Wolves

This week Wisconsin's Natural Resources Board approved a new wolf management. In the meantime the Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission is teaming up to learn whether wolves play a critical role in the ecosystem.

Wednesday was a long one for members of Wisconsin’s Natural Resources Board. It listened to several hours worth of opinions — passionate and varied — about a proposed wolf management plan.

The gray wolf was again center stage Tuesday as the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources released what it hopes will become the state’s wolf management plan.

The state's current wolf management plan dates back to 1999. At that time, the species was on a slow rebound after having been extirpated 40 years earlier. The DNR is proposing taking an adaptive management approach in its new plan.

Wisconsin established its first wolf management plan in 1999 when the species' numbers gradually grew after being extirpated decades earlier. That plan set a goal to sustain a 350-wolf population. Now the DNR proposes eliminating a number and instead relying on an adaptive management approach.

Wisconsin wildlife officials on Thursday released their first new wolf management plan in almost a quarter-century but the document doesn't establish a new statewide population goal, a number that has become a flashpoint in the fight over hunting quotas.

The board tasked with overseeing the state’s department of natural resources met in northern Wisconsin Wednesday, where conversations took both anticipated and unanticipated twists from wolf management to internal politics.

A judge has restored federal protections for gray wolves across much of the U.S. after they were removed in the waning days of the Trump administration.

The Milwaukee-area is home to a lot of wildlife, but there are some animals we’d rather not see on our city blocks, predators that can pose a risk to our pets and ourselves. Although the wolf’s resurgence in Wisconsin has been great for its ecosystems, there are concerns about what they could mean for urban areas.

Six Ojibwe tribes are heading to federal court Friday morning in hopes of stopping a Wisconsin wolf hunt from taking place this fall.