The Wisconsin Natural Resources Board voted unanimously yesterday afternoon to adopt the DNR’s recommendations for Wisconsin’s first wolf hunt. The rules the Board set down include a kill quota of 201 wolves, which were recently delisted from Endangered Species Act. The hunt will run from October to February.
The hunt has been controversial enough that more than a hundred people jammed the hearing room in Stevens Point where the Board was meeting, and some 40-plus people testified during the hearing.
One of the people to testify was Tim Van Deelen, an associate professor of forest and wildlife ecology at the University of Wisconsin. He’s a wolf expert and on the scientific advisory committee that has worked with the DNR as the wolf population has steadily grown in the state.
Following the meeting, Van Deelen spoke with WUWM environmental reporter Susan Bence about the decision. He says he's not overly concerned about this first wolf hunt.
