Absolutely!
And the RMEF and many other organizations with hunters and fishermen and women as members have raised big money that actually benefit wildlife. They also have provided many members for boots on the ground improvement of wildlife habitat.
About ten years ago I read that the largest contributor to US conservation was “Ducks Unlimited”.
It would be nice to have a non-political examination of the appropriate populations of both wolves and elk. For example, was there over grazing when the elk population was at 17k? What factors drove the population down? Wolves, disease, harsh weather?
It’s pretty clear that wolves have largely recovered, so how should their numbers be managed? Good population management doesn’t mean hunting them back to extinction.
Even in Wisconsin, the wolf population has exceeded the DNR’s initial goals and the carcass of a young male wolf was found just south of downtown Milwaukee. I don’t live too far from where the carcass was found and I can tell you that our local coyotes look a lot like the wolves I’ve seen in captivity, leading me to believe that they are hybrids.