ORIGINAL: Ihuntandfish: The Wisconsin DNR stocked the wolves a few years back, and now there is way more than the DNR is admitting.
NO. Wolves are federally protected, federally controled, and federally regulated. Wolves wondered into Wisconsin all on their own from Minnesota and Upper Michigan naturally. Due to the super high deer populations, the wolf poplulation quickly grew. All the WDNR is allowedto do at the state level is monitor populations, and eliminate specific problem wolves. There were never any federal or state wolf restocking programs in the midwest .... ever. But the time has come for some type of wolf population control in Wisconsin by hunting and/or trapping.
ORIGINAL: Ihuntandfish:The DNR finally made a step in the right direction when they delisted them from the endangered list, but then some judge in another state decided that this was unethical, so they are now back on the endangered list with huge penalities for shooting one.
Again, at the state level, the DNR had absolutely nothing to do with any of it. These were federal cases, with rulings made by federal judges .... period.
ORIGINAL: Ihuntandfish:I don't know if it's completely due to the wolves, but the deer population in Wisconsin has drastically gone done in the last few years to the point when hunters are lucky to see a couple deer on opening weekend, especially in the northern part of the state.
Following the second highest deer harvest in state history in 2007, yes, the 2008 harvest is lower. Wolves had almost nothing to do with thelower deer populations.