More Outdoors
Wisconsin law unique in not letting DNR set rules
Paul A. Smith column: Wolf management in Wisconsin has become confusing, rushed and even more contentious. How did we get here?
It took more than 100 years of concerted effort to wipe out Wisconsin’s gray wolves.
But the poisonings and unregulated hunting and bounties succeeded by the late 1950s or early 1960s.
It then took decades once it returned for the native species to build up numbers, from an estimated 25 in 1980, 34 in 1990, 248 in 2000, 704 in 2010 and 1,195 in 2020, according to Department of Natural Resources reports.
Other things relative to wolves in the Badger State happen on a much, much faster timetable.
In early 2012, when wolves were removed from protections of the federal Endangered Species Act and returned to state control, it took just six days after delisting for a wolf hunting and trapping bill to be introduced and receive a hearing in the Wisconsin Legislature.
“It might seem fast, but we’ve been waiting for years to be able to do more to control wolves in Wisconsin,” Rep. Roger Rivard (R-Rice Lake) told me at the time. “This bill didn’t happen overnight.”
Rivard and Scott Suder (R-Abbotsford) were co-authors of Assembly Bill 502, legislation they called the Wisconsin Wolf Management Act. The bill sailed through and was signed into law by Gov. Scott Walker two months after its first hearing.
The legislation was fairly easy to draft because it mirrored many of the provisions used for hunting black bears in Wisconsin, including the use of dogs. The Wisconsin Bear Hunters Association assisted with the law’s development.
Wisconsin, which arguably has the nation’s strongest tradition of bear hounding, became the only state to allow the use of dogs to hunt wolves.
It also became unique for the amount of wolf hunting and trapping stipulations in state statute. The Wisconsin law spells out the season starting and
ending dates, the requirement for the DNR to give 24 hours notice before season closures, ability to use bait, when dogs can be used and more. Such specifics are typically left to wildlife officials to decide and modify through more flexible rule processes.
In October 2012 Wisconsin opened the first regulated wolf hunting and trapping season in state history.
It lasted about two months, with 117 wolves being killed, 1% over the intended harvest quota. Similar seasons were held the next two years, with 257 wolves (2% over quota) taken in 2013 and 154 in 2014 (3% over).
But in December 2014 a federal judge ruled wolves should be returned to protections of the federal Endangered Species Act.
Management plans stalled
With wolves back on the Endangered Species List, then-DNR Secretary Cathy Stepp ordered the wildlife staff to suspend meetings of its wolf advisory committee and stop work on the state’s wolf management plan.
The document, written in 1999 and tweaked in 2007, was badly outdated.
But Stepp and several prominent Republican lawmakers, including then-state Sen. Tom Tiffany, felt the agency shouldn’t spend its resources working on a species not under state control.
In 2017 Tiffany and Rep. Adam Jarchow (R-Balsam Lake) even authored a proposal referred to by many as the “wolf poaching bill.”
As long as the wolf was on the federal Endangered Species List, Assembly Bill 712 would have prevented the state from conducting wolf management and would have made it illegal for state police, sheriffs or conservation wardens to enforce laws related to the management or killing of wolves.
Only federal agents could enforce wolf regulations in Wisconsin. And state law enforcement officials would be barred from assisting their federal colleagues.
The bill did not make it out of committee.
But the politicians’ message and Stepp’s orders permeated the DNR. No proactive work was done on wolves.
There was plenty of other work to do, of course. And in an era in which its staff was repeatedly cut by the Republican-controlled legislature – including elimination of the science bureau – the DNR was increasingly wary of bucking anyone in the capital.
Six years have passed and the Wisconsin wolf plan is still gathering dust.
That lull has lasted through the terms of Stepp, her successor, Dan Meyer, and the current DNR secretary, Preston Cole. Critically, no additional work was done, either, on public attitudes toward wolves to help guide
management decisions.
Wolf population reached modern highs
But the wolf has not sat still. Its population increased during the period of federal protection, reaching 1,195 wolves in 256 packs in late winter 2020. Both numbers are modern-era highs in Wisconsin.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service took action, too, and on Jan. 4, the agency delisted wolves once more.
Thus began another flurry of wolf activity in the state.
The delisting allowed state officials to once again manage wolves, including by lethal means such as depredation control and hunting and trapping seasons.
The DNR planned to begin the next wolf season in fall. Keith Warnke, the agency’s administrator of fish, wildlife and parks, announced plans for a collaborative, transparent process to take place this year, including updating its wolf management plan, reconvening its wolf committee, setting a kill quota and offering a drawing for tags. The agency’s expressed goal was to begin the state’s next wolf hunting and trapping season Nov. 6.
The Natural Resources Board, which sets policy for the agency, agreed in a 4-3 vote at its Jan. 22 meeting.
That triggered a lawsuit by the Wisconsin Institute of Law and Liberty, a conservative public affairs law firm, on behalf of Hunter Nation, a Kansas-based hunting advocacy group. Luke Hilgemann, president and CEO of Hunter Nation, is a Marshfield resident.
The action was filed in Jefferson County Circuit Court, where on Feb. 11 Judge Bennett Brantmeier ruled the agency had “overlooked its plain duty” to hold a wolf season this winter and ordered it to implement a season as specified in state statute.
State law requires the DNR to establish a hunting and trapping season “that begins on the first Saturday in November of each year and ends on the last day of February of the following year” when wolves are not listed on the federal or state list of endangered and threatened species.
A season is assembled quickly
The DNR began hurried preparations for the season, even as state attorneys filed an appeal Feb. 12 in Milwaukee-based District 1 of the Court of Appeals.
The appeal was denied Feb. 19. In the meantime, more than 23,000 hunters and trappers had applied for wolf permits.
On Feb. 21 the DNR awarded 2,380 licenses in a drawing, and the next day the season opened.
State-licensed hunters had a wolf harvest quota of 119 animals; the season would last until the quota was filled or Feb. 28, whichever came first.
Never before had the DNR put together an application period and drawing for a hunt in such a short period of time. It compromised the agency’s legal requirement to consult with Native American tribes.
And never before had the state held a hunting and trapping season during the wolves’ breeding season.
Conditions were especially good for hunters using hounds. Fresh snow covered the Northwoods on Monday and Tuesday morning, allowing hunters to find wolf tracks and set their dogs out in pursuit.
By Monday evening it became apparent the rate of wolf kills was unprecedented.
By Tuesday morning, the DNR decided to announce closures in three zones. The final three were closed at 3 p.m. Tuesday. Because state statute calls for 24-hour notice, hunting and trapping was able to continue into Wednesday.
When the final registration numbers rolled in Thursday, it was clear the system had problems: 216 wolves had been killed, 82% over the state-licensed quota.
The swift pace of the wolf kills, mostly by hunters using trailing hounds, took the DNR by surprise. And the overage was made worse by the 24-hour notice law, rather than one that would allow immediate or same-day closures.
Further, a decision by the Natural Resources Board to issue twice as many as the normal number of permits created more intense hunting pressure during the season.
After the final registration deadline Thursday afternoon, hunters and trappers had killed 50 wolves in Zone 1 (quota was 31), 45 in Zone 2 (18), 43 in Zone 3 (20), seven in Zone 4 (six), 31 in Zone 5 (27) and 40 in Zone 6 (17).
The vast majority (86%) of the wolves were taken by hunters using dogs, while 9% were killed by hunters using other means such as calling or bait, and 5% were claimed by trappers.
Fifty-four percent of the animals were male, 46% female. No age information was made available Thursday.
At a news briefing Thursday, DNR officials said they had monitored the situation very closely and closed the season as soon as it was clear they would hit or exceed the kill goals.
“Should we, would we, could we have (closed the season) sooner? Yes.” said Eric Lobner, DNR wildlife director. “Did we go over? We did. Was that something we wanted to have happen? Absolutely not.”
Whose rights were ‘trampled?’
The agency also made it clear the state has a robust, resilient population of wolves that will be closely monitored in the coming months to assess impacts of the season.
Hilgemann, former aide to state representative Suder and former president of the conservative group Americans For Prosperity, said he was proud of Hunter Nation’s effort that forced the season to take place.
“Reports from the field show us that despite (Gov.) Evers’ administration’s attempts to trample our constitutional right to hunt, this population of predators was in desperate need of management,” Hilgemann said.
Hilgemann thanked hunters and trappers for participating.
“The positive economic impact of this hunt brought nearly $500,000 to the states wildlife account, not to mention the additional revenue spent on supplies, gas, food and lodging by hunters in mostly rural communities who’ve been struggling during the pandemic,” Hilgemann said.
Reaction from Native American tribes was markedly different.
“This season trampled over the tribes’ treaty rights, the Wisconsin public, and professional wildlife stewardship,” said a statement for the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission. “It will go down as a stark example of mismanagement, and the problems that can be expected when the state Legislature and the courts embrace special interest groups over the public as a whole.”
Questions about ramifications and plans
Others say the results from the rushed season will bolster efforts to place the wolf back under protections of the Endangered Species Act. A lawsuit was filed by several environmental and animal protection groups in January in California against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
“What these excessive kill numbers reveal is that Wisconsin cannot manage and protect wolves in a responsible fashion,” said environmental attorney
Jodi Habush Sinykin. “Entrenched barriers exist, and will take time to correct, including a state law that prescribes a wolf hunting season with little regard for sound science or socially acceptable hunting practices.”
George Meyer, former DNR secretary who now leads the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation, said although the season may have only a minor impact on the wolf population, it could have bigger consequences.
“The major concern I have is that groups that oppose federal delisting of the wolf in Wisconsin will use the results of this harvest to argue that the state is not capable of managing the wolf population post delisting,” Meyer said.
He was critical of the rushed process to set the season, saying the DNR should have had a thoughtful and deliberate public process to establish a season in advance with the caveat that it would be implemented if, and when, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service completed the delisting.
And the decision on the fly by the Natural Resources Board to increase the number of licenses to a 20:1 ratio of the quota, rather than 10:1 as had been recommended by the DNR, unnecessarily heightened hunting pressure.
“As we saw, the objective could have been met with half the hunters and trappers,” Meyer said. “That kind of decision should be left with the DNR.”
The DNR is planning to finish its wolf population monitoring over the coming month.
Sometime later this year a decision may be rendered in the lawsuit against the USFWS, too. Should Wisconsin retain state management authority of wolves, the next season would open Nov. 6.
Bigger questions, too, are unresolved. How many wolves should Wisconsin have? How should they be managed? Should the state law be changed to allow the DNR more flexibility in its wolf seasons?
Perhaps 2021 is the year some of those answers will emerge.
As John Linnell of the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research wrote in 2005, “There are no magic formulas or perfect solutions in large carnivore conservation, just a lot of more or less acceptable and often controversial compromises.”