Wisconsin’s Gray Wolf Population Delisted
News Release Published: January 29, 2007 by the Central Office
Contact(s): Adrian Wydeven, (715) 762-1363
MADISON – The US Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S Department of the Interior today announced the delisting of the gray wolf in Wisconsin. After a period of 30 days management of the gray wolf will be dictated by the Wisconsin Wolf Management Plan, approved by the Natural Resources Board and the US Fish and Wildlife Service in 1999.
“This truly is a success story – one that we can all be proud of,” DNR Secretary Scott Hassett said. “Wisconsin has some great natural places – many of them preserved forever by the Stewardship fund – that support and nurture wildlife like our wolves. I for one am looking forward to the day when I hear a wolf’s call on a cold winter night.”
Unregulated shooting and trapping, encouraged by a legislative state bounty, resulted in the extirpation of the wolf in Wisconsin by 1960. Wolves reentered the state on their own from Minnesota in the mid-1970s. After enjoying protected status for the past three decades, the wolf population in Wisconsin has grown to an estimated 500 today. The DNR’s target wolf population for the state is 350.
The delisting becomes effective 30 days after publication in Federal Register. At that date, management of the population will be turned over to the DNR, enabling the agency and, in specific circumstances, landowners, to use lethal control in dealing with depredating wolves.
“The gray wolf will still be a protected wild animal, delisting it gives the DNR the necessary tools – tools we haven’t always had – to deal with problem wolves. We are standing ready to take responsibility for managing our state’s wolf population,” Secretary Hassett said.
The state will continue to reimburse livestock, pet, and bear dog owners for verified wolf depredations.
For a copy of Wisconsin’s Wolf Management Plan, visit the Wisconsin Wolf Management Plan.
For information on the USFWS announcement, including media-ready b-roll and photographs, visit the US Fish and Wildlife Service [exit DNR].
