By EVE BYRON Helena Independent Record
Posted: Friday, November 5, 2010 7:33 am
HELENA - Montana no longer has a statewide wolf coordinator.
Carolyn Sime, who held the position for the past 10 years, has been reassigned to other work with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, according to Director Joe Maurier. He praised her work with the state's wolf management activities, but said it's time for her to use her talents elsewhere within the department.
"Ever since I had this job, the wildlife bureau folks have been pressing me to not spend so much time on wolves, with as many folks as we have. They thought it should be blended with the wildlife program rather than having a specialist," Maurier said. "We don't have a grizzly coordinator, or an elk coordinator or a deer coordinator."
He waited until now to eliminate the position, Maurier said, because he wanted to see how the department functioned. But he added that Sime did a "fabulous job" during the past decade in handling wolf management issues.
"I don't know how she lasted this long because wolf management is such a volatile, emotional issue," Maurier said. "She's a very talented person, and we just need to use her in other places."
While the department hasn't decided exactly what Sime will be doing, Maurier said she may finish a mountain lion study started by an employee who retired; update a black bear management plan; and look more closely into the chronic wasting disease situation, which is present in the states surrounding Montana but not detected here yet.
"I think she'll enjoy getting away from wolves," Maurier said. "We've talked about this in the past; I've always been very impressed with her."
Sime declined to comment, other than to say she's proud of the progress the state's made in wolf management, which has seen their numbers soar close to 500 - about five times the stated minimum population of 100 in Montana - and held the first-ever state sanctioned wolf hunt in 2009.
Gray wolves once roamed throughout the West, but were hunted nearly to the point of extinction in the lower 48 states and were put on the list of animals protected under the Endangered Species Act in 1973. Reintroduction and recovery of the wolf population work, started in 1994, has increased their population to more than 1,500 in Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Oregon and Washington.
They've been delisted and relisted numerous times in recent years, most recently in August by federal court Judge Donald Molloy, which put this year's planned wolf hunt on hold. While Montana and Idaho were managing wolves under their federally-approved plan, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services retained that work in Wyoming since that state identifies gray wolves as predators that can be shot on sight in most of the state.
Idaho recently returned management duties to the federal government, and Sime had said in October that Montana had no plans to follow suit. However, on Thursday Maurier said nothing is set in stone.
"The governor is weighing all his options, and nothing is off the table right now," Maurier said. "But management is staying with us for now, until the governor wants to do something else."
Sime's duties, like putting together a weekly wolf update, attending numerous meetings with the public and other state and federal agencies, and coordinating wolf management activities, probably will be handled either by her boss, Ken McDonald, who heads FWP's wildlife management bureau, or Quentin Kujala, who oversees big game management in the state, Maurier said. He added that he's pulled together a team within FWP to handle the ongoing legal battle over the gray wolves' status and they'll continue to tap into Sime's expertise whenever necessary.
"We'll continue to pick her brains, but it won't be only about wolves," Maurier said. "We would like to get some other stuff done while this wolf stuff plays out."
Michael Garrity, executive director of the Alliance for the Wild Rockies, one of the groups suing over the wolves' delisting, said, "I think she did a good job under the difficult circumstances she operated under."
Ed Bangs with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, was instrumental in the wolf reintroduction and management in the Rocky Mountains. He worked closely with Sime, and said her expertise will be missed.
"She did an outstanding job and it was a pleasure to work with her for the past decade," Bangs said. "I think Montana was well served."
Montana's management plan calls for a minimum population of 100 wolves with at least 15 breeding pairs. Montana currently has about triple that number.
Reporter Eve Byron: 447-4076 or eve.byron@helenair.com
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