Montana willing to share wolves with other states
By KARL PUCKETT
Tribune Staff Writer
The head of Montana’s wolf program said earlier this week that the state would be willing to trap and transplant wolves to other states if requested.
“We’re open to it,” said Caroline Sime of Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, in response to criticism from some environmental groups that believe the wolf population in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho is not large enough to sustain itself.
Several groups have promised to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in April. They fear the population of 1,500 wolves in the Northern Rockies can’t be sustained under state management, which will allow producers to shoot wolves caught killing livestock and establishes a separate hunting season.
Jenny Harbine, an attorney with Earthjustice, one of 11 environmental groups that have said they plan to take legal action, said management will be a “whole different ballgame” under the state.
“We could see states really ramping up wolf killing immediately after delisting and the federal government, at that point, wouldn’t have the power to stop them,” she said.
Sime, who said that won’t happen in Montana, noted that a lot of effort was put into coming up with the definition of a recovered population.
During the recovery period, Montanans made sacrifices to restore the wolves to the landscape.
“If people are now talking about changing the goal posts, that would cause me some concern,” she said, referring to the goal population needed to consider the gray wolf to be recovered.
The state management plan states there must be a population of at least 100 wolves and 10 breeding pairs in Montana.
There are currently at least 420 wolves, 73 packs and 39 breeding pairs in the state and the population is increasing by 28 percent each year, according to the state’s numbers.
“Wolves are recovered,” Sime said.
If the true goal of the conservation groups is to have more wolves in more places, “Is that federal hammer the best way to do that?” Sime asked.
An alternative to using the federal Endangered Species Act, she said, is a state-led restoration of wildlife into historic habitat.
The state, she noted, has a long and successful history of trapping and transplanting wildlife to other states, including elk and bighorn sheep.