* Photo credit: Voyageurs Wolf Project/Video Screengrab
My neighbor, an 83-year-old woman, looks forward to deer season each year and is generally quite successful. With anticipation, she did her usual preparation of sighting in her rifle this year and rounding up all her gear, however she spent all week in her deer stand and came up empty handed. This appears to be a common theme we are hearing from hunters around Northern Minnesota this season.
A few weeks ago, while walking my dog before heading to bed, I heard the eerie sound of a pack of wolves howling in a nearby neighborhood. Yikes! Could the wolves be responsible for the declining deer population?
In 2012, wolves were removed from the federal Endangered Species Act and the population remained fairly stable over the next 3 years at 2200 to 2400 (DNR Wolf Population Update 2022). In 2014 a court ruling added Minnesota wolves to the federal list of threatened species, and this has remained in effect ever since.
In the latest 2022 DNR tracking data, Minnesota’s wolf population was estimated between 2173 to 3240. This should raise some red flags as MN DNR estimates that only 2000 wolves can be sustained without increased wolf-human conflicts (MN DNR International Wolf Center). Double yikes!
Now, because of some California activist judge, the Biden Administration has added the wolves back to the Endangered Species list. At the same time, we are witnessing increased livestock and domestic animal predation by wolves (DNR Weekly Report of Wolf Attacks on Pets).
Here's what Minnesota US Congressman, Pete Stauber, had to say about the situation in his November newsletter:
“The gray wolf has fully recovered, yet just two weeks ago, the Biden Administration released a final rule that put the gray wolf back on the Endangered Species list. This was done after an activist judge in California ordered the Administration to do so last year.
Minnesotans treasure wildlife and while we celebrate the successful recovery of the gray wolf, it should be our right – not the right of unelected bureaucrats and judges – to ensure its population is responsibly managed.”
So, we have the wolves to thank for educating us all on why the Founder’s provided Article V in the US Constitution to propose amendments to rein in our out-of-control Federal Government.
What could Washington DC possibly know about Minnesota geography, agriculture, natural resources, deer and wolf populations that we ourselves don’t understand much better? Shouldn’t this be left to Minnesotans to regulate?
It is time we put the Federal Government and unelected bureaucrats back in their box! Let us monitor and control our own natural resources!
