Social Network

Email: timberwolfinfonetwork@gmail.com
Email: timberwolfinfonetwork@gmail.com

MT: Hunters: Kill more predators

By Nick Gevock of The Montana Standard

A crowd of Butte hunters this week blamed predators for a tough hunting season last fall and called for stepped up killing of wolves, black bears and mountain lions.

“We don’t kill enough predators,” said Jack Atcheson Sr. “They’ve devastated animals where they’re not heavily controlled.”

Several other hunters and representatives blasted biologists with the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks for not killing enough predators. They said more predator control is needed to raise the number of deer, elk, moose and other game animals.

The Butte meeting on Wednesday is one of more than 10 throughout southwestern Montana in which biologists take feedback from hunters on the proposals for the next two hunting seasons. In most districts, the regulations will remain the same. That means few opportunities in much of the region to kill cow elk with a general license, as has been the case over the past two years.

But FWP has put forward proposals to further restrict cow elk harvest in a handful of districts, including the Madison Valley. In most areas, FWP kept the general regulations the same and changed only the quotas for the number of cow elk licenses available.

SECOND ELK TAG

But Skyline Sportsmen Association members said they are still strongly opposed to the system of giving hunters a second elk tag for cow elk. They called for FWP to return to the old permit system for cow elk and limit hunters to one per year.

“There’s no reason people are shooting two elk out there,” said Les Castren, Skyline president.

Several people also criticized issuing any mule deer doe tags for southwestern Montana, saying the numbers aren’t there to support any doe harvest. And a few hunters joined Atcheson in sharply criticizing FWP for its management of all predators.

“We’re not providing any hunting opportunity for the future generations,” said Jack Jones.

He blamed wolves for killing too many game animals and said landowners should be allowed to shoot them any time they’re spotted on their property year round.

WOLF HUNTING

But Pat Flowers, Region 3 FWP manager out of Bozeman, defended the agency. He reminded the crowd that Montana did not support wolf reintroduction but is now in charge of managing them. And he said in only its

second hunting season, FWP biologists are still learning how to structure the wolf season. He urged hunters need to give the state a chance at managing wolves through hunting.

“We’re struggling mightily to figure out how to manage them as a huntable species,” he said.

Flowers also defended FWP’s biologists against the criticism, saying they are among the best in the world. He told the crowd that they’ve heard throughout the meetings that last year was a tough hunting season, but he stood behind the biologists’ aerial counts.

“I don’t think our counts were wrong everywhere, in every district,” he said.

Source