Ok ... the population is estimated at 3,000 but 6,000 tags are going to be issued. I know not everyone is going to punch a tag ... but that seems a bit strange to me.

rminard...The DNR has been open about expecting a very low success rate during the hunt somewhere in the range of 5-10%. Based on the cap of 400, it may take 6000 hunter to get there. I imaging a lot of hunters in the northern section of the state will simply apply for a tag to have in their pocket in case a wolf walks near their stand during deer season and will not specifically target wolves.

is there an open coyote season in minnesto?

As a Minnesotan I have no problem with this but all of the media coverage that it is getting has the entire animal rights groups up in arms over it. What many of those groups fail to recognize is that hunters and outdoors men in general have helped fund the recovery of the wolves through licensing fees and such. I don't hunt up north but I know plenty of people that do and this will help return the population to a healthy level. Kudos to the MN DNR.

Northenminn, I'm sure the DNR recognizes that the pelts will not be prime and in fact many may not be any good. But the objective is to limit the numbers. Hunters who take them at that time will likely (hopefully) understand that too. Culling sometimes involves waste but it that's what needs to be done then we have to accept it. The federal trappers are undoubtedly taking the animals at any time of the year when they become a problem and doubtless many of those wolves go to "waste" too. This is simply a matter of shifting the culling from government agents to paying customers. Makes sense to me. I applaud the Minnesota DNR for taking such a cautious and thoughtful approach to this. Some of what happened when wolf hunting was opened in the West was a bit more shot-from-the-hip.

Couple quick points...The DNR estimates there are around 3000 wolves in MN. Some biologists have speculated recently that this number is much higher in the 5000 range.
Second if you have a chance it's very interesting to talk to anyone who hunted wolves in MN prior to 1974. At that time they were trying to eradicate wolves via trapping, poisoning, shooting them from airplanes. It didn't work. This new hunting season will no doubt result in a couple hundred wolves being taken for the first couple years. But when they realize they're being targeted they will just disappear just like before.

wolves were not re-introduced to wisconsin.
once they got here from minnesota they were trapped and moved around particularily in the national forests

I can only hope Michigan will follow suit! We used to have Deer Tags along with a complementary Bear tag in the 60's and early 70's.

@rminard The DNR plans to notify the hunters via the media (e-mail, text, television, etc.)

This article doesn't do too great of a good answering all the questions everyone is curious about... check out Minnesota's DNR site. They have plenty of information on the topic.