By EVE BYRON, Independent Record
When Montana’s Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission meets on Wednesday and Thursday in Helena, a work session on large predators, including wolves, mountain lions and bears, could draw more interest than the regular meeting.
The five commissioners are expected to make final decisions beginning at 8:30 a.m. Thursday on commercial fishing regulations for Canyon Ferry Reservoir and Lake Helena; the Future Fisheries Program winter cycle of projects; and the 2012 peregrine falcon take. The meeting is at the FWP headquarters at 1420 East Sixth Ave. in Helena.
They’re also scheduled to make tentative decisions on extending for two more years the Keep Cool Hills Cooperative Management Area rule, which gives the public access to 15,000 acres north of Lincoln; and acquiring a visitor center at Traveler’s Rest State Park near Lolo.
A second work session involving HJ 32, a joint resolution of Montana’s Senate and House of Representatives requesting an interim study of ways to improve the management, recognition and coordination of state parks and outdoor recreation and heritage resource programs operated by FWP, was canceled Monday. It was unclear when or if the session might be rescheduled.
But what probably will be drawing the most eyes and ears is the Wednesday afternoon work session, where commissioners are slated to hear a recap of the 2011-2012 wolf hunting season, and look at alternatives for next season, then discuss large carnivores and their impacts in Montana with county commissioners.
The FWP Commission had set a quota of 220 wolves for the recent hunt, but only 166 wolves were harvested. If the quota was filled, the hunt was supposed to lower the wolf population by between 7 and 25 percent, based on FWP biologists’ models. However, with only 75 percent of the quota being filled and fewer wolves being killed this year due to livestock depredation, the population instead increased by 15 percent, from a known population of about 560 wolves to 653.
FWP officials said they were encouraged by the harvest, which they said is “more than a two-fold leap” over the 72 wolves taken by hunters in 2009, the first year Montana had a wolf hunt. The 2010 hunt was canceled due to a lawsuit.
“We’re encouraged by the fact that we reached the quota in three wolf management units (WMUs), came to within two harvests in six other WMUs, and reached more than half the quota in all but two WMUs,” said Ken McDonald, chief of FWP’s wildlife bureau in Helena.
However, the state agency also realizes that some people believe too many wolves are present on the landscape and they’re having a negative impact on big game animals like elk and deer.
At the Wednesday work session, which starts at 1 p.m. at the FWP headquarters, the commission will hear about additional tools to increase the wolf harvest in 2012. Options include allowing hunters to take more than one wolf or to purchase more than one hunting license; allowing the use of electronic calls; reconsidering statewide quotas; and possibly increasing the length of the season.
The FWP commissioners will consider the options for the 2012-13 wolf season at their May meeting and make a final decision in July.
“We believe we have to reduce the wolf population in Montana,” said FWP Director Joe Maurier, adding that FWP’s objective with the 2011 hunting season was to reduce the population by about 25 percent.
“We were aiming for a minimum population of about 425 after the hunting season,” Maurier said. “Despite a six-month season that started in September, hunters were only able to take enough wolves to reach 75 percent of our wolf hunting quota. … We will definitely seek additional management tools to reach a better balance among wolves, prey populations, hunters, landowners and others.”
County commissioners were invited to the work session to discuss their recent efforts to institute bounties on wolves, particularly in Jefferson and Ravalli counties.
Some biologists caution that it’s not just wolves that are reducing big game herd populations in some areas of Montana, and note that mountain lions, black bears and grizzly bears, as well as climate change and the recent drought, also need to be taken into consideration.