Wolves

The topic of wolves and their presence throughout the northern USA is always a topic of debate. Which specific topic varies based on the individuals talking.

Among farmers the debate is heavily around their livestock. Among homeowners the debate is about their safety and the safety of their canine friends. Within the political arena, the debate is around "endangered" versus "managed". And with hunters the debate is about the affects on wildlife populations.

About 9 years ago, I was positive I saw a wolf during a deer drive as I was sneaking through the woods during WI whitetail firearm season. In our deer cabin in northern WI, the topic has come up in discussions with other hunters and especially when we see tracks in the snow which we debate over whether it is a large coyote or wolf. Until recently, we never added to the discussion the topic of their impact to the deer herd, it was always about the fact that the wolf packs introduced were finally making their way to our area of WI. Maybe that was due to the lack of deer population which already existed due to the lack of forestry management in the National forests.

The WI DNR does a very good job in recording and publicizing the impact to our canine friends and the safety precautions hunters and homeowners need to make in wolf populated areas. Prior to heavy populations of people in the United States, wolves were very prevalent throughout the northern states. As humans moved westerly and northerly, wolves were killed to protect livestock, people, wildlife, and for their hides. This caused the wolf populations to decrease to a danger of extinction. Here is where the debate starts. Some people would say "Good" as what benefits do wolves play in a nation of people and hunters. Human hunters are decent predators to wildlife populations; however, before human civilization, wolves were necessary to maintain healthy wildlife herds to avoid disease and over population. But there is just as large of a group of people (mostly those who do not live in wolf populated areas) who feel this majestic animal requires protection (which I do not disagree with) to keep them from becoming extinct. However, I am also in the opinion that human, livestock, pets, and wildlife preservation is more important and as wolf packs grow so does the safety of those four categories of living beings.

When I enjoyed the outdoors as a child and young man my only concern was the presence of black bears, but now I also need to be concern with the growing population of wolves. Bears are most dangerous when you are in the presence of a sow and her cub(s). So it is easy to recognize and avoid these situations. Wolves are also most dangerous in the presence of their pups. However, wolves are different. They hunt primarily in packs and when in packs are afraid of very little. "Strength in numbers." That statement is true with all living organisms. My neighbor of my wooded property in northern MN had an interesting experience this fall with a pack of wolves miles away from our land on some public land as they were bear hunting. He was sitting in a tree and heard the howls of wolves in all directions from a distance (miles). As the evening went on, the howling came closer until he was surrounded. Needless to say he felt very uncomfortable and phoned numerous friends to come and assist him to get out of the woods. WOW. That was my first reaction to this story when I heard it. My next reaction was WHY? Why do we continue to protect animals who threaten the lives of us. Again, what is their benefits to our outdoors? After many days of thinking about this, I have come up with nothing. They threaten our neighbors, kill our livestock, dogs, and wildlife. What do they give back to the ecosystem in which we live in? Nature viewing for the people thousands of miles away. They give National Geographic film footage and stories for their magazine. What do they provide to us? Insecurity is what they provide in my opinion. Before laws and special interest organizations, our forefathers eliminated the dangers around them. Why are we reversing those decisions now? I value a human life way more than the life a wolf. I apologize to those readers who disagree, but I also would love for you to give me logical feedback as to why we should continue to tolerate these dangerous animals.

Minnesota recently had delisted the wolf from the endangered species list and had introduced a management plan for regulated hunting seasons. However, due to a "technicality" in how the management documentation was submitted, the special interest groups appealed the delisting and the wolf became a protected animal again...not because the population was too small, not because the management plan was bad, but because of legal/political technicality. You can read here about the events around the Legal Status of wolves in MN. And while we wait for the legal system more livestock and dogs fall victim to these dangerous animals. And I walk through the woods with eyes on the back of my head.

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against the species of animal. It is a beautiful and majestic animal. One of power and grace. And I do enjoy seeing wolves in controlled environments (zoo, nature reserve, etc.). I would just prefer they did not exist in the wild where humans are endangered.

If you have interests or are curious about wolf populations and what the state and the state's DNR (or Fish and Game departments) are doing, check out their websites:

Minnesota
Idaho
Montana
Wisconsin
Michigan
Wyoming
Washington
Oregon
Colorado
North and South Dakota do not have information on Wolves.

And for information from one of the many special interest groups, here is the Defenders of Wildlife about wolves.

MN Archery Season Opener - Part 2

My Saturday morning cell phone alarm woke me up to 52 degree temperatures, a breakfast bar, banana, and some orange juice. I am a big advocate of scent free and was still "struggling" with the fact I could not shower before heading out into the woods. What I did have though was 3 year old Hunter Specialties Body and Hair Scent elimination lotion. I used this liberally and with the use of Primos Silver spray I was all set to head to the tree stand. The night before Shawn and I discussed how the location of the camp site and our presence may impact the deer movement. After walking only 80 yards from the campsite I kicked up a deer, which was heavy on the hoof and it did not know exactly what I was as it was very dark and it did not run away. It trotted 40-50 yards, stopped, and then slowly walked in front of me. I was already 15 minutes later than I wanted to be, so I kept my light just dim enough to see the ground and kept moving hoping this would let the deer think it went undetected.

When I reached my stand I quietly ascended the 17 feet to my hang on stand, hooked my hunter safety systems harness to the tree, pulled my bow up, hung it in the tree in front of me, and setup my camcorder. Now it was time for one of God's gifts, the beautiful awakening of the woods as squirrels and birds come to life and make the woods come alive. After an hour in the stand, the sun rose above the horizon and peeked through the tree tops. These two events made waking up at 5 am all worth it. If you have never experience what I have just described, you need to make it a "todo" for this year. Even if you don't hunt or fish, make a camping trip into a public park or state forest and experience the morning orchestra of the woods, there is little in life that compares.

Saturday morning and evening was uneventful for whitetail deer, but I wish I had my .22 rifle as the grey squirrels seemed to be everywhere taking full advantage of the plentiful acorn crop this year. In fact Saturday evening, one squirrel climbed down the tree in front of me and stopped abruptly at 4 feet from my head. If I had only turned the camera on...as I reached to turn it on, it spooked and ran back up the tree.

Sunday morning, much like Saturday morning came too quick and early, leaving both Shawn and I a little tired. But we were determined to make our last hunt for the weekend eventful. This morning I did not hear a deer on the way to my stand; however, Shawn surprised a singleton deer out of its bed 25 yards from his tree stand. As hard as he tried to not spook it, he was unsuccessful. As the morning went on, after the sun rose I was slightly disappointed in not seeing anything yet. Trail camera footage suggested I would see something on one of the mornings. I made a small plea to God to just allow me to see one deer and wouldn't you know it, 10 minutes later here came an early fawn all by itself. Unfortunately she surprised me by sneaking up on me and getting within 20 yards of me before I saw her. This meant I was unable to get my camcorder turned on and focused on her, so I sat back and took in the sights of watching her and her behavior. She did not behave like an ignorant fawn, yet couldn't have been more than 65 pounds. She was traveling the runway from the south and when she hit my shooting lane she turned toward my stand and literally brushed up against my tree as she fed on the undergrowth of the lowland pocket I was nestled in. After 10 minutes she was out of sight and I could no longer hear her. First thought was, maybe I will see more action this morning, and second thought was maybe that was the extent of my weekend hunt.

Twenty minutes later I heard a fawn bleat coming from where she left me and I heard running back and forth on the hardwood ridge, just out of sight. There is a significant coyote population and I thought maybe that fawn was being chased, so I quickly turned on my camcorder and got ready to possibly save her from the coyote. Soon the animals making the racket started moving on the runway in front of me and much to my pleasure the first animal I saw was a nice doe. She was followed by 2 fawns, then another doe and fawn, then another nice doe and finally that singleton fawn. The fawns were spreading out and playing, but the does were traveling on the runway no more than 6 yards from the base of my tree. I looked up at my camera and realized the does were barely in the picture, so I slowly reached up and aimed the camera down to capture all the deer activity. I then realized I needed to get my bow up and draw as the last doe was about to cross my shooting lane and the camera footage. I slowly drew back, waited for the doe to clear the trees, and released the arrow. Perfect shot behind the front shoulder and I watched her run off and listened for any noise which would indicate the success of my hunt. I heard a number of "crashes" and determined she was down. At that point the adrenaline kicked in and I felt my body doing a little shaking. What a feeling, it is the same feeling every hunter says, the day it stops is the day they stop hunting. In my unit I can take a doe or a buck with my archery tag and I purchased an additional bonus tag for an antlerless deer. So I waited 30 minutes for possibly more deer activity and to ensure the doe had time to settle down.

I lowered my bow to the ground and slowly climbed down out of the tree. I recovered my arrow and slowly followed the blood trail. The doe made a number of zig zags and at one point a deer kicked up from a bed and took off running. My first thought was "crap I didn't have a good of a shot as I thought, then I saw the deer and it was that singleton doe fawn again. I continued on the track and came up to the doe next to a large tree. At this time, I said my thanks to God for the opportunity to enjoy the outdoors and to allow me to have a successful and safe hunt. She was a beautiful deer which dressed out around 125 lbs. It was only 8:15 when I got back to camp, so I waited until Shawn was done hunting so we could go recover the doe, pack up camp, and head home.

The rest of the evening was spent processing the deer. I used my grinder to coarse grind the sausage and hamburger meat for January meat processing with UNJ staff member Dan Block. I used my food saver to seal the two roasts (3.5 lbs each), the steaks, and the ground meat. Fresh venison on the grill was the immediate reward for all my efforts. What a way to start the Minnesota Archery season, and what a nice doe to be the first deer taken on my property. I have 15 more weeks of archery hunting to hopefully get the opportunity for a good buck.

Twas the Night before MN Archery Opener

For a little 4-1-1 about me I would like to detail this past weekend and in doing so I will be providing background history so you will quickly learn what, why, and who I am. This past weekend was Minnesota’s Archery and Small game opener. Being the avid bow hunter and archery advocate, I was so excited for the weekend that I took Friday off of work to travel up north to my property and get camp all setup and ready for the next morning. It will be a 2 part blog, with the first part providing my background and hunt setup and the second part describing my hunts.

I’ve been hunting since I got my first pellet gun at age 6, deer hunting since age 12, and bow hunting since I was 15 and will never stop. However, my father does not bow hunt which has left me making 70% of my bow hunting outings by myself. That has never been an issue for me as I enjoy the solitude and reflection archery provides away from the hectic activities of our “everyday” lives, but there is something about meeting back at camp to tell the stories of the day and of the days which have gone by. This weekend was different. An old college friend Shawn and I recently reconnected via Facebook (say what you want about this social network…but it does bring friends together) and we only live 15 minutes apart. His enthusiasm and love of the outdoors has quickly allowed us to become hunting partners (even if he does beat me in Cribbage).

As I mentioned, we were going to be hunting my private property. My wife and I purchased this 80 acre track in central MN in November of 2007. It has 48 acres of beautiful hardwoods (oaks, basswood, maple, poplar, etc.), an acre or two of open clearings (2 which have become food plots), 15 acres of muskeg and small tamarack lowland, and 15 acres of mature tamarack and spruce. This provides many “edge” scenarios which we all know are a whitetail’s favorite location. There is a gravel road on the eastern border and private land owners on all other sides. Public land is less than a mile away. There is no cabin, just a pop-up camper and a nice camping site which Dan Block, my cousin and Up North Journal Staff member, helped setup this spring. It's definitely not the Holiday Inn, but I'd rather rough it anyways as that adds to the atmosphere of the hunt and the stories which are told.

As I arrive at the parking spot on Friday morning with my Honda Rubicon ATV in tow, I realize that this weekend will be my first opportunity to experience my property. This year I kept my boat covered and focused all my free time to preparing the property for archery season. Camp site prep, ATV trail creation through the muskeg/tamarack swamp, food plots, 4 trail cameras, mineral licks, stand setups, etc. If it wasn’t for God and my family, hunting would be my life. But since there is God and family, hunting is just a part of my life.

I quickly unloaded my ATV from my trail, hooked the trailer to the ATV, and loaded all my supplies on to the trailer. This is the most efficient way of carrying my supplies over 800 feet of muskeg swamp. This is only possible due to a 50 year old “road” that is barely visible, but does provide enough foundation to not sink into the muck. As I setup camp, I learn that mice which had found my camper a few weeks earlier, have chewed holes in the canvas and screens. After hours of duct tape and bleach cleaning of EVERYTHING, I was ready to head out to hang my Lone Wolf Alpha stand and pull the 3 weeks of pictures from my 4 cameras.

I loaded up my gear and drove around the property on my “new” ATV trail which Shawn and I created 7 weeks ago. First stop was my Whitetail Institute 30-06 mineral lick and stand location. On the way there I realized that there are a TON of acorns and that I should have brought my hard hat. As I arrive at the site, I notice that the hardwoods are starting to change colors and some trees were already dropping their leaves. Luckily my stand is nestled among multiple trees with thick lowland cover all around so I have foreground and background cover for when the majestic whitetail comes meandering by. Stand up, safety harness strap installed, and camcorder arm installed and waiting for my first attempt at self videoing my hunts.

Now what about deer activity? I use Stealth Cam Rogue IR digital Infrared cameras with the setting for 1 picture every 5 minutes. So if a deer does hang around for a while I do get different views of the same animal. The camera at my stand location had 68 pictures mostly does, fawns, squirrels, and a small buck. The next camera on a north/south runway had 38 pictures (does, fawns, a different small buck, and a pine martin); however, this was for only 9 days as the pine martin decided to chew my Stealth Cam 12 volt battery cable. I guess it didn’t like to have its picture taken. Next stop my food plot camera…113 pictures. There were a TON of does, fawns, and turkeys and one nice 8 pointer. Last location is the east/west runway from the food plot through a funnel area and Shawn’s stand location. This camera had only 4 pictures of animals…a small 8 pointer, the large 8 pointer, the top of a deer’s back, and a deer in the distance. I guess if you are only going to have a few pictures, at least they were of decent bucks.

Once Shawn arrived and was settled in, we discussed our hunting plans for the next morning and when we anticipated getting back from our stands in case we need to go looking for each other. Whether you hunt alone or with someone, you should always have a plan so that if an unforeseen accident were to occur, help will be on its way and not waiting nearby. Whether it is a fall from a stand or being treed by a bear, every minute counts. As we started talking old hunting stories, Shawn decided to win a few hands of Cribbage before we headed to bed. It will be a night of little sleep for both of us as we were doing our best impersonation of children on Christmas Eve…who can sleep before the first day of deer season?

To Be Continued…