MN Wolf Hunt

This year marks the lifting of the ban on Wolf hunting in MN.  According to my latest copy of Minnesota Conservation Volunteer magazine the MN DNR is asking for a lottery based wolf hunting/trapping season in late November. As it was a wolf could be killed if it posed a threat to livestock or people and that was about it.

We are extremely lucky in MN to have had the wolf population bounce back so quickly and even expanding out into Wisconsin and the U.P. of Michigan.

Minnesota has had a very different approach to wolf management than some of the Western states where ranchers have really been getting hit hard by wolves through the years.  In MN there has been a great deal of research done to learn how to best manage the population and nurture it back to a high, sustainable, even growing level. According the DNR we have about 3000 living in the Northern 1/3 of the state and have held that number steady for several years now.

As part of the plan to de list the wolf off the endangered species list MN has to maintain a population of at least 1600 wolves, a contrast to states like Idaho which set maximum population limits.

Here is my take on wolf hunting and I would love to hear yours:

I'm an amateur hunter at best. My hunting intentions are to be able to put a little extra meat on the table and reduce the ammount of money spent on such things if I can. I am a realist and I don't expect to run out and get a deer every year, but that's why it's called "hunting" right?

I wont be rushing out anytime soon to go on a wolfhunt but I would love to do it...until I got a wolf.  1 wolf would be enough for me for my entire life. I deeply admire and respect wolves as a predator and a remarkable, beautiful animal. I would love to learn the skills needed to go out and hunt such an intelligent predator and even if I never get one I think the doing will be an adventure in and of itself.