Letter to the Editor
Letter to the Editor:
Saturday February 18, 2023 the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation (WWF) held a listening and sharing session in Solon Springs, Wisconsin on the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (W-DNR) DRAFT Wolf Management Plan. This was an opportunity for people to share their personal experiences with wolves and concerns with the DRAFT plan.
This event was organized by the WWF in response to the DNR’s refusal to hold public hearings on the DRAFT Wolf Management Plan. The DNR was invited to the event and chose not to send representation. The listening and sharing session recording will be sent directly to the DNR so they can hear the concerns of the people in attendance.
Some individual experiences shared included:
-A pet owner's experiences with dogs killed by wolves that had broken into their kennel. The pet owner was later stalked by a wolf as she searched for one of her missing dogs.
-A grandmother's experience with her 3-year old granddaughter as they were encircled by wolves over her deer harvest.
-A taxidermist shared how he's seen a transition from large numbers of local deer being brought to him to deer coming to him from other states. Wisconsin hunters are leaving the state to find trophies.
-A farmer shared his cattle depredation experience and the added cost and burden depredation places on the small farmers, including lost pasture land, increased feed cost, reduced weight gain, aborted calves, and more.
-A Douglas County farmer shared how they lose 15 to 25 calves annually to wolf depredation and only receive a small percentage of their value.
-A horse rider shared how she's never been afraid in the woods until recently. Due to personal encounters, she has purchased her first firearm to protect herself, her horse, and her dog from wolves as she trail rides.
Comments on the DRAFT plan included:
-The plan itself is an expansion plan and not a management plan.
-Buffer zones around the tribes give management to the tribes.
-Private property owners who live in the buffer zones around the tribes are given unequal treatment.
-Demands for the 350 population goal to be added back to the plan.
-The wolf advisory committee was heavily weighted by wolf expansionist groups.
-DRAFT does not have a good compensation plan for cattle and dog depredations considering the time and genetics in these animals.
-Concern that wildlife managers "fall in love" with the species they are obligated to manage and they no longer manage the species but turn to expansion.
-The wolf population goal post has been moved from 80 to infinite over the decades.
-Questioning who at the DNR should be held accountable for the plan.
Common themes included:
-Deer hunting is not fun in Wisconsin anymore.
-Wisconsin hunters are leaving the state to hunt and non-resident hunters are finding other states to hunt.
-The Wisconsin DNR has Madison and Milwaukee interests in mind and not those living with wolves and directly impacted by wolves.
-Wolves are pleasure killers. They do not kill only the sick and the weak. Wolf are sanitizers who kill everything until nothing is left, then starve off.
-The example of western states paying bounties to help encourage reduction in the wolf population and increase in large game populations.
-The Great Lakes states have approximately double the wolf population of the Western states.
-Wolves do not make good neighbors.
-Tolerance is based on how many wolves humans must deal with.
-The people of rural Northern Wisconsin impacted by wolves DO NOT support the Draft wolf Management plan.
Thank you.
Matt Lallemont
Chippewa Falls, WI