JAYNE BELSKY — Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
In Madison and other urban parts of the state, wolves are noble creatures along the lines of Jack London’s White Fang and Buck. In western and northern Wisconsin, they are killers of the Big Bad variety.
Both views are correct, and both incorrect. Each is a matter of perspective and personal priorities.
The state Department of Natural Resources has pursued a gray wolf management plan that should appease both sides, but opinions have not budged much.
Last year, hunters and trappers killed 117 wolves under the DNR-managed plan. They did not overkill, as some people had feared, remaining within the constraints set by wildlife managers. An additional 126 died in accidents and from other causes.
Yet despite nearly 250 deaths in 2012, the total population barely declined. New wolves were born or moved in, and more than 800 still roam the state. The DNR management plan calls for 350 wolves as a manageable, long-term population, though that figure is under review.
Despite last year’s successful hunt and plans for another this year limited to 251 wolves, a UW-Madison survey found public opinion remains entrenched. Eighty-one percent of respondents said their tolerance for wolves had not changed. At least the portion who had become more tolerant (14 percent) outnumbered those who became less tolerant (5 percent).
Support for hunting remains divided along geographic lines. Three-quarters of people who live in wolf range support it. Fewer than half outside the range do.
The DNR is handling the wolf challenge in a manner that protects people and property but maintains a viable population. All stakeholders have a seat at the table, and scientific data, not emotions, drive decision-making.
It’s easy to sit in Madison, far removed from any real wolf danger, and lament wolf killing. It’s also easy to sit in wolf country and complain about bleeding hearts. The hard thing is accepting Wisconsin’s smart compromise between killing every wolf and letting them run rampant.
Exposing the Big Game 
Coexistence and education is the answer for those that live where wolves roam. The continued execution of OUR wolves is not the answer. To rely on ignorance and not take responsibility for your livestock is not the answer. Pay these ranchers and farmers to go to clinics on wolves and educate them on how to live with wolves. This editorial falls way short of a respect and responsibility model and instead promotes the them against us model, never a good place to go.
Come on Wisconsin you can do better than this!
Be sure to thank Barack “The Other Sarah Palin” Obama for turning Wisconsin into Little Kyrgyzstan!
@Justin Forte, short but accurate and I agree. May I also add the Wolves are not numbers to be managed! Wolves are very highly evolved creatures, who do the job of ‘wildlife manager’ far better than the DNR could ever hope to. Recently, the Sierra Club sent out an e-mail to me titled ‘ Wolf Blood for Oil ‘. I have been howling out that point in the wilderness while most of the wolf community continues to blame the usual culperts. Nobody in that group of ‘culperts’ can make the government bend over backwards. This is what had people confused as to why, including myself that delisting was such a slam dunk politically. So it is in my nature to explore other possibilities and being involved in the clean water wars and the wolf wars, I started to make connections. Then in researching what’s happened since NAFTA became law, I stumbled upon SPP, then just recently, Obama’s TPP agreement. And in doing this, I found a map that Sierra Club put out showing the KXL and other pipelines meant to carry Tar Sands oil and Natural Gas and Fresh Water along Super Corridors, complete with Super Highways, toll roads for commercial trucking, even giant powerlines. Immediately I realized the routes were not just endangered migratory bird flight paths, they cut through prime known wolf habitat! So armed with this info, I realized this is about energy supply, which is the opium of national security ( remember 3 Days of the Condor?). Nothing makes the federal goverment bend over quicker than big oil and the other super powers using NAFTA and other agreements to put pressure on the president to ‘drill, baby, drill’, so there’s your Sarah Palin connection! You nailed it, Justin, even if you didn’t have all the info yet! I am very impressed! The Wolves are just their trial run at dismantling the ESA and ramming through pipelines no matter what’s endangered. I posted the story of Sarna, Ont. Known as ‘Chemical Valley’ last night on my facebook page as a You Tube video in two parts. Please watch it. Also look up the Super corridor map by Sierra Club on Wikipedia.
The corporation building these piplines is Enbridge. The same company involved in many spills but mostly notorious for polluting the Kalamazoo River! I have read that the pipelines for the KXL will be constructed in China and fitted in the US by Enbridge. The Wolves are just plain in the wrong place at the wrong time! They are dying for world demand for our oil, gas and drinking water! Corporate greed as usual. The culprits doing the killing are all taking advantage of lax laws. They don’t know why and they don’t care. They just need to kill innocent Wolves because they are f**ked in the head! The true real and present danger is in DC, Ottawa and those nations screaming for oil, our oil! Wolf Blood for Oil.