Vince Hoehn of CENTURY 21 Pierce Realty LLC, Manitowish Waters, WI

Timber wolves are a controversial topic just about anywhere there are actually any of them roaming around. Opinions range from “Kill them all!” to “Aren’t they magnificent!” You can hear similar opinions expressed throughout Vilas County -- indeed, all of Northern Wisconsin. I bring the topic up because last week I became aware of the fact that we have a new organization in town -- by new, I mean new to us.

Manitowish Waters has been home to the North Lakeland Discovery Center for a number of years. The Discovery Center is “a community-based environmental learning center dedicated to exploring, preserving, and enhancing the Lakeland area's natural, cultural, and historic resources.” See: http://www.discoverycenter.net/ for more information. The Discovery Center now provides the new home for the organization referred to in the previous paragraph: the Timber Wolf Alliance.

The Timber Wolf Alliance, formerly based at the Northland College Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute (in Ashland), is dedicated to assisting in the restoration of a sustainable population of timber wolves in the western Great Lakes region. See: http://www.discoverycenter.net/twa.htm I am not offering any opinion on the necessity or wisdom of attempting to achieve such a goal. Timber wolves seem to be one of those third rail issues (Touch it and you die), so I just find it very interesting that the Alliance ends up here, of all places.