Recovery of Gray Wolves in the Great Lakes Region of the United States

Recovery of Gray Wolves in the Great Lakes Region of the United States

Adrian P. Wydeven Timothy R. Van Deelen Edward J. Heske Editors Recovery of Gray Wolves in the Great Lakes Region of the United States An Endangered Species Success Story

Editors Adrian P. Wydeven Timothy R. Van Deelen Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology Park Falls, WI 54452 University of Wisconsin Madison USA Madison, WI 53706 USA Edward J. Heske Illinois Natural History Survey Champaign, IL 61821 USA ISBN: 978-0-387-85951-4 e-isbn: 978-0-387-85952-1 DOI: 10.1007/978-0-387-85952-1 Library of Congress Control Number: 2008940849 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2009 All rights reserved. This work may not be translated or copied in whole or in part without the written permission of the publisher (Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013, USA), except for brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis. Use in connection with any form of information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed is forbidden. The use in this publication of trade names, trademarks, service marks, and similar terms, even if they are not identified as such, is not to be taken as an expression of opinion as to whether or not they are subject to proprietary rights. Printed on acid-free paper springer.com

We dedicate this book to Pamela Sue Troxell (January 8, 1959 November 9, 2007). Pam Troxell coordinated the Timber Wolf Alliance, Ashland, WI from 1994 until her untimely death in 2007. Pam worked not only to educate people about wolves and wolf conservation but also had a great gift for bringing people together over wolves and other environmental issues. In April 2007, Pam was honored with the Silver Eagle Award given by the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), and in May 2007 she and her coworkers received the USFWS s Cooperative Conservation Award for their efforts at promoting the recovery of gray wolves in the Great Lakes region. We are grateful for having known Pam and for her love of life, people, wolves, and wild places, and we thank her for helping to make the recovery of this species successful.

Preface In this book, we document and evaluate the recovery of gray wolves (Canis lupus) in the Great Lakes region of the United States. The Great Lakes region is unique in that it was the only portion of the lower 48 states where wolves were never completely extirpated. This region also contains the area where many of the first modern concepts of wolf conservation and research where developed. Early proponents of wolf conservation such as Aldo Leopold, Sigurd Olson, and Durward Allen lived and worked in the region. The longest ongoing research on wolf prey relations (see Vucetich and Peterson, Chap. 3) and the first use of radio telemetry for studying wolves (see Mech, Chap. 2) occurred in the Great Lakes region. The Great Lakes region is the first place in the United States where Endangered wolf populations recovered. All three states (Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan) developed ecologically and socially sound wolf conservation plans, and the federal government delisted the population of wolves in these states from the United States list of endangered and threatened species on March 12, 2007 (see Refsnider, Chap. 21). Wolf management reverted to the individual states at that time. Although this delisting has since been challenged, we believe that biological recovery of wolves has occurred and anticipate the delisting will be restored. This will be the first case of wolf conservation reverting from the federal government to the state conservation agencies in the United States. In the process of wolf recovery, we have learned much about wolf biology and ecology, endangered species management, carnivore conservation, landscape ecology, depredation management, and social aspects of wildlife conservation. Our book traces wolf recovery in this region and highlights lessons learned by conservationists during the recovery process. The concept for this book grew out of a well-attended symposium held at the annual meeting of The Wildlife Society in Madison, Wisconsin on September 29, 2005. Many of the authors of the chapters in this book presented portions of their material at that conference. The chapters also cover a broader and more complete range of information than was possible in a half-day symposium. To that end, we recruited additional authors to contribute chapters in the book. These authors are professionals who are or were directly involved in major portions of research and vii

viii Preface conservation of wolves in the Great Lakes region. Authors represent federal, state, and nonprofit conservation agencies, and universities in the region. Our goal was to produce a semitechnical book on wolf recovery that is both rigorous with respect to science and policy and accessible and interesting for the lay reader. The story of wolf recovery in the Great Lakes region is one of international significance for conservationists, and wolves themselves are controversial, charismatic, and fascinating on many levels. Each chapter presents a thorough review of the pertinent literature. Some chapters also present new data or new perspectives and interpretations. To maintain scientific rigor, each chapter was reviewed by at least two professionals who are specialists in the relevant fields. Contributing authors represent a remarkable breadth in professional expertise, and cover topics ranging from ecology to policy to cultural, social, and historic significance of wolves. Moreover, the authors address wolf recovery from diverse perspectives that range from important ecological theory developed and applied by academicians in some of the region s best universities to the on-the-ground, muddyboot realities of local management pioneered by dedicated conservationists working for public and private agencies. Indeed, we are especially proud of this cross-disciplinary collaboration because it parallels the cross-disciplinary collaboration between researchers, managers, and private conservationists that facilitated wolf recovery in the Great Lakes region. For the purpose of this book, we assume wolves in the Great Lakes region are mainly gray wolves of the subspecies Canis lupus nubilus. However, we recognize some recent research suggests that a mixture of gray wolves (Canis lupus) and Eastern wolves (Canis lycaon) may exist in the region (see Nowak, Chap. 16). We thank the reviewers of chapters of the book including the following: Ed Bangs, Robert Beschta, John Bissonette, Luigi Boitani, Paolo Ciucci, Dwayne Etter, Jacqueline Frair, Steve Fritts, Todd Fuller, Tom Gehring, Jon Gilbert, Bob Haight, Paula Hollahan, Mike Jimenez, Paul Krausman, Dolly Ledin, Mark Lenarz, John Linnell, Patty Loew, Angela Mertig, Steve Nadeau, Lisa Naughton, Rolf Peterson, Bill Ripple, Colleen Sculley, John Shivik, Carolyn Sim, Doug Smith, Gus Smith, Richard Tedford, Jörn Theuerkauf, and Dirk Van Vuren. We d like to thank Springer for publishing this book, Janet Slobodien for encouraging us to produce the book, and Frank McGuckin, Senthil (Balasubramaniyam Senthilkumar), Elizabeth Thompson, and Thomas Brazda for producing the book.

Foreword I will always remember the morning of January 12, 1995. A light snow swirled across the road as we passed beneath the great stone arch marking the entrance to Yellowstone National Park. Safely inside, we unloaded the crates, transferred them to a horse-drawn sleigh, and then carried them through waist-deep snow into the fenced release enclosure. We stepped back and watched as the wolves emerged, looked about, sniffed the morning air, and loped across the snow, brushing along the fences, ready to break out to freedom. Within 10 years the original 31 wolves had multiplied to over a hundred. The Yellowstone ecosystem came alive as wolf packs roamed the park whittling the elk herds down. Coyotes declined, allowing populations of red foxes and ground squirrels to recover. The numbers of hawks, ravens, owls, and eagles increased. As overgrazed aspen and willow stands rebounded, beavers and nesting songbirds proliferated. With such success, many of us believed we had finally arrived at the threshold of a new era in which people and wolves could at last learn to live peaceably together on the western landscape. Today, however, the high optimism of that time is fading as the west once again lapses back into the wolf wars of old. The Bush administration, deferring to western ranchers, proposes to withdraw federal protection. Western politicians are once again stoking antiwolf hysteria. The Governor of Idaho has announced, I m prepared to bid for that first ticket to shoot a wolf myself. Wyoming proposes to classify the wolf as an unwanted predator, inviting residents to kill on sight, whether by shooting or deliberately running them down on highways. Alaska has reinstituted aerial shooting. As the situation in the western US deteriorates, I now turn to Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, the western Great Lakes states where a success story is unfolding that is the subject of this fascinating and very important book. Wolf management in these three states, while hardly free of conflict, has proceeded in an atmosphere of state and federal cooperation, strong research, and expansive education and political leadership. And in the process these states have innovated and demonstrated important lessons for the future of all endangered species in every region of the country. ix

x Foreword The western Great Lakes experience is so different from the Rocky Mountain west that it hardly seems possible that we are talking about the same subject, in the same century, in one and the same country. And the questions are: why the differences? And what can we learn from this Great Lakes success story? One might begin by looking to history. The essays in this book tell us that wolf hysteria is as old as the history of settlement, whether in New England, the Midwest or the Rocky Mountains. The big attitudinal change came in the 1960s. In Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, legislatures enacted strong endangered species legislation. Scientists and environmental groups stepped forward to advocate, making the case for protection and restoration. Aldo Leopold of Wisconsin became an iconic figure for his pioneering research and advocacy. Out west, these transformational changes were slow to emerge and remain anemic to this day. Political leaders, deferring to public-land ranchers, continue to vilify wolves and all other predators, real and imagined. In my state of Arizona, the posthumous voice of Aldo Leopold goes unheard in the very state where he described the dying wolf on Escudilla Mountain in the most eloquent and oftquoted words in all of environmental literature. Looking to the future, there are many lessons that this book imparts to the west and other regions of the country. The first is that good wolf management begins with good science. Old myths must yield to facts established by quality research. And this book summarizes an astonishing amount of that research into the complex biology, population dynamics, predator prey relationships, and habitat needs of these animals. Wolf management is of course not just about wolves; it is equally about us, and our history and culture and attitudes toward nature, what sociologists refer to as the social construct that shapes our attitude toward wolves. The social science essays illuminate many issues often overlooked by those of us most interested in the wildlands and biodiversity side of the equation. While the concept of carrying capacity of the land is quite familiar, most of us are less familiar with the parallel concept of social carrying capacity of the people who reside in the region and whose acceptance is essential to wolf survival. Another theme that should be heard more often out West is the manner in which the Great Lakes state agencies and environmental groups have cooperated to innovate methods of wolf management. The use of interstate agreements, state-federal cooperation, the work with nongovernmental organizations, and efforts at public education should be more widely understood and implemented in other parts of the country, not only for wolf management but also for management of other large predators and endangered species generally. Yet another important lesson that emerges from the experiences recounted in these chapters is the continuing requirement for political leadership. How many areas should be set aside as parks, wilderness, and protected areas; issues of land use; how to manage wolves in the rural interface between wild and urban areas; and acceptable levels of lethal control: all are in the end political issues. It takes all of us scientists, advocates, citizens, and political leaders working together to hash out and formulate what one author refers to as the rules of co-existence.

Foreword xi The success stories recounted in these chapters are by no means complete. With the recent removal of Midwestern wolves from the federal endangered species list, there will inevitably be pressure for the three states to retreat from their success. The need for advocacy, research, education, and political leadership will continue. For all these reasons I hope this book will be widely read and referenced, not just in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, but even more urgently in the publicland states of the West and indeed throughout the world as other countries awaken to the possibilities of protecting and restoring not only wolves but also many other top predators, and other species now at the brink of extinction. Bruce Babbitt Secretary of US Department of the June 23, 2008 Interior (1993 2001)

Contents 1 Early Wolf Research and Conservation in the Great Lakes Region................................... 1 Curt Meine 2 Long-Term Research on Wolves in the Superior National Forest............................................ 15 L. David Mech 3 Wolf and Moose Dynamics on Isle Royale...................... 35 John A. Vucetich and Rolf O. Peterson 4 An Overview of the Legal History and Population Status of Wolves in Minnesota.................. 49 John Erb and Michael W. DonCarlos 5 Wolf Population Changes in Michigan......................... 65 Dean E. Beyer, Jr., Rolf O. Peterson, John A. Vucetich, and James H. Hammill 6 History, Population Growth, and Management of Wolves in Wisconsin...................................... 87 Adrian P. Wydeven, Jane E. Wiedenhoeft, Ronald N. Schultz, Richard P. Thiel, Randy L. Jurewicz, Bruce E. Kohn, and Timothy R. Van Deelen 7 A Disjunct Gray Wolf Population in Central Wisconsin.......... 107 Richard P. Thiel, Wayne Hall, Jr., Ellen Heilhecker, and Adrian P. Wydeven xiii

xiv Contents 8 Change in Occupied Wolf Habitat in the Northern Great Lakes Region........................................ 119 David J. Mladenoff, Murray K. Clayton, Sarah D. Pratt, Theodore A. Sickley, and Adrian P. Wydeven 9 Growth Characteristics of a Recovering Wolf Population in the Great Lakes Region................................... 139 Timothy R. Van Deelen 10 Prey of Wolves in the Great Lakes Region...................... 155 Glenn D. DelGiudice Keith R. McCaffery, Dean E. Beyer Jr., and Michael E. Nelson 11 Factors Influencing Homesite Selection by Gray Wolves in Northwestern Wisconsin and East-Central Minnesota......... 175 David E. Unger, Paul W. Keenlance, Bruce E. Kohn, and Eric M. Anderson 12 Dispersal of Gray Wolves in the Great Lakes Region.............................................. 191 Adrian Treves, Kerry A. Martin, Jane E. Wiedenhoeft, and Adrian P. Wydeven 13 Are Wolf-Mediated Trophic Cascades Boosting Biodiversity in the Great Lakes Region?.................................. 205 Thomas P. Rooney and Dean P. Anderson 14 Wolves, Roads, and Highway Development..................... 217 Bruce E. Kohn, Eric M. Anderson, and Richard P. Thiel 15 Taxonomy, Morphology, and Genetics of Wolves in the Great Lakes Region.............................................. 233 Ronald M. Nowak 16 Human Dimensions: Public Opinion Research Concerning Wolves in the Great Lakes States of Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin............................................. 251 Kevin Schanning 17 Ma iingan and the Ojibwe................................... 267 Peter David

Contents xv 18 Wolf Human Conflicts and Management in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan.................................... 279 David B. Ruid, William J. Paul, Brian J. Roell, Adrian P. Wydeven, Robert C. Willging, Randy L. Jurewicz, and Donald H. Lonsway 19 Education and Outreach Efforts in Support of Wolf Conservation in the Great Lakes Region....................... 297 Pamela S. Troxell, Karlyn Atkinson Berg, Holly Jaycox, Andrea Lorek Strauss, Peggy Struhsacker, and Peggy Callahan 20 The Role of the Endangered Species Act in Midwest Wolf Recovery................................... 311 Ronald L. Refsnider 21 Wolf Recovery in the Great Lakes Region: What Have We Learned and Where Will We Go Now?..................... 331 Adrian P. Wydeven, Timothy R. Van Deelen, and Edward J. Heske Index......................................................... 339

Contributors Dean P. Anderson Landcare Research, Lincoln 7640, New Zealand andersond@landcareresearch.co.nz Eric M. Anderson College of Natural Resources, University of Wisconsin Stevens Point, Stevens Point, WI 54801 eanderso@uwsp.edu Karlyn Atkinson Berg Wolf/predator conservation consultant to HSUS, Bovey, MN 55709 karlyn@uslink.net Dean E. Beyer, Jr. Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Northern Michigan University, Department of Geography New Science Facility, Marquette, MI 49855 dbeyer@nmu.edu Peggy Callahan Wildlife Science Center, Forest Lake, MN 55025 peggy@wildlifesciencecenter.org Murray K. Clayton Departments of Plant Pathology and Statistics, University of Wisconsin Madison, Madison, WI 53706 clayton@stat.wisc.edu Peter David Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission, Odanah, WI 54861 USA pdavid@glifwc.org Glenn D. DelGiudice Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, Grand Rapids, MN 55744 USA glenn.delgiudice@dnr.state.mn.us xvii

xviii Contributors Michael W. DonCarlos Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, St. Paul, MN 55155 USA Mike.DonCarlos@dnr.state.mn.us John Erb Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, Grand Rapids, MN 55744 john.erb@dnr.state.mn.us Wayne Hall, Jr. Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, Sandhill Wildlife Area, Babcock, WI 54413, USA wayne.hall@wisconsin.gov James H. Hammill Department of Natural Resources, Crystal Falls, MI 49920, USA jimhammill@hughes.net Ellen Heilhecker New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, Reserve, NM 87830, USA elleheilhecker@yahoo.com Edward J. Heske Illinois Natural History Survey, Champaign IL 61821 USA eheske@uiuc.edu Holly Jaycox Wolf Park, Battle Ground, IN 47920 USA wolfmagazine@wolfpark.org Randy L. Jurewicz Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, Madison, WI 53707, USA Randle.Juewicz@wsconsin.gov Paul W. Keenlance Biology Department, Grand Valley State University, Allendale, MI 49401 USA keenlancep@mail.ab.edu Bruce E. Kohn (retired) Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, Rhinelander, WI 54501 USA wolfie2@newnorth.net Donald H. Lonsway USDA/APHIS/Wildlife Services, Ironwood, MI 49938 USA donald.lonsway@aphis.usda.gov Kerry A. Martin Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin Madison, Madison, WI 53706 USA kerryamartin@gmail.com