too many deer. These folks are more inclined to “shoot, shovel and shut up.”
In the middle are an unknown number who respect the wolf, want to ensure it always has a place in the Wisconsin ecosystem, consider its comeback one of the greatest conservation stories in our lifetime and support science-based management of the wolf as a game species.
Count me in the middle.
And for that, I’m thankful the DNR is taking a conservative approach to its wolf management.
Wildlife managers like Vander Zouwen and carnivore specialist Dave MacFarland have taken pains to explain the agency is working gradually to exert “downward pressure on the wolf population.”
That’s smart and prudent policy. For one thing, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is monitoring the state’s performance in managing its wolf population for five years after delisting.
For another, there are substantial unknowns in wolf management. Although some studies say a wolf population can sustain 30% annual mortality before showing a decline, the best data to guide management decisions will likely come from Wisconsin as the DNR moves forward and closely monitors its wolf season.
No other state conducts an extensive, annual wolf population count like Wisconsin. And last year each hunter or trapper who killed a wolf in Wisconsin was required to provide the carcass to the DNR for evaluation to aid its management efforts.
And lastly, the state needs to update its wolf management plan. The current goal of 350 wolves was set in the 1999 plan, before the species had surpassed 800 animals.
How many wolves will Wisconsin’s ecology and citizenry tolerate in 2013? Or put another way, what are the current biological and sociological carrying capacities?
The DNR is embarking on a comprehensive review of these issues, including social dimensions research. An updated wolf management plan is due in the next two years.
On Wednesday, the DNR took another step down its new road. Vander Zouwen was the point man, asking the Natural Resources Board to approve a harvest quota of 275 wolves for the 2013-’14 hunting and trapping season.
The 37% increase from the quota of 201 last year was in line with agency objectives.
According to DNR estimates, Wisconsin had a minimum of 809 wolves in 214 packs in late winter 2013, compared with 815 in 213 packs in 2012.
Even with the mortality of 244 wolves (including 117 killed by hunters and trappers) in Wisconsin in 2012, the state’s wolf population stayed level or decreased only slightly.
The population estimates are conducted in winter, when the animals are easiest to count and at the low point in their annual population cycle.
But it’s significant to note wolf populations typically double each spring after pups are born and then begin to decline due to various sources of mortality.
Biologists estimate the Wisconsin population of wolves will be in excess of 1,000 during this fall’s hunting and trapping season.
The quota of 275 was advanced to the board after being devised by the state’s wolf advisory committee and being supported by the Wisconsin Conservation Congress wolf committee, the state’s wildlife policy team and DNR executives.
Vander Zouwen said the agency’s objectives are the same as last year: to manage for a sustainable wolf population; to begin to actually reduce the wolf population; to use science-based management; and to recognize from a sociological perspective wolf management is a very diverse issue.
After hearing a range of public testimony on the issue, the board unanimously approved the 275 wolf harvest quota.
How the quota is allocated is yet to be known. The DNR may allocate as many as 115 tags to Chippewa Indians in the state’s ceded territory.
However, since the tribes elected to not use any of the tags allotted in 2012, the DNR may make more than 160 kill tags available to non-tribal hunters and trappers this year.
The agency uses such past performance to guide allocation of quotas for other fur-bearers, such as bobcats. Since the DNR is responsible to manage the wolf population according to its plan, it could use the tactic for wolves, according to agency sources.
Such decisions will be made based on communications between the tribes and DNR over the next month. The number of tags available to non-tribal hunters and trappers will be known by late August, MacFarland said.
A lottery for available tags will be held in September, with 50% awarded on a random basis and 50% on preference points. The 2013-’14 Wisconsin wolf hunting and trapping season is scheduled to begin Oct. 15.
Whatever number of tags is allocated, it will be too many for some and too few for others.
And no matter how the season goes, many in Wisconsin will be dissatisfied. Emotions will continue to run high over wolf management.
The current wolf management actions by DNR wildlife managers deserve broader support. Despite claims from opponents, the agency is using the best available science to ensure a viable population of wolves in Wisconsin.
A species managed as a game animal in the modern era has proven to be very secure. It should be no different for the wolf, a species seen as sacred by some and special by most.
With conservative management and an updated plan in the next couple of years, the wolf is likely to be more widely tolerated and have a brighter future in Wisconsin than ever.