Tag Archives: gray wolves

100-wolf quota for Montana landowners in the works

Environmental Issues, News, ,

The rules allowing Montana landowners to shoot wolves posing a “potential threat” are loosening up . . .

Montana landowners could kill a combined 100 gray wolves annually if the predators are perceived to pose a threat to humans or domestic animals, according to a rule that received initial backing from state wildlife commissioners Thursday.

The proposal significantly expands the circumstances under which wolves can be killed without a hunting license.

The Montana Legislature passed a measure last year requiring the change. The legislation didn’t define what qualifies as a “potential threat” so the Fish and Wildlife Commission didn’t detail it either, spokesman Ron Aasheim said.

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U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service wolf recovery information online

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For those of you who like to dig into source materials, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service maintains a web site with news, information and recovery status reports on gray wolves on the Northern Rockies. You’ll find it here: http://westerngraywolf.fws.gov.

The agency’s “Office of External Affairs” also maintains a page with links to wolf-related press releases, public notices, hearing transcripts, articles and studies at http://www.fws.gov/home/wolfrecovery/.

Group of lawmakers wants wolf protections preserved

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More blow-back from that rejected federal wolf study . . .

Federal lawmakers pressed Interior Secretary Sally Jewell on Wednesday to drop the administration’s plan to end federal protections for gray wolves across most of the Lower 48 states.

Seventy-four House members signed onto a Wednesday letter to Jewell that cited a peer-review panel’s recent conclusion the government relied on unsettled science to make its case that the wolves have sufficiently recovered.

Gray wolves were added to the endangered-species list in 1975 after being widely exterminated in the last century. Protections already have been lifted for rebounding populations of the predators in the northern Rockies and Great Lakes regions.

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New FWP rules allow landowners to kill wolves

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Landowners can now kill wolves without a license under certain circumstances . . .

The Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission adopted new administrative rules for killing wolves that pose a threat to landowners’ safety on Thursday.

The rule change stemmed from a bill the Legislature passed in the 2013 session allowing landowners to kill wolves without first getting a license if they threaten human safety, livestock or dogs. But it also gave the agency a chance to clear up some confusing parts of the state administrative law book, according to FWP wildlife management section chief Quentin Kujala.

“It’s not the easiest thing to read,” Kujala said. “We took more than 1,300 public comments on this.”

The new rules also change the definition of a breeding pair of wolves – a crucial part of the federal oversight of sustainable wolf populations…

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Panel says assumption of ‘eastern wolf’ species not justified

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One of the assumptions basic to the federal government’s wolf recovery plan may be in error . . .

A proposal to lift federal protections for gray wolves across most of the U.S. suffered a significant setback Friday as an independent review panel said the government is relying on unsettled science to make its case.

Federal wildlife officials want to remove the animals from the endangered species list across the Lower 48 states, except for a small population in the Southwest.

The five-member U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service peer-review panel was tasked with reviewing the government’s claim that the Northeast and Midwest were home to a separate species, the eastern wolf.

If the government were right, that would make gray wolf recovery unnecessary in those areas.

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Feds defend plan to drop gray wolf protections

Environmental Issues, News,

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service insists it’s time to delist gray wolves . . .

Federal officials offered a staunch defense Monday [September 30] of their proposal to drop legal protections for the gray wolf in most of the country, as opponents rallied in the nation’s capital before the first in a series of public hearings on the plan.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service called for removing the wolf from the endangered species list for the lower 48 states in June, except for a subspecies called the Mexican wolf in the Southwest, which is struggling to survive. Ranching and hunting groups have praised the proposal, while environmentalists have said it is premature.

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