Thrown-together wolf hunt could’ve been done better

Back in my college days, we had this big event that took place on campus that required a year to plan and set up. I was one of the students on the planning committee along with several faculty members. The event brought in a lot of people to the small campus and a lot of dollars for student organizations to do things.

An art professor had recently won some prestigious art award sponsored by the governor’s office. So, naturally the higher-ups wanted it prominently displayed for all event-goers to see what wonderful and talented faculty were on campus.

It was abstract art, and to me, it looked like a lot of different colored paint thrown at a large canvas, with a lot of greens, blues, browns and blacks. Students kept trying to guess what it represented, and the professor kept saying not quite.

While doing some set up in an area close to the display of her painting I did tell the professor I didn’t get it and never understood it. I just saw some colors. She took me to the painting and placed me in front of it and had me look at it. “Relax your eyes and just let your mind interpret it.”

After a couple minutes, she said it’s a picture of a dog on the inside of a house looking out because he wants to be outside. She traced her finger along the lines of the dog. Suddenly, I could see it.

The last week or two, I’ve been feeling like that dog. So goes being the patient instead of the nurse. Maybe soon they’ll upgrade me to a cane and I’ll be more all-terrain.

Until then, I’m like that dog watching from the inside and missing out on things. Like, I almost missed the wolf hunt; it was like they put me under and when I woke up it was over – almost.

And my one acquaintances was correct. Had he applied and been awarded a tag, he would have bought his license and printed his harvest tag in our paperless system. But before he could have made plans as to what time to start the following Saturday morning, the closure of the hunt had been announced for Wednesday.

The hunt ended up over quota, and the DNR is taking heat for it. The overall quota was 200 wolves, but the Ojibwe bands claimed 50 percent of the quota within the ceded territories. That left a quota for state hunters and trappers of 119 wolves. With 216 wolves killed, the overall quota is exceeded by 8 percent. Not a big deal, but the anti’s will make it a big deal. The Ojibwe decided not to issue harvest permits. That’s their choice, just like when they issued harvest permits for elk when the DNR felt the herd was not robust enough for hunting pressure. And, right now, there are more wolves in Wisconsin than there were elk when they issued those tags. More wolf pups are going to be killed by vehicles, bears, fast running water, etc., in the next six months than adult wolves killed in this hunt. Open on Monday, closed on Wednesday, it was kind of a whirlwind event, not a quality event. It feels kind of like looking at abstract art without a professor to help.

There were some very nice wolves harvested. I’ve seen the pics. Hunters enjoyed the hunt. But I’m sure several that were awarded a tag didn’t even get a chance to get out before the season closed.

They, along with those that hunted and didn’t harvest a wolf, and even those that were successful were all robbed by this thrown together process.

Another thing that comes to mind is that there will need to be some revised management of wolf hunts if they are going to go so quick. I’ve said this before.

There may also need to be some revised population estimates as well. Otherwise, the numbers are saying state hunters killed about 20 percent of the wolf population in essentially 2 ½ days on a species none had ever hunted before, and the species makes it a point to rarely be seen by humans.

So we had a hunt. It’s more important to me that we are able to continue to have wolf hunts. So we can plan, prepare, and enjoy the experience to the highest level and have the time and a fair chance to do so. That doesn’t seem like abstract art, does it?

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CHUCK K OLAR LOCAL OUTDOORSMAN