Hunting group says new laws demand tougher wolf plan
By SCOTT McMILLION, Chronicle Staff Writer
New laws passed this winter by the Montana Legislature mean state officials must go back to the drawing board and come up with a much tougher wolf-management plan, according to a spokesman for one hunting group.
Those new laws call on the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks to maintain huntable populations of big game, protect livestock and public safety and improve how biologists monitor wildlife populations, said Gary Marbut, president of the Montana Shooting Sports Association.
But FWP already shares those same goals, said FWP chief of staff Chris Smith.
“We believe that’s what the people of Montana want,” Smith said Friday.
He also said the legislative acts Marbut cites don’t require major changes for wolf management.
“I don’t think the legislation that passed this session fundamentally changes law and policy” regarding wolf management, he said.
Marbut spelled out his stance in a Friday letter to FWP chief Jeff Hagener. It is MSSA’s official comment on the draft environmental impact statement spelling out FWP’s plans for wolf management once the big carnivores are removed from the list of federally protected species.
FWP’s preferred alternative would allow about 15 wolf packs to wander the state, roughly the number here now.
Marbut maintains that is too many. He wants to see a plan that allows “the bare minimum that will get wolves delisted and keep them delisted.”
Others say the FWP plan calls for too few wolf packs.
For example, the Missoula-based Alliance for the Wild Rockies said this week that all of FWP’s post-delisting alternatives, including its preferred option, are “based on politics, not sound science”
The Alliance maintains Montana should host between 83 and 125 packs.
“We’re getting a lot of comment from all over the globe and all over the philosophical map,” Smith said.
The comment period on the draft EIS closes Monday.
FWP proposes to manage wolves similar to the way it manages mountain lions and black bears, including a limited hunt and killing animals that pose threats to livestock or game populations.
Marbut wants to see a new alternative that puts the concerns of big-game hunters “front and center.”
“They need to go back and rewrite the thing,” he said Friday.
The bills that could affect wolf management are:
€ HB 262, which requires FWP to manage large predators to maintain hunting opportunities, protect livestock and protect human safety.
€ HB 306, which allows voters to decide whether hunting should be a constitutionally guaranteed right.
€ SB 209, which requires FWP to improve how it counts game animals and make reports on that progress to the Legislature.
Smith said FWP supported those bills in the Legislature.
Marbut also cited House Resolution 32, which does not have the force of law. It defines a wolf pack as two adults and pups less than 6 months old, a slight difference from the current definition.
Smith said once all the comments are read and analyzed, a final EIS probably will be written.
Delisting cannot occur unless Montana, Idaho and Wyoming all write management plans that will keep wolves in those states from facing extinction again, federal officials say.