Wolf delisting bill

[Bullwinkle]

I see Liz Chaney and our own WI Shawn Duffy introduced a bill to give wolf management back to the states. The whitehouse killed it last time. Go Trump Go

 

[The Famous Grouse]

The whitehouse killed it last time. Go Trump Go

As a point of order, the Whitehouse has nothing to do with the ban on wolf hunting and Trump or any other president can't do anything on their own about the ban on wolf hunting.

Control over wolf management and wolf hunting was pulled away from the central states by U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell. This liberal east coast judge overturned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decision to lift protections for gray wolves in the western Great Lakes states. The reason she gave was that the USFWS had failed to explain how wolf hunts did not "threaten" the species. However it was never the job of the USFWS to "explain" anything because the management had been turned over to the states and it was therefore a state decision to allow wolf hunting, therefore this judge's whole line of reasoning is irrational. The duty to consider the impact of hunting on any species lies with the legal management agency and in this case it was the states.

Unfortunately, the Whitehouse cannot overturn this decision. It can only be overturned by either a legal challenge in a higher court (a very long road) OR by Congress first passing a law that then the President could sign. We finally have the CONGRESSIONAL ACTION on this front.

But don't hold your breath. Wolfie cuddlers and liberal judges from the east coast could still try subvert the will of the Midwestern people. All that's needed is for some new group to challenge the new law on some technicality and if they are allowed to venue shop a legal challenge like they did with the original blockage, they can take the new law to court in New York or DC and, again, get it blocked again.

What we need is some state government from the Midwest to refuse to kowtow to east coast liberal judges who have no authority here. Once we are given control over wolves, MN, WI, and MI should ALL pass laws that state we consider the decision final and by law we will no longer honor any Federal interference in the matter. This giving us legal control, then yanking it back, then giving us control, then yanking it back is BS.

Grouse

 

[Bullwinkle]

With the house, senate and whitehouse you'd think the republicans could get this done once and for all

I continue to hear horror stories about wolves and screwing up properties. I am going to take it real easy on the does until these wolves are being managed.

 

[The Famous Grouse]

Well, if you've got property in the wolf zone, wolves are now a fact of life and that isn't going to change no matter which party holds power. The fact of the matter is that wolves are back in a big way now and hunting kills will be a drop in the bucket of the overall population.

The big "win" I'm hoping for is that state agencies will be able to grant permits to landowners quickly to deal with wolves when they cause a loss to landowners. I'm looking for a day when "loss" isn't just defined as "killing cattle". Out of control wolf numbers are causing losses to landowners way beyond just farmer/ranchers and IMO it's not fair that only some kinds of businesses get favored for protection from wolves.

Grouse

 

[Bullwinkle]

I am on the edge of the wolf population in WI and in an area not planned to have wolves. My hope is once they start shootimg and trapping them they retreat back to the big timber areas and out of farm country. They don't belong in farm country. It's crazy how we pay for wolf damages. Tax dollars wasted

 

[The Famous Grouse]

I am on the edge of the wolf population in WI and in an area not planned to have wolves.

I admire your optimism. I guess somebody forgot to share the plan with the wolves here in MN because they have been down south in the farm/cattle country for over a decade now. I doubt your Wisconsin wolves are going to be sticking to "the plan", but I hope they do.

I think there's a big piece that people who should know better are missing about what is/isn't the "wolf range". My belief isthat these ideas of the so-called "wolf range" were formulated in the 19th and early 20th century and are now obsolete. This has led to wrong assumptions about what range the wolves WILL eventually occupy in the modern day.

In MN and northern WI, the primary big game prey of wolves historically would have been woodland caribou and moose, NOT deer. The "range" of wolves is defined almost entirely by the range of this historic prey. So the ideas of the historical range of wolves as being so called "big timber" areas is totally obsolete.

Historically, whitetail deer were not present in any great numbers anywhere near as far north as they are in the present day. It is doubtful, for example, in MN that there was anything more than a scant number of whitetail deer anywhere north of the middle of the state.

Obviously, 2 things have changed. The primary large prey of wolves is now almost exclusively whitetail deer in all areas of MN, WI, and MI. There are no populations of woodland caribou left and almost no moose left. So the wolves are going to go wherever the prey goes. They aren't going to hang around in the "big woods" anymore because there's nothing left there to eat. Not compared to the Old Country Buffet that IS central and southern MN, WI, etc.

My feeling is that Wisconsin will have wolf packs that routinely range to within spitting distance of 94 within a decade. I've been waiting for reliable reports of wolves south of a line between Forest lake and St. Cloud in MN. My estimate is within 5 years, sightings will be common south of this line. I already have seen trail cam pics of wolves south of Mora, so they are ranging less than 30 miles from this line right now.

I don't know if anyone has a truely accurate projection for what the REAL range of wolves will be in the modern era. I can tell you right now, though, they ain't sticking to the "big woods", that much has already been debunked here in MN at least. Hopfully in WI you have wolves with better manners.

Grouse