Average Joe, contact dnr customer service at 888-936-7463 if you want your application changed. It's not something you can do yourself. Normally you can only change your choice up until the application deadline but they're making an exception for the wolf apps because of the circumstances.

They should be refunding people the fee, but we know that wont happen. I put chances of a season at 20% or less.

This is smart when you have a quota system because it gives you a better chance of actually filling your tag because less chance season will close in 2 days like earlier this year.

Most biologists are college educated fools with little to no real world experience. There are a lot of guys like me that have a passion almost obsessed with deer, bear, or any other wildlife that we have devoted a large part of our life to that better understand what is going on than anyone that sits in a office. I spend 1000’s of hours a year outdoors mostly continuing to feed my passion for deer so when someone tells me they know what’s best in my area you can see why I am more than a bit skeptical. There are many folks out there that know what is going on and this is why we don’t like the dnr.

Must not be any citizen experts like you in Bayfield, Douglas, Iron, Langlade, Oneida and Sawyer counties or the NRB wouldn't have had o cut the CDAC-proposed antlerless quotas by half. See what I'm driving at there?

X2

I agree with Twisted Metal.

Does anyone know if the court case is still going to happen on 10/29? That will effect whether my prediction is higher than 20%.

It would sure be a bummer to draw a tag on the 25th & then the season is halted by a judge on 10/29.

If I draw a tag, I am waiting 'til the day before season to buy it.

Well I am sure glad all the college educated fool biologist did not get into agriculture so we could make the progress we have. Our dairy cows now milk almost 6 times as much as they did when WW11 started and they can now provide food for 7.5 billion instead of just under 3 billion, ditto pork, poultry and our crops. Today our corn crop averages over 100 bushels per acre more than in the 1940s. Sure there are costs to this but science along with management, has made great strides. I got my degree in wildlife ecology and really wanted to be a game biologist to study game populations and do the research and investigation, but based on the continuous extremely negative discussion regarding our stupidity and eternally grateful those doors were never opened for me.

Bryce

That is a far fetched statement Twisted metal. You won't win brownie points for trappers by making generalized comments like that. No wonder we lose great biologists like Nathan R & Curtis T to other states.

A J E. If you switch to a point then my chance for a tag would increase . Just a happy thought !

Someone is paying attention. Just remember in that court case, we have the same attn general representing the board and DNR that is also trying to remove the Chair of the board. 20% might be too optimistic.

I heard there was an NRB special meeting yesterday about the very issue. Anything come out if it?

I think most biologists spend a great amount of time outdoors. At least the ones I have come across. Folks that tend to get frustrated tend to be those that struggle to communicate effectively. The biggest challenge for the average sportsman is separating it out of the communication and laying blame where it belongs.

We didn't lose our large carnivore specialist because people questioned him. I think he rather enjoyed questioning things. We lost him because politics tied his hands while he was on the States payroll IMO.

Yeah the 5:1 ratio is better theoretically for a longer season and better odds for a trapper, but I doubt it will play out that way. With such a low quota the season will be very short. More wolves out there with the young of the year. Hound hunting ends up being a group hunt and people will seek out houndsmen to get their tag punched quickly. Snow (or lack of) could be the great equalizer though. And some of that group effect goes on with trappers too. Plus WDNR will be super sensitive to going over quota again and will close season early. Not to mention the new, quicker registration requirements.
I’m thankful there’s a season to at least get rid of some of them, but I’d rather collect points for a better quality hunt later. Hopefully.

Thanks!

Hunting with hounds doesn't open until after the gun deer season I believe. I don't have the exact dates in front of me. So there are at least a few weeks of hunting/trapping before hunting with hounds is allowed.

Having some sort of a harvest season is considerably better than our situation in Minnesota, with much higher wolf density and no season at all. But, you are fooling yourself if you think that removing 130 wolves from a healthy reproducing population is really "getting rid of some of them". A "quota" of 130 wolves will make no significant difference in lowering the Wisconsin wolf population.

Most biologists are college educated fools with little to no real world experience. [/quote] That is a far fetched statement Twisted metal. You won't win brownie points for trappers by making generalized comments like that. No wonder we lose great biologists like Nathan R & Curtis T to other states.[/quote]
Highly unlikely that is why these guys left Wisconsin. The fact of all of this is the dnr is just driven by politics if anyone wants to believe it or not. I have been involved with this stuff first hand so I do speak with some experience. When we made our recommendations and they 100% ignored them. I have been told by a couple of dnr insiders that decisions are made internally regardless of what recommendations are made in public hearings or outside input. I have stepped away from this crap because of this. The majority doesn’t matter anymore. Don’t throw personal attacks at me to make yourself feel better but I am willing to listen to other opinions.

Agreed, it’s not good but it is better than nothing considering exponential population growth. Probably saves several hundred deer, including some good bucks. Bucks exhausted after the rut are stinky and easy to track and kill by wolves.