President Donald Trump didn’t mention wolves in his inauguration speech on Monday. But that doesn’t mean change isn’t coming in the way these apex predators are managed.
With the help of the Republican-controlled Congress, such a change is possible, if not probable. Whether deer numbers in northern Minnesota increase as a result, addressing the frustrations of whitetail hunters in that part of the state, is another question.
Either way, the Trump administration is likely to accelerate removal of Minnesota’s (and Wisconsin’s and Michigan’s) wolves from protection under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), where they are listed as threatened, and return them to state management.
That should have occurred years ago, because wolves in the three states have surpassed population recovery targets set under the ESA. But wolves have gained a lot of friends in recent decades, making politics, not biology or policy integrity, the major force driving their management.
To that point, it’s far from certain that, even if the Department of Natural Resources regains management of the state’s estimated 2,900 wolves — the most in the Lower 48 — Minnesota wolf hunting and trapping would be restarted.
That’s in part because Gov. Tim Walz and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan have said they oppose wolf hunting and trapping. Both qualified their opposition during their 2022 campaigns, saying they supported the DNR’s updated wolf management plan. But the plan doesn’t guarantee that wolf hunting and trapping will get another run in the state. And unlike Wisconsin, Minnesota law doesn’t require the state to initiate wolf taking if management is returned to the state by the feds.
The last time Minnesota allowed wolf hunting and trapping was 2012-2014, when 413, 238 and 272 wolves were killed in the three years, respectively.
Among Minnesotans who hunt deer in the north, including many from the Twin Cities, wolf management remains a hot topic. A recently formed group, Hunters for Hunters, held as many as 20 meetings beginning in December 2023 that in some cases attracted overflow crowds. Attendees complained that, along with low deer numbers, much of the state’s whitetail hunting tradition was being lost, as were investments in hunting camps and properties.
150 yards to the field edge 
