Who Should Decide How to Manage Wolves?

Who Should Decide How to Manage Wolves?
There are about 700 wolves in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. (Photo: Eva Blue)

Who should decide how a state manages its gray wolf population? After the Trump administration removed the animals from the endangered species list last year, many states were left to determine how to handle their ever-growing wolf packs.

If you ask Michigan state Sen. Ed McBroom, only those residents who live in close proximity to wolves should have a say in how that species is managed.

The wolf population in Michigan is relegated entirely to the state’s Upper Peninsula. Sen. McBroom just introduced a bill that would only allow residents of the UP to sit on the influential wolf management advisory council.

“Nobody would accept the idea of only having people from the U.P. deciding what goes on with the downstate elk herd,” McBroom told local media. If downstate residents want a stake in the wolf debate, he said, “we’d be happy” to entertain the idea of relocating wolves below the bridge that separates the UP from the rest of the state.

SEE ALSO: Wisconsin Wolf Hunters More Successful Than Anticipated: Culled 97 Over Quota

The council is not a decision-making body, but it does advise the state’s Natural Resources Commission, which sets wolf management policy.

Currently, the council must include DNR Director Dan Eichinger or a designee, plus members representing conservation, hunting or fishing interests, tribal government, agriculture and animal advocacy. Members can come from any part of the state, but right now only one member lives in the UP, according to McBroom.

If McBroom’s bill passes, members would still have to come from each interest group, but they would have to reside in the UP. If the wolves migrate outside the UP, McBroom’s bill stipulates that a majority of the commission would still have to come from the UP.

Though the commission is designed to hold considerable sway in setting wolf management regulations, they have yet to meet after members were appointed three months ago.

SEE ALSO: USFWS: The Gray Wolf Has Recovered in Lower 48, Will Be Taken Off Endangered Species List

McBroom’s bill is especially contentious as the Commission decides whether to allow wolf hunting in the state. Right now, it is still illegal to kill gray wolves unless they are actively attacking livestock or a dog. But the state’s pro- and anti-hunting lobbies are working to set the state’s management strategy as the population grows to over 700 individuals.

Wolf hunting is currently legal in several states with large wolf populations, including Idaho, Montana, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. Idaho made headlines recently after passing a bill that allows hunters to reduce the population from 1,500 to the originally agreed-upon size of 150. The legislature also expanded the methods hunters and trappers can use to take wolves.

McBroom’s bill is scheduled for a hearing Wednesday in the Senate Natural Resources Committee, which he chairs.

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  • Paul Rosoff June 29, 2021, 1:04 pm

    So wolves need to be reduced in size? Is that the cookie or the mushroom?
    The other opinion is really well said – if you’re still in elementary school.

  • Paul Rosoff June 29, 2021, 1:01 pm

    Let’s add some truth to the article: Ranchers are compensated for animals killed by wolves. Therefore, they blame as many deaths as possible on wolves,ignoring deaths from natural causes and coyotes which, it is said, kill 10 times more livestock animals than wolves (who generally don’t attack livestock but hunt their natural prey). Wolves kill coyotes but those wolf murderers never tell people that as they want the money they get as compensation.
    Reintroducing wolves into the environments where they have been eliminated has actually rebalanced whole ecosystems, from plants to amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals.
    Humans have overpopulated this planet to such a degree it has actually changed climate worldwide in a semi-permanent fashion but people, generally incapable of understanding changes that takes place in time frames greater than their lifespans, simply disregard this and the other major degradations we have caused, using phrases like these things have happened before or it’s caused by natural processes, etc. Of course, we have religions – who are held to the lowest standards of evidence for their claims – backing up this suicidal behavior (on the species level) claiming some 1500-2500 years old writings as proof of their compulsive drive to what used to actually be important – that of “population replacement” (used to be!). Animal populations are balanced by natural causes, another process you would be hard pressed to find people to explain (pathetic). We claim blind population growth for ourselves but look at lemmings: they go insane when their population density exceeds a certain point. (It is thought this process might work in other mammal species, or all). Look around and tell me humans aren’t insane!

  • James June 29, 2021, 12:34 pm

    Who should manage wolves? Probably the Fish and Game Department. Certainly not wolf worshipping cults and rich big city women living in New York City and Los Angeles, who donate thousands of dollars to these groups.
    Many hunting banning cults want wolves in all 48 states, so the wolves will eat all of the deer, antelope, elk and moose. That way they can ban all hunting, which is what they want to do. Many of these hunting banning groups are joining up with gun banning groups. So their planning is, if hunting is banned, they will tell you that you no longer need any hunting firearms. and they should be banned.
    I read the animal worshipping cults want to introduce jaguars in the south west. We already have mountain lions and Badgers. Some of these groups want to expand grizzly bears throughout the Rocky Mountains region. Also some of these groups have actually called for introducing lions and elephants in the USA too. Yeah, I read that and said “what???”. There are hundreds of lions and tigers in southern Colorado at a “cat” sanctuary. Many ranchers and homeowners are worried about them excaping. All there is is fencing keeping them enclosed.
    Many of these wolf worshipping cults have “staged” photo opps with tame wolves, where they pet them and kiss them and say they are harmless to humans.
    Look back to WW2 in Europe, wolves got so bad, government sent out soldiers with full auto weapons and hand grenades to stop the wolf attacks. If a wolf can kill a deer or elk, what chance does a human have?
    Always carry protection with you when traveling in the National Forests, there are wolves, black bears, grizzly bears, and often criminals hiding out from the law.
    Protect and support your right to keep and own all types of firearms and accessories!

  • Charles L Tilley June 29, 2021, 8:48 am

    Wolves need to be reduced in size , liberals lol !

  • mtman2 June 8, 2021, 11:46 pm

    If the people who live up there do not want wolves in those numbers then they need to be hunted + trapped hard esp to keep’em scared of man and off his property…!
    In other States the residents never asked for nor wanted wolves released by federal wingnuts esp not giant Canadian Yukon Arctic Wolves from 1,500 miles up north….
    Certainly hunter’s didn’t need their ungulate herds slaughtered off by these extra large packs of massive arctic predators..
    SHOOT or TRAP THEM til they’re are at least 1/5 in number esp rid these pests from adjacent States where they migrated to before they infest those places…

    As for city folks and suburban people gthey et upset if a neighbors dog comes on their property let alone packs of them ripping apart anything they can get a hold of…!

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