Wolf Hunt!

Wolf tags go on sale @ 12:01am 2/16/21! Clear your calendars for next week!

I read the wolf management plan.   I listened in on all the meetings of the wolf committee.  I discussed features of the plan and the species in question with Randy Johnson.

It is a well written plan and deserves public support.

Yes, I am a hunter.   
Yes, I live in wolf country.
Yes, I have encountered wolves in the wild.

Don't forget to read the wolf plan and give public input by early January. Be ready for a 178 pages of bla, bla, bla, we aren't going to do anything. Round up all the wolves and fence them in Milwaukee and Madison if they want them so bad. See what they eat then.

Fed's still consider gray wolves as threatened,  and block hunt.  Not sure how Idaho and Montana get away with it  .

The DNR has no interest in doing their job. They should all be fired. 

Someone needs to address the DNR and Preston Cole and ask why there's a delay in the wolf management plan. It's way behind, and no information or  news as to why. The same sI@t as last time is going to happen unless Cole and his department start doing their job. 

The last wolf hunt generated something like 450k.

Wolves of Turku   anybody ever says wolves do not kill humans (well except the teacher in Alaska)  look up the Wolves of Turku  3 wolves killed 22 children in Finland  back in 1880's   So it can happen.

The wolf hunt seems like a scam to me. Our wolf population is way higher than the DNR says it should be. We all know why.

Our deer hunters generate a ton of money for people in northern Wisconsin, but not if their are no deer.

I'd say yes to that being a wolf track.  5" by 4" is what an average wolf track is.  Coyote is about 2" by 2".  

H&H,

Very true, lots of empty deer camps up by us.  It's truly a shame, especially for the business's that rely on the deer season as a bridge between the summer and snowmobile season.  

Wolf track?

And property value plummet as fast as the other wildlife populations.

What was generational gathering and recreational land is now empty and unused ending decades of memories and tradition.

The wolves relocate according to food supply as well.  I've talked to guys up around the Barnes area where wolves moved in and after a not very long period there were full sections that wouldn't have a deer track in them, only wolf tracks. The deer were either killed or moved out of the area due to wolf pressure.  Then all the sudden the wolf tracks were gone and the woods were just empty of wildlife in that square mile.  Since there isn't a natural predator to the wolves, they obviously moved onto to more fertile feeding grounds.  I'm far from a biologist and don't claim to be one, but simple common sense tells me that a pack of wolves isn't going to continue to hunt where there isn't anything left to hunt.  And again, I'm not certain on how they work but I have to assume that over time a pack becomes too big to be supported by one area so they branch off and another pack is formed.  Now you have two sections getting decimated at one time and then three and then four and so on.  I've also read in other articles that if food is plentiful the wolves move onto to thrill killing and consume very little of the kill.  I think that was something that came out of Idaho or Montana I believe. 

Yeah concentrated in the portion of the state where the deer already have the cards stacked against them. Like 20” of hard packed snow in the woods in the middle of April.  

Just listened to an interesting piece on NPR's Freakonomics Radio regarding the wolf, with a specific focus on wolves in WI due to WI based guest experts studying the topic, particularly as it relates to deer.  Worth a 45 minute listen.  

As always with Freakonomics, the topic is looked at from angles that many don't initially consider.  It all seemed fairly straight forward, though one segment discussed deer population versus typical annual wolf predation (18-20/year) and described it as a rounding error.  Not acknowledged was that fact wolves are concentrated in a fraction of the state, while deer are not.

It also touched on the reduction in hunters, lack of recruitment of new hunters, reasons and impacts.  Interesting all round.

Episode 497 from March 23, 2022.

https://www.npr.org/podcasts/452538045/freakonomics-radio

Take a youth or non-hunter out in the field.  Give them an opportunity to earn some fresh wild protein, and enjoy all the state has to offer.

 Case in point: bald eagles.  Have they recovered ?  Yes.   Do we now have a hunting season ? No.

The Bald Eagle population was low, things were changed to help nesting be more successful and the population responded. If that population over corrects, things will have to be changed to prevent over population. When they start outcompeting humans for resources and drive down property values somehow it will have to be addressed.

The population of wolves was low, things were changed and the population responded, now they have overpopulated some locations and thing should be done to correct that. Nobody says eradicate, but put the balance back.