Montana Wolf Plan On Track
Montana’s final plan to conserve and manage gray wolves when they are
removed from the federal endangered species list is on track for
completion in August, state wildlife officials said today.
“We’re rapidly bringing this long and closely watched process to a close,”
said Jeff Hagener, director of Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks. “After
nearly three years of discussions and dozens of statewide public meetings,
we’re on track to finalize Montana’s wolf management plan in August.”
The final plan, and legally required record of decision, will then be
submitted to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in September. Montana’s
most recent public comment period on the state’s 288-page draft wolf plan
EIS, which closed in May, generated more than 5,000 specific comments.
About 90 percent of all comments came from Montana residents, officials
said.
“We’re confident the final plan will reflect the public’s desire for FWP
to manage wolves in a way that addresses their concerns and allows FWP the
flexibility to meet the needs of both wolves and people. It will also
reflect Montanan’s willingness to work together to build a successful
program,” said Carolyn Sime, FWP’s wolf plan coordinator, who reviewed all
the comments and is now preparing the final document.
Among the federal requirements for wolf delisting, Montana, Idaho, and
Wyoming must have management plans and adequate regulations in place to
maintain the recovered wolf population within the northern Rocky Mountain
Recovery Area. Each state’s wolf management plan and legal framework will
be evaluated by federal officials to make sure the recovered wolf
population will not become threatened or endangered again.
Idaho’s plan is complete and Wyoming is still working with USFWS on plan
details. Wyoming officials, however, say they are committed to submitting
a plan this summer.
Sime said many comments on the Montana plan and draft EIS specifically
addressed FWP’s preferred management alternative, which is based on an
updated version of a plan developed by Montana’s Wolf Management Advisory
Council. She noted that numerous comments also addressed the preferred
alternative indirectly. “Many comments that didn’t specifically address an
alternative tend to fit within the conservation and management strategies
and overall philosophy of the preferred alternative,” Sime said.
FWP’s preferred alternative, one of five presented in the draft EIS,
suggests that wolf management in Montana would be based on numbers,
distribution and public acceptance, in a manner similar to the way the
state manages black bears and mountain lions. Under the agency’s
preferred alternative, various techniques to manage wolves and resolve
conflicts would be based on a benchmark of 15 breeding pairs in Montana.
The gray wolf was recently downlisted from “endangered” to “threatened” in
northwestern Montana under the federal Endangered Species Act of 1973.
Wolves in southwestern Montana are still classified as “experimental,
nonessential” populations under the federal ESA.
An estimated 660 wolves, in about 80 packs with 43 of those qualifying as
breeding pairs inhabited the northern Rockies at the end of 2002. At
that time, federal officials estimated that 183 wolves, in 35 packs, and
about 16 breeding pairs inhabited Montana. Federal wolf managers conclude
that a total of 30 or more breeding pairs, equitably distributed in the
tri-state recovery area for the past three years indicates that the
population is biologically recovered. USFWS’s official process to delist
the wolf could begin this fall, if USFWS determines that state management
plans and laws are adequate to maintain the recovered population.
Wolves from Canada began to naturally recolonize northwestern Montana in
the mid 1980s. In the mid 1990s, to hasten the overall pace of wolf
recovery in the northern Rockies, 66 wolves were released into Yellowstone
National Park and central Idaho. Since then, the population has expanded
and wolves are now found throughout portions of the federally designated
northern Rocky Mountain Recovery Area.