After a Jefferson County Circuit Court judge ordered the state’s wolf hunt must begin this month, the Wisconsin Natural Resources Board this week unanimously approved a harvest quota of 200 wolves. The hurriedly arranged hunt and all of the legal, political and biological ramifications will be the topic of “The West Side.
The action was set in motion following the Trump administration’s decision in November to remove the gray wolf from the endangered species list, and that delisting went into effect last month, triggering a state statute that requires the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to set up a wolf hunting season. The DNR originally planned to wait until November to plan for the season.
WPR environmental reporter Danielle Kaeding will share the latest in the quickly evolving story. Then host Dean Kallenbach will moderate a conversation with Laurie Groskopf, a Wisconsin Wolf Facts board member; Adrian Wydeven, a retired DNR wildlife biologist, now working with the group Wisconsin Green Fire of Rhinelander, which opposes opening the hunt this month; and Peter David, wildlife biologist with the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission in Odanah.