De-listing of wolves sought
By JENNIFER McKEE
Gazette State Bureau
HELENA – Concerned about what they see as an elk-hungry, exploding
population of wolves in the state, a group of lawmakers sent a letter to
Gov. Judy Martz Monday asking the state to push for more control over
wolves and thousands in federal dollars to pay for the elk wolves eat.
Reps. Dan Fuchs, R-Billings, and Joe Balyeat, R-Bozeman, and Sens. Mike
Sprague, R-Billings, and Jack Wells, R-Bozeman, called wolves and other
large predators like mountain lions and grizzly bears “killing machines.”
“But the distinct thing about the wolf is – it’s a killing machine and a
breeding machine all rolled into one,” the letter reads.
The lawmakers, who represent the chairman and vice chairmen of both the
House and Senate Fish, Wildlife and Parks committees, are concerned that
before the lengthy federal process of taking the wolf off the federal
endangered species list will be over, wolf numbers in Montana will have
swelled to the point of nuisance, if not outright danger, said Fuchs.
Wolves were reintroduced in Yellowstone Park in 1995 as part of a federal
effort to replant the animals in Yellowstone and the lands round it.
Wolves are native to the park, but were exterminated early in the last
century. As part of the wolf reintroduction plan, the federal government
manages the wolves – and killing one is a federal offense – until the wolf
population reaches a certain point.
“They’re territorial,” Fuchs said. “Each litter has to search out some new
territory, so they’re going to be moving all over outside the park.”
Already, Fuchs said, wolves are making their presence known. He cited one
late-season elk hunt that has been cut back extensively, he believes, to
fewer elk as a result of hungry wolf packs.
The letter said each elk is worth about $4,000. Fuchs said that figure
came from both the game farm industry and what Fish, Wildlife and Parks
has estimated the replacement cost of one elk to be.
To that end, the lawmakers say they’re ready to push for new laws in the
2003 Legislature that would bar the state from agreeing to take over
management of the wolf until a handful of criteria can be met.
Among other things, lawmakers want the federal government to kick in 80
percent of the cost for managing wolves, even after the animals have been
de-listed and can be legally hunted in Montana.
They want Washington, D.C., to reimburse the state for hunting losses due
to elk and deer who were killed and eaten by wolves.
They want the state to act quickly, Fuchs said, because wolf populations
are on the rise and by the time the slow, de-listing process is complete –
which isn’t expected until 2004 at the earliest – hundreds of wolves could
be all over the state.
Fuchs said the letter was supposed to be dropped in the mail Monday.
Ed Bangs, wolf recovery specialist for the federal Fish and Wildlife
Service, said he completely agrees with the lawmakers that wolves
rebounded quickly after their reintroduction into Yellowstone National
Park seven years ago and will likely have enough wolves this December to
begin the process of taking the wolves off the federal endangered species
list. Bangs said he estimated the wolves could be off the protected list
by 2004.
But, he said, the agency has no intention of letting the wolves swell to
uncomfortably large numbers and stress farmers, ranchers and city-folk.
“We’ve killed eight entire packs since 1987,” Bangs said. And the agency
is prepared to kill wolves who kill livestock or attempt to set up new
packs in places they’re not welcome, like the agriculturally-dominant
plains.
For now, most wolves are on public land.
Montana, with 123 wolves, has the smallest population of wolves of all the
states where wolves were reintroduced in Yellowstone in 1995.
Before the states can take over management of the wolf, all three –
Montana, Wyoming and Idaho – must pass certain laws and have a state-level
wolf management plan ready. Idaho’s management plan is already finished,
Bangs said. Montana’s is nearly finished and appears to be a good plan.
But Wyoming just started theirs, Bangs said, which is why, although the
wolves will technically have reached their “population goal” this
December, they cannot be turned over to the state for management.
Suzanne Laverty, the western field representative for the Defenders of
Wildlife, the private group that has paid ranchers for livestock lost to
wolves, said she thinks some of the lawmakers wants are ridiculous – like
the federal reimbursement for elk killed by wolves.
“I bet hunters don’t pay $4,000,” she said.