Conservation Congress: Should we hunt wolves?

Wisconsin’s Conservation Congress plans to ask sportsmen this spring whether they want to hunt timber wolves, a year after the federal government removed the animals from the endangered species list.

The question isn’t binding on the state Department of Natural Resources or the Legislature, but it illustrates what some say is growing frustration with wolves in northern Wisconsin as their numbers rise.

Ron Waller, an Eagle River grouse hunter, said wolves are all over his part of the state. One of his hunts was ruined last fall when he and his dog, Zeke, came face-to-face with a wolf and had to hightail it back to the car, he said.

“If they don’t do something appropriate soon, it’s going to migrate to the three ‘S’ method - shoot, shovel and shut up,” Waller said. “People are just going to start taking things in their own hands.”

But others say the state’s current management methods are working.

“You send people out there hunting wolves, it’s going to screw everything up. It’s just not a good idea,” said Jim Olson of Eau Claire, who represents the Wisconsin Sierra Club chapter on a group of wolf stakeholders that works with the DNR.

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Tagged as: Conservation, Eagle River, Grouse, Hunting, Legislation, Sierra Club, Wisconsin, Wolves

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