Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Wisconsin Tribes sue to stop Wolf hunt

Two practical and one political reasons they don't. Bears are very hard to count accurately. The only way to do it is with a DNA hair-snag capture/recapture program, taking 3 or more years and bookoo bucks. Without "sound science" they face lawsuits from the crazies. And even then, with the science behind them. Defending against lawsuits is not a good use of limited departmental funds, especially if you lose.

We faced the same thing here on the Kenai, Pen. and elsewhere in Alaska. Everyone knew there were far more moose-calf-killing brown bears on the Kenai than the Department "estimates" (using a MT model!) on which they based a very limited number of permits. The biologists admitted it, but knew if they upped the permits or season, they would be sued. When they did get the funds for the DNA sampling, there were about twice as many bears as the official estimate. An increase in permits /season followed.

Same thing happened in the Anchorage Bowl with brown bear estimates. About 3X IIRC. Danged things were running all over town, with few people knowing it.

In Interior, during moose calving season in a low pop. area that could support many more moose, F&G instituted a program to non-lethally remove as many black bears as they could for a period of weeks. Sows with cubs were left. They moved more than 3 times as many bears as they first estimated they would. The moose population did rebound. One bear moved 60 miles away was recaptured several days later in the original capture area - he knew a good thing when he saw it, and where!

Wolves are easier, since one or two radio-collared animals can pin-point the entire pack. The fact, as mentioned, is that so many wolves were killed in so short a time indicates a far larger population than officially acknowledged. The kill was replaced, and likely more, by the spring puppies. The wolf population was reduced for only a few months. To be maximally effective, a hunt should be held during the gestation period, and boy howdy, won't that raise a howl!

It is a biological fact that when population mortality is increased, so is the effort to reproduce if possible. Alaska has shown that to give a boost to depleted ungulate pops. strongly impacted by wolves, the wolf population in the area must be reduced by at least 80% for 3 to 5 consecutive years.before the culling can be relaxed. Several years later, the wolf population will be at or above the previous level.

As a former AK Governor, Wally Hickle, once said, "We can't just let Nature run wild!"

Skane, you did the right thing by selling. I have a cabin about 3 miles from Skane. It is through the woods however. It is loaded with wolves. This spring there were wolf tracks all over the place. I'm likely putting mine up for sale too. It is not even worth the taxes to have land up there , not to mention the work and the money sitting there if I do sell. Also, those guys with the 300 acres down the road sold just last week.

That is messed up you folks are selling your land and cabins up there! It pains me to hear about it as I know how peaceful and enjoyable an option that real estate can be! FUBAR!

I have not see a buck during the gun season , including several muzzleloading seasons since 2009, and my son has not seen one since 2012. We hunt it all weekend and many times the next week and even muzzleloader season sometimes. It really is that bad in NW WIsconsin for deer hunting.

Governor Evers has recently amended many of the gaming compacts, I would not doubt if this is another ploy by the tribes to increase their power. Unfortunately When the tribes started spearing again that led to a lot of Real Estate up North being sold and bought up by guess who ...

The bear population by Stevens Point is sky-rocketing! Almost every property by us has bear sign and we have a bunch of them on camera yet nobody is hunting them by us.
I have nine years of points already for zone B by Eagle River and there is a pile of them up there. When I ran with the dog hunters they would tree three bears before a kill was made many times because of all the small bears.

We are not seeing Wolf sign by us fortunately but a ton of Coyotes this year and deer numbers are way up. I had 12 in the field by me last night and more in the corn.

Yep. It's gotten pretty bad. Such a shame. All that beautiful country to roam and there's just not much for game out there anymore. Our deer hunting group and most others in our area are dwindling. The tradition is slowly dying. Kills me that I'm looking to hunt the southern part of WI or a different state with my kids. Gun season used to be my favorite week of the year. Hunted 4-5 days a week from early November through December ML season for years. This year I might not take time away from work to hunt much more than the opener and a few days ML. Going on more and more western hunts, which, don't get me wrong, is fun, but I absolutely loved hunting big woods whitetails and the tradition and culture that was interrelated with it in WI.