SB 542

This bill changes the date on which the annual open season for hunting and

trapping wolves begins.

Current law authorizes the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to allow

the hunting and trapping of wolves if the wolf is not listed on the federal and

Wisconsin lists of endangered and threatened species (endangered lists). Current

law requires DNR to regulate wolf hunting and trapping and to implement a wolf

management plan. To that end, DNR issues wolf harvesting licenses authorizing the

hunting or trapping of wolves if those wolves are not listed on the endangered lists.

If wolf hunting and trapping is allowed, DNR must establish a single annual open

season that begins on October 15 of each year and ends on the last day of February

of the following year.

This bill changes the date on which the annual open season for wolf hunting and

trapping begins from October 15 of each year in which wolf hunting and trapping is

allowed to the first Saturday in November of each year in which wolf hunting and

trapping is allowed.