Dennis Bragg (KPAX/KAJ Media Center)
HELENA- While some wildlife management areas in Montana are finally hitting their target quotas for hunted wolves, key areas in the west half of the state are still running far behind what the state had hoped for.
The Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission has extended wolf hunts until February 15th in hopes of meeting this year’s goal of hunters killing 220 wolves, part of the effort to control wolf populations.
That extension was approved almost a month ago and the latest total shows the quota has hit 121 wolves statewide, which is a little more than half of the target.
Last week Wolf Management Unit 101, which encompasses the region north and west of Kalispell closed, with hunters hitting the target of 19 wolves. However, most of the wolf management units are still running far behind targets in areas of Western Montana where the wolf populations have been causing conflicts.
In Wolf Management Unit 250, which covers the West Fork of the Bitterroot, only three of 18 wolves have been taken by hunters, with none in the past month. In Mineral County just five wolves of the 22 in the quota have been killed. In Sanders County and the lower Clark Fork only nine wolves have been taken by hunters where biologists had been hoping for 17. That’s two additional wolves killed in the past month.
In Unit 201, which covers everything from the Bitterroot Valley to the Pintlars, Big Hole and south to the Beaverhead, two more wolves were killed in the last month, bringing the total to 16 wolves against the quota of 36.
The hunt is also lagging in the Upper Clark Fork unit east of Missoula where less than half the wolf quota has been met.