One of the side effects of a legislative move to stop state enforcement of wolf management is a long-standing program to track wolves in the winter.
The volunteer citizens program began under the direction of former DNR staffer Adrian Wydeven.
The volunteers go into the woods and track wolves and other carnivores, helping the DNR to put together a data base of animal populations. The proposed legislation ends all DNR supervision except to reimburse property owners who lost animals to wolves.
Rachel Tilseth has been a volunteer wolf tracker in Douglas county for 17 years. She describes her duties and what would be missing if the program is stopped....
Tilseth has a blog wolvesofdouglascountywisconsin. com
Legislators, including Senator Tom Tiffany of Hazelhurst and Representative Mary Felzkowski of Irma, proposed the legislation. Tiffany said it's an effort to get Congress to move to delist the again-protected timber wolf from federal protections after complaints of reduced deer numbers and cattle predation were heard.
