Patricia Randolph's Madravenspeak: Wolf hunt rules dishonor wolves, tribes and state
"What can I do to stop this? I am mortified that our state, a state that I have loved for 65 years, would do this, or allow it." ~ Sharon Dee
On July 17, the Natural Resources Board convened to establish the rules for this year's wolf hunt.
The shy, majestic wolf spoke through the wisdom of the Indian elders. The Indian tribes stood with Mahwaew, brother wolf, as prophesied, to guide man back to the natural way. Biologists and elders from the Mohicans, Menomonee, Bad River Band, and Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission graciously brought the Great Creator and the Wolf Clan into the room.
The Indian Creation story has the Wolf as a prominent figure
Mike Wiggins, of the Eagle Clan, honored his blood brother as a powerful guide and symbol of the little wilderness we have left. He spoke of the four orders created by the Great Spirit — first, the physical world; second, plants; third, animals; and finally, humans. Man was created last, and in order of primacy, is the least important. Man is totally dependent on the first three orders of life to exist, but the first three do not need man.
Wolf pack in Wisconsin
Wolf has fled man's expansion and now has nowhere to retreat and will pass out of existence. The Indians believe the Anishinaabe will follow, and all mankind will suffer the same fate. Or will a new paradigm of wealth be measured, not in materialism and political power, but as clean water, fresh air and pristine wilderness?
Jim Zorn of the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission said this wolf assault is a very difficult thing for the tribes, whose cultural view is that wolves are valuable for themselves, for their living presence.
The Wolf figures prominently in Wisconsin Indian lore
The Indian tribes requested their reservations be no-kill zones, with a six-mile buffer zone because wolves do not know man's boundaries. The Natural Resources Board agreed to a zero quota on the reservations, but refused the buffer.
The governor's office took 898 calls against the wolf hunt and 20 calls for it. Yet the board's ruling was a foregone conclusion. The entire system serves only hunters, trappers and hounders, who want maximum killing on all public lands.
The wolf hunt bill, Act 169, allows not just killing, but torture.
Rep. Scott Suder, author of the bill, circumvented scientists, DNR staff, and the public, instead setting much of the rule by legislation. Suder claimed transparency and citizen inclusion — however, although the "hearing" in the Assembly was known to the hunting/hounding elite, the public was given only 24 hours notice.
Richard Thiel, retired DNR wolf biologist, showed how Suder's claim to the Legislature that he had worked with DNR scientists was untrue. Thiel named the DNR wolf experts, none of whom were consulted in drafting this legislation. Adrian Wydeven, a major player in wolf recovery, has been conspicuously absent throughout.
Wolf pack in Wisconsin
Thiel also laid out Suder's flawed dependence on the 1999 wolf management plan estimate of minimum wolf numbers (350), reinterpreted as a top "goal" by Suder. Thiel reminded us that science is not static — the DNR depends on five- and 10-year revisions of management plans, particularly for such an iconic endangered species. Recently retired, Thiel gave 13 pages of testimony citing new science that makes this proposed wolf overkill scientifically blasphemous. View his testimony at wildlifeethic.org.
Thiel, UW-Madison professor Adrian Treves (head of the predator co-existence project with 12 years of study of Wisconsin wolves), and Tim Van Deelen, UW-Madison wildlife ecologist, all testified at the July 17 meeting, urging an immediate revision of the 1999 Wolf Management Plan, which they said is outdated and irrelevant. They urged targeting the 10 percent of wolf territory that experiences depredation, or using just the existing 100 landowner permits on specific animals. They prescribed that large swaths of central and northern forests without human conflict be established as refuge for intact, healthy wolf packs.
The board, which could have moderated the extreme damage of Act 169 by delaying a hunt one to five years for further study, setting modest or zero quotas, establishing no-kill zones, and severely limiting permits, did none of that.
The board voted to issue 10 times the licenses of the set quota: at 201, issue 2,010 kill licenses. Scientists recommend three times the quota for the number of licenses. The board voted to target 24 percent of the state's 850 wolves indiscriminately across the state in six zones, ranging from 20 percent to 75 percent annihilation per zone. The DNR estimates an annual illegal kill of 161 wolves; 100 landowner depredation licenses are already issued, with 39 killed so far. Car kills are estimated at 34.
The DNR admits the killing could result in 56 percent overall human-caused destruction of wolves in Wisconsin in this first year – 480 wolves, bringing the 850 population close to the 350 mark for relisting federally. Disease, unreported pup mortality from months of stress and killing are not factored in.
We dishonor ourselves profoundly. Wisconsin has taken a fork in the road.
Patricia Randolph of Portage is a longtime activist for wildlife. madravenspeak@gmail.com
The shy, majestic wolf spoke through the wisdom of the Indian elders. The Indian tribes stood with Mahwaew, brother wolf, as prophesied, to guide man back to the natural way. Biologists and elders from the Mohicans, Menomonee, Bad River Band, and Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission graciously brought the Great Creator and the Wolf Clan into the room.
The Indian Creation story has the Wolf as a prominent figure
Mike Wiggins, of the Eagle Clan, honored his blood brother as a powerful guide and symbol of the little wilderness we have left. He spoke of the four orders created by the Great Spirit — first, the physical world; second, plants; third, animals; and finally, humans. Man was created last, and in order of primacy, is the least important. Man is totally dependent on the first three orders of life to exist, but the first three do not need man.
Wolf pack in Wisconsin
Wolf has fled man's expansion and now has nowhere to retreat and will pass out of existence. The Indians believe the Anishinaabe will follow, and all mankind will suffer the same fate. Or will a new paradigm of wealth be measured, not in materialism and political power, but as clean water, fresh air and pristine wilderness?
Jim Zorn of the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission said this wolf assault is a very difficult thing for the tribes, whose cultural view is that wolves are valuable for themselves, for their living presence.
The Wolf figures prominently in Wisconsin Indian lore
The Indian tribes requested their reservations be no-kill zones, with a six-mile buffer zone because wolves do not know man's boundaries. The Natural Resources Board agreed to a zero quota on the reservations, but refused the buffer.
The governor's office took 898 calls against the wolf hunt and 20 calls for it. Yet the board's ruling was a foregone conclusion. The entire system serves only hunters, trappers and hounders, who want maximum killing on all public lands.
The wolf hunt bill, Act 169, allows not just killing, but torture.
Rep. Scott Suder, author of the bill, circumvented scientists, DNR staff, and the public, instead setting much of the rule by legislation. Suder claimed transparency and citizen inclusion — however, although the "hearing" in the Assembly was known to the hunting/hounding elite, the public was given only 24 hours notice.
Richard Thiel, retired DNR wolf biologist, showed how Suder's claim to the Legislature that he had worked with DNR scientists was untrue. Thiel named the DNR wolf experts, none of whom were consulted in drafting this legislation. Adrian Wydeven, a major player in wolf recovery, has been conspicuously absent throughout.
Wolf pack in Wisconsin
Thiel also laid out Suder's flawed dependence on the 1999 wolf management plan estimate of minimum wolf numbers (350), reinterpreted as a top "goal" by Suder. Thiel reminded us that science is not static — the DNR depends on five- and 10-year revisions of management plans, particularly for such an iconic endangered species. Recently retired, Thiel gave 13 pages of testimony citing new science that makes this proposed wolf overkill scientifically blasphemous. View his testimony at wildlifeethic.org.
Thiel, UW-Madison professor Adrian Treves (head of the predator co-existence project with 12 years of study of Wisconsin wolves), and Tim Van Deelen, UW-Madison wildlife ecologist, all testified at the July 17 meeting, urging an immediate revision of the 1999 Wolf Management Plan, which they said is outdated and irrelevant. They urged targeting the 10 percent of wolf territory that experiences depredation, or using just the existing 100 landowner permits on specific animals. They prescribed that large swaths of central and northern forests without human conflict be established as refuge for intact, healthy wolf packs.
The board, which could have moderated the extreme damage of Act 169 by delaying a hunt one to five years for further study, setting modest or zero quotas, establishing no-kill zones, and severely limiting permits, did none of that.
The board voted to issue 10 times the licenses of the set quota: at 201, issue 2,010 kill licenses. Scientists recommend three times the quota for the number of licenses. The board voted to target 24 percent of the state's 850 wolves indiscriminately across the state in six zones, ranging from 20 percent to 75 percent annihilation per zone. The DNR estimates an annual illegal kill of 161 wolves; 100 landowner depredation licenses are already issued, with 39 killed so far. Car kills are estimated at 34.
The DNR admits the killing could result in 56 percent overall human-caused destruction of wolves in Wisconsin in this first year – 480 wolves, bringing the 850 population close to the 350 mark for relisting federally. Disease, unreported pup mortality from months of stress and killing are not factored in.
We dishonor ourselves profoundly. Wisconsin has taken a fork in the road.
Patricia Randolph of Portage is a longtime activist for wildlife. madravenspeak@gmail.com
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