Legislators discuss wolf issues in northern Wisconsin

Arguably, no other species of wildlife in Wisconsin is currently as controversial as the wolf. Many in the north, and even in Central Wisconsin, live with wolves every day, and the problems seem to be more frequent in many locations than in the past.

U.S. Senate candidate Eric Hovde (left) listens as Representative Tom Tiffany speaks about his Trust the Science Act.
(Photo by Beckie Gaskill/Lakeland Times)

With the growing wolf population pushing into more human-inhabited areas, wolves have likely become more familiar with humans at an earlier age, meaning they are showing less fear of human presence. In some cases, such as the recent case of a wolf absconding with a small dog in Woodruff, the presence of humans seems to make little difference in the actions of some of these top-level predators.

Earlier this month, Hunter Nation national founder Keith Mark, U.S. Representative Tom Tiffany (R-Hazelhurst), and U.S Senate candidate Eric Hovde held a roundtable with other legislators and citizens of the north who had been affected by wolves. Readers may remember one of those, Nick Krueger, who chased a pack of wolves off of his hunting dogs in their run near his house in Arbor Vitae last winter.

Another concerned citizen was logger Henry Shenick from Enterprise Logging. He reported seeing wolves walk right up to his logging equipment many times, with close calls with wolves becoming more and more common.

Other legislators also attended the round table discussion. 

“A lot of people view it as just a northern Wisconsin issue,” Tiffany said. “It is a Wisconsin issue, because we see people that are affected by this as far as southwestern Wisconsin, certainly in Wisconsin Rapids, south of here. We’ve seen depredations down there, so it’s affecting people across Wisconsin.” He spoke about the recent issue in Woodruff as well, and then about how these animals are portrayed by those who do not live with them or understand them.

“The people that are portraying wolves as pets, as dogs, are doing a great injustice to people across Wisconsin and across America because those pets are being eaten alive and butchered an slaughtered here in Wisconsin and we are seeing it on a regular basis,” he said. “It is really having an impact on people’s lives.” 

Senator Mark Felzkowski (R-Tomahawk) shared the story of one of her constituents who no longer feels comfortable riding her bike due to the threat of wolves. She, too, has had a wolf in her backyard.
(Photo by Beckie Gaskill/Lakeland Times)Tiffany then spoke about his Trust the Science Act, which passed the House of Representatives and currently sits with the Senate. He said the federal government had failed in their efforts to manage the wolf, and that control should not return back to the state, just as the state is allowed to manage all other animal species. By not delisting the wolf, he said, the Endangered Species Act is in jeopardy. Wolves have recovered, he said, and should no longer be on that list. 

“I’ve walked into wolf kills with hounds,” Shenick said, as a bear hunter of 40 years. “It’s not a very pretty sight. And I don’t mean, it doesn’t take them hours. It takes them minutes to get rid of a dog. It’s a pretty gruesome sight. It’s pretty disappointing that people aren’t open minded enough to see exactly what these things are.” He said he was not calling for the elimination of wolves. He said he simply wanted some type of management, just like all other predators. He sets up hunts for children with terminal illnesses and disabled veterans.

“It’s very concerning to me when you have a guy in a wheelchair and you’ve got him out there, and people might laugh when they hear it, but you’ve got to be concerned about those wolves because they don’t care about anything. All they care about is food.” 

Shenick also spoke about wolves near his logging equipment while people are working. They show no fear of humans, or of the large, loud logging equipment.

“Make no mistake about this,” Mark said. “This isn’t happenstance. This is planned. If they can’t take away our guns in any sort of legislation —  they will never ban hunting in a valid initiative. But, if there’s no deer, there’s no deer hunters. If there’s no deer hunters, there’s no deer rifles. And there you have their long-game plan.” He said anti-hunting groups are well-funded and will use those deep pockets to raise their voices above those of sportsmen and women. He said the “We the people” in the hunting community need to take a stand against this long game and get the attention of their legislators, just as this current meeting was doing.

He said Representative Tiffany’s bill, when it was first introduced, had a 4% chance of passing. However, Mark said, Tiffany did the hard work to get what was once an unpopular bill passed through the House and moved on to the Senate.

“What does it take?” Felzkowski asked after recounting a story of her neighbor being shadowed by a wolf while riding her bicycle. “Does it take a child being killed? A person being mauled? Then will we finally get the attention of Madison? Is it going to be your child? Is it going to be your grandson?” 

She said the saddest part, to her, was the disconnect between her urban counterparts and the urban legislators in Madison.

“They say, ‘Oh, Mary. We have coyotes. We know what you’re talking about. We have coyotes in our garbage,’ Well, the disconnect between a coyote and a wolf. When we snowmobile down the Iron Gate Road, they aren’t afraid of the snowmobiles.” 

She mentioned Shenick’s experiences with wolves between his processor and his truck. She continued to say it is ludicrous that the state manages every other predator, but is not allowed to manage wolves. She agreed with Mark’s statement that the unmanaged wolf population was a real threat to the hunting public and any attempt to get the next generation into hunting and providing their own food for their families as generations before have done.

“If they want to kill a culture, they’re sure doing it the right way,” Felzkowski said, adding that it is not just the hunting culture, but the threat of wolves extended to people walking their dogs, berry picking and even snowmobiling. Her constituents no longer feel comfortable doing these things without being armed.

“Everywhere I go up north, this is an issue I hear from everybody,” Hovde said. “And yet it just goes to show how broken Washington is that it cannot address almost anything today.” He said there was a multitude of issues that could not be properly addressed. While wolves were put on the Endangered Species List at the right time, once populations had recovered, nothing was done, and now the pendulum had swung all the way to the extreme and now it is a safety issue as well as an economic issue.

“You’re right,” Hovde said to Felzkowski. “Is that what it’s going to take for them to react? Sadly, I don’t even think that would be the case. Because, look, Washington D.C. has sat largely silent when we’ve lost over 100,000 of our young people a year to fentanyl, and they have done nothing.” He said it also goes to show that the farther away from a community decisions are made, the less the community is taken into account. Policies are enacted by people who are not effected by those policies, he said. Hovde said it is a fundamental problem with Washington right now. He said real legislation is needed to fix the problem and to bring down the wolf population to an acceptable level. He said his reason for holding the meeting in Rothschild was to listen and to learn from the people who were most affected to learn the best way to solve the problem.

Felzkowski also talked about the economic effects of wolves. She said some of her constituents now go out West to hunt rather than hunt their own 1,400 acres.

“They’d sell the land if it had any value” she said. “But the land values have depreciated because of this.” She said hotels in her district are no longer full for the nine-day hunting season. The lack of hunters trickles down to gas stations, bars, restaurants and other businesses in the Northwoods.

Tiffany agreed that many hunters would still hunt. But they would be going to other places, whether that be to the West or to Kansas.

“The question I have, is will you support the Trust the Science Act?” Tiffany asked Hovde.

“One hundred percent. One hundred percent,” Hovde responded. 

While Hovde said he would support the Trust the Science Act, Tiffany said, Senator Tammy Baldwin had said she could support delisting, but has not moved to support the Trust the Science Act. Tiffany said she has said she supported delisting, but her actions had told a somewhat different story.

Mark reminded that while Hovde was trying to get to Washington to fix this issue and others, Tammy Baldwin could fix it already, but she had not.

Tiffany said, in the West, the states have been allowed to manage their wolf populations. In places such as Eastern Oregon, Montana, Idaho and Washington, wolves have been managed properly after that authority has been returned to the states.

National media and the media in Madison, Hovde said, are part of the problem when it comes to issues such as the wolves. They do not give this side of the story any press, he said, and it is a problem that is difficult to overcome.

“It all comes down to getting people put in the right places in government that are going to listen to the people,” Hovde said.

“Using God’s greatest renewable pantry, God’s great outdoors, as a political pawn, is shameful in my opinion,” Mark said. He then turned to speak about the capacity of the room in which the meeting was being held. 

“If we have 4,000 people in this room, somebody from the city would come and write these folks a citation,” Mark said. “There is only a limited amount of resource in a specific space. Yet in Madison, they can’t even agree on a wolf management plan because they won’t set a population goal for wolves. If you go to any bowling alley in Wisconsin, there’s a capacity, this is the number that can be in the bowling alley… yet, in Madison, they won’t give you the number of wolves that can habitat Wisconsin.”

Hunters need to turn out to vote

“Hunters have the opportunity now to be able to say this is a major issue for me, with whatever else they choose,” Tiffany said. “But if this is a major issue to you, this is your opportunity to send a very clear message. Because it was done years ago that that very clear message was sent.”  In 2016, Tiffany said, the election was decided by 20,000 votes. Then it was decided by that same margin again. He said there are tens of thousands of hunters that are not voting.

Mark said the most important thing hunters could do was to get out and vote. He said only 50% of hunters in the state were registered to vote. He urged those who were registered to get out and vote and also urged others to get registered and go to the polls. He said he had been critical of Baldwin’s lack of action on the wolf issue, but he was going to be even more critical of hunters in Wisconsin who do not turn out to vote. 

“If hunters, the best that we the people has to offer, don’t get out to vote in 2024, we will deserve every bad policy that gets shoved down our throats,” Mark said. “I beg and beseech all of my fellow hunters to get registered and get out to vote. Do your homework. Find the good ones. Weed out the bad ones by your vote.”

Biden administration announcement

At the time of this writing, the Biden administration took the first steps to revive a Trump-era rule to remove the gray wolf from the Endangered Species List. This would return management to the states as well as creating a state-mandated hunt for Wisconsin hunters. It would also allow for a wider range of management options for those affected by these top-level predators.  However, with the election looming, some question the sincerity of this move.

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