The Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission is condemning what it calls a lack of communication between state agencies and tribal communities after nine wolves were trapped and euthanized in Price County. In a press release, the commission described the wolves as a pack consisting of four pups, three yearlings, and two adults. 

“This action damages existing relationships and fractures trust,” said GLIFWC Executive Administrator Jason Schlender in a statement. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources said late last week that the wolves posed a threat to humans following incidents reported in July 2025 and August 2026. Non-lethal measures were unsuccessful in deterring the wolves, a DNR spokesperson said, according to Wisconsin Public Radio.

“We remind the WDNR and USDA Wildlife Services to involve GLIFWC and its member tribes in the decision-making process,” Schlender said in his statement. Wolves represent powerful symbols, spirits and teachers for many tribal communities. “Simply handing us the remains of our relatives after killing them does not constitute meaningful consultation.”

In 2021, when the DNR held a controversial wolf hunt, tribal communities opted not to hunt wolves on their lands. A quota of 200 wolves had been set by the DNR, a certain portion of which was allocated to tribal communities. Hunters in the rest of the state exceeded the quota in less than three days. 

The killing of the nine wolves represents the first time wolves were killed by officials in Wisconsin since a 2022 court ruling returning the animals to the Endangered Species List.

Earlier this month, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to remove the gray wolf from the federal endangered species list. 

Wolves have come into conflict with rural and farming communities in Wisconsin, killing livestock and pets and triggering a campaign to restart Wisconsin’s wolf hunt. Wolf attacks on humans are rare, and only two fatal wolf attacks on humans have been documented in the last 20 years. 

Randy Johnson, the DNR’s large carnivore specialist, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that efforts to chase off the wolves using sound, lights and hazing were unsuccessful, and that “reports demonstrated a pattern of behavioral escalation, with the wolves showing less response to hazing and more acclimation to human presence.”

Investigative reports obtained by the Wisconsin Examiner describe three separate complaints made in August. The complaints describe wolves, sometimes collared, coming within close proximity of properties, such as in yards, driveways, or grassy areas. One of the reports mentioned chicken depredations. Another report stated that a wolf had come within 20 yards of a man mowing brush on his tractor in an effort to deter the wolves. The third report mentioned a person who saw a wolf near  five-gallon bait bucket for bears. The reports described the wolves as unafraid of people, and said efforts to deter them had been ineffective.

The Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission states that it was left out of the decision to euthanize the wolves, and that the Wisconsin DNR and federal government had met multiple times since 2025. “At no time during that period did WDNR or federal representatives contact GLIFWC staff to inform them of reported threats, share data, or provide decision-making criteria, bypassing consultation with GLIFWC and its member tribes,” the commission stated. 

It added that courts have ruled that the state of Wisconsin is required to co-manage resources within ceded Indigenous territories, such as those where the nine wolves were killed. This cooperation was reaffirmed in an executive order from Gov. Tony Evers in 2019, directing state agencies to consult with tribal governments on “matters that may directly or indirectly impact tribal nations.”

The commission says in its statement that the gray wolf is  known to the the Lake Superior Ojibwe as Ma’iingan, is considered a clan relative, and is a key cultural figure that has been mistreated and misunderstood. 

“People are often afraid of wolves, and wolves are too often mischaracterized,” said Conrad St. John, St. Croix tribal chairman and Voigt Intertribal Task Force chair. “Our elders relay that our communities have co-existed with Ma’iingan since the very beginning and we still don’t have any documented cases of attacks on humans in Wisconsin.”

Alex Bohman, GLIFWC biological services director, said that wolves strengthen deer populations by removing sick, weak, or old animals. “Tribes have coexisted with wolves for hundreds of years and can bring traditional ecological knowledge, as well as western science and data to these discussions.” Bohman said that state and federal agencies should engage with the commission and its member tribes on wolf management. “Ideally, this will lead to agreement on the most appropriate course of action,” she said.

While gray wolves in Wisconsin and the Great Lakes region have been considered recovered by the federal government since the early 2000s, wolves currently continue to be listed as endangered in Wisconsin and Michigan, and threatened in Minnesota.  Delisting was intended to give states and tribes flexibility to manage wolf populations when wolves are no longer at risk of extinction. There has been a complicated history of delisting and relisting in the Great Lakes region, between 2007 –2022.  Each time the federal government attempted to delist wolves in the region, some group opposing delisting has filed lawsuits and managed to get wolves relisted as endangered (or threatened in Minnesota).

Tom Tiffany, as a member of the Wisconsin Assembly, the state Senate, , and as a member of Congress, has been an especially vocal supporter of  intense management of the state wolf population, and has attempted to delist wolves through congressional action. But Tiffany’s own rhetoric, exaggerations and misleading comments have not been useful at attaining delisting, and may have emboldened efforts to challenge such delistings through the courts.

As an Assembly member, Tiffany helped co-author a wolf hunting bill in 2012 that forced DNR to hold a wolf hunting and trapping season whenever wolves were not listed as threatened or endangered.  Unlike most hunting seasons that allowed DNR broad authority to regulate the harvest, the legislated wolf hunting season represented a major political overreach, which may have been a factor that resulted in wolves being relisted at the end of 2014.

In 2018, as a state senator, Tiffany attempted to defund wolf conservation in Wisconsin until federal delisting occurred.  Such defunding would have made it difficult to determine wolf abundance and the sound scientific management of the wolf population to allow delisting to occur. Luckily the bill to defund wolf conservation did not pass.

Tiffany has frequently made false claims about wolf attacks on people, exploding wolf population, and exploding rates of depredations on pets and livestock.  No wolf attack on humans has been documented in Wisconsin, and Tiffany’s references to attacks are cases of wolves losing fear of people and displaying bold behavior, but none have resulted in physical attacks on people. Depredations on pets and livestock peaked in Wisconsin in 2010, and have declined since then.  Most years less than 10% of state wolf packs attack pets or livestock, and wolf depredation represents much less than 1% of all the things that kill cattle in Wisconsin.  The wolf population in Wisconsin has mostly stabilized at 1,000-1,200 wolves since 2018, and is not increasing exponentially as often suggested by Tiffany

In the U.S. Congress, Tiffany has tried in two bills to attempt nationwide gray wolf delisting.  The bills included “Trust the Science Act” and “Pet and Livestock Protection Act.” Neither bill has succeeded thus far.  In support of these bills, Tiffany has insisted the Wisconsin DNR is very capable of managing the state wolf population.  But at an open house event in Wisconsin, after running for governor, he called the state wolf plan passed by the Wisconsin DNR “not a wolf management plan” and an “impediment to management of the wolf.”  Tiffany totally rejects the carefully crafted and science-informed wolf plan developed by the Wisconsin DNR over a three-year period and approved in 2023.  Tiffany has implied that major reductions are needed to reduce wolves to 350 or 500 wolves.  This would require very intense controls and eliminating wolves from 60-70 % of their range in Wisconsin.  Such intense controls would look more like the extermination programs that caused wolves to become endangered, and not like the proper management of a recovered wolf population. While Tiffany adds his name to the “Trust the Science Act”, he certainly shows no trust for scientific estimates of the state wolf population, or the science-based state wolf management plan.  

Wolves in the Great Lakes states should be delisted, and state and tribal wildlife agencies should be authorized to manage local wolf populations. Some farmers have had extensive problems with wolves and more flexible management including removal of problem wolves by government agents and landowners will help reduce conflicts.  The Wisconsin DNR has a well-designed wolf management plan, which allows some level of hunting and trapping as is required by law, but the plan also focuses on ecological and cultural benefits of wolves, while still helping reduce conflicts. 

Yes, Wisconsin DNR can manage wolves, and delisting and sound management can best be achieved if politicians such as Tom Tiffany stay out of the way.