MADISON, Wis. (WSAU) — A wolf attack on a Shawano farm last week was the last straw for two Wisconsin legislators who are aiming to host a summit on wolf hunting regulations in September.
12th District Senator Tom Tiffany is teaming with 28th District Representative Adam Jarchow to host a Great Lakes Wolf Summit in September. Tiffany says the summit will focus on a push for state-led wolf management.
“Wisconsin has basically become a sanctuary state for wolves with us not being able to harvest them, and it’s time to reverse that. That’s the intent of the summit,” said Tiffany.
“Really, enough is enough. The judge from the east coast a year and a half ago took away management authority from the state of Wisconsin and it’s time to bring it back here to the state and allow us to manage this.”
Tiffany was referring to U.S. District Court Judge Beryl A. Howell. The summit will be open to the public, and Tiffany will have speakers lined up to present their case on the wolf hunt.
He said, “We want to bring in people with good science backgrounds, people that have worked on this issue or have been affected in a variety of ways. Cattlemen, farmers, law enforcement, there’s a wide variety of people in society that have been affected by this issue. We want them to come and tell their story.”
The summit will be a multi-state effort to motivate Congress to act on the issue on a federal level, something Tiffany believes that some members of the Federal Government simply do not want to do.
Tiffany said, “It’s going to take federal legislation to accomplish this. This could be done very quickly if President Obama stepped up and agreed to do it, but he obviously does not want to.”
“We’re going to engage our fellow legislators in the Great Lakes states here, not just Wisconsin, but Michigan and Minnesota also, because they have the same frustration in those states, and we hope that this is going to be bipartisan.”
The date and location of the summit will be released at a later date.
