{"id":2044,"date":"2023-04-08T19:12:27","date_gmt":"2023-04-08T19:12:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=2044"},"modified":"2023-04-10T20:01:29","modified_gmt":"2023-04-10T20:01:29","slug":"opinion-explosive-growth-of-wolves-demand-answers-from-dnr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=2044","title":{"rendered":"Opinion: Explosive growth of wolves demand answers from DNR"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/reforminggovernment.org\/opinion-explosive-growth-of-wolves-demand-answers-from-dnr\/<\/a><\/p>\n

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Who\u2019s afraid of the big bad wolf?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In Wisconsin, more than a few residents, and with good reason. Each year the state\u2019s sizable gray wolf population collects its share of livestock and pets from hardworking Wisconsin families in predictably grisly fashion. This unsanctioned \u201cwolf tax\u201d makes setting wolf management policy in Wisconsin a highly contentious issue, given the contingent of environmentalists who oppose even modest attempts to rein in wolf population growth.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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With U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, R-Minocqua, and Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., pushing legislation to again delist the wolf from the Endangered Species List, renewed focus is on state wolf management.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Yet despite a record-breaking glut of gray wolves in Wisconsin in recent years, the state Department of Natural Resources is now poised to let the population off the leash (so to speak) and discard Wisconsin\u2019s longstanding management approach of setting a numeric population goal \u2014 all without the vote of a single elected representative.<\/p>\n

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Since 1999, when the gray wolf population in Wisconsin was about 200 wolves, Wisconsin has had a 350-wolf population management goal. That goal was selected by DNR (along with the Wisconsin Natural Resources Board) after careful study. The DNR and NRB later reaffirmed this 350-wolf goal in 2007, when the wolf population was over 500, indicating that they had begun \u201cto apply controls on the wolf population.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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A decade and a half later, Wisconsin\u2019s wolf population has at times approached 1,200 wolves or more. So much for the goal.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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This huge expansion allowed hunters to harvest 218 wolves in under 3 days in 2021, forcing the DNR to conclude the season\u2019s hunt early. It has meant 48 farms with verified wolf depredations in 2021, the highest level in modern Wisconsin history. It has led to the payment of over $1 million in damages to Wisconsinites since just 2016 for dead, injured or missing calves, cattle, hunting dogs, sheep, chickens and other livestock, not to mention numerous pet dogs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In light of this explosive growth, Wisconsinites might reasonably expect the DNR to explain what it is doing to bring the population back in line with the 350-wolf management goal. Instead, the DNR suddenly announced last fall \u2014 if you can call a statement buried 100 pages into a 178-page draft management plan an announcement \u2014 that it is not only discarding the 350-wolf goal, but it will not be using any numeric goal going forward.<\/p>\n

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As justification, the DNR has provided vague statements such as its view that numeric goals \u201cmay unnecessarily restrict decisions\u201d and can \u201ceasily fail to account for other biological concerns and social factors which are ever evolving through space and time.\u201d In lieu of a numeric goal, the DNR is arrogating to itself the authority to set wolf policy comprehensively on a rolling basis. \u201cTrust us\u201d is the fundamental (and familiar) governmental ask.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Well, trust must be earned. And Wisconsinites can be forgiven for wondering if the DNR\u2019s radical shift in approach has anything to do with the increasing difficulty the DNR is experiencing in explaining why its wolf population is so far out of whack when compared to the state\u2019s goal. Or does the policy departure stem from bureaucratic discomfort in what would be required to bring the population back into check? Has the DNR\u2019s efforts to control the gray wolf failed, or was this growth intentionally permitted despite the goal?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Unfortunately, speculation on such questions is going to have to continue until a greater level of oversight of the DNR\u2019s wolf management activities occurs. That is why my group, the Institute for Reforming Government, is releasing a report through its Center for Investigative Oversight posing 10 basic questions to the DNR about its draft management plan, including questions about the plan\u2019s effect on Wisconsin\u2019s prized deer and elk populations, the DNR\u2019s authority for making the change in the first place, and how much this new approach is going to cost taxpayers.<\/p>\n

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The DNR will soon be releasing an updated version of its draft plan, putting lawmakers in the perfect position to demand and obtain information from agency officials on these critical issues.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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These questions may not matter to the average city-dweller whose closest experience to a wolf encounter involves late-night classic horror flicks. But to the farmers, hunters and families living in the northern half of the state, they matter a great deal.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The DNR owes Wisconsin answers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/reforminggovernment.org\/opinion-explosive-growth-of-wolves-demand-answers-from-dnr\/ Who\u2019s afraid of the big bad wolf? In Wisconsin,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":1942,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-institute-for-reforming-government"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2044"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2044\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2046,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2044\/revisions\/2046"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}