A new hunting group has formed in Minnesota and has taken on wolves and wolf management as its first major issue.

Hunters For Hunters has scheduled public evening meetings for Dec. 6 in Carlton, Dec. 7 in Aurora, Dec. 8 in Coleraine, Dec. 29 in Detroit Lakes and Jan. 15 in Bagley to discuss predator management.

The group calls itself “a watchdog organization dedicated to protecting the rights of hunters, landowners and sportsmen in the State of Minnesota. We are a community of like-minded individuals who believe that hunting and outdoor activities are an important part of our heritage and culture. Our mission is to ensure that future generations can enjoy the same hunting opportunities that we have today.”

The group’s website says its goal is “taking back your rights, and forging a better direction that benefits our hunting traditions.”

The group says it is starting with the deer and wolf issue in Minnesota but hopes to expand to other states and other issues.

“We’re a grassroots group of passionate hunters and landowners who see our tradition of deer hunting being destroyed because of wolves,” Lake Bronson resident Steve Porter, a member of the group, told the Duluth News Tribune.

Porter, whose son, Dillon, is chairman of the group’s board, said Hunters For Hunters held a meeting in mid-November in Squaw Lake that drew 250 people and three state senators.

“There are a lot of angry people out there who feel this issue is not getting the attention it deserves,” Steve Porter said. “We’re trying to get the attention of the Legislature, state and federal. … The wolf has to be controlled in some capacity.”

Biologists say northern Minnesota’s deer population, especially in the northeast, has been hit hard by a string of deep-snow winters over the past decade, which forced deer to struggle and reduced their ability to reproduce and escape predators.

Some hunters in the region believe that wolves are the primary reason deer numbers are down, and they want to kill wolves to increase deer numbers. That’s not legally possible now as wolves are a federally protected species under the Endangered Species Act, placed there under court order after a judge ruled individual states were bungling the effort to manage the big canines.

While no public hunting is allowed, about 200 wolves are trapped and killed by a federal agency each year in Minnesota near where pets and livestock are attacked.

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources estimates about 2,691 wolves roam here, mostly in the northern half of the state, by far the most of any state outside Alaska. The agency says that’s about the same or even fewer wolves than in the early 2000s when northern Minnesota had record large deer herds and record deer harvests.

Some hunters, however, say the DNR wolf population estimate is flawed, blaming predators and not deep-snow winters for the deer decline.

Minnesota’s deer harvest during the firearms season was down 6% statewide this year from 2022. Hunters bagged more deer in the southeast and central regions of the state but shot 18% fewer deer in the northeast compared to 2022 and 57% fewer than 2017, a recent high mark.

Under the support of the DNR and then-Gov. Mark Dayton, a Democrat, Minnesota held wolf hunting and trapping seasons for three years, from 2012-2014, killing more than 900 wolves before a federal judge ordered the animal protected again.

In January 2021, states again briefly regained control of wolf management, and Wisconsin held a mid-winter wolf hunt allowing tracking hounds and night-vision goggles. That hunt lasted only three days before state officials shut it down. Licensed hunters killed 216 wolves in that time, more than 80% over the intended quota of 119, and nearly 20% of the state’s estimated 1,000-plus wolves.

After the Wisconsin hunt, a federal judge again gave wolves in the Great Lakes region federal protections, and that court case remains unresolved. Efforts to act in Congress on the issue have not advanced.

Fewer than 500,000 of Minnesota’s 5.7 million residents hunt, about 9% of the population. The number of hunters in the state has declined over the past 20 years as the baby boomer generation ages out and fewer younger people take up hunting.

Hunters For Hunters is seeking annual memberships of between $35 and $60. For more information on the group or the meetings, email info@hunters4hunters.org or go to hunters4hunters.org.