🐺 WOLVES STILL FEDERALLY PROTECTED • STATE ESA PETITION IGNORED FOR 259 DAYS • NRB MEETING STILL IN PROGRESS • HR 845 MOVING TO SENATE • WILDLIFE WEDNESDAYS RECONVENES NEXT WEEK • $1500 GOAL — EVERY DOLLAR MATCHED TODAY • GLWA FILED MAJOR WAC COMMENTS FEBRUARY 23RD • 79% OF FEDERAL WOLF SCIENCE ELIMINATED •
We Showed Up.
We Put It
On the Record.
The NRB meeting is still going. Our Wolf Advisory Committee comments are filed. The matched fundraiser closes at midnight. Here’s everything we did today — and how you can help us keep doing it.
The NRB Is Still
In Session.
The Wisconsin Natural Resources Board is meeting today — and the meeting is a long one. Great Lakes Wildlife Alliance is engaged and watching. This is the same board that in January unanimously approved the highest bear license quota in Wisconsin history — 15,245 licenses — while simultaneously codifying formal protections for farmers from hound disruption and writing wolf pups entirely out of the hunting rules. On the same day. With the same people voting. Without a single dissenting voice.
Why the NRB Matters to Wolf Protection
The NRB sits above the Wolf Advisory Committee in Wisconsin’s wildlife management structure. The permanent wolf hunting rules this committee is now planning around were adopted under an NRB that included Frederick Prehn — whose holdover past his expired term has been flagged as a serious legal vulnerability. The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled JCRAR vetoes unconstitutional in July 2025. Those legal clouds don’t disappear because the board moves on. We are keeping a record, and we will report fully on today’s proceedings next week on Wildlife Wednesdays.
Wildlife Wednesdays is postponed tonight given the length of today’s NRB meeting. We reconvene next week for a full walkthrough of our WAC comments, today’s NRB proceedings, and what all of it means for wolves and our ongoing litigation. Stay tuned.
What We Submitted to the
Wolf Advisory Committee
On February 23rd, Great Lakes Wildlife Alliance submitted 15 pages of formal written comments to the Wisconsin DNR Wolf Advisory Committee ahead of their February 26th meeting. Nine sections. Nothing held back. Here is what we put on the record.
Days the state ESA petition has sat unanswered — nearly 3× the legal deadline
Of USGS Great Lakes Science Center positions eliminated — the monitoring data is gone
Wolves — what the entire hunt apparatus is being mobilized to kill
Of hunters support continued wolf protection — the myth of rural opposition is exactly that
- I. The state ESA petition has been pending 259 days — nearly three times the statutory deadline. Every condition that justified it has gotten worse since it was filed.
- II. The federal safety net has collapsed. HR 845 eliminates post-delisting monitoring, the relisting pathway, and judicial review. A Ninth Circuit judge already warned this renders the framework legally inadequate.
- III. This is an attack on the rule of law. The 2020 delisting was struck down by a federal court as arbitrary and capricious. HR 845 reinstates the same decision and strips courts from reviewing it.
- IV. Who actually supports wolf hunting — and who doesn’t. 75% of rural residents, 79% of farmers, 81% of conservatives, and 82% of hunters support continued ESA protection. The data is unambiguous.
- V. Science tells us what we can do. Ethics asks whether we should. 218 wolves killed in 72 hours in 2021. Nursing mothers. Bonded pairs. No GPS. No pack-size limits. No handler certification. Still none today.
- VI. Planning a hunt for a species that is still federally protected. It is currently illegal to hunt, harass, pursue, or kill a Wisconsin wolf. This committee is planning seasons anyway. We put the litigation exposure on the record.
- VII. The public paid for this land through the Stewardship Program — and nobody asked how it should be used. The political coalition driving the wolf hunt is simultaneously working to dismantle the program that built wolf habitat.
- VIII. The math of the mandate. 15 wolves for the state recreational season. $303,333 in additional costs. Against $10.9 million in annual economic benefits wolves already provide Wisconsin. Is any of this proportionate?
- IX. What we are asking the committee to do: respond to the petition, suspend harvest planning, request a formal legal analysis of HR 845’s implications, and formally assess the collapse of federal support infrastructure.
“The only legislative mandate in Wisconsin wildlife law that the agency has never once found a reason to delay, modify, or fail to execute is the mandate to kill wolves. That is not neutral administration of the law. That is a choice about which laws matter.”
$1500 Goal.
Every Dollar 3/2 Doubled.
A generous supporter has pledged to match every donation double dollar-for-dollar until we hit $500. Your $25 becomes $50. Your $50 becomes $100. Your $100 becomes $200. This match ends at midnight next Wednesday.
Goal: $500 → $1,000 with match
DONATE NOW — DOUBLE YOUR IMPACT →
Your donation is tax-deductible. Great Lakes Wildlife Alliance is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.
We accept no grants with conditions. No corporate money. No compromises.
They’re Planning a Hunt
for a Protected Species.
Gray wolves are on the federal Endangered Species List right now. HR 845 has not passed the Senate. And yet the Wolf Advisory Committee met today to plan zones, quotas, and season structures for a hunt that is currently illegal under federal law. We filed 15 pages saying exactly that — and we’re not done.
Read our comments. Share them. And if you can, donate before midnight. Every dollar you give right now is worth two — and this work only continues because people like you refuse to look away.
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