Niemz, I believe that the late timing was intentional. We all know that the courts take time. I believe that their trying to get their injunction "just" before the season is scheduled to start so there won't be time for our side to appeal the decision before opening day
This is from Tom's link.
"Minnesota’s first wolf hunt in nearly a half-century is scheduled to
begin Nov. 3 with the opening of the deer firearms season; the state’s
rules provide that 6,000 licenses will be sold to kill 400 wolves. The
lawsuit filed today asks the Minnesota Court of Appeals to prevent
implementation of wolf hunting and trapping rules until the court can
issue its decision in the case".
I hope that their little bit of "trickery" doesn't work!!!
TWolf, I'd like to see that breakdown. The odds are as dependent on how many hunters applied for each season as it is for the number of tags available. This is just a guess, but it would make sense to me that more people applied for the first season. Of course, I was so far off on my initial guess as to how many applicant's there would be in the first place I'm almost afraid to speculate anymore
Tom, this is also from your link.
Instead of offering a formal public comment period, the DNR offered an online survey
before adopting the details of how wolves would be shot and trapped.
More than 75 percent of the comments opposed killing wolves.
The
groups also claim that lawmakers violated their own 2001 wolf management
plan that called for a five-year moratorium on wolf hunting and
trapping once the animals were taken off the federal endangered species
list.
That management plan was put in place by a different congress 11 years ago. There has been plenty of "study" here in MN., and elsewhere since then.
I have not read the wolf hunting bill myself, but as I'm hearing it on MPR, the DNR was ordered by congress to organize a season for this Fall, so I can only guess that, that was in the bill.
If that's true hopefully it will be enough to sink the anti's case. The anti's are going after the DNR, but if I'm right the DNR was ordered by our state government to implement the wolf hunt.
IMO, this is just an attempt by the anti's to be disruptive, and in the end won't accomplish much more than that. Whether it's this year or not, the wolf hunt will eventually happen.
I don't know the logistics as to where any of these anti's live, but I'd bet that the overwhelming majority don't live in wolf country, and don't have to worry on a day to day basis whether or not one of their animals will be killed by wolfs.
Anyone that deals with the Minnesota Northwoods on a daily basis understands that over the years not only have the wolf #'s increased, but the wolves themselves have grown much bolder in their actions. On several occasions within the past five years I've had wolves within 150ft of my front door, and I've had them less than 100ft of my backdoor.
I've had discussions with our area Forrester, our area Game Warden, a Federal trapper and a local trapper that lives a mile away from us and has lost many an animal from his traps to wolves. It's a consensus amongst us that the wolves are getting more than just a little out of control in this region.
For me the wolf hunt is more of a reclamation of my area than it is a recreational sport.
For me there is one good thing that came out of the de-listing of the wolves that this injunction (if it's successful) won't prevent. In March of 2011 when the wolves first came in after my dogs (that I'm aware of) I couldn't legally shoot them. If they come after my dogs now I can