TAYLOR COUNTY SPORTSMAN’S CLUB/HUNTER NATION FORUM - Hoping to be heard

TAYLOR COUNTY SPORTSMAN’S CLUB/HUNTER NATION FORUM

If you’re of the opinion that wolves need to be more tightly managed in Wisconsin and beyond –– which just about every one of the at least 200 in attendance likely was at Tuesday’s predator management forum in Medford –– change is only going to happen through pressure on elected officials who have the ability to make that change.

That was the main message drilled into those in attendance at the forum, which was held at the Simek Recreation Center through the cooperation of the Taylor County Sportsman’s Club and Hunter Nation.

Hunter Nation is an organization that calls itself the united voice of the American hunter and works at the state and national level to develop pro-hunting policy and laws. It is the organization that took legal action to force Wisconsin to hold its last wolf hunt in February of 2021. Hunter Nation founder and president Keith Mark made the trip from Kansas to attend along with the organization’s Wisconsin state director Chris Vaughan.

Four northern Wisconsin state legislators and U.S. Representative Tom Tiffany, all Republicans, were also in attendance to answer questions and provide their take on wolf controversy that rages on, particularly in rural parts of the state.

“You guys are passionate about this and there’s a reason that you’re passionate about it because this is part of your life,” Tiffany said. “This is part of your lifestyle.”

The calls for change during Tuesday’s forum centered on two points, one at the federal level and one at the state level.

The Great Lakes population of gray wolves is currently on the national Endangered Species list, meaning Wisconsin is unable to manage its state population through any type of lethal means. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has made multiple attempts in the last 20 years to remove wolves from the list, but legal challenges and federal court rulings have put them back on the list with the last occurrence coming in 2022.

Tiffany was among the representatives who introduced what they called the Trust the Science Act that was passed by a 209-205 vote by the House of Representatives this spring. The bill requires the Secretary of the Interior to reissue regulations removing the gray wolf from the list of endangered and threatened wildlife in the continental 48 states without judicial review. The bill has not yet gone before the U.S. Senate.

Mark began the forum by praising Tiffany for his work to get the bill through the House.

“Rep. Tiffany, he said enough is enough and drafted the Trust the Science Bill,” Mark said. “It’s so simple, delist the wolf in the continental 48 states with no judicial review so we don’t have to deal with activist, liberal judges dictating our wildlife policy. I think I saw that bill when it was originally posted it had a 4% chance of passing. Rep. Tiffany calmly said hold my beer.”

Mark and Tiffany told those in attendance if they want to see this bill through, they have to target Wisconsin’s democratic U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin, who is up for re-election in November.

Tiffany cited the example of Montana senator Joe Tester, who faced a similar situation in his 2012 re-election bid when it was a close call as to which party was going to control the Senate. In order to help Tester keep his seat, delisting of wolves with no judicial review was passed for Montana, Idaho and Wyoming.

“We may be at the same point in time. You need to contact your U.S. senators here in Wisconsin, in particular Tammy Baldwin,” Tiffany told the crowd. “She has said if you go back to I think it was the 2016 election and she said I do support delisting and she’s been on a couple of bills, not as good as the Trust the Science Act, and she’s said the right thing a couple times. You guys need to make sure that she does the right thing. You should be contacting her because she is a key person on the United States Senate.

“Whether you like it or not, that’s how the political class gets things done sometimes,” he added. “It’s when there’s enormous pressure during an election, and this is going to be a big election year and Wisconsin’s going to be a bellwether state once again.”

The point of contention at the state level is the 2023 Wolf Management Plan that was approved by Wisconsin’s Natural Resources Board had no hard number for a population goal or a clear number as to where the populations need to be for a public hunt to take place when wolves are not listed as endangered or threatened.

“We blocked the Wolf Management Plan because it did not have a number in it and they refused to put a number in it,” State senator Mary Felzkowski of Tomahawk said. “We also did legislation that said we have to have a number in the wolf management plan. Now I’d vote for close to zero if that was up to me, but I don’t get to do that.”

“We manage every animal in Wisconsin from the small fish in our lakes to our overly expensive elk herd in northern Wisconsin,” state representative Chanz Green of Grand View said. “Why feed them to wolves? We should be managing the wolves.”

“If we can band together and get (the Truth in Science Act) done then the answer is not going to be decided for you in court rooms and it’s not going to be decided in the halls of Congress,” Mark said. “It’s going to be in Madison, where you figure out as we the people what the appropriate wolf harvest plan is. In my opinion, that has to start with a number. If it’s anything short of a number, how can you manage the population of anything?”

The pro-wolf segment of Wisconsin’s population gained traction with a tremendous amount of negative publicity following the 2021 hunt, Vaughan said. The hunt was highly criticized with a harvest of 216 wolves in just three days. The harvest quota was 200 –– 119 for the general public and 81 for the Native American tribes, which they weren’t going to use as they strongly oppose hunting the animals, which are revered in their culture. Opponents of the hunt argued surpassing the public quota by 81.5% was unacceptable as zone closures took too long to take effect. Others argue the overall quota was only surpassed by 16 animals and the evidence shows wolf numbers haven’t decreased.

The statistic referred to numerous times was that in 2000, when there were less than 250 wolves in the state was that hunters harvested more than 615,000 deer in Wisconsin. In 2023, as the state’s wolf population was estimated at 1,007, the deer harvest bottomed out at 290,429.

“What we’re up against is the critics,” Vaughan said. “We’re not here to advocate for complete removal or an unregulated hunt.”

Felzkowski said much like those who want change should put pressure on Baldwin for passage of the federal bill, Gov. Tony Evers should be the target for getting hard numbers into the state’s management plan.

The state legislature did pass a bill requiring a firm management goal number for the state’s wolf population. It was vetoed by Evers. The Senate passed a veto override this spring by a 22-9 vote but the override has not passed the Assembly.

Felzkowski and state senator Romaine Quinn of Cameron, who also attended Tuesday’s forum, were among the authors of that veto override.

The other strong message the panelists conveyed Tuesday was for everyone to get out and vote this November and in every election.

“All politicians are guilty of that, they react under pressure,” Quinn said. “If they don’t hear from you, nothing is going to get done.”

The crowd of more than 200 listens as Hunter Nation state director Chris Vaughan leads a question-and-answer session during Tuesday’s predator management forum at the Simek Recreation Center. MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS

Mike Nicks takes the microphone urging those in attendance to make their voices heard and get others involved in the effort for change in wolf management. MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS