By JIM MANN/The Daily Inter Lake
More than 90 people turned out for a meeting in Kalispell on Wednesday to chime in on proposed hunting and trapping regulations for wolves in Montana.
Those who attended the meeting at Flathead Valley Community College were broken up into 10 work groups to share their views.
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks officials heard a full range of comments — from ending the regulated hunt to having a year-round, wide-open season on wolves.
“Folks were very passionate, very engaged,” said Jim Williams, regional wildlife manager for Fish, Wildlife and Parks. “It ran the gamut from complete protection to very low tolerance for wolves on the landscape.”
Williams estimated that most who attended favored some form of wolf hunt.
“Folks were pretty concerned about the impacts of wolves on big game animals,” he said. “We heard primarily from people worried about their hunting opportunities being impacted by wolves.”
The Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission has proposed a hunt without quotas for all but two hunting districts. The archery season would run from Sept. 1 to Oct. 14, the backcountry season would be Sept. 15 to Feb. 28 and the general season would be Oct. 15 to Feb. 28. A trapping season, allowing for nonlethal foothold traps only, would run from Dec. 15 to Feb. 28.
Williams explained that the trapping season schedule was based largely on avoiding trapping when grizzly bears are active and could be lured to trapped wolves.
“We live with a lot of grizzly bears in Northwest Montana,” Williams said. “There’s a concern for trapper safety.”
The reason for leg-hold traps only, rather than potentially fatal neck snares, is that state officials see potential for some trappers to cooperate in fitting trapped wolves with radio collars.
“We’re looking to use trappers as partners in monitoring” wolf packs, Williams said. “If they don’t want to use their license, we’ll hopefully be able to get extra collars out.”
The proposal to go without quotas in most hunting districts was the result of the last hunting season, in which most district quotas were not reached. Statewide, there was a quota of 220 wolves but only 166 wolves were harvested.
According to the 2011 annual wolf report, Montana had a minimum population of 653 wolves, and despite hunting, the population grew by about 15 percent from 2010 numbers.
“Our goal is to reduce the population to 425,” said Williams.
Next month, the state commission will set final regulations for the next wolf season.
Considering comments received at the Kalispell meeting and similar meetings elsewhere in the state, the commission could choose to adjust the proposed regulations.