HELENA – Wildlife commissioners establishing a Montana wolf hunt are being advised to consider the political and social sensitivities surrounding the animal as they contemplate how many wolves hunters will be allowed to kill.
The state commissioners, planning a 2009 hunt now that Montana wolves are off the federal endangered species list and management has transferred to the state level, gave tentative support Thursday to a quota that would fall between 26 and 165 wolves. Montana’s wolf population at the end of 2008 was estimated at around 500. The commission plans to set the quota on July 9, after taking public comment in the coming weeks.
The higher the quota the greater the chance Montana will be portrayed as jeopardizing its wolf population, a portrayal that could help fuel more action demanding court-ordered protection for the species, wildlife manager Ken McDonald of the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks told the agency’s commissioners.
“We’re looking to manage these animals,” Commissioner Dan Vermillion said. “We’re not looking to exterminate them.”
McDonald presented commissioners with a quota range of zero, which would be no hunting, to 207 wolves, which would be about 40 percent of the latest population estimate.
Commissioner Ron Moody said that although 207 may be defensible from the standpoint of wildlife biology, it is perhaps incompatible with “gaining trust for our wolf management.”
Wolves in parts of the Northern Rockies, where the population is estimated at 1,600, and in the Great Lakes region came off the endangered list May 4. Earlier attempts to end the protection were rejected in court, and there are certain to be new legal challenges.
Idaho plans a hunt this fall, but wolves in Wyoming remain classified as endangered. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service rejected a Wyoming plan that would have allowed wolves to be shot on sight across 88 percent of the state.
The Montana commission said hunters will find filling quotas difficult, given wolves’ elusiveness and intelligence. “The take will be incidental,” Commissioner Willie Doll said.
Lisa Upson of the Natural Resources Defense Council discouraged wolf hunting.
“We feel we’re very close to recovery but not quite at recovery overall in the region,” Upson told the commission.
But Ben Lamb of the Montana Wildlife Federation said hunting has been effective in managing other wildlife, and the same will be true of wolves.
“It really sounds like you guys are on the right track,” Lamb said.
Wolf attacks on livestock have been a recurring complaint in Montana, and livestock groups pressed for removal of the endangered status instituted in 1974. They have expressed hope that hunting will limit the population. For wildlife biologists, wolves’ predation on other wild animals as well as livestock is among the management considerations.
“We’ve got to move beyond the argument that there aren’t enough wolves in Montana or in the Northern Rockies,” said Commissioner Bob Ream, who previously taught in the University of Montana’s wildlife management program and has conducted wolf research.
State officials say the hunting framework should be structured in a way that does not put Montana at risk of dropping below 150 wolves, which is 50 more than federal requirements, nor below 15 breeding pairs, five more than the federal minimum.
Last year the Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission prepared for a wolf hunt, but put plans on hold after the restoration of endangered status.
The 2009 plan calls for an Oct. 25-Dec. 31 hunting season, except in some backcountry areas where the season would start on Sept. 15. A special “sub quota” would apply to part of northwestern Montana, where wolves roam out of Glacier National Park.