Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Two dead wolves....

I assume this to be a tongue in cheek comment, right? Forgive me for having to check. The Michigan DNR estimates the wolf number in this state at slightly over 500. (Funny that this number never seems to go up) They attribute as many as 25,000 deer deaths to wolves each year. My father in law and I did a little math and find this to be a pretty conservative number based on some bits of research the DNR has revealed.

The $1K reward is chicken feed. Take a look at the reward offered for the wolf that was killed in the UP of Michigan. So far, no one has been arrested for this.

The wolf killer should be GIVEN the $7K as a reward for controlling the da*n things. The wolves are out of control and there's no end in sight.

http://www.uppermichiganssource.com/news/story.aspx?id=391845

I just wish that Wyoming and the USFS would settle their dispute so we could hunt them. As long as we have to let them live here we ought to be able to control them. The Feds have blown smoke up our collective arses about how many we would have. I don't mind having them at all, but let us control the population. Heck we had wolves before the "reintroduced" them. I saw wolves long before we got the Canadian variety. Like him or not, got to hand it to Freudenthal for not caving to the Feds!

Feds are bitchin because WY's plan is to have them protected in the park (of course), limited trophy hunting within a certain area outside the park. Outside the trophy area they are classified as predators. That is the part the USFS has heartburn about.

Source

I wasn't speaking for Michigan, but it seems you have the same problem as Minnesota - too many deer.

The MI DNR is full of BS as far as the wolves and deer numbers go. They should really come to the UP of Michigan and see what's really happening with the deer and wolves. I live here and see it every day. The deer kill taken by hunters from below the Bridge this past season was down 42%, so how does that equal too many deer? Many local hunters reported seeing NO DEER during the 15 day firearm deer season. Wolves however, appeared to be plentiful.

The MI DNR also stated that "they have to study the wolf/deer interaction to see what effect the wolves will have on the deer." Let's see if a person can figure this out for the desk jockey's in Lansing. A major predator and a prey species. I wonder what will happen if they interact?

In other words they've decided to waste a few million dollars and let it sit a while to ward off legal attacks from the liberals for a time. They'll get back to ya in about 10 years... by then there'll be too few deer to hunt and the liberals will celebrate their victory, at the expense of EVERYone.

If you've got too many wolves you guys better get to killing!

You're right.

The "Canadian" wolf thing is a lame attempt to suggest wolves aren't native to the lower 48.........of course, we could just as easily call all the wolves in Canada "American" wolves.............It's all the same DNA......


Casey

I'm with you there elk......



No, the feds ain't bitchin, Wyoming is. As I've written before, Wyoming sued --twice--lost both times, plus lost in fed appeals court, and held up the whole delisting process for Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming for almost 3 years during the lawsuits.

Finally, USFWS circumvented Wyoming and let Montana and Idaho go ahead with taking over managment of wolves and begin sport hunting seasons. Then that was held up for a year with the enviromental groups lawsuit when the fed court granted a temporary injunction, but the suit was eventually dismissed by the federal court within the year.


Casey

Semantics Casey. Wyoming bitches...Feds bitches....don't matter...result is the same. States should be allowed to run things as they see fit and not be blackmailed. Feds would not agree with WY plan and WY won't succumb to blackmail!

Well, if our economy was dependent on selling Lattes to bunny huggers, I might think wolves are no problem. But since A. the wolves introduced are the larger, more voracious Canadian type and B. they kill stuff just for fun, costing our ranchers thousands, I want them exterminated. You like wolves so much you can have 'em.

Well, just about as I expected. I see that the hypocrisy on this site continues to rule.

Meanwhile, and for the clueless, wolves were never reintroduced to Minnesota. I know that is a foreign concept to a lot of you, but it might really be true. They have been there for 12-15,000 years, or 6000 for you 'Young Earth People'.

Meanwhile deer have been re-introduced to Iowa along with elk in Arizona and countless other species (turkeys, pheasants, misc salmonids, etc.). Deer and elk are, of course, quite destructive to livestock, timber, crops, automobiles, and humans when they propell themselves at high speed. So, they come at a cost, and many would love to exterminate them for it - or get government subsidies for damages (even better for the socialist farmer/rancher out there). BTW, the Arizona Elk, like the Dakota bighorns are most decidedly NOT the same subspecies that originally inhabited those places.

So, wolves decimate everything in their path and then move on? Interesting. In my lifetime, deer in NE Minnesota where I grew up have exploded in number. While the wolf population has similarly grown. Seems to be no shortage of deer up there, nor wolves. How can that be?

I can see that the future of hunting is really not rosy. Hunters today are not interested in the wild. They are interested in targets. Hunting is not an ethical/emotional pursuit, it is a political objective. And the mouthpieces of the hunting community are doing themselves no favors in ignoring the roots of the game. The Erringtons, Leopolds, Roosevelts among so many others, roll in their graves in disgust.

Brent

I wish the Bison (the state "animal", I believe) could come back here on grand scale; yet talk about damage....

That one would get rejected back to the Stone Age.

Are your eyes brown????

Sorry, I'm definitely not your type. Check out the movie Broke Back Mountain for something more along your tastes.

Here I go......



Unfortunately for us free, independent, rugged individualist westerners, our economy (especially where much of the ranching occurs) is dependent on Federal lands. Which in case you aren't aware, are owned by all Americans--consequently all Americans have a say.



Larger and more voracious than what?, do tell.......



(Not true, but I'll play along)......
Sport hunters kill just for fun.



How much does public land below cost livestock grazing cost the American taxpayer?




Remember sport hunters kill just for fun--Now you may want to exterminate yourself, but leave me out of it, OK?

And before you make any assumptions, my great uncles homesteaded outside of Laramie over a century ago, and ranched Wyoming and Colorado. I grew up with my family running cows on public lands on the West Slope. I'm well aware of the perils and actual threats posed by predators. I'm also well aware of the cost differences between private and public grazing..........


Casey

If I ever see a Wolf I want it to be in my crosshairs. Cougars have already done enough damage to Deer and Elk numbers here in Oregon. Ken

Did anyone ever consider how many more elk and deer and even trout there would be in the mountains, on public land, if the cattle and domestic sheep were moved down to the prairie where we own our land. Most of those broke ranchers in the mountains that I've seen have helicopter pads, Lincoln and Cadillac SUVs, and hundreds of thousands of acres to graze that they don't even own. But you better have the latest maps and know where you are at or they'll tell you that they own everything for miles every direction -- even if it is BLM or Nat'l Forrest land.

How is a capitalist rancher on private property supposed to compete with that? Especially when they get those leases for nearly nothing and get to "count" their own cattle when they settle the grazing fees. When they fill the salebarns with cattle, they knock the heck out of the price of beef, and we had to pay several times what they did for pasture if we lease it. Most of you would be flabbergasted as to the size of the wild herds that could be sustained in the high country if the cattle hadn't of grazed it all off.

About every senator and congressman, state and national, that has come out of this state for a long time is tied to that gov't land, and you hear mostly what is best for them IMO. Wolves are just part of this hype too. It gets in their pockets. Outfitters, will say the same, they hunt those ranches too.

Yeah, They want to keep the game numbers high as well, then charge you a $1000 bucks or more to shoot "their" elk, but those herd numbers would be even higher yet if somebody told them not to graze land if it's not worth the going rate that it is on the private property at the bottom of the mountain.

Funny ...not! I was eluding to the fact that you are full of schitt! Damn straight you ain't my type! You are a liberal and a boy to boot. Sorry to disappoint you but I like women! Funny how you gayboys always refer to that movie. I never heard of it.

Common guy, we all know you are one of those closet types. They always scream the loudest. You just keep up your cover boy. Some guy out there will find you plenty cute (if not to bright).

Ahh, I see Brent beat me to it.

Like I said before, the one thing I am the most surprised about on the Campfire is an absence of a conservation ethic..........most of the guys here appear to have no idea how much of the wildlife (especially large mammals) was restored in the lower 48--replete with a lot of opposition and controversy, but without the benefit of the internet......



Casey