WTIP
Dr. Seth Moore – Grand Portage Wildlife Biologist

LSProject: Grand Portage and wolves on Isle Royale

The federal government announced in March that Isle Royale’s decimated wolf population will get an infusion of new wolves over the next three years in an attempt to control the abundance of moose currently on the island.

This was a story reported on by media outlets on the North Shore of Lake Superior, to the Star Tribune in Minneapolis, and across the country, including stories in the New York Times.

Mark Romanski is the Isle Royale National Park chief of natural resources. He says the wolves will come from a variety of locations across the upper Midwest and Canada. Capture and relocation efforts will take place starting in the fall of 2018.

Romanski says park officials and others involved with the process hope the wolves will form packs that will help keep the island’s abundant moose in check, preventing them from overeating vegetation and harming the ecosystem. As of June 2018, there are just two known wolves residing on Isle Royale, and about 1,500 moose. The idea for a balanced ecosystem would have more wolves and fewer moose.

Meanwhile, there was concern expressed from members of the public and from wildlife officials about bringing more wolves to the Isle Royale. Dr. Seth Moore is the director of wildlife and biology for the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. He says the band sent a letter in 2017 to the Park Service expressing their concerns about the reintroduction of wolves on Isle Royale.

In this installment of the Lake Superior Project, WTIP’s shares an update on the plan to reintroduce wolves to Isle Royale.