Wolf results need truthful analysis
The 2021 Wisconsin gray wolf harvest season was unprecedented in many respects.
It was compelled by a lawsuit. It was held in late February during the wolves’ breeding season. The Department of Natural Resources held permit applications and issued licenses in less than a week. And the season itself was over in less than three days.
From Feb. 22-24, hunters and trappers killed 216 wolves, according to preliminary results.
The total was 82% over the quota of 119 wolves established for state-licensed hunters and trappers.
The result shocked and embarrassed most I’ve talked to in the wildlife management profession.
To kill so many more animals than intended wasn’t the DNR’s goal.
In fact, the DNR wanted to wait until November to hold the season, a starting date that would have allowed much more public input, work with its wolf management committee, review of quotas and permit levels and consultation
with American Indian tribes.
But a unique combination of forces, including a state statute that spells out details of the wolf season and a lawsuit brought by Wisconsin Institute of Law & Liberty on behalf of its client, Hunter Nation, forced the DNR's hand.
The overkill was due to a requirement that the DNR issue 24-hour (rather than immediate or same-day) notice before the season can be closed, fresh tracking snow that allowed hunters with dogs to be highly effective and a decision by the Natural Resources Board to issue twice the normal number of licenses.
To take nearly twice as many animals as intended would have been news with any managed species.
But it was especially significant with the wolf, which Jan. 4 had just been removed from protections of the Endangered Species Act and had drawn national attention to Wisconsin's efforts to hold the season.
The aftermath is not pretty.
A DNR employee who asked to remain anonymous called it a “(expletive) abomination.”
It's possible the Wisconsin overkill will be the difference in a lawsuit filed in January against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that argues states cannot properly manage the species and seeks to restore the wolf to protections of the ESA.
That will remain to be seen.
It's also possible tribal lawyers will take action against the DNR and state.
As it was establishing the season, the DNR set an initial statewide harvest quota of 200 wolves.
That number was subject to change pending declarations by American Indian tribes.
As is their court-affirmed right, the tribes claimed 50% of the wolves in the ceded territory.
That made the split 119 for state-licensed hunters and trappers and 81 for the tribes.
As is also their right, the tribes chose to not harvest any wolves, but rather to use their quota to protect the animals. Wolves are sacred to the tribes; the Anishinaabe origin story, for example, has man and wolf as brothers.
The tribes did not transfer any of their quota to the state.
Nor are state-licensed hunters or trappers free to use it.
After the quotas were set and declarations were made, it's important to recognize that the DNR had only one goal: to manage the season to a kill of 119 wolves.
For numerous reasons, it failed. I have heard and read some posthunt analysis trying to minimize the overkill, saying the quota was really 200.
That's an attempt to create a false narrative.
The state-licensed quota was 119, period, and it was exceeded by 97 wolves.
It might be helpful to use walleyes to put the issue into perspective.
The delicious native fish is taken by sport anglers and tribal spearers each year in waters of the ceded territory. As with wolves, the quota is split 50:50.
Yet tribal spearers rarely take even two-thirds of their allowable catch. From 2001-17, the tribal walleye harvest averaged 57% of their quota (range from 43 to 69%), according to data from the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission.
Most years the tribes go over their limit on just a handful of lakes, and typically by just a few fish.
In 2020 an unusual event took place on Barber Lake when Lac Courte Oreilles fishermen made a declaration of 22 walleye but speared 38. It was determined a bookkeeping error led to the issuance of an extra permit and therefore the harvest of 16 additional fish.
But the tribe didn't simply try to “borrow” quota from sport anglers to make up for their overharvest. They reported their error and under rules established in the Voight Decision they will be prohibited from spearing in Barber Lake in 2021.
This is for taking 16 walleye too many. To put it another way, imagine the uproar among state residents if the tribes speared 82% more than their statewide walleye quota this spring.
A Lac du Flambeau tribal member asked me last week: “How many years do you think state-licensed wolf hunters should be prohibited from taking wolves for going 97 wolves over their quota?”
It's likely a judge will weigh in on that question this year, either in state or federal court, as humans continue to trade punches over the future of wolves.
This much should be clear: As wolf issues are debated, it's important to discard misinformation and deception and allow only facts and truth, as best they are known, to drive the decisions.