Last week, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) released a draft of the updated Wolf Management Plan for public review and comment. This management plan laid out a holistic approach ensuring the states wolf population remains healthy and secure while balancing the public’s diverse interests.

The DNR is holding a 60 day public review and comment period during which the public can offer feedback on the draft plan. The 60 day period began November 10, 2022 and ends on January 10, 2023. The draft plan and instructions for giving feedback can be found on the DNR’s Wolf Management Plan webpage. Because this is such an important issue for all of Wisconsin, the DNR is providing an extended 60 day review period to offer all interested parties the opportunity to digest, reflect and provide feedback on the draft plan.

The proposed plan was developed in consideration of many factors, including public input, consultations with Wisconsin’s Tribal Nations, scientific literature reviews, a study on current public attitudes towards wolves and potential outcomes of various management decisions.

The draft plan aims to effectively balance the tradeoffs between three main objectives:

• Ensuring a healthy and sustainable wolf population to fulfil its ecological role.

• Addressing and reducing wolf related conflicts.

• Providing multiple benefits associated with the wolf population, including hunting, trapping and sightseeing.

In addition, the plan details proposals to increase public understanding of wolves, identify important scientific research to be conducted and outlines steps to ensure collaboration on science based wolf management in Wisconsin.

What’s staying the same in the plan? The draft plan provides that DNR staff will continue to monitor wolves each year and address wolf related conflicts (consistent with current law). The DNR will continue supporting and conducting scientific research and science based decision making. Collaboration with other agencies, Tribal Nations, stakeholder groups and the public on items of mutual importance remains a department policy.

What are the changes proposed in the plan? The plan proposes several changes to align the DNR’s wolf management strategy with the current state of the wolf populations. The available science and the perspectives of a diverse public, such as:

• Moving away from a single numeric population goal and instead using an adaptive management process focused on balancing the three main objectives above.

• Reducing harvest registration times and issuing zone specific wolf harvest permits to improve the department’s ability to effectively meet harvest quotas.

• Adding mechanisms to address localized concerns, including wolf harvest concerns near tribal reservation boundaries and focused wolf harvest in areas with a history of livestock conflicts.

• Revising wolf management zone boundaries to better reflect current wolf distribution and habitat.