DNR, NRB accused of meeting violations regarding wolf management plan

The Great Lakes Wildlife Alliance filed a suit last week in Dane County Circuit Court, asking the judge to declare the Department of Natural Resource’s (DNR’s) wolf management plan invalid and void. The Great Lakes Wildlife Alliance is also known as Friends of Wisconsin Wolf and Wildlife. The organization is self-described as a “group of diverse citizens, non-consumptive users, animal welfare advocates, local farmers, politicians, small business owners and sustenance hunters who want to move wildlife management towards an ethical, science-based, democratic vision of wildlife conservation that respects diversity and the intrinsic value of all life,” according to their website. 

They asked that the Natural Resources Board (NRB) and DNR staff be found to have violated open meetings laws. The suit also alleges that, although many comments were submitted that provided a high degree of scientific information, there was no evidence the DNR took those comments into consideration when drafting the plan.

Further, the complaint alleges the DNR and NRB also attended three listening sessions held by a group of conservation organizations, including the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation, the Wisconsin Alliance of Sporting Dogs, that were held after the pubic comment period had ended. These listening sessions were held in February, April and July and were attended by then-DNR secretary Adam Payne as well as some members of the NRB, according to the lawsuit. According to the complaint, Great Lakes Wildlife Alliance members were not allowed at the April and July meetings, but it made no mention of the February meeting in that context. After these listening sessions were held, the complaint stated, the wolf draft management plan was revised. The complaint also stated the meetings were given without proper notice as the NRB had enough members in attendance at the meetings to form a quorum.

“The Wolf Plan and its approval should be set aside as invalid because the NRB and DNR engaged in unlawful and discriminatory procedures in developing it, including violating Wisconsin’s open meeting law and Administrative Procedure Act,” the lawsuit states. 

Further the complaint alleges the comments and scientific research of the Great Lakes Wildlife Alliance were ignored and disfavored in the revision and approval of the 2023 wolf management plan. The complaint calls for this to be determined as a discriminatory practice. 

The wolf management plan has been called by many in the DNR a compromise, with no side of the issue completely getting all they wanted in the plan. For instance, groups such as the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation have asked for a fixed population number in the state, with that number being 350 wolves. Both the 1999 and 2007 plan held 350 as a population the state could hold and still have a sustainable population of wolves in the state. However, the plan takes an adaptive management approach to managing wolves rather than committing to a specific number as an acceptable threshold. Republican legislators are currently advancing a bill that would require the wolf management plan to contain a specific number as a population goal.

Beckie Gaskill may be reached via email at [email protected].