If they get delisted by this administration, it will most likely be passed in law, so as not to allow judicial review.
While it is true that legislation would delineate judicial review (lawsuits), I’m very skeptical of that happening. It’s like trying to turn the titanic.
My guess is that the USFWS will de-list them and it will end up in court again.
A bill passed in the U.S. House last fall to delist without the possibility of judicial review. The democrat controlled senate would not bring it up for a vote. I’m hopeful it gets done this time. Montana is currently trying to pass legislation to go all in on trimming their population in about half.
Thanks Bob. Didn’t know that.
I think Montana is pushing for a population around 450 wolves. Seems odd that Montana’s population goal is less than half of Wisconsin current ESTIMATED population. ????
I think Montana is pushing for a population around 450 wolves. Seems odd that Montana’s population goal is less than half of Wisconsin current ESTIMATED population. ????
That and the state is huge. Not to sidetrack, but they want to reintroduce elk into the arrowhead of MN.
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>mxskeeter wrote:</div>
I think Montana is pushing for a population around 450 wolves. Seems odd that Montana’s population goal is less than half of Wisconsin current ESTIMATED population. ????That and the state is huge. Not to sidetrack, but they want to reintroduce elk into the arrowhead of MN.
Don’t really understand this. There are healthy elk and moose populations not that far north. We’ve seen both near Nestor falls where there are healthy populations of them. As the crow flies that’s not even a hundred miles north of the border. You would think they would establish populations further south but obviously haven’t.
I dont either Matt. I would have thought the same thing that if they were thriving they would expand East from their current range in MN, but I dont think that is happening at all.
Don’t really understand this. There are healthy elk and moose populations not that far north. We’ve seen both near Nestor falls where there are healthy populations of them. As the crow flies that’s not even a hundred miles north of the border. You would think they would establish populations further south but obviously haven’t.
Crazy I had no clue about the NW Ontario elk herd – would have been wild to come across them without knowing they were there. Just did some quick reading and doesn’t sound like the population is exactly thriving though.
I think the NW MN elk are thriving, but not allowed to expand due to crop depredation.
A Minnesota state statute guides DNR on elk management to prevent populations from increasing. Specifically, the Grygla herd must be managed for 30 to 38 elk, the Kittson County herd for 50 to 60 elk and the Caribou-Vita herd for 150 to 200 elk, according to DNR’s Interim Strategic Management Plan for Elk, 2016-19.
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Matt Moen wrote:</div>
Don’t really understand this. There are healthy elk and moose populations not that far north. We’ve seen both near Nestor falls where there are healthy populations of them. As the crow flies that’s not even a hundred miles north of the border. You would think they would establish populations further south but obviously haven’t.Crazy I had no clue about the NW Ontario elk herd – would have been wild to come across them without knowing they were there. Just did some quick reading and doesn’t sound like the population is exactly thriving though.
I think the NW MN elk are thriving, but not allowed to expand due to crop depredation.
A Minnesota state statute guides DNR on elk management to prevent populations from increasing. Specifically, the Grygla herd must be managed for 30 to 38 elk, the Kittson County herd for 50 to 60 elk and the Caribou-Vita herd for 150 to 200 elk, according to DNR’s Interim Strategic Management Plan for Elk, 2016-19.
Last year my buddy watched a moose and her two calves swim across the fly in lake we were fishing. He got a video but it wasn’t very good because he didn’t want to get too close. We asked the outfitter we fly with and he mentioned moose are commonplace but they see some elk each year. The lake we were on is 30 miles SE of Nestor falls.
They’ve (natives and DNR) have had a plan in the works for years to reintroduce elk in NE MN.
Sounds like it’s moving forward.
They plan on putting them on the Fond Du Lac reservation just 10 miles from our house.
The plan is to slowly move 100-150 surplus elk from NW MN to our area.
I doubt we’ll ever see them in the backyard because they’d have to cross the freeway from the rez 
https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/news/2025/01/23/northeast-minnesota-elk-restoration-planning-underway
January 28, 2025 at 11:21 am#2313466
They’ve (natives and DNR) have had a plan in the works for years to reintroduce elk in NE MN.
Sounds like it’s moving forward.They plan on putting them on the Fond Du Lac reservation just 10 miles from our house.
The plan is to slowly move 100-150 surplus elk from NW MN to our area.
Any word on if they will discontinue the limited elk hunting of the MN northwest herd during the multiple years that they transfer elk to the northeast?
I’d never shoot one minding it’s own business, but if I ever see one get close to my dog and kids I’ll go to court over it.
How would anyone ever know unless you had to kill one near your family.
Doesn’t have to be a bullet, but in discriminant techniques are risky to much more than a wolf.
WI DNR has some good links on dogs and pets … and wolves. I tried posting the links but this forum is blocking them. I suppose they will all show up later and be redundant.
July-September and December are the worst months for wolf attacks on dogs. Many dogs killed in July and August in WI are bear hounds.
Instead of Elk MN should go all in on Woodland Caribou in the Superior Old Growth Forest.
There were some around a decade ago:
The last few Lake Superior woodland caribou may be on the brink of extirpation thanks to the freakishly cold winter of 2014 and hungry wolves decimating caribou herds in their last two holdouts
Seems like reason enough to delist wolves to protect the woodland caribou
A Minnesota state statute guides DNR on elk management to prevent populations from increasing. Specifically, the Grygla herd must be managed for 30 to 38 elk, the Kittson County herd for 50 to 60 elk and the Caribou-Vita herd for 150 to 200 elk, according to DNR’s Interim Strategic Management Plan for Elk, 2016-19.
Any ideas what the populations actually are in those areas? Doesnt seem like they give out too many tags and they only harvest bulls so that wont affect population too much.
https://files.dnr.state.mn.us/wildlife/elk/2023_elk_survey.pdf?v=2024.09.30-16.49.46
From the 2023 survey results:
Grygla Survey Block
This survey was conducted during 8-10 February and consisted of 2 survey days. Total flight
time was 12.4 hours. We observed 29 elk, including 18 antlerless and 11 antlered animals
(Table 2). We observed elk in 6 groups with a mean of 4.8 elk/group (Table 3).
Kittson Central Survey Block
This survey was conducted during 29-30 January and consisted of 2 survey days. Total flight
time was 14.5 hours. We observed 75 elk, including 50 antlerless and 25 antlered animals
(Table 4). We observed elk in 6 groups with a mean of 12.5 elk/group (Table 5).
• The Kittson Central North subgroup had 27 total elk (24 antlerless, 2 spike bulls, 1 adult
bull). The antlerless group was located approximately 6.8 mi northeast of the wintering
location observed in 2021.
• The Kittson Central South subgroup had 48 total elk (26 antlerless elk located 4.3 mi
northwest of the Percy WMA, and 20 adult and 2 spike bulls observed 4-8 mi to the east
of the antlerless group).
Caribou-Vita Survey Block
This survey was conducted during 31 January – 7 February and consisted of 4 survey days (1
day in MN and 3 days in Manitoba). The total flight time was 23.1 hours. We observed 227 elk,
including 187 antlerless and 25 antlered animals (Table 6). On the Minnesota side of the survey,
we observed elk in 7 groups with a mean of 13.7 elk/group (Table 7). On the Manitoba side, we
observed elk in 10 groups with a mean of 13.1 elk/group
Thanks for sharing…Wow, Kittson is way over their goals if my math works :-). While the others are pretty in line.
North Central Wisconsin has a 400 head elk heard. I have been through the area several times but not seen any. They have flashing road crossing signs for them!
North Central Wisconsin has a 400 head elk heard. I have been through the area several times but not seen any. They have flashing road crossing signs for them!
The goal is ~1400…which would be a pretty large number. I remember hearing about the efforts starting back in the 90’s, and I think it’s made slow progress. I personally doubt they ever get to 1400 with the public pressure to issue more hunting licenses + wolf populations in Northern WI.
I was on a hunting trip way up north between lake Manitoba and lake Winnipeg and dang near hit an elk with my truck. Surprised the hell out of me. I’ve seen them way up north in the prairie pot hole region of Canada as well. I know a guy who got a tag and harvested one in ND this fall. Central part of the state I believe.
They used to live in a massive area in this country before man drove them in to the mountains. Kinda cool seeing them out in flat country.
North Central Wisconsin has a 400 head elk heard. I have been through the area several times but not seen any. They have flashing road crossing signs for them!
I believe the first transplants in WI were right around Clam Lake. What is interesting is that the originals came from Michigan, and some of the later elk that were reintroduced/added in the last 10 years were actually from Kentucky.
I’ve got an aunt/uncle in law that live a couple miles west of Glidden during summer/fall and they see multiple elk on their 40 every year. They are also situated in the Shanagolden wolf pack territory. If you check out the WI wolf incident reports over the years, the Shangolden pack has a bad reputation for taking out bear hounds.
I was on a hunting trip way up north between lake Manitoba and lake Winnipeg and dang near hit an elk with my truck.
Holy smokes that would have been a bad thing! I almost hit two deer at the same time last Saturday morning but somehow avoided both of them which was awesome.
My funny elk story, mostly because I was so excited to be out west for my first time.
15-ish something years ago, I had two jobsites on the road to work on in a row.
One was in American Falls, ID the other North Platte, NE
It was early winter and we made a lap through North Dakota, all of Montana, a good chunk of Idaho, the entire southern edge of Wyoming, all of Nebraska, Iowa and finally back to Minnesota.
Honest to God I didn’t see a SINGLE ELK, no bullshit. To be fair, a ton of the driving was freeway, but still….
A few weeks later I was headed to a buddy’s cabin near Hurley, WI on a snowmobiling trip.
On our way through the Clam Lake WI, the “elk lights” were going off as we rounded a corner on the highway. My buddy said “those things go off all the time”…
We didn’t get another 150 yards down the road and fricken elk are walking across the road
I saw the first elk of my life back home in Wisconsin after driving through thousands of miles of the West lol
You can’t make that up!!
Do those elk lights really work or are they always flashing? Never seen them in person.
Do those elk lights really work or are they always flashing? Never seen them in person.
They go off whenever an elk is within a certain radius (I don’t know how far away they pick up signal)
My buddy’s comment was that he sees them flashing a lot without actually seeing the critters.
Signal? Are these elk collared or something?
Signal? Are these elk collared or something?
Yep, some of them.
Residents can apply for tags each year, last year the DNR received 17,761 applications for Clam Lake zone hunting licenses and 7,750 for the Black River zone. Applications cost $10.
Some quick research showed that Clam Lake issued 8 bull tags, Black River zone had 4.
$7 out of each tag is used for habitat, tracking and research, so the state generated around $180,000 in funds for elk.
The lottery resets each year, with no preference point accumulation.
So each applicant equally has about a 1 in 2,125 chance of winning each year depending on how many tags the tribe “declares.”
The lottery resets each year, with no preference point accumulation.
So each applicant equally has about a 1 in 2,125 chance in winning each year depending on how many tags the tribe “declares.”
[/quote]
The NA get half of the tags for the Clam lake herd. Don’t know if it is true but I’ve heard they are allowed to take some extra for sustenance.
Rep. Tom Tiffany from Wisconsin is taking another run at delisting nationally with no judicial review. The following copied and pasted from Dean Bortz of Outdoor News.
U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany announced this morning that he is making another run at removing timber wolves from the federal Endangered Species List. Tiffany and Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) officially introduced their wolf delisting bill in the House of Representatives the morning of Friday, Jan. 31. With the house not in session these days, bills may only be introduced on Tuesdays or Fridays. In May 2022, Tiffany and Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) introduced the Trust the Science Act with the backing of 21 other congress members to also delist wolves. This time around they have 30 other members signed on. It passed the House of Representatives, but not the U.S. Senate. What’s coming next sounds as though it’s basically the same bill, but there is a new name – the Pet and Livestock Protection Act, perhaps because the science side is well established, but not everyone is aware of the pet and livestock losses that have been caused by wolves since their numbers have climbed in Midwest and western states. The bill is expected to federally delist wolves nationwide, not just in the Great Lakes Region. Whether the bill would prevent further reintroductions remains to be seen. There’s word that wolf protectionists are eyeing Maine for a future release. Hearings should follow bill introduction.
The press release this morning states: The Pet and Livestock Protection Act requires the Secretary of the Interior to reissue the 2020 Department of the Interior final rule that delisted gray wolves in the lower 48 United States. It also ensures this rule cannot be overturned through judicial review, preventing activist judges, like the California judge who vacated the rule in 2022, from relisting the gray wolf by judicial fiat.
In 2020, the Department of the Interior and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service under President Trump delisted the gray wolf in the lower 48 United States through a process that included the best science and data available. At over 6,000 wolves at the time of delisting, the gray wolf has been the latest Endangered Species Act (ESA) success story with significant population recoveries in the Rocky Mountains and western Great Lakes regions.
Here is a cool carving love or hate wolves.. Fits the topic. This dude does amazing work.
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