Board holds off on wolf resolution

The Carlton County board pumped the brakes on a resolution lending support for delisting the gray wolf as a federally endangered species during its meeting Tuesday. The proposed resolution would have featured letters sent to federal legislators, including Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith and Rep. Pete Stauber.

Instead, the board tabled the resolution until its 4 p.m. meeting Feb. 26. The proposed letter requests a return to state management of the wolf.

Fewer deer sightings and harvests in northeastern Minnesota during November’s deer hunt have led to outcry that wolves are rampantly thinning the deer herd.

The new Minnesota-based group Hunters for Hunters has capitalized on anti-wolf sentiment by conducting rallies throughout the state that routinely draw hundreds of hunters.

“Carlton County is confident that given the opportunity, the Minnesota (Department of Natural Resources) will formulate a management plan that is responsible …” the county’s proposed letter notes.

Both Klobuchar, DFL-Minnesota, and Stauber, R-Hermantown, already support federal bills that would delist the wolf throughout states bordering the western Great Lakes were those bills to become law. In Minnesota, the DNR says there are at least 2,700 wolves, and its officials agree the wolf population is no longer endangered within the state. The DNR, though, argues that fewer deer are the result of more complex factors than just wolves, including a string of severe winters.

Stauber has introduced legislation that would delist the wolf and written to Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries and the chairman and ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee, saying they should include language to delist the gray wolf in any legislation that would fund the Interior Department.

In neutral

Commissioner Gary Peterson motioned to approve the resolution and commissioner Dick Brenner seconded it. But the measure never reached a vote.

“It kind of seems like we’re preaching to the choir if they’re already on the side of what we’re requesting,” commissioner Marv Bodie said of federal legislators.

Commissioner Tom Proulx took it a step further.

“I believe this board … made a resolution that we don’t get involved in federal issues,” said Proulx, who represents most of Cloquet. “This is clearly a federal issue. It’s outside of our scope.”

Proulx was referring to a 2021 resolution that resulted when there was a pro-gun movement to make counties Second Amendment sanctuaries. At the time, the board unanimously agreed via resolution not to get involved in partisan issues and things that don’t directly affect the county budget.

The Pine Knot sought a copy of the resolution, which was signed by four of the five current commissioners and reads: “the Carlton County board of commissioners will not get involved in matters beyond the scope of the authority given by state and federal constitutions, laws, rules, and regulations, and furthermore … commissioners will not get involved in partisan politics matters that do not have a direct effect on the budget, policies, ordinances or laws of Carlton County.”

Peterson’s signature was on the 2021 resolution, but he pressed the wolf management resolution nonetheless.

“This affects the people here in Carlton County,” Peterson said. “Our federal officials respond … to what our needs and concerns are. They want to hear from people back home. They want to hear from people in Carlton County, so they can make good decisions.”

“If Mr. Peterson wants to write a letter, I don’t have a problem with that,” Proulx said. “I don’t want to be part of the ‘we’ in this letter.”

Peterson attended a Hunters for Hunters meeting in December in Carlton where at least 300 hunters showed up. Conversely, Proulx said he’s “not heard from one person” in his district on the wolf issue.

Bodie and board chair Susan Zymslony encouraged the board to table the matter until the commissioners all had time to revisit the previous resolution related to staying out of federal matters.

“Why haven’t they been taken off?” Proulx said of wolves being delisted as endangered species. “Is there a reason? There must be. I’d just like to have all the information.”

Regarding the 2021 resolution, the commissioners did leave room for issuing resolutions on “public awareness, arts and cultural celebrations and special honors.”