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Candidate forum in Bern

Candidate forum in Bern Candidate forum in Bern

State and federal candidates share views on wolf protection

Candidates for state and federal office at a Saturday forum commented on a federal judge’s decision to return the gray wolf to the Endangered Species List, including one candidate for state senate who said that a farmer who suffers loss of cattle due to wildlife should be able to “protect his property regardless of what the DNR says.”

The forum was cohosted by the Marathon County Farm Bureau and Marathon County Farmers Union at the MilTrim Farm Visitor’s Center, town of Bern.

Among the candidates, incumbent congressman Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-Minocqua), 29th senate district candidate Cory Tomczyk, Mosinee, 87th assembly district incumbent Rep. “Jimmy Boy” Edming (R-Glen Flora) and 85th assembly district candidate Kristin Conway, Schofield, all said they opposed northern California federal district judge Jeffrey White’s decision in February to, once again, list wolves as an endangered species in 44 of the lower 48 states, including Wisconsin. The candidates said they wanted either the states or a regional collection of states to manage wolf populations.

Taking a different viewpoint, Dick Ausman, a Democratic challenger to Tiffany from Lac du Flambeau, said management of the wolf population should be guided by science, not politics.

Tiffany, an outspoken opponent of keeping the gray wolf on the Endangered Species List, said wolves were “decimating herds in northern Wisconsin” and called “successful” recent hunts that have thinned the state’s wolf pack to under 1,000 animals. These hunts included the most recent in 2021 where hunters exceeded their 119 animal quota and killed wolves reserved for Native American tribes, who seek to protect the animals. He said the problem with wolves was not that the animals were killing livestock, but that their mere presence reduced the rate of gain in beef animals. He said the state of Wisconsin is trying to encourage managed grazing of dairy cattle, but that wolves put these pastured livestock in jeopardy. “Wolves are the number one threat to grazing animals,” he said. Tiffany said he did not oppose having wolves but that the top predators needed to be managed by the state DNR, just like other animals.

“We believe wolves should be on the landscape, but they should be managed,” he said. The congressman said he wanted the federal government “to butt out” of wolf management and leave the species to be handled by the states.

“If the wolves recovered, they should come off the list,” he said. “This should be a state issue.”

Judge White ruled that while wolf populations have increased, the wolf’s recovery has not occurred across the animal’s historic range and, according to definitions within the Endangered Species Act, the animals must remain on the Endangered Species List.

The Wisconsin DNR has reported that the state had 110 verified wolf conflicts in 2021. This is in a state with 3.45 million cattle.

Tomczyk, a Republican, not only opposed returning the gray wolf to the Endangered Species List but questioned the authority of the DNR to enforce a hunting ban on wolves or other animals.

“If the wolves are damaging a farmer’s property, if the deer or moose or bear is damaging a farmer’s property, it is the farmer’s right to protect his property regardless of what the DNR says,” the candidate said.

Tomczyk said the DNR was too far away from northern Wisconsin to rule on whether farmers should be able to kill wolves that threaten their cattle.

“The DNR doesn’t live among the wolves,” he said. “The people who make the decisions about the wolves should live amongst the wolves. The DNR doesn’t live among the farmers who are getting damaged by wildlife. If they want to claim they are their animals, they should pay a fair price for the damage these animals do.”

In related discussion, Tomczyk said he opposed a $10,000 DNR cap on wildlife damage payments to farmers and, going further, said that farmers should be able to harvest wildlife to stop future losses.

“Farmers aren’t compensated adequately for the damage that they do and if that bear is bothering them [cattle] they should be able to harvest it without a license and eliminate the problem,” he said.

Tomczyk, going further, said that if the DNR “doesn’t understand the problem” then the agency headquarters should be relocated to northern or central Wisconsin.

Rep. Edming said that his father used to be paid $2 per harvested wolf as a bounty back in the day when “the country was crawling with wolves.” Edming said he has represented area farmers in Madison who have sought to be compensated beyond $10,000 for wildlife damage but he was not able to get more cash for the farmers. He said the USDA shot a problem wolf in his district but the farmer involved was subject to hate phone calls from people who support wolves. “That is what happens when you let the masses take care of this stuff,” he said.

Edming said officials at the DNR fail to understand how threatening the wolf is to northern Wisconsin residents.

“I’d like to catch about a dozen of these wolves in our country and turn them loose in Madison,” he said.

Conway said she supported ending the $10,000 cap on wildlife damages and having some sort of regional wolf management pact with nearby states, such as Minnesota.

“It should not be a decision at the federal level,” she said.

In other forum highlights, Rep. Tiffany and Ausman disagreed on the threat posed by China both to American farmers and to the country as a whole.

Ausman said that he has done business in China, finds the Chinese “wonderful people”and that, unlike Russia, the country has not invaded other nations to seize territory. He said he was frustrated by Americans who sign unfavorable contracts with the Chinese and then complain about business dealings with that country. Ausman said China is run by a dictatorship but that the country had opened up and democratized its economy. “We have to be smart about how we go about dealing with China,” he said.

Tiffany, on the other hand, said he used to support free trade with China but, more recently, “had changed my tune.” He said the Chinese “don’t believe in contracts” and “don’t play by the same rules” as Americans do. He said that the Chinese leadership aims at achieving world domination by 2049, the one hundredth anniversary of the Communist revolution. Further, Tiffany called China this country’s number one foreign adversary. “The depth of penetration into our society that the Chinese Communist Party has is our number one challenge,” he said.

“Wolves are the number one threat to grazing animals.”

Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-Seventh District)


Dick Ausman

Kristin Conway

Tom Tiffany

Cory Tomczyk
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