WISCONSIN DNR RELEASES NEW WOLF MANAGEMENT PLAN FOR PUBLIC INPUT

There’s several articles out right now talking about this, and we wanted to share this one with you from Deer & Deer Hunting.

“The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources just released a new Wolf Management Plan that has a 60-day public review and comment period, during which the public can offer feedback on the draft plan. The 60-day period started Nov. 10 and ends on Jan. 10, 2023. The draft plan and instructions for giving feedback can be found on the DNR’s Wolf Management Plan webpage.

The proposed plan considers many factors such as public input, discussions with Wisconsin’s tribal nations, scientific literature reviews, a study on current public attitudes toward wolves and possible outcomes of various management decisions.

1. Ensuring a healthy and sustainable wolf population to fulfill its ecological role.
2. Addressing and reducing wolf-related conflicts.
3. Providing multiple benefits associated with the wolf population, including hunting, trapping and sightseeing.

The draft plan also includes proposals to increase public understanding of wolves, identify important scientific research to be conducted and outline steps to ensure collaboration on science-based wolf management in Wisconsin. The implementation section of the management plan gives more details on the purpose behind each objective, how the DNR will measure it and what constitutes satisfactory progress toward the objective.

So what is staying the same? The draft plan states that the DNR will continue to monitor wolves every year and address wolf-related conflict (consistent with current law). The DNR will also continue supporting and conducting scientific research and science-based decision-making. Collaboration with other agencies, tribal nations, stakeholder groups and the public on items of mutual importance remains a department priority.

And what is changing? According to the DNR website, the plan outlines several changes to align the DNR’s wolf management strategy with the current state of the wolf population, the available science and the perspectives of a diverse public, such as:

• Moving away from a single numeric population goal and instead using an adaptive management process focused on balancing the three main objectives (above).
• Reducing harvest registration times and issuing zone-specific wolf harvest permits to improve the department’s ability to effectively meet harvest quotas.
• Adding mechanisms to address localized concerns, including wolf harvest concerns near tribal reservation boundaries and focused wolf harvest in areas with a history of wolf-livestock conflict.
• Revising wolf management zone boundaries to better reflect current wolf distribution and habitat.”

To see the full article and watch the attached video, click here.

Photo Credit: Original Author

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