The Forests and Wildlife Stewards are monitoring the Minnesota Dept of Natural Resources (DNR’s) process to revise its 2001 wolf management plan. With new research, expanded knowledge about wolves, and better technology available to reduce human-wolf conflicts, the team is happy to see this planning process move forward.
Wolves have an irreplaceable role in our Northern Minnesota ecosystems and a new management plan will guide wolf population monitoring, management, reduced wolf-human conflicts, public education, continued research and more.
Minnesota is the only state in the contiguous United States that has continuously had a gray wolf population through a history of threatened extirpation and population decline. Wolves are listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act, and the DNR still plays a significant role in managing and monitoring our wolf population.
The wolf faces many threats including illegal poaching, increased fragmentation and loss of habitat, fatal collisions with motor vehicles, and increased pathogens and diseases due to climate change. We must ensure that science-based protection guides wolf management to prevent the loss of this critical species.
The Minnesota DNR is currently seeking public input on its plan. The Forests and Wildlife Stewards encourage everyone to provide input to the DNR, advocating for the protection and sustainable management of Minnesota’s gray wolves with non-lethal approaches before consideration of lethal techniques. The team opposes a hunting season on this intelligent, social animal—the alpha predator in Minnesota.
Please provide input about gray wolf management in Minnesota. Comments will be accepted until Monday August 8th, through the DNR website HERE.