The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks (FWP) began fully managing gray wolves as resident wildlife, along with Montana’s other wildlife, when federal delisting took effect on May 4, 2009. Montana’s federally approved plan, state laws, and administrative rules were implemented by FWP and the FWP Commission until August 5, 2010 when federal Endangered Species Act protections were reinstated by U.S. District Court Judge Donald Molloy. The court order relisting the wolves took effect immediately on August 5, 2010. The final rule implementing the court order and officially relisting the wolves was published in the Federal Register on October 26, 2010.
The court ruling reinstated the “endangered” classification for wolves across northern Montana. Across southern Montana, including the Bitterroot Valley, wolves were reclassified to “experimental.” FWP remains the lead agency for wolf management on the ground, but FWP is required to implement federal regulations. Federal regulations pertaining to the activities of private citizens and to FWP’s management options are different for the two areas.
Montana officials have been actively working to restore state management through a variety of legal, administrative, and Congressional avenues ever since. Montana officials have also been exploring the potential for a settlement to the delisting legal challenge.
CONSERVATION HUNT DENIED
The first official action taken in response to Molloy’s ruling by Montana FWP was to quickly file an application under the Endangered Species Act for a 10(a)1(A) permit to conduct a statewide conservation hunt in 2010. FWP also requested USFWS to start (and complete by March 2011) a rulemaking effort to reclassify wolves in the endangered area to “threatened,” while also including provisions to implement regulated hunting and additional flexibility to address wolf-livestock conflicts. The application was submitted on September 19, 2010. The proposal by FWP was to lethally remove 186 wolves from across the state. On October 7, 2010, USFWS denied the application and declined to initiate the requested change in federal rulemaking, citing legal challenges and remote likelihood of success in the courts defending such efforts.
LITIGATION
FWP took the most direct action in response to Molloy’s ruling by appealing his decision to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. That appeal was filed on October 1, 2010. The U.S. Department of Justice and the State of Idaho have also appealed.
FWP information officer Ron Aasheim said that it was a mandatory part of the federal appeals court process that litigants are required to try and reach a settlement prior to the case being heard by the court. He said that FWP was engaged in settlement talks with the 13 conservation organizations that brought the original suit to keep the wolves on the endangered species list. He said that the court required that those negotiations be kept confidential. He said that if a tentative agreement was reached, it would be released for public review and comment before FWP and the FWP Commission make a final decision.
A few groups have come out against any negotiated settlement. The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, the Mule Deer Foundation, and Big Game Forever, have sent a joint letter to the governor and FWP urging them not to go for any negotiated agreement that would increase population thresholds for delisting. They argue that the numbers should be based on science. They claim that a negotiated settlement in this case will not do anything to prevent future litigation to delay delisting, and that it undermines the ability of FWP to manage wildlife populations.
“The science is clear and wolf delisting thresholds have been met and far exceeded,” they wrote. “It is time to adhere to the basic wildlife science and principles and cease the hidden agenda of plaintiffs. States must be allowed to manage all game species, nongame species and predators, period. We respectfully ask you to abandon a settlement, pursue an appeal of judge Molloy’s decision, and also continue developing new policy alternatives using science and public process.” (the letter may be viewed at www.rmef.org)
10(j) RULE
Another option being pursued by the agency and finding strong support here in the Bitterroot Valley from the Ravalli County Fish & Wildlife Association is to implement what is called the 10(j) Rule of the Endangered Species Act to lethally remove wolves in the West Fork of the Bitterroot because of unacceptable impacts to the local elk population. The 10j provision is only available in the federally-designated Experimental Area across southern Montana and in states with approved plans. Montana’s proposal outlines FWP’s assessment that wolves are one of the factors explaining why the West Fork Bitterroot elk herd is not meeting objectives for total herd size and calf recruitment.
The FWP Commission gave the agency the go ahead to begin soliciting public comment and peer review of the proposal. The deadline for public comment is 5 p.m. on November 10. Those interested in commenting may do so on the agency’s website (fwp.mt.gov) at “Opportunity for Public Comment” on the Hunting home page. FWP expects to present a final proposal to the Commission on November 18, pending public comment and peer review. If approved by the FWP Commission, the proposal would be submitted to the USFWS for review. The USFWS may approve or deny the proposal.
According to FWP Chief Legal Counsel Bob Lane, there is an ongoing legal challenge to the 10j Regulation under which this proposal is being submitted. The briefing stage is nearly complete and the case is pending before a federal judge.
MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING
FWP has also been exploring the possibility of a Cooperative Agreement with USFWS under Section 6 of the Endangered Species Act which speaks to the states and federal government working together to conserve listed species. FWP is seeking to implement Montana’s Wolf Conservation and Management Plan in its entirety, including a FWP Commission-approved hunting season.
FWP and USFWS first entered such an agreement in 2005. But that MOU included an expiration date after five years or when the wolves were officially delisted. The timeline has expired and the wolves were delisted in 2009. Chief attorney for the agency, Bob Lane, said that the agency was currently working under the guidelines of the original agreement as a new one is being hammered out.
LEGISLATION
Montana’s U.S. Senators Max Baucus and Jon Tester co-sponsored and introduced legislation in the U.S. Senate that would delist the wolf in Montana and Idaho along state boundaries where the management plans of both states have been approved by the federal government. Montana’s U.S. Representative Dennis Rehberg, along with Congressman Chet Edwards of Texas, has co-sponsored a similar bill in the U.S. House of Representatives.
SPORTSMEN CALL FOR ORDER IN DEBATE
Molloy’s decision has sparked a lot of controversy. There have been statements made at open meetings about people solving the wolf issue on a case-by-case basis with a gun and a shovel. Several wildlife and hunting organizations have issued an op-ed article calling for order in the debate.
The op-ed co-authored by the Boone and Crockett Club, Mule Deer Foundation, Pope and Young Club, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Safari Club International and SCI Foundation, and the Wild Sheep Foundation, states that “to achieve state management, hunters need to turn their anger into passion, speak up, and ask for hard commitments from state and federal government. We need passion the way Theodore Roosevelt had passion in creating American conservation, which is our legacy and heritage to perpetuate… we also need to draw a hard line for ourselves: we are sportsmen, not wolf-haters. Statements on the internet about poaching wolves are an affront to the American conservation ethic. Illegal killing is wrong, self-defeating, and exactly opposite of how sportsmen created conservation and the privilege of ethical hunting in the first place. Hunters in America fought poachers and pushed for laws to regulate hunting. Later, sportsmen paid fees and taxes on our own licenses and equipment to fund wildlife restoration that brought wildlife back into abundance, including the game we hunt. Ours is a history of self restraint and respect for wildlife.”
They urge sportsmen to pursue the goal of state management of wolves with decency and respect for wildlife and for other people.
History of Wolf Recovery
(excerpted from Montana FWP web site - http://fwp.mt.gov/wildthings/management/wolf/default2.html)
The gray wolf was extirpated from the western United States during the 1900s, primarily due to loss of habitat and conflicts with people. In 1884, the first statewide bounty law was passed in Montana. That first year, 5,450 wolf hides were presented for payment. All but three Montana counties reported a bounty payment for wolves from 1900-1931 (Riley 1998). Bounty payments were highest in eastern Montana counties, mirroring early explorers' observations of a close association between wolves and bison. Wolves as a self-sustaining, breeding population were probably extinct in Montana by the 1930's.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) listed the eastern timber wolf (Canis lupus lycaon) as endangered in 1967, and the northern Rocky Mountain subspecies (Canis lupus irremotus) as endangered in 1973. In 1978, the legal status of the gray wolf in North America was clarified by listing the Minnesota wolf population as threatened and all other members of the species Canis lupus south of Canada as endangered.
Although wolf packs were eliminated from Montana by the 1930s, tracks, scats, and/or observations of large canid-like animals were either reported or killed up until the 1970s. Most are thought to have been dispersers from Canada and little to no successful breeding activity was evidenced or sustained consistently through time.
In 1980, the Northern Rocky Mountain Wolf Recovery Team completed a plan which would guide wolf recovery efforts for a future wolf population in the northern Rockies of Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming. The recovery plan was revised in 1987. The plan designated three recovery areas – Northwestern Montana, Central Idaho, and the Greater Yellowstone – each of which included some portion of Montana.
Wolves from Canada began to colonize the Glacier National Park area in 1979, and the first wolf den in the western U.S. in over 50 years was documented there in 1986. The wolf population in northwest Montana grew as a result of natural reproduction and dispersal. By the end of 1994, there were about 48 wolves in and around Glacier National Park.
In 1995, three family groups (a total of 14 wolves) were captured near Alberta's Jasper National Park, transported to Yellowstone National Park, and placed in acclimation pens. They were held for 10 weeks prior to release. Two of the females subsequently denned and produced nine pups in Montana. Most settled in the same vicinity of their acclimation pens, demonstrating the potential advantages of a "soft" release technique.
Also in the winter of 1995, 15 wolves were reintroduced into the wilderness areas of central Idaho. These animals moved widely throughout central Idaho and beyond. Many of these wolves moved north, some to the upper Bitterroot Valley. In 1996, three packs produced 11 pups.
In the winter of 1996, 17 wolves were captured near Fort St. Johns, British Columbia, Canada and were again released into acclimation pens in Yellowstone National Park through a "soft" release. Twenty wolves were released in central Idaho as a "hard" release.
Wolf populations in Yellowstone National Park and central Idaho grew rapidly and soon became a source for dispersers to Montana. New packs formed outside the earliest core wolf areas and overall wolf distribution expanded. Wolf dispersal has been documented between and among all three federal recovery areas and the states comprising the northern Rockies. By the end of 2002, the northern Rockies wolf population met the biological recovery criteria of at least 30 breeding pairs in the northern Rockies for three years in a row. By the end of 2004, there were an estimated 835 wolves and 66 breeding pairs in the tri-state area. In Montana, there were about 153 wolves in 15 breeding pairs. At the end of 2009, FWP counted a minimum of 524 wolves in 101 packs, 37 of which were breeding pairs.
FWP wolf statistics
POPULATION STATUS
FWP monitors wolf populations all year round and reports minimum counts as of December 31 each year. At the end of 2009, the minimum count (it is assumed some wolves were missed in the counting) reported there were at least 524 wolves in Montana, living in 101 packs, with a total of 37 breeding pairs.
Final counts for this year are expected to be about the same (plus or minus 5 to 10 percent) based on preliminary fall numbers of 400 wolves, 96 packs and 32 breeding pairs. FWP projects that by the end of the year the totals will be in the range of 472 to 576 wolves, 91 to 111 packs, and 33 to 41 breeding pairs.
MORTALITY STATISTICS
Mortality counts are also based on a “minimum count” so that figures are most likely underestimates.
Between January and September in 2009, FWP documented the death of 112 wolves. Of that total, 77 (69 percent) were related to livestock conflicts, while 26 were killed by cars, trains, natural or incidental causes.
Between January and September of 2010, FWP documented 144 wolf mortalities. Of that total, 116 (81 percent) were related to livestock conflicts and 28 were due to other causes.
According to FWP, total 2010 year-end mortality is likely to be higher than 2009 due to the increase in livestock-related mortality. But the lack of a 2010 hunting season means total mortality is likely to still be similar to or less than reproduction, thus a stable or slightly increasing final minimum 2010 wolf population count is projected at this time.
Between 1987 and 2004, a total of 292 wolves have been killed in the tri-state area to resolve wolf-livestock conflicts and 166 wolves have been killed in Montana.
LIVESTOCK DEPREDATION
In the tri-state area, a total of 429 cattle and 1,074 sheep have been confirmed killed by wolves between 1987 and 2004. In Montana, the total is 190 cattle and 409 sheep. USFWS and the State of Montana work with livestock producers to reduce the risk of wolf-caused losses and resolve conflicts through a combination of non-lethal deterrents and lethal control.
2010 confirmed cattle death losses are higher than at this time last year and total 2010 confirmed cattle death losses will be higher than 2009. According to USFWS data received to date, 77 cattle death losses were confirmed to date. The Montana Livestock Loss Reduction and Mitigation Board has paid claims for 95 confirmed death losses.
The discrepancy is likely due to a lag in the paperwork transfer between USFWS and FWP and that some injured cattle died (which also requires updated paperwork and data processing on the part of FWP and USFWS).
2010 confirmed sheep death losses are lower than at this time last year. Barring a significant incident, total 2010 confirmed sheep death losses are likely to remain lower than 2009. According to USFWS data received to date, there were 38 sheep death losses confirmed to date.
The Montana Livestock Loss Reduction and Mitigation Board has paid claims for 16 confirmed sheep death losses. The discrepancy is likely due to the fact that some sheep owners have not submitted claims for their confirmed wolf losses.
©2010 Bitterroot Star
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