This month we are preparing to see some unprecedented attacks on Wisconsin’s wildlife through bills on the state and federal levels. Just last week, Senator Tammy Baldwin introduced a bill to again to delist wolves. The bill is a slight improvement over her past but it’s baffling how she touts the support of trophy hunting groups and Big Ag while failing to represent one single pro-wildlife entity. That’s very telling.
Senator Baldwin still has not given an acknowledgment of the disaster that was the February 2021 slaughter or our win against the illegal manner in which it was carried out. If she is so open to tribal input, her silence on that alone shows her duplicity. She touts balance but most of us hate trophy hunting and want wolves protected. If you look at her press release you can see exactly who her friends are. Her Farm Bureau friends are no friends to small farmers. Trophy hunting game farms? The folks responsible for CWD? Time and time again she continues to fail those she claims to represent.
Later this month we will also see the Trust the Science Act, H.R. 764 (Rep. Boebert, R-CA), which aims to require the Secretary of the Interior to reissue regulations removing the gray wolf from the list of endangered and threatened wildlife under the Endangered Species Act of 1973. Listen to this fantastic explanation of “Burning the Bridge for Grey Wolf Protection” by Congressman Jared Huffman for an excellent discussion of the tender mercy of the state agencies. Unfortunately, this bill did pass the House committee of Natural Resources. This is Tom Tiffany at work. Now we have to stop it from passing the floor of Congress.
The Endangered Species Act itself also just suffered its worst week in Congress in decades. We have several House bills which attack the Endangered Species Act such as grizzly delisting, critical habitat, and delisting certain species such as bats. The Senate also recently voted to overturn two actions by Fish & Wildlife Service scientists to protect endangered species. The legislative attacks on the Endangered Species Act that passed the Senate did so by a single vote in both cases. Senator Amy Klobuchar was directly responsible for these attacks advancing to the President’s desk. While it is hoped that President Biden will veto them, that is far from guaranteed.
This is all in addition to the agencies we continue to fight as we move further into 2023. Our Natural Resource Board has three new members but is still overrepresented by hunting, fishing and agriculture interests, resulting in political favors and decisions that lack scientific expertise. Volunteer commissioners, they say, are often heavily swayed by the vocal hunting and fishing advocates who show up at their policy meetings. Is this how we want to safeguard our wildlife in the face of extinction and climate change?
Seems like too much, doesn’t it? Not for us. Great Lakes Wildlife Alliance and Friends of the Wisconsin Wolf are leading the way to stop anti-science bills that hurt Wisconsin’s wildlife. We will continue to fight and introduce our own state-level legislation to stop this outrageous killing in the time of mass extinction.
We will win. We will persevere. Why? Because we are united as a PACK. We also have some local legislation and educational programs planned for this summer. We need your financial support more than ever to fight the good fight. Until June 15th, we have a matching donor who will triple your gift to wildlife. When we are funded and well-organized, WE WIN. That is a fact we have proven time and time again.
Thank you and we keep howling on.
“The month of June is a busy one for the wildlife of our area as they begin feeding families, raising young and preparing for big changes to come…
The natural world is bustling with newborn creatures in all shapes and sizes, at the same time trees, shrubs and wildflowers are bursting with new growth. June is a month of explosive growth as the wildlife and wildflowers of our area take advantage of warm temperatures, beneficial rains and an abundance of fresh, natural sources of food.
Songbirds are busily stuffing hungry mouths in the nest, while larger birds such as wild turkeys, sandhill cranes, pelicans, geese and trumpeter swans herd curious young around their territories. Monarch butterflies have returned, while turtles and several snake species begin to nest or give birth to live young. Peak breeding season has arrived for black bears in the area and the young of foxes, coyote and wolves begin to explore the world outside their dens.
Whitetail fawns begin to feed and explore with their mother and siblings, wandering through fields and forest edges in search of fresh grasses and shoots. They are growing quickly and now join their mother, brothers and sisters on feeding journeys throughout their homelands.
Marshes and wetlands in our area bustle with activity during June as well. American white pelicans feed in several large marshy areas throughout the region, while sandhill crane families stalk the shallows and dikes. Black terns, silvery bullets in the sky, hunt over flooded wetlands, while the bizarre voices of pied-billed grebes, American bitterns, rails and yellow-headed blackbirds echo through the reeds. Dragonflies and damselflies are in full flight, with dozens of colorful species gracing our wetland areas.
Turtles throughout our area are nesting, including the rare and striking Blanding’s turtle, painted turtle, as well as large, decades-old snapping turtles. Turtles nest in areas with loose sand and soil by digging deep holes with their rear legs and powerful claws, shoveling soil with alternate sweeping strokes of each paddle-shaped foot. Often, turtles must travel long distances from their wetland homes to find suitable nesting sites. Unfortunately, this means many of these beautiful creatures are destroyed each spring and early summer by motor vehicles on area roadways.
Always take extra caution when driving through wetlands during early summer to avoid unnecessary injury or death to turtles traveling to nesting sites.” ~ Rob Zimmer
Catch OUTDOORS with Rob Zimmer on Fridays at 11 AM and Saturdays from 10-11 AM to learn about the beauty of Wisconsin or listen to archived podcasts here:
Letter to the Editor Campaign
A letter to the editor (LTE) is an effective way to influence elected officials and educate others. Members of Congress are particularly responsive to letters in their constituents’ local newspapers. Sending a letter-to-the-editor of your local newspaper is an effective way to support continued wolf protection.
Below is a sample for your reference, but please personalize your letter including your reasons for supporting wolf protections and opposing any Congressional delisting:
Dear Editor,
During the 19th and 20th centuries, hunting, trapping, and habitat loss drove gray wolves to near extinction. Conservation efforts made possible by the Endangered Species Act have allowed them to come back and begin to re-establish some of their former habitats. Today, millions of visitors have a chance to see a wolf in Yellowstone National Park.
Senator Tammy Baldwin has introduced a bill stripping gray wolves across our region of crucial Endangered Species Act protections when they need them most. In some parts of the country, gray wolves have just begun to recover, yet they are completely absent in Lower Michigan and most of the other Heartland states with many areas of suitable habitat.
The successful recovery of gray wolves in the Great Lakes and especially Wisconsin were possible because of the strong protections of the Endangered Species Act. Senator Baldwin’s bill throws in the towel on what could be one of our greatest successes. It returns the wolf back to the very people who have caused our biodiversity and CWD crisis.
A phone number is required as most newspapers will call to verify your submission prior to publishing, but will generally not print the number. Visit the how-to page on our website for more LTE ideas and guidance, and be sure to check your email in the coming weeks for important legislative updates and actions we’ll need ALL our advocates on deck for.
Rat and mouse poisons, or rodenticides, pose a serious risk to public health and the environment. These are toxic products that cause severe health damage and even death in non-target wildlife, pets and people. Because of their toxicity and the weak safety standards for their use and distribution, rodenticides are a serious threat to any living thing that accidentally ingests them.
While there are several types of rodenticides, the most dangerous on the market are second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides, aka “super-toxic” rodenticides. Super-toxic rodenticides are slow-acting substances that block the synthesis of vitamin K necessary for normal blood clotting, causing their consumers to bleed uncontrollably and die slow and agonizing deaths.
There are four types of these silent, super-toxic killers (brodifacoum, bromadiolone, difethialone and difenacoum), all of which have long half-lives that allow rodents to ingest them multiple times before dying. Through a secondary-poisoning process called bioaccumulation, rodenticide residues build up in rodent carcasses to levels many times the minimum lethal doses — exposing rodent-eating predators and scavengers to immense amounts of poison.
Recently, our executive director found a hawk and several raccoons poisoned in her neighborhood. These are extremely dangerous and there is no remedy, but we are fighting back…stay tuned!
Be sure mark your calendar for this month’s Fireside Chats. Your questions and suggestions are always welcome. We hope to see you there!
Thursday, June 13th @ 12:00 PM
Coyotes and Co-existence Webinar w/ Project Coyote
Why protecting beavers is vital to protecting ecosystems w/ special guest Bob Boucher
Trapping in Wisconsin and Wildlife Agency Reform
CATCH US ON THE NEWS!
Click below to watch a live interview with Melissa Smith on Senator Baldwin and Senator Johnson’s wolf delisting bills:
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