MADISON, Wis. — The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is opening up a public comment period for proposed updates to its wolf management plan.
The comment period, which opened Thursday and runs until 11:59 p.m. on Jan. 10, 2023, gives the public to weigh in on early versions of the DNR’s plans. This is the first time since 2007 the wolf management plan is being updated.
The draft of the four-part plan, which was published publicly on Wednesday, covers the long history of wolves in Wisconsin and their population, as well as the factors humans have played in declining wolf populations in the past — and the rebound in wolf population — before outlining the state’s wolf management plan.
The DNR says the goal of the management plan is to balance multiple objectives, including ensuring a sustainable wolf population that can fulfill its role in Wisconsin’s ecosystem while also reducing wolf-related conflicts. The plan also seeks to increase the public’s understanding of the benefits of the state’s wolf population.
Notably, the plan does not include a specific population goal.
As a whole, the DNR says it wants to take a “holistic and pragmatic approach to wolf management, conservation and stewardship,” which will allow them to identify successes and failures in the plan and direct its resources accordingly and efficiently.
The plan proposes six different Wolf Management Zones in the state while identifying several tribal reservations and lands as “zero-quota” areas. The proposed Wolf Management Zones would largely follow established game management unit boundaries along with major roads or rivers, which the DNR says makes it easier for law enforcement to identify the areas. The state’s total wolf hunt quota would be distributed among those six zones.
Zones 1, 2 and 5 make up the core wolf population areas in the state and are primarily covered in forests. The DNR plan recommends that the leading objective in those areas of the state be to ensure a healthy and sustainable wolf population, with wolf hunting allowed, but at generally lower rates than would be allowed elsewhere in the state.
Zones 3 and 4 are made up of what the DNR considers the “secondary range” of wolves in Wisconsin, due to a bigger mix of agricultural and developed land and increased human densities. The DNR considers those areas to be “transitional areas” between rural and urban areas, so the plan recommends a greater focus on reducing wolf-related conflicts and a higher wolf hunting rate in those zones.
Zone 6 covers most of the state’s highly agricultural and highly-developed areas, including Madison and Milwaukee. Individual packs of wolves have become established in pockets of the area, but due to the greater interactions with people and highways, the DNR says both the potential for conflict and wolf mortality rates are expected to be higher and the persistence of wolves in the area is expected to be lower. Because of that, the DNR is recommending wolf hunting licenses be readily available in the zone to allow greater local control and reduce conflicts between humans and wolves.
There are also two subzones, located on the Lake Superior Coastal Plain east of Superior and portions of Adams, Wood, Portage and Clark Counties in central Wisconsin, where there are typically higher levels of conflict between wolf and livestock. The DNR plan recommends allowing higher local control in those areas to better regulate those conflicts, allowing for more hunting licenses when conflict rates are high and scaling them back when there are fewer reports of wolf conflicts.
Two additional subzones encompassing areas immediately surrounding reservation areas are also being set up. The DNR’s plan for those areas calls for hunting licenses to be limited there, balancing the respect for tribal interests while also allowing a reasonable opportunity to hunt.
A draft of the proposed changes to the plan is available on the DNR’s website, and people can submit their comments online. The DNR is urging people to read the full plan before completing the feedback survey.
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