Wolf hunting licenses postponed

The high demand for wolf hunting licenses has pushed the release date back another month.

The Department of Natural Resources is postponing the sale until September 28th to ensure it’s license-sales technology is able to handle the increasing interest. Licenses were originally scheduled to go up for grabs starting August 3rd.

“We wanted to make sure that everyone that is interested in these licenses has a fair opportunity at getting them. To have this much interest in such a limited number of licenses that are available over the counter, could present some challenges with people being able to get access to license terminals or those types of things,” explained Adam Bump of the Michigan DNR.

In addition to solidifying it’s technological capacity, the DNR is making sure adequate staffing is put in place at it’s various locations to ensure that the license-buying process is as fair and efficient as possible.

“We’re pretty confident that we have it were it needs to be, but we just wanted to make sure that we don’t have any system crashes or anything with a lot of people trying to get them all at once. So, we just felt that it would be appropriate to postpone to make sure that all that works out for everybody,” added Bump.

There will only be a limited number of licenses released beginning September 28th at noon eastern time. The sale will run until October 31st or until the 1,200 license quota is met. Michigan residents can buy their wolf licenses for $100 while non-residents will have to pay five-times as much for $500.

Although the license-release date has shifted, the wolf hunting season will still begin on November 15th.For more information about regulations, see the 2013 Wolf Hunting Digest, available online at http://www.michigan.gov/dnrdigests?source=govdelivery or at any location DNR licenses are sold.