Wolf hunt moratorium bill advances in Senate

By ECM on March 15, 2013

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by T.W. Budig
ECM Capitol Reporter

She grew up in the field, Sen. Chris Eaton, DFL-Brooklyn Center said.

Sen. Chris Eaton, DFL-Brooklyn Center, described her wolf hunt moratorium bill as being common sense. Sitting next to Eaton, supporting her bill, is former Senate Majority 

Leader John Hottinger. (Photo by T.W. Budig)

“I have nothing against hunting,” she said in a Senate committee on Thursday, March 14. But Eaton, backed by sign-carrying supporters, wants a five-year moratorium placed on grey wolf hunting in Minnesota.

According to a Department of Natural Resources (DNR) official, last year’s wolf hunt — resulting from the wolf’s delisting as a federally endangered species — was the first managed season in state history. Even as late as the mid-1960s, Minnesota had a bounty on wolves.
DNR officials described the hunt as closely monitored and controlled. Out of an estimated population of 3,000 wolves, 413 wolves were taken by hunters and trappers.

But Humane Society State Director Harold Goldman argued the state’s approach in managing the iconic animal is wanting. Beyond the 413 wolves taken during the hunting and trapping season, an additional 299 wolves were taken for harming livestock, he said. Additionally, a “shoot, shovel and shut-up” mentality still exists in the state, Goldman said, so more wolves are killed than are ever officially tabulated. Of the 165,000 cows and calves in wolf territory, there were only some 81 confirmed cases of killing by wolves, he added.

The wolf season was also depicted as culturally insensitive. Nicole Hendrickson of Brooklyn Park, a Native American, her child at her side, told the committee of the importance the wolf in Native American culture. She didn’t expect non-Native Americans to fully appreciate this, she said.
“I am asking you that you do respect it,” Hendrickson said.

Moratorium supporters argued the wolf hunt was rushed into place and breaks with previous policy. It put the state tourism industry at risk and limits the chance for people to hear the distant howl of wolves. But an array of groups from the Minnesota Outdoor Heritage Alliance to the Minnesota Deer Hunters Association to the Minnesota Farmers Union stood in opposition to Eaton’s bill.
“Wolves are a renewable resources,” Wayne Johnson, treasurer of the Minnesota Deer Hunters Association, said.

Graphic testimony of wolf predation was given by John Gilbertson of Bemidji, a farmer, who spoke of wolves attacking newborn calves and of experiencing repeated livestock losses. “The wolves aren’t kind killers,” Gilbertson said. They’re beautiful animals, he said. “But they’re not so beautiful in my cow yard,” Gilbertson said. St. Louis County Commissioner Mike Forsman said he didn’t hate wolves. But he also didn’t want them in his yard, he said.

The DNR insists the wolf’s population in Minnesota is stable. Dan Stark, DNR large carnivore specialist, told the Senate Environment and Energy Committee the wolf pups produced each year in the state’s estimated 500 wolf packs can double the overall population each year. But Stark noted, too, a high mortality rate among pups, and adult wolves die all the time.

Eaton saw her bill pass the committee on 7-6 vote. Companion legislation is carried in the House by Rep. Jason Isaacson, DFL-Shoreview. Sen. Michelle Benson, R-Ham Lake, said the public had a chance to voice concerns back when the wolf season was being formulated. Benson voted against the bill.

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