Good article, thanks for sharing.
Have hunting acreage in prime wolf country in northern mn. Wolves are a fact of life. Deer adapt. Deer numbers on much of the continent are way over carrying capacity. Our backyard at home abuts a private land ag area that is basically a sanctuary, it doesn't get hunted. Everything that borders it does, along with a good sized public area. The deer in the area have adapted and use it without fear of hunters or predators, other than coyotes. But there's so many fawns hitting the ground at the same time in the spring, there's not enough coyotes in the area to eat all the fawns in that 2 week period when 80% of the fawns are dropped. The breeding that goes on, on it is, dare I say epic. The bucks are typically much larger than the surrounding area and rarely leave the areas security. Filmed a hot doe in the middle of hunting season being chased by multiple bucks in broad daylight last fall with little fear of anything, from my backyard. Field was full of deer, bucks and does. One thing was missing for the area, and it wasn't wolves. It was void of a pumpkin patch of perched ungulate predators. There's only so many critters finite habitat acres can naturally support. The deer at home have browse lines on all the field edges, they are far over their carrying capacity imo. Good habitat supports healthy populations of critters. Certain critters prey on other critters that are supported by good habitat. Have one, you'll usually have the other. Don't have a predator on the landscape and the prey species usually adversely affects the habitat it inhabits to the point the habitat can't support it any longer. Ebb and flow, yin and yang. But ag fields left up year round, in areas with little hunting pressure create the appearance of something different from reality. The challenge now is many areas either have what seems like way to many predators because critter numbers lived without a predator for so long, or none at all and way to many critters for the habitat to support, e.g., urban areas with geese and deer populations at way over carrying capacity. Yet areas open to hunting seem to struggle to keep up with demand from hunting. It's a puzzling dynamic, with a common denominator, or lack of one. The demand on the resources with public access for recreation will hit a head at some point. We are loving our resources to death from over use in many areas. The very thing we are trying to escape, we are bringing with us in volumes and quantities that are affecting wild spaces and places that are making them more like the things we are leaving them for. It's challenging, and not sure what the answers are. First maybe we have to start asking the right questions, or at least better ones.
Bird hunters see the constant change time and human disturbance has on grouse, pheasant and waterfowl populations. Habitat changes, and even slow, subtle changes drastically alter the course of how wildlife uses it. Being an avid fisherman and bird hunter, you can't stump sit with great success with finding fish and birds like many have been able to do with hunting whitetails in the east.
Use to think the wolf was a majestic animal in my youth and really liked them, still do, but had a blind ignorance and lack of applicable experience with them. Now after having more experience first hand with them, they are not as wild or majestic as they once were in my mind. Have had the blinders taken off to what they are at their core, a predator that needs to eat. They eat, poop, breed, live and die. If they are in an area, it's because their groceries are there. Have talked to more people who know more than I do about black bears and their affect on fawn recruitment in northern mn and think they put a fair dent in the whitetail population vs the wolf, but that's rarely ever brought up cause it's not as dramatic as the big bad wolf, which seems to fill most of its grocery needs in the winter. And wolves do put predation pressure on bear cubs, young bears and bears in dens. Just like wolves kill mountain lions. Ebb and flow. Predators don't just get a free pass from nature and kill non stop. Many struggle to survive and die.
The battle over the mind set of ideals in regards to predator management feels like it's in its geriatric, infant stage, it makes no sense. It's back'tardsly bizzaro. It is mesmerizingly stagnant and constipated, yet gets into verbal diarrhea debates over policy of either kill them all or do nothing. Both of which seem so comically ignorant, it's hard to stomach or comprehend. Read somewhere recently the comment, constipated diarrhea, seems fitting for the debate over predator/prey relationships. We seem to want to manage with the blinders of ignorance on to our own use, and cause and affects, or human expansion with few, truly wilderness areas left. The resources are struggling to keep up with use, our use. The wolf is a hot button easy target, but really isn't more than a speed bump. It has it's place and needs to be managed, not eliminated, but really isn't an issue if critters have good habitat and are managed properly, if there really is such a thing.
When our deer numbers up north crashed and wolf numbers peaked, had a doe raise a fawn being constantly harassed by wolves and bears from the day it was dropped, into the fall. The doe and fawn were two of only 3 deer I had on tcams all year, deer numbers were awful. That doe was amazing at staying one step ahead of the wolves. We have created a lot of edges and she utilized them to almost perfection. We didn't hunt the property at all that year. The habitat helped that doe keep that fawn alive imo, along with genetics of having dealt with the wolf as a constant for many years before I was here and will remain for many years after I'm gone. Habitat in the end is a very important part of the overall equation. After the wolves ate themselves out of house and home, their food supply dried up, even snowshoe hares and beavers, and most either died or completely vacated the area. A few years later a new breeding pair of wolves showed up with a pup. Far less tolerant and acclimated to humans than the previous packs. Up's and down's, yin and yang, ebb and flow, but it all takes time and most hunters have little understanding of that. The forest health is far better in areas with lower deer numbers, than areas that are so over browsed, it's insane to think of what those affects could some day bring with them.
Habitat is one thing, but managing herds through regulating hunting seasons to meet better herd stability might have to go through some major changes. But change is hard, especially for a group that has paid the bills for so long and has been under seemingly constant attack by people/groups that don't really have an ounce of skin in the game. The issues are not easy or painless, and not without risk of severely limiting opportunities, when they already seem like they are becoming more and more limited. How does conservation get paid for if the bread winner is no longer present or feels pushed away from having a say or when opportunities are so limited?
Lots of hard questions that will need to asked, answered and addressed. With seemingly many looser's, and few winner's. But hunters have a long track record of limiting and regulating their use of the resource when it's been necessary, even when it's been extremely difficult.
