Tag Archives: gray wolves

Montana wolf regulations proposal released for public comment

Action Alerts, Environmental Issues, News, , ,
Gray Wolf - Adam Messer-Montana FWP
Gray Wolf – Adam Messer-Montana FWP

From the official press release. Note that the deadline for public comments is August 12 . . .

HELENA – Wolf numbers in Montana continue to be well above minimums outlined in the Montana Wolf Management Plan, and they are seeing a decline.

As part of the package released for public comment Friday, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks released its annual Wolf Report, along with proposed changes to the Wolf and Furbearer Trapping Regulations. These will be in front of the Fish and Wildlife Commission on Aug. 19 during their regular meeting.

This year’s Wolf Report contains two population estimates as FWP is moving toward an updated version of the wolf population estimation tool Integrated Patch Occupancy Model (iPOM). The new version, iPOM 2.0, is yet to be published in a peer reviewed scientific journal, like iPOM.

Under iPOM, the wolf population is estimated to be relatively stable at 1,094 wolves. With iPOM 2.0, the population estimate is lower at 725 wolves.

In developing iPOM 2.0, Montana researchers were able to incorporate much of the wolf data and research they have collected over the past several years. This Montana-specific data, particularly on pack sizes and distribution, provides a more accurate estimate, said Quentin Kujala, FWP Chief of Conservation Policy.

“We’re confident in iPOM 2.0 and see it as an advancement in science and modeling,” Kujala said. “However, it hasn’t been through the same peer-review process as the original iPOM. Until that happens, we want the Commission and the public to see estimates from both models.”

By using iPOM 2.0 to analyze wolf population estimates from past years, it shows a steady decline in wolf numbers from 2021. As a result, FWP is recommending a reduction to the 2026/2027 wolf harvest quota to 250. This is down from a quota of 450 last year. Last year 247 wolves were harvested.

The Montana Wolf Management Plan outlines 450 wolves as the minimum number necessary to ensure there are 15 breeding pairs in the state. These are minimum numbers and not a management objective for FWP.

At the Aug. 19 Fish and Wildlife Commission meeting, the commission will consider the wolf and furbearer trapping regulation proposal from FWP. Included in that proposal is the annual wolf harvest quota. The public can comment on the proposal through Aug. 12.

Commissioners can propose amendments to FWP’s proposals and those amendments will be available for public comment if possible. Commissioners can also propose amendments or other proposals at the commission meeting.

The public can comment on commission items in advance, as well as during the meeting by attending in person or virtual via Zoom. The public can attend in person at the Montana Heritage Center or at one of FWP regional offices. The meeting will start 8 a.m. Aug. 19. If you want to attend virtually, you must register online between Aug. 4 and 12 p.m. Aug. 18.

Study shows tolerance for wolves increasing

Environmental Issues, News,
Gray Wolf - Adam Messer-Montana FWP
Gray Wolf – Adam Messer-Montana FWP

Short version: Tolerance for wolves on the landscape is increasing. but those with negative views have a significant role in management, despite being a small percentage of the population.

People’s tolerance for wolves goes up when they see one. It also goes up when they don’t.

That apparent contradiction explains why attitudes toward wolves have grown consistently friendlier over the past decade, according to a new study in the journal Conservation Science and Practice.

The study, released Dec. 12, was co-authored by husband-wife duo Alexander and Elizabeth Metcalf of the University of Montana School of Forestry, Justin Gude and Michael Lewis of Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, and John Baldridge of UM’s Bureau of Business and Economic Research. It compared a 2023 wolf-tolerance survey to results from the same questions asked in 2012 and 2017, reaching a total of 7,607 Montanans over that decade.

Continue reading at the Montana Free Press . . .

Judge orders endangered species status review for gray wolves in Northern Rockies

Environmental Issues, News, ,
Gray wolf - John and Karen Hollingsworth, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Gray wolf – John and Karen Hollingsworth, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Saw this coming . . .

Citing “serious and pervasive” deficiencies with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s basis for rejecting a 2021 petition by a coalition of environmental groups seeking to revive Endangered Species Act protections for gray wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains, a federal judge in Missoula this week instructed wildlife managers to reconsider.

U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy issued the 105-page ruling in response to a lawsuit that conservation and animal welfare groups filed last year seeking to either restore protections, or afford new ones, to a distinct population of wolves spanning Montana, Idaho and Wyoming, as well as portions of Washington, Oregon and Utah…

Continue reading . . .

New Montana wolf trapping regulations up for consideration

Environmental Issues, News,
Gray wolf - John and Karen Hollingsworth, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Gray wolf – John and Karen Hollingsworth, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

The Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission is looking at a number of adjustments to trapping regulations, including some that would affect wolves . . .

The Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission on Nov. 12 is set to consider a crowded agenda of proposed fishing and hunting regulations for the upcoming year, including approving a shortened wolf-trapping season and enacting rules surrounding the trapping of predators like coyotes, which are designed to avoid incidental captures of grizzly bears.

Continue reading . . .

Feds deny petition to restore wolf protections in northern Rockies

Environmental Issues, News,
Gray wolf - John and Karen Hollingsworth, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Gray wolf – John and Karen Hollingsworth, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Federal wildlife managers denied a petition to restore ESA protections to the gray wolf population in the northern Rockies . . .

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) on Friday denied a listing petition from an alliance of more than 70 conservation groups seeking to restore Endangered Species Act (ESA) protections to gray wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains. Although federal wildlife managers framed the decision as following “a path to support a long-term and durable approach to the conservation of gray wolves,” and pledged to adopt a first-of-its-kind National Recovery Plan, the conservation groups said they were considering a legal challenge.

Gray wolves are still listed under the ESA as endangered in 44 states, and are considered threatened in Minnesota; however, in Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, and portions of eastern Oregon and Washington, the wolves are managed under state jurisdiction, with their respective legislatures passing laws allowing wolf harvests, while setting quotas and regulations to manage the populations.

Although the FWS decision doesn’t change existing policy, it signals the latest turn in a decades-old debate over state and federal management of wolves in the West, as well as how to quantify the species’ recovery following their delisting in places like Montana, Idaho and Wyoming.

Continue reading . . .

Montana proposes reduction in wolf hunt quota from 450 to 289

Environmental Issues, News,
Wolf near Winona Lake, May 2013 - Steve Gniadek
Wolf near Winona Lake, May 2013 – Steve Gniadek

This is interesting — and encouraging — news . . .

Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks are proposing to reduce the hunting quota for wolves statewide from 450 to 289, according to the department and an interview with a spokesperson.

FWP said the wolf population has dropped in the last two years, and it believes the new quota will keep wolves at a healthy and sustainable population per state law.

“State law, set by the 2021 Montana Legislature, requires FWP to reduce wolf populations in Montana to a sustainable level,” said Greg Lemon, FWP public information officer. “We believe the quota of 289 wolves will meet that statutory requirement while ensuring a healthy wolf population in the state.”

This announcement comes a year after the wolf numbers fell in 2022, according to the 2022 FWP Wolf Report.

Continue reading . . .

Federal Protections for Gray Wolves Restored

Environmental Issues, News,
A gray wolf in Yellowstone National Park - Jacob W. Frank, NPS
A gray wolf in Yellowstone National Park – Jacob W. Frank, NPS

Federal protections for gray wolves have been restored, except for those states where gray wolf endangered species status has already been removed by congress . . .

A judge has ordered federal protections restored for gray wolves across much of the U.S. after they were removed in the waning days of the Trump administration.

U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White said in Thursday’s ruling that the Fish and Wildlife Service failed to show wolf populations could be sustained in the Midwest and portions of the West without protection under the Endangered Species Act.

Wildlife advocates had argued state-sponsored hunting threatened to reverse the gray wolf’s recovery over the past several decades.

The ruling does not directly impact wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains of Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, which remain under state jurisdiction.

Continue reading . . .

Related reading: Interior Secretary Deb Haaland Speaks Up On Wolves, But Is It Enough? – Mountain Journal

Feds to explore relisting the gray wolf

Environmental Issues, News, ,
Gray Wolf - Adam Messer-Montana FWP
Gray Wolf – Adam Messer-Montana FWP

Aggressive wolf management plans in Montana and Idaho are drawing the attention of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service . . .

On opening day of Montana’s expanded wolf-hunting season, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said it has decided to conduct an in-depth status review to determine whether state management plans aiming to aggressively reduce wolf populations threaten the recovery of gray wolves.

The agency now has a year to conduct a further review of the species using the best available science to determine whether listing under the Endangered Species Act is warranted.

The process was initiated this summer when environmental groups asked the agency to relist the animals through two separate petitions. The groups filed the petitions after lawmakers in Montana and Idaho passed laws that encouraged aggressive population reduction by broadening the methods hunters could use to harvest wolves and expanding the trapping season.

In a release about the decision, the agency wrote that the two petitions presented “substantial information that potential increases in human-caused mortality may pose a threat to the gray wolf in the western U.S.” and that the “new regulatory mechanisms in Idaho and Montana may be inadequate to address this threat.”…

Read more . . .

Wolf population declining in Yellowstone

Environmental Issues, News,
Wolf in Yellowstone National Park - Jim Peaco, YNP
Wolf in Yellowstone National Park – Jim Peaco, YNP

Disease and migration have reduced the wolf population in Yellowstone National Park by half since 2003 . . .

The gray wolf population in Yellowstone National Park has dropped to about 80 wolves, officials say — less than half of the high population mark in the park.

While Yellowstone leaders won’t have an accurate count until the fall after surviving pups are visible, the park’s top biologist doesn’t expect numbers to rise dramatically after litters are included in population estimates.

“Unfortunately, many of them die. Gray pup survival is about 7 percent,” Doug Smith, long-time project leader for the Wolf Restoration Project in Yellowstone, said in a Wednesday video broadcast on the park’s Facebook page.

Read more . . .

U.S. Plans to lift wolf protections for rest of country

Environmental Issues, News,
Wolves from Welcome Creek Pack in 2011 - Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks
Wolves from Welcome Creek Pack in 2011 – Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks

Not entirely unexpected: The U.S. Department of the Interior wants to remove gray wolves from the Endangered Species List for for the entire country . . .

U.S. wildlife officials plan to lift protections for gray wolves across the Lower 48 states, re-igniting the legal battle over a predator that’s run into conflicts with farmers and ranchers after rebounding in some regions, an official told The Associated Press.

Acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt announced the proposal during a Wednesday speech at the North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference in Denver, a weeklong conservation forum for researchers, government officials and others, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Spokesman Gavin Shire said in an interview with the AP.

The decision was based on gray wolves successfully recovering from widespread extermination last century, Shire said. Further details were expected during a formal announcement planned in coming days.

Read more . . .