Wolves eyed from above
ASHLAND, Wis. — Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Secretary Scott Hassett joined officials from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in a wolf spotting flight from Siren to Ashland Monday.
At a press conference in Ashland following the flight, Hassett discussed the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s removal of the gray wolf from the federal list of threatened and endangered species and the transfer of wolf management in Wisconsin to a state management plan.
“Perhaps more than any other mammal, the wolf symbolizes the wild and the free. The wolves we saw from the air today don’t know that they are special or different in any way from their ancestors who were removed from Wisconsin by bounty hunting and trapping earlier in the past century,” Hassett said.
The press conference and flight recognized the success of gray wolf recovery in Wisconsin under the Endangered Species Act. Since the gray wolf was first listed under the ESA in 1974, recovery programs have helped populations rebound. Unregulated shooting and trapping, encouraged by a legislative state bounty, resulted in the extirpation of the wolf in Wisconsin by 1960. Wolves re-entered the state on their own from Minnesota in the mid-1970s.
A late winter 2005-2006 estimate puts Wisconsin’s gray wolf population at 465 to 502, including 16 in Indian rservations. Wisconsin’s wolf management plan calls for a population of 350 wolves outside of Indian reservations.
The final rule to delist the wolf in Wisconsin was published in the Federal Register on Feb. 8. The rule became effective Monday.
Now, protecting wolves, controlling problem animals, consideration of hunting and trapping and maintaining the long-term health of the wolf population will be governed by the state or appropriate tribe.
Hassett said a key to Wisconsin’s wolf management effort is the ability of the state to remove depredating wolves from the landscape and for landowners to protect livestock and pets. He said Wisconsin’s management plan provides for both.
“Our goal is to maintain a self-sustaining population of gray wolves in Wisconsin and address human-wolf conflicts quickly,” he said.