Friends,

I attended a meeting in Itasca County with citizens concerned with the overpopulation of wolves in Minnesota. We have known for some time wolves have been responsible for the low Moose count, and now it appears the deer as well.

I didn't count the attendees, but it was certainly over 150 people. Further bolstering awareness on this issue, the Minneapolis Tribune printed an article this weekend, https://www.startribune.com/wolves-deer-hunting-northeast-minnesota-dennis-anderson/600320602/. Clearly this issue is starting to gain some serious attention statewide.

Deer sighting on game cameras have been replaced by wolves. We know they also raise havoc with cattle. There are now more reports of domestic pets lost to wolves as well. Here were a few suggestions from that article, which I do not agree with necessarily, but think it’s important to start having the conversations:

“To prevent that, or at least mitigate the problem, the DNR should:

• Form a Northeast Deer Management Committee headed by local wildlife managers in coordination with northeast hunters, tribal authorities and others to explore ways to increase regional deer numbers.

• Acknowledge that moose and deer can inhabit the region collaboratively, as they have.

• Acknowledge that without managed wolf hunting and trapping seasons — assuming the feds allow them again someday — neither deer nor moose will fully recover in the northeast.

• Change all deer hunts in the northeast, including youth and archery, to bucks only until the region's deer rebound.

• Advocate and practice wildlife-friendly logging in the northeast. The replanting of St. Louis County clear cuts with monocultural pine forests, for example, as currently happens, should be discouraged in favor of smaller cuts that create aspen-birch-spruce successions replete with forest edges that deer, grouse and other critters prefer.”

I’m looking forward to hearing from you on this issue, whether it is problems you have been facing with wolves, or thoughts on how to approach this dire situation.