Locals should manage local wildlife

To the Editor,

I am writing this letter to urge your readers to contact their federal legislators regarding U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell’s ruling that returned the gray wolf to the Federal Endangered Species List. Judge Howell’s ruling includes the upper Midwest including Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. It prevents these states from continuing successful DNR management programs and makes it a federal offense to kill a wolf for any reason. The only legal defense for killing a wolf is if it was a threat to a human being – not even to a pet or livestock. Please encourage your federal legislators to initiate and/or support a multi-state initiative to appeal and reverse that ruling and return management of the wolf population to state and local programs enacted by the states’ Departments of Natural Resources.

Recent media articles have indicated some actions have begun in Wisconsin and Minnesota. Local legislative bodies (Ironwood City Commission and Gogebic County Board of Commissioners) have passed unanimous resolutions responding to and oppose the ruling. The Daily Globe reported that Wisconsin state senator Tiffany is reaching out to Wisconsin’s U.S. Senators Baldwin and Johnson to appeal the judge’s ruling. He hopes to garner support for a multi-state hearing on this matter.

I agree with the governing bodies and Senator Tiffany that something must be done on the federal level to appeal the judge’s ruling. Michigan’s leaders have worked for several years and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars gathering factual field data. This data proves that the wolf population in some areas exceeds numbers previously established for them to be considered endangered. This data was used to develop management plans allowing the DNR to control the wolf populations in areas specifically where there are excessive numbers or where they are causing problems. These management plans established quotas in specific zones in order to minimize hazards to pets, livestock, and wildlife while maintaining the wolf population necessary to ensure they do not become endangered again. Judge Howell’s ruling overrode these successful management practices.

I have written to U.S. Sens. Stabenow and Peters (Michigan) urging them to work together and with colleagues from Wisconsin and Minnesota to appeal the court decision, and return wolf management to the states’ DNR where it should be. I urge your readers to do the same and show their confidence that wolf management should be controlled locally by the DNR.

Tom Richter

Bessemer