What next for wolves: As drama unfolds in courts, wildlife managers seek solutions
By BEN PIERCE Chronicle Outdoors
Montana’s planned 2010 wolf hunting season came to an abrupt halt in August with a ruling handed down by U.S. District Court judge Donald Malloy. In his decision, Malloy ruled that the Northern Rockies gray wolf population must either be listed as an endangered species or removed from the list, but that protections could not vary between states in the region.
The ruling came on the heels of successful 2009 wolf hunts in Montana and Idaho, where wolves had been removed from endangered species protections. In early August, the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks was ready to go with its first state-sanctioned bowhunting season for wolves. Regulations had been sent to the printers. Sportsmen were thinking ahead to the season.
“It is frustrating,” FWP statewide wolf coordinator Carolyn Sime said of the decision. “It is not gratifying for Montana hunters or for us as an agency to manage Montana’s wildlife.”
The ruling put state wildlife officials in a difficult position. With an estimated 1,700 gray wolves in the tri-state area and a population recovered under the outlines of the Northern Rocky Mountain Wolf Recovery Plan, wildlife managers were suddenly found without their primary management tool – hunters.
In lieu of a general hunting season, FWP and state officials are taking steps that would allow the state to manage the gray wolf population. In addition to appealing Malloy’s ruling, FWP is looking into the possibility of a conservation hunt.
“We are working on overall delisting,” Sime said. “If that means changes in Wyoming, we are happy to help them. We are working with Idaho on management options when wolves are listed, and when I say management options, I primarily mean hunting.”
On Aug. 31, the FWP Commission adopted a resolution supporting “FWP’s efforts to pursue regulatory relief through federal permitting and rulemaking to allow wolf conservation hunts in 2010 and 2011.”
The resolution also calls on the U.S. Department of the Interior and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to appeal Malloy’s ruling, demands an outline to delist the gray wolf in Montana with definitive deadlines and supports efforts seeking federal legislative action affirming congressional intent to enable USFWS to “implement the Endangered Species Act in such a way that it could list or delist by populations of a species, in accordance with state boundaries.”
In response to the resolution, Gov. Brian Schweitzer sent a letter dated Sept. 3, to Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar.
“By any credible standard, wolves are now biologically recovered, and it is time for state management,” Schweitzer wrote. “Wolves are here to stay, and there is no biological reason why they should not be delisted and managed as resident wildlife. Further delays are unacceptable. Wolf recovery has been a success story, and Montana has shown it is fully capable of managing wolves, including regulated, fair chase hunting.”
Sime said there are a couple of different ways in which the state could frame the context of a conservation hunt – for research purposes or enhancement of survival. She said a conservation hunt could be used to study the effects of hunting on the wolf population and how hunting impacts others factors on the landscape.
The results of hunting could have far broader implications than simply reducing of the wolf population, Sime said.
“A plausible research question could be: How can we put the hunter on the ground within the wolf-livestock interface,” she said. “Can you shift dead wolves from taxpayer and agency control to the concept of the hunter-conservationist that invests in the species?”
Sime said the timeline for a conservation hunt in 2010 would be held sometime prior to Dec. 31, the closing date approved by the FWP Commission. She said the department wants to proceed in a timely manner.
On Aug. 30, FWP director Joe Maurier sent a letter to USFWS director Rowan Gould requesting assurance from the USFWS that an enhancement of survival permit application would be processed and issued by Nov. 30 “to enable an abridged conservation hunt for gray wolves in 2010.”
“Because wolves in Montana are recovered … and because Montana has demonstrated responsible, effective wolf management, FWP is confident that implementation of a conservation hunt … is legal, defensible and necessary,” Maurier wrote.
Maurier outlined the goals of a conservation hunt that were endorsed by the FWP Commission. Among the goals are to maintain a viable and connected wolf population in Montana, gain and maintain authority for Montana to manage wolves, reduce wolf impacts on livestock and undulates and increase broad public acceptance of sustainable harvest and hunter opportunity as part of wolf conservation.
“While wolves remain on the endangered species list because of factors beyond Montana’s control, it is important that mechanisms for management of wolves in Montana be allowed,” Maurier concluded.
FWP spokesman Ron Aasheim said any action – hunts or otherwise – to reduce or control the wolf population will need approval from the USFWS, so long as the gray wolf remains under the auspices of endangered species protection.
“In a nutshell, what we are looking for are options to take animals on the endangered species list by any means, and that includes animals that are impacting livestock,” Aasheim said. “We are looking for the authority to manage wildlife without violating the law.”
The alternative, Sime said, is not an option.
“Montana isn’t a national park,” she said. “We live here, we raise livestock here, recreate here, hunt here, drive our cars here – all that stuff. Within that landscape the idea that you could have unregulated wildlife populations everywhere is not realistic.
“From a Montana perspective, the key to sustaining wolves is state management that includes regulated harvest in a way that helps balance wolves in their habitat.”
Related posts:
- Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks to appeal recent district court wolf ruling
- Defenders of Wildlife issues statement on re-listing of Northern Rockies gray wolf
- Wolf debate between Elk Foundation, Defenders of Wildlife turns contentious
- National Geographic’s March issue to highlight wolves’ impact on West
- Following wolf ruling, RMEF calls for reform of Endangered Species Act
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