State agrees to set aside 85 wolves to Chippewa tribes

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Wisconsin’s Chippewa Indian tribes can take 85 of the 201 grey wolves to be shot in the inaugural hunting season that’s scheduled to start this fall.

The DNR set the wolf quota for members of six Chippewa tribes, which have treaty rights to exclusively take fish-and-game in a ceded territory that covers roughly the northern third of the state. Wisconsin’s first wolf season is scheduled from mid-October through the end of next February. But environmental and animal rights groups have filed a lawsuit to try-and-stop it, saying it would lead to animal violence because hunting dogs can be used to track down the wolves.

A court hearing in that case will be held in a couple weeks in Madison. There’s a hunting quota of 167 wolves in the tribes’ ceded territory. Under treaties from almost three centuries ago, the Chippewa are allowed to take half the total limits for fish-and-game. Non-tribal hunters will be allowed to hunt 82 wolves in the ceded territory, if the season is allowed to proceed.

Tags: outdoors