Natural Resources Board approves quota of 300 for fall wolf hunt

WISCONSIN WOLF HUNT

Wisconsin’s Natural Resources Board, following a lengthy debate held in Milwaukee and livestreamed online Wednesday, Aug. 11, approved a wolf harvest quota on non-tribal lands of 300 for the upcoming 2021-22 hunt, which is scheduled to begin on Nov. 6 and run as late as Feb. 28, 2022.

The quota set by the board exceeds the proposed quota of 130 forwarded by Department of Natural Resources staff, which was requesting a harvest that would result in as close to a zero percent population change. DNR staff argued it was necessary to keep the harvest conservative because the brief hunt in February led to a truncated winter wolf track survey, the hunt was held during the breeding season leading to uncertainty about its impacts on reproduction and population response and the DNR does not have post-hunt population monitoring data available to evaluate the response of the wolf population to a February hunt.

Wisconsin’s previous hunts in 2012, 2013 and 2014 all took place in November.

The DNR is also in the process of unveiling an updated Wisconsin Wolf Management Plan in 2022 and wanted a conservative approach until that plan is in place.

The February hunt received heavy criticism for exceeding the harvest quota, but by how much was one of many items up for debate in last week’s discussions. The DNR had no intentions of holding a hunt until November after wolves were delisted by the federal government in early January, but a circuit court ruling on Feb. 11 ordered that by law a season was required to be held through Feb. 28. It started on Feb. 22 and resulted in the harvest of 218 wolves by state hunters and trappers in just two and a half days.

The quota set by the Natural Resources Board was 200 wolves with available permits being 20 times that amount. Tribal declarations reduced the general public’s quota to 119.

“Make no mistake about it as we stated consistently since the end of last year when we received notice of the delisting plans, the only way to have a transparent, inclusive and science-based hunt following de-listing was to have a single hunt in 2021 this November,” said DNR deputy secretary Todd Ambs in the department’s introduction of the topic to the board. “The courts did not agree with us, so we had to have a rushed, illadvised hunt in literally a matter of days and the results speak for themselves.”

Keith Warnke, DNR Fish, Wildlife and Parks Division administrator, stated that it is important that Wisconsin keep its ability to manage wolves, especially when it comes to depredation complaints. When wolves are on the Endangered Species List, lethal methods of managing wolves is not allowed.

“Retaining state management authority of wolves is critical to being able to continue to respond to our ranching and farming partners when they have wolf depredation,” Warnke said.

After nearly two and a half hours of public testimony ranging from pleas for zero quotas to pleas for quotas of 300 to 400 wolves, the board debated the quota for another hour and a half before finally reaching a 5-2 approval of the quota of 300. On Friday, board member Sharon Adams issued a statement saying she did not intend to vote for the quota of 300 as she “voted for what at the time I believed was a substitute amendment and turned out to be a final motion.”

Board vice-chair Greg Kazmierski moved for a quota of 504, reasoning that based on the 59.5% of the quota that state hunters received and the 40.5% the state’s Ojibwe tribes received in February, that would work out to a quota of 300 for state hunters and trappers and 204 for the tribes. It is unlikely the tribes would harvest any wolves, an animal Ojibwe tribes view as sacred.

The motion for a quota of 504 drew sharp criticism from DNR Secretary Preston Cole and the motion eventually shot down 4-3.

“You are manipulating the number based on the tribal declaration on its face. It’s damn near illegal,” Cole said. “You folks are so out of bounds. That’s conjecture and half truths.”

The appearance of an aggressive harvest and the potential for legal action was a concern for some members, including board member Bill Smith of Shell Lake.

“Look not only at upcoming season but beyond that,” Smith said. “Where do we want to be? We need to consider actions that are scientifically defendable and legally defendable. Some of our discussion gives me pause, I’m not an attorney. The numbers we set have to be scientifically debatable.”

“You can’t live your life thinking you might get sued by somebody or some judge in Washington D.C. might put them back on the list,” board chairman Dr. Frederick Prehn of Wausau said.

Another debated point was the population management goal itself. While a statewide population number of 350 has been discussed for several years, DNR staff made it clear during the meeting that only was a number put in place in the Wolf Management Plan as a threshold to consider lethal methods of management.

The population was estimated to be around 1,100 before the February hunt.

Kazmierski pointed out that 789 wolves were harvested in Wisconsin’s three previous hunts and population estimates showed wolf numbers stayed stable and even rose slightly.

“The numbers don’t lie,” he said. “This is the reality of what the result we were having. That’s why I was looking at 300 because we’re starting at a higher starting point now. That would maybe start to bring the population toward the goal that now we say doesn’t exist, but I’m sure we’ll find a lot of people to argue that. And it would barely start to move it toward that goal. That’s why that was not unreasonable.”

Kazmierski and board member William Bruins both made the point that the board had an obligation to show it is trying to manage wolves based on the plan that is in place now.

“We’re responsible to manage to the existing plan,” Bruins said. “No ifs, ands or buts. If we don’t we’re a board and we’re an agency gone rogue.”

Kazmierski also made it known he did not view the 218 wolves harvested in February as a significant overharvest.

“That season was a success,” he said. “It sounds like we have people believing all the newspaper articles. We were only 9% off from quota this board unanimously passed.”

Motions for quotas of 350 and 275 failed before the board settled on 300.

Warnke, who told the board applications for the hunt numbered about 27,000 last week with about 10,000 being for

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preference points only, said the plan is to distribute the quota and harvest permits equitably across the state’s wolf harvest zones in relation to wolf population estimates in each zone. Public quotas and permit numbers will be tweaked following tribal declarations.

Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission executive administrator Michael J. Isham issued a statement on Friday objecting to the higher quota.

“The DNR Natural Resources Board made clear that its decision to set the wolf quota at 300 has nothing to do with science or stewardship,” Isham said. “This reckless approach to ma’iingan management is why tribes have filed a brief in support of lawsuits that seek the restoration of federal protection of wolves.”