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| Michigan DNR unveils draft plan to control gray wolves |
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| By KEVIN WALKER
Michigan Correspondent
LANSING, Mich. —
A new draft wolf plan was necessitated by the change in the gray wolf’s status. Last March, the federal government took the gray wolf off of the Endangered Species Act list. It’s estimated that there are currently about 500 wolves in Michigan, all or nearly all of them in the Upper Peninsula (UP).
Over the past few decades, gray wolves migrated back to Michigan from Minnesota and Wisconsin after having been virtually wiped out in the state. In 1989, there were only three known wolves in the UP. Since then, however, the wolf has recovered well in Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin, as well as the Yellowstone National Park.
The biggest problem with having wolves in Michigan is attacks on livestock, hunting dogs and pets. According to the report, from 1998-2006 state and federal officials verified 56 wolf-livestock attacks on 39 farms in the UP. Between 1996-2006, there were also 35 wolf attacks on dogs. Some of these were attacks on bear hunting dogs in the field, while other non-hunting dogs were attacked near their owners’ homes.
In addition, “interested livestock producers in the UP suspected wolves had been responsible for recent livestock losses on their farms in at least one out of five years.“
From the standpoint of those who manage the wolf population, perceptions among livestock producers regarding wolf attacks, whether verified or not, are extremely important. Todd Hogrefe, the DNR endangered species coordinator, is acutely aware of the problems that wolf attacks can cause.
“We work very closely with livestock producers to ensure depredation problems don’t become chronic,” he said. “Now we have more flexibility to implement some of the measures ranchers would like to see. We need to develop a framework to allow ranchers to kill wolves.”
During a meeting late last month regarding the new plan, DNR Commissioner John Madigan, a UP resident, complained about the lack of a ceiling for wolf numbers under the new plan. “Where does the plan draw a line where we’re going to do something?” Madigan asked in a previously published report.
While Hogrefe acknowledges that wolf attacks on livestock and dogs have increased over time as the wolf population has increased, he insists there’s no direct relationship between these developments. It has more to do with individual wolves and individual wolf behavior than the total number of wolves, he said.
With the wolf population in Michigan rising steadily, there is increasing discussion among the stakeholders about what will happen if and when wolves establish themselves in the more populated northern sections of the Lower Peninsula.
For more on gray wolves in Michigan, the draft wolf plan can be viewed or downloaded at www.michigan.gov/dnr
There is also information about other threatened or endangered species at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Midwest Region website at www.fws.gov/midwest
Anyone in Michigan can comment on the proposed plan by sending an e-mail to wolf_comments@michigan.gov
This farm news was published in the Sept. 19, 2007 issue of Farm World, serving Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan and Tennessee. |
| 9/19/2007 |
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