Written by Erin Madison
Tribune Staff Writer
During the 2011-12 wolf season, hunters came up shy of the statewide quota. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks expanded this year’s wolf hunt, extending the season, removing the statewide quota and allowing trapping in addition to hunting wolves. However, with the wolf harvest still falling short of some people’s hopes and exceptions, legislators are looking to add more tools to the state’s wolf management toolbox.
Several bills dealing with wolves have been introduced already, and many more are still being drafted.
Some bills would allow electronic calls and increase the number of wolves a hunter is allowed to harvest. Another proposes offering a free wolf license to every hunter, and another bill would allow sound suppressors to be used in wolf hunting.
“Wolf management is certainly one of the things we need to work on,” said Rep. Kelly Flynn, R-Townsend, who introduced a bill that would allow hunters to have multiple wolf licenses, reduce the price of nonresident licenses and make other changes to wolf hunting regulations.
Rep. Champ Edmunds, R-Missoula, is seeing the growing wolf population take a toll on big-game hunting.
“We need to get a handle on this wolf problem,” he said.
If hunting continues to decline, it’s going to hurt outfitters and Montana’s economy.
“I don’t even hunt in my district any more,” he said.
Edmunds introduced House Bill 150, which would provide each big-game hunter with one free wolf license.
One way to cut down the number of wolves in the state would be if everyone hunting in the woods had a wolf tag, he said. That way when hunters spotted a wolf, they could harvest it.
The free wolf tags would be provided to resident and nonresident hunters. Under the bill, hunters could still purchase additional wolf tags.
Flynn considers the removal of wolves from the endangered species act to have been a great success so far, but Montana is struggling to keep the wolf population in check.
“We simply don’t have enough tools to keep the number down so that they do not cause problems for livestock owners,” he said.
Flynn’s bill would allow hunters and trappers to take multiple wolves. It also would permit electronic calls and would eliminate the requirement that hunters wear orange outside of the big game season. The bill also would reduce the price of a nonresident wolf license from $350 to $50.
“The $350 is definitely a barrier,” Flynn said. “You just don’t see many nonresidents purchasing those licenses.”
Flynn describes the changes proposed in his bill as responsible and reasonable.
“We think they’re things the majority of Montanans will agree to,” he said.
The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks agrees. An FWP representative testified in favor of the bill during a recent legislative hearing.
“Collectively these tools will help improve our flexibility and effectiveness,” said Ken McDonald, FWP wildlife division administrator.
Currently, Montana’s wolf population is said to be 650. However, that’s the minimum count.
“Those are actual wolves counted by our staff,” McDonald said.
The true wolf population is thought to be 10 to 30 percent higher.
Montana’s wolf plan, which was approved by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and was part of what allowed for wolves to come off the endangered species lists, calls for a minimum population of 15 breeding pairs and 150 wolves.
“We are trying to bring the population down,” McDonald said. “We’re still learning. We’re still learning how effective hunters can be.”
“The department, through the commission, has gone from a fairly conservative hunting season to this one that is pretty wide open,” he added.
However, FWP believes there needs to be additional tools to achieve Montana’s wolf management goals.
“The primary tool we would like is the ability for hunters to take more than one wolf,” he said. “Electronic calls, we think, might be a helpful tool for some. … Reducing the nonresident price gets more people out there with the potential to harvest a wolf.”
Rep. Ted Washburn, R-Bozeman, introduced a bill similar to Flynn’s legislation. In addition to allowing the use of electronic calls and eliminating the requirement to wear orange outside the big-game hunting season, Washburn’s HB 31 also establishes set dates for Montana’s wolf hunting season and requires that there be no more than 250 wolves in Montana. It also would allow hunters to take five wolves and would eliminate the requirement that a wolf tag can’t be used within five days after it is purchased.
Washburn is concerned about the shrinking elk population in and around his district.
“In Gallatin and Park counties, they don’t even run the game check stations anymore every weekend,” Washburn said during a hearing on the bill.
That’s because there aren’t enough hunters passing through with elk or deer.
McDonald spoke against the bill, arguing that it reduces FWP’s flexibility to manage wolves by putting set wolf season dates or the number of wolves a hunter can take into law.
“These are the types of things that are best not in statute,” he said during the hearing. “We would have no ability to adjust the number of licenses that hunters could buy without statutory changes through the Legislature.”
Currently hunting season dates are set by the Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission.
Having a maximum number of wolves also would be problematic for FWP. It’s easier to manage for a minimum than try to keep the population under a certain number.
“That would take a lot of additional monitoring, collaring and trapping,” McDonald said.
Washburn’s bill represents enough of a change to wolf management that it would likely trigger a federal status review, which could result in litigation or wolves returning to the endangered species list, McDonald said.
Wolves have been delisted for 20 months now and it took and act of Congress to do it,” he said. “We want to make sure we don’t blow it.”
Washburn also has introduced HB 27, which would authorize the use of sound suppressors while hunting wolves, as well as mountain lions.
Sen. Chas Vincent, R-Libby, is working to draft a bill that would allow landowners to kill wolves on their private property without a hunting license or a special kill permit, which is currently required.
“The inability to even meet wolf quotas in season is also a good indicator of how difficult it is to manage wolf numbers and why we need to increase opportunities for those ends,” Vincent wrote in an email.
The bill includes a mechanism that would allow FWP to issue a moratorium on unlicensed taking of wolves by landowners if wolf numbers reach a certain level.
Vincent’s bill also would allow hunters and trappers to buy more than one wolf license, would reduce the price of a nonresident license to $50 and would require FWP to more accurately monitor wolves and their effect on moose, elk, and deer populations.
Many of the proposed bills would be effective immediately upon passage, which means they could affect the wolf season currently under way if passed before the season ends Feb. 28.