At the present time there are at least 2,600 wolves in Minnesota. Still the USFWS carries on as if these wolves are needed to assure that they will not be again made extinct. They were declared an endangered Distinct Population Segment by the USFWS to overcome the fact that they are part of 60,000 wolf population in Canada and not really an endangered species.

This puts the wolves of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan under endangered or threatened Endangered Species Act protection and makes real state wolf management impossible. However the DNRs of these three states love this and the federal wolf restoration money that goes with it. This does not allow the residents of the states any choice in this matter. They deserve something better in wolf management.

When one looks at the number of Canadian wolves and the size of that Canadian wolf wilderness it is easy to see that the wolves of the three states are really insignificant to the survival of North American wolves. So the time has come for the USFWS to admit that wolves are not an endangered species and never were. It is not enough to just down grade wolves from endangered to threatened and over see that wolf numbers are as they dictate. The USFWS should leave this and wolf protection completely to the states and stop doling out the wolf restoration money.

Recently the Minnesota Legislature had a chance to do what is required to manage all those wolves, many of which are in places where they should not be. As I pointed out before this is not possible without getting rid of the USFWS dictates. Of course the USFWS will continue this role for as long as the people do not demand that congress takes away some of it's powers. The wolf bill that was passed by the Minnesota Legislature last year does what was called for in the article by Dr. Mech in the Mlps. Star Tribune. Property owners south of a line from Pine City to Rosseau were to be allowed to kill wolves that were doing livestock damage The wolf supporters filed a lawsuit against this bill. It remains to be seen what becomes of this meritless suit. If things are allowed to continue as they now are 500 wolves will have to be killed each year for doing damage to livestock.

Since then Ramsey County District Court Judge Lousie Dovre Bjorkman has dismissed this lawsuit. The MDNR is currently revising the version of the wolf plan so it agrees with what the Legislature's bill says. Hopefully the USFWS will approve and leave Minnesota wolf managing to Minnesota.

What is going on in Minnesota with that huge number of wolves is disgusting. As many as 216 wolves were killed by government agents for doing damage or killing livestock in 1996. The wolf supporters dismiss this as insignificant because they say less than 1% of the farms of the wolf range are involved. On the other hand the murder rate is less than 1%. Does this make the murders insignificant and tolerable? Every loss of a highly prized dog, cow or horse is very deeply felt by the owner. Clearly wolves are not endangered and they do not have to be in places where they are in conflict with human activities. Some pages from the Minnesota Wolf Depredation Report are added as an appendix to show you what is going on in Minnesota.

Besides the 1% argument I disposed of before the other justification for the Minnesota livestock losses is that farmers are not burying their dead cattle. The wolves feed on them and learn that beef is good to eat. Then they start killing cattle. This ridiculous argument has been repeated so many times that new Minnesota wolf plan advises along these lines. Instead of advocating reduction and removal of wolves that are in places where they cause these problems they say things like this.

The Minnesota Legislature went so far as to appropriate their taxpayer money to help finance a wolf center at Ely, MN. Now it is being claimed that this wolf center brings in two to three million to the Minnesota economy. How about looking at the huge loss in deer hunting income that they have due to all of those wolves? A comparison of 1998 through 2001 data for Wisconsin and Minnesota taken from their annual DNR reports clearly shows this.

An article in the Journal of Wildlife Management 64(1): 129-136, Wolf Effect on Deer Harvests :Mech and Nelson reaches the conclusion that increasing uncontrolled wolf numbers can very significantly reduce human deer harvests. This agrees with what the above MN/WI deer harvest statistics show.

So you can see that all those wolves cost Minnesota at least six million in hunting license income plus a lot more in what the deer hunters would be spending. There is also a great loss in deer hunting recreation. Another interesting fact is that 14,754 Minnesota deer hunters bought Wisconsin Non Resident Deer Hunting Licenses in year 2000. This number is not as yet available but how many Wisconsin deer hunters bought Minnesota Non Resident Deer Hunting Licenses? This all shows why the antihunters love wolves so much. It is the greatest antihunting gimmick that there is.

Added to all of this is that the state of Minnesota is getting away without disclosing how much Minnesota and federal money is being spent on the wolves. The Wisconsin Wolf Plan has a page showing the yearly state and federal wolf expenditures since 1970 to the present. Minnesota can and should do the same. The taxpayers from all over are entitled to this.

Looking at all of this you can see that there is no economical support for the Minnesota wolves. All the other wolf supporting arguments can also be shown to be as false. Wolves do not only take the weakest deer and they certainly do not control their own numbers. And they do attack people.

The July 1997 Reader's Digest carried an account of a camper being attacked in his sleeping bag. He barely survived. Then recently a boy was attacked in Alaska. He also survived after many stitches and other medical help. The story of this incident was carried in the June 9, 2000 Wisconsin Outdoor News.

What is going on with all those wolves in Minnesota is an atrocity. It goes on there and in other states because people are not getting informed and acting as the American system allows them to. Minnesota is an example of how not to manage wolves and not an example for the other states to follow. This needs to be pointed out at the state wolf meetings that will follow the federal delisting from endangered to threatened.

Before ending this Minnesota section, the story of Lobo Minnesota must be told. Lobo Minnesota is by far the most famous Minnesota wolf. He was trapped and killed by Algot Wicken in 1938.

Lobo's range was between Red Lake and Lake Itassca. Lobo was a notorious killer of deer totaling well over a hundred per year and not bothering to feed on any of them. For 12 years he outsmarted all the trappers. During one week he killed 36 deer and did not bother to feed on any of them.

Wicken studied Lobo's territory and set a snare made of the heaviest cable he could find. Lobo got caught in this snare but managed to break the cable. Lobo went about his havoc and the bounty was raised to $500. Wicken finally caught him in a trap set between two snares. After dispatching Lobo Wicken was surprised to see that the snare that he had broken off 2 years previously was still on his neck

Lobo's estimated weight was 140 pounds. His mount is still on display at Bemidji, MN. A $64,000 question is why Lobo and his complete story is not at the Ely Wolf Center. That is where this complete true story belongs. Of course it is very unlikely that any of the present wolves will get this big. As I pointed out previously they are mostly coyote/wolf hybrids. Source Fur-Fish -Game Sep 1985.

U. S. Department of Agriculture, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Wildlife Services. Wolf Depredation on Livestock in Minnesota, Annual Update of Statistics-1999

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