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Serving Northern St. Louis County, Minnesota

Odd wolf prompts trail reroutes

Aloysia Power
Posted 3/4/15

LAKE NAMAKAN – Reports of a lone wolf following snowmobilers who are traveling in certain areas of the Voyageurs National Park trail system have prompted park officials to close and reroute short …

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Odd wolf prompts trail reroutes

Posted

LAKE NAMAKAN – Reports of a lone wolf following snowmobilers who are traveling in certain areas of the Voyageurs National Park trail system have prompted park officials to close and reroute short sections of some trails starting this week.

Two of the three official reports described the wolf as either following or pacing alongside their moving sleds, while the third party said they stopped to look at the wolf, but got back on their machines when the wolf began to walk toward them, according the park’s superintendent, Mike Ward. He said he suspects it’s one wolf, rather than several individual wolves.

“It’s such non-typical behavior for a wolf to not run from a snowmobile, that it makes sense that it’s the same wolf, especially since it was sighted in the same area,” said Ward.

Since the news of the wolf hit the stands on Tuesday, Ward said more people have since called in to report similar interactions with a lone wolf around the same area. He said the last official sighting was Feb. 28 and he has several unofficial reports that this wolf behavior has been going on for about three weeks.

“After all these interactions, it hasn’t hurt anyone, yet,” said Ward. “But, you never know what it’s going to do, so that’s why we’re concerned.”

The park rerouted a section of the Green Trail from the Moose River Grade north to Namakan Lake over to its closure point on Namakan Lake to the connection of the Yellow Trail near Kettle Falls and the Orange Trail (Rudder Bay Trail) that goes along the south side of Big Namakan Island.

The park also closed a short section of the Yellow Trail (Kettle Falls Trail) from the Green and Yellow Trail connection in Moose Bay north to the Orange (Rudder Bay Trail) and Yellow Trail connection.

Ward said these two sections of the Green and Yellow Trails will remain closed until the park deems the area safe again, or until the snowmobiling season ends in a few weeks.

“I hope people understand that the way we’ve rerouted the trail, they can still enjoy the park,” said Ward.

While the area is closed off, park employees will try to locate the wolf by snowmobiling through the area.

“We need to locate the wolf first and figure out where it is and why it’s doing this before we can make a decision about what we’ll do about it,” said Ward. “And we’ll work with the (Minnesota Department of Natural Resources) in that decision.”

Ward added that trapping the wolf is currently off the table.

“You can’t trap the wolf you’re looking for. We would have no way of knowing if this was the correct wolf,” he said.

Ward said closing that area of trail and keeping people away from the wolf might help the wolf return to its normal behavior.

“We’re right at the end of breeding season,” he said. “It may have been trying to create a den. Or, this may have been a wolf that’s been habituated due to people feeding it in the Ash River area.”

Ward said there is a “fairly normal population” of wolves currently in the park, estimating there are around four different packs and a total of about 20 wolves roaming through its lakes and woods.

To stay updated on the wolf situation and snowmobile trail conditions, visit www.nps.gov/voya.