The Wisconsin DNR released a revised draft of the 2023 Wolf Management Plan earlier this month. The plan will go to the Natural Resource Board during their meeting on Oct. 25. But agriculture groups are saying this revision “fails farmers.”
WFBF President Kevin Krentz says the plan “completely ignores rural Wisconsinites living in primary wolf habitat.” He says the process “allows out-of-state environmentalists to determine the management of Wisconsin’s apex predator.”
Krentz advises the Natural Resources Board to send the 2023 Wolf Management Plan back to the department. He says NRB should instruct DNR to hold a public hearing in Wisconsin’s wolf range to address the concerns of rural residents.
“We need to do better for our farmers who live in wolf country,” Krentz says.
The revised plan largely mirrors the draft plan submitted nearly a year ago, according to the agricultural groups. The concerns of the farm groups remain unaddressed in the latest iteration.
“The plan fails to set a numeric population goal, expands secondary wolf habitat into central Wisconsin, and comment periods were held online while never addressing rural Wisconsin residents in-person, allowing out-of-state activists to have a greater voice and undermining the hearing process,” says Brady Zuck, president of the Wisconsin Cattlemen’s Association. “This is unacceptable.”
Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation, Wisconsin Cattlemen’s Association and Wisconsin Corn Growers Association are seeking to delist the gray wolf from the endangered species list.
“Our farm groups are displeased that the Department did not hold any meeting or public hearing on wolf issues or concerns in Northern Wisconsin with the farmers who are most affected by wolf predations,” says Mark Hoffman, president of the Wisconsin Corn Growers Association. “Farmers need to be part of this conversation.”
See the draft: https://widnr.widen.net/view/pdf/vkmkkl3vhg/Wolf-Management-Plan_Revised-Draft_7.31.2023.pdf?t.download=true&u=ulxjqn
See more on the wolf management plan process: https://dnr.wisconsin.gov/topic/wildlifehabitat/wolfmanagementplan