CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – The management of the grey wolf population is fascinating and infuriating. It has nothing to do with the actual numbers of wolves. It is completely about politics.
Wisconsin’s DNR hasn’t even released a population estimate for wolves in our state. All the DNR will say officially is that the population is “stable and near it’s natural limit.”
Why not an actual number?
Because when wolves were reintroduced in Wisconsin, it came with limits. Farmers and ranchers would be reimbursed if wolves killed their livestock. And if the wolf population became too large, there would be a hunting season to thin the pack.
In 2021 hunters sued to force a deer hunt that the DNR refused to authorize. Several tribes filed their own lawsuit, claiming that half of a 300-wolf quota belonged to them. And they would refuse to hunt their wolves, considering them to be a sacred animal.
Wolves are indeed making a comeback in Wisconsin. Their estimated population is 1,200 in the state. Deer hunters have claimed for years that harvest numbers are down because of wolves. Last year $200,000 was paid out for livestock losses. In 2019 wolves killed 13 of 14 sheep on a farm in Hansen in Wood County. People who’ve encountered wolves in the wild say they no longer avoid human contact, although there are no known cases of wolf versus human attacks.
Twice the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has delisted the grey wolf from its endangered species list. And twice bills have passed Congress to allow states to regulate their own wolf populations. Each has been overturned by judges who suppose they know more about animal preservation than the experts do.
There are more than 6,000 wolves across the upper midwest, and they have no natural predators. Wolves are just one of many species that compete for habitat and food. There’s no reason they should be treated differently than other animals. Wolves should not be hunted to extinction; no one is proposing that. But the time has come for sensible management.
Chris Conley
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