Hunters and ranchers demand wolf delisting at Willow River meeting

Around 300 people vented their anger at gray wolves during a Congressional listening session in Willow River on Monday evening. It was the latest in a string of packed meetings in northern Minnesota where area residents lashed out at wolves, blaming them for a poor deer hunting season, killing livestock and threatening pets.

Republican U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber hosted the meeting. It followed on the heels of more than a dozen town halls around the state convened by a new group called Hunters for Hunters, which is mobilizing to pressure state and federal lawmakers to reduce wolf numbers across northern Minnesota.

Stauber is pushing an effort to remove wolves from the federal Endangered Species Act, and return them to stage management, a move that could open the door for a wolf hunting season.

Currently, wolves are considered a threatened species in Minnesota, meaning they can only be killed in self-defense. Federal agents are also allowed to trap wolves that prey on livestock or pets.

“We need to celebrate the recovery of the gray wolf. And we can celebrate the wolf recovery by delisting them,” Stauber said. “Minnesota is at the tip of this conversation. We have more wolves than any other state in the lower 48.”

In its latest population survey, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources estimates there are about 2,700 wolves in the state — although several people in Willow River criticized that number, believing state officials are undercounting them.

That population estimate has held relatively steady for the last two decades. The Minnesota DNR’s recently updated wolf management plan calls for maintaining a healthy statewide wolf population of between 2,200 and 3,000 wolves.

“It’s time to stop this wolf experiment,” said Addie Best, who brought her Alaskan Malamute Minnie to the front of the auditorium.

She told the crowd her dog has been afraid to go outside their Itasca County home, since Best started spotting wolves on trail cameras mounted in her yard.

“There is no dollar amount they can offer me for this dog. There is nothing to reimburse or to replace her,” said Best.

The state reimburses ranchers for livestock killed by wolves, but ranchers complained at the meeting those payments don’t reflect the true value of their lost investment.

Federal trappers killed 142 wolves in 2022 for killing livestock, the last year figures are available. The number has fluctuated between 95 and 221 over the past decade.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has delisted wolves in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan twice in recent years, first under the Obama administration in 2012. That was quickly followed by three wolf hunting seasons in Minnesota, during which more than 900 animals were killed.

A federal judge then returned them to the endangered species list following lawsuits challenging the delisting. The Trump administration delisted them a second time, but a federal judge again restored federal protection in 2022.

Collette Adkins works for the Center for Biological Diversity, which has sued to overturn the federal government’s delisting efforts.

“What it comes down to, is that wolves, while they’ve made a lot of progress towards recovery in Minnesota, they remain unrecovered in many places, like the northeastern United States, the southern Rockies — where wolves were just reintroduced in the last couple of months — and along the west coast,” she said.

Adkins argues there is wide public support for wolves in Minnesota. A survey conducted for the recently updated state wolf management plan found 87 percent of Minnesotans support the long-term persistence of wolves in the state.

“There certainly are some vocal opponents of wolves. And they’re getting a lot of attention from the press,” Adkins said. “But most people really know that that’s part of what makes Minnesota special is that we have amazing animals like wolves that make our wild places really special,”

Stauber has introduced a bill in the U.S. House to delist wolves. He said that approach would better withstand court challenges. That’s how wolves were delisted in the northern Rockies — the only region in the country were wolves are not under federal protection.

Rep. Nathan Nelson, (R-Hinckley), one of several Republican state lawmakers who spoke at the meeting, urged the crowd to lobby state and federal officials to make the change.

“This room is filled full of passion,” he said. “And each one of you are here, maybe it’s been livestock loss, maybe it’s deer hunting, maybe it’s both, maybe it’s a pet. But wolves have impacted your life.”

The group Hunters for Hunters has sent a letter to all 87 counties in the state, urging them to pass resolutions supporting the removal of wolves from the Endangered Species List and asking the DNR to immediately implement a wolf hunt, said board member Steve Porter.

“We have a voice. We’re going to stir the pot. We’re going to be aggressive, we’re gonna keep shaking this thing down. We need action, and we need it immediately.”

Last month the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service launched a new initiative to foster a national dialogue around how communities can live with gray wolves. The agency says the effort will help inform future decisions about wolves.