DNR has mismanaged wolf population
Letters to the editor
January 15, 2015
In
his letter to the editor, Earl Stahl trots out Little Red Riding Hood
fables about wolves. His arguments hold little credibility.
Livestock
farmers frequently blame wolves for their losses even when the
mortalities come from birthing problems, disease or weather events. A
new study from Washington State University, using 25 years of data,
found when wolves are persecuted, they change breeding strategies.
Ironically, this leads to an even higher loss of livestock the next
year.
Even while Wisconsin wolves face tremendous persecution,
they kill few cattle data show. In 2013, the U.S. Department of
Agriculture reported that the cattle inventory in Wisconsin numbered 3.5
million. Of that number, wolves killed 38 cattle, or 0.001 percent.
While difficult for a handful of farmers, that tiny loss is remarkable.
Wolves generally avoid livestock because wolves prefer to avoid people
and subsist on their native prey.
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Letter had wrong spin on moose and wolves
Letters to the editor
August 30, 2015
Earl Stahl’s
conclusions about wolves
on Isle Royale are incorrect. I stayed on Isle Royale in July, read
reports and talked with park staff and with researchers who have been
studying Isle Royale for 50 years.
It’s true there are only two or
three wolves left on the island and they are not healthy. But this does
not equate to a healthy moose population. Without predators, the moose
population is surging.
Therefore the next phase in this cycle
could be that moose will decimate the vegetation on the small island and
starve. Isle Royale needs a new wolf pack — not celebration that they
are gone. That is common sense.
I support the Center for
Biological Diversity’s petition for federal protection of moose but
culling wolves as they do in British Columbia may not be appropriate
predator management in the Midwest.
Nancy Brown-Koeller,
Appleton
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