from article

“We need to come up with a solution that works for everybody in the state,” Spreitzer said.

not going to happen. You have on one hand kill them all to don't kill any on the other hand all sorts of in between solutions.

This is what happens when Management Agencies stray from sound biological management of sustainable renewable resources and step into the social, everybody's opinion matters, arena.
That's exactly where we are at in MN as well.

The fact that mortality rates can be as high as 50% due to higher densities should be an argument to use for having a lower base line population. The department should be interested in keeping a healthy and more disease free population on the landscape. If mortality rates are that high then there are a whole host of non human factors impacting survival and there should be concern regarding that when managing for a population level that exists in their environment with other species. Would be interesting to see what the assumed or calculated mortality rates in our two neighboring states are at for comparison.

Bryce

The 3 most recent posts are great. I think we can all conclude the state is not properly managing wolves.

And Michigan as well.Management,when it involves animals like wolves is a thing of the past.

It appears that Wisconsin legislators are trying to force the issue with legislation requiring a Wolf season, and requiring a population target. What a shame that a resource management agency needs specific legislation forcing them to do their job. Conducting population estimates, counting road kills and recording depredation incidents is not wolf management. Perhaps funding for the agency should be tied directly to science based active wolf management.

When you think about 218 wolves being killed in 3 days and by what methods- you can't help but wonder, with limited time to plan in 2021 (as it was sprung on hunters and trappers last minute), with that level of execution if the SSS Club is managing their own wolf management strategy without public input.

There are many people who don’t like deer. In Minnesota we have a deer season, closely monitored, periodically adjusted, for the most part successful. It helps lower the car collisions, lower crop depredations, lower peoples yardage deprivation, helps keep herd disease issues to a minimum, and also brings a good stream of license money into the DNR.
Seems to be a decent middle ground solution for the deer issue, would hunting control not work as well for the wolf population?
If the people absolutely HAVE to see wolves, give ‘em free tickets to the zoo or a “wolf farm”. In the wild the odds of most non rural people seeing a wild wolf are pretty poor.
Sure would be nice if instead of all the pretty wolf standing next to its pup pictures, we could see the picks of the bloody faced wolves standing in the gorey red puddle of what minutes before was someone’s dog, calf, sheep, bear, moose calf, moose, deer, and so on.

Osky

Or a video of a pack of wolves tearing the flesh off the hind quarter of an elk still alive and standing.

The state hasn't had a hand in wolf management since 2014, except during the short season in 2021. I'd say they've been monitoring and studying wolves this whole time, but what management can you do when any sort of lethal control is off the table? No duh the population is going to explode without any large scale harvest.

Nope, only a 4% increase.

Since 2014?

This probably goes without saying and I’m not trying to kick a hornets nest…Hopefully, you are in contact with your wolf and furbearer biologist and wolf and furbearer scientist. Make sure they know you think this is important.

Haven’t talked to one since that really good one left the state

Not sure it sits high on my priority list when their hands are tied. Right now all the groups are worked up about sturgeon and wanting to know how the feds will screw that one up. Fun times we live in.

That’s the path Minnesota took for the most part. Perfect example.
Sadly our deer hunting camp traditions have taken a terrible hit, as have the actual moose and deer populations.
Indicative of liberals isn’t it? Anything with controls or rules is a bad thing, especially concerning Apex predators it seems.

Osky

I was being sarcastic using their numbers. I agree with you.

Both states have been using the "hands are tied" excuse to drag their feet on completing good science based management plans for years. If the states had management plans with reasonable population targets for wolf densities, including management goals for prey species (deer/moose), reduced incidents of depredation, etc, it would go a long way toward completing the delisting process. However it seems awfully convenient to keep playing the hands are tied card.

You sound like a fed making excuses now. The existing plan took us from nearly extinct to where we are today. It would work for another 50 years if needed. This idea that we need a new plan to manage wolves is a joke.

We have more than enough data to make the case for wolves to be delisted in WI. But the wolf stafff wasn’t even allowed to make the case to the feds. What’s the point of creating a new wolf plan if they can’t communicate to the feds about it?

A stronger case could be made that the ESA has outlived its usefulness.

I have not read the Wis plan in any detail, but the new MN plan is full of social, changing attitudes toward wolves drivel, and very light on biological science like population dynamics, density dependant suppression, natural mortality, compensatory mortality, harvestable surplus, etc.

Well, it sounds like wiscon-sin copied Minnesota's plan! I baited bear all summer through the first week of October in Forest and Florence counties. Every bait had wolves on it. That was to be expected. What I didn't expect to see was only 2 bear cubs the whole while on the trail cams, normally there are sows with cubs on every bait, and that is a question that the biologist forgot to ask on the questionnaire they sent out. Also how come the fur bearer biologist isn't involved with this questionnaire? They are missing a ton of info on fur bearers that show up on bear baits. I believe the wolves are taking a huge toll on the bear cubs.