Tag Archives: wolf management

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 . . .

Montana jacks up wolf hunting limits in most regions

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

Here’s and excellent article by Tristan Scott of the Flathead Beacon concerning last Thursday’s Fish and Wildlife Commission decision to further raise wolf hunting quotas throughout most of Montana . . .

The Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission on Thursday raised the state’s wolf hunting quota by about 37%, approving new regulations that cap the number of wolves that hunters and trappers can kill annually at 452 while stopping just shy of adopting a statewide quota.

The seven-member commission formalized the new rules after a full afternoon of debate and discussion, including hours of testimony from members of the public who were mostly set against a state management regime aimed at reducing the statewide wolf population, per a state legislative mandate.

To achieve this reduction, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) last month proposed a plan that blends the 2021 directive from Montana’s Republican-controlled legislature with its own recommendations, which are based on population estimates and projections that meet the minimum recovery criteria determined by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Continue reading . . .

More reading: The official press release . . .

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 . . .

FWP releases final Montana Wolf Management Plan

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

The press release is quoted in full here. There’s a link to the final plan at the end.

Mar 26, 2025 2:07 PM
HELENA – Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks released the 2025 Montana Gray Wolf Conservation and Management Plan today, wrapping up an extensive public process to capture updates to wolf management strategies and research into a new plan.

The final 2025 Montana Gray Wolf Conservation and Management Plan (2025 Wolf Plan) incorporates updates in wolf-related research, more than 20 years of management experience, evolution in conflict management, new laws, social perspectives, and public input.

“The former wolf plan served us well, but it was time to make sure our management plan contained the evolutions we’ve made in wolf research, monitoring, conflict management, and the changes to the legal framework we operate under today,” said FWP Director Christy Clark.

The 2025 Wolf Plan builds on a foundation of FWP wolf management: monitoring populations, tracking harvest, effective conflict management, and flexibility to integrate evolutions in science.

The 2025 Wolf Plan shifts a key counting metric from the number of breeding pairs to the number of wolves representing at least 15 breeding pairs. The final plan establishes that 450 wolves would ensure 15 breeding pairs. Population estimates will continue to be determined by the peer-reviewed Integrated Patch Occupancy Modeling method, or iPOM. The final plan also reflects the current depredation prevention and response program.

“Wolf management discussions continue to draw a lot of attention from people in Montana and around the world,” Clark said. “The 2025 Wolf Plan will ensure those conversations can be grounded in current science and the research FWP is doing every day.”

To see the final plan, click here.

Howl – The dark side of wolf reintroduction

Environmental Issues, News, Science
Biologist Diane Boyd with a tranquilized wolf in the field
Biologist Diane Boyd with a tranquilized wolf in the field

Our own Diane Boyd got some more ink, this time in a long-form article with lots of photos published in ‘Nautilus’…

Diane Boyd walked along the North Fork of the Flathead River. It was a clear blue summer day, and the wolf biologist relished being in this Rocky Mountain valley in northwestern Montana. She set foot here 45 years ago to track the first known gray wolf to wander into the western continental United States from Canada in decades. Humans had exterminated the last of them in the 1930s.

The river wove through pine, aspen, and willow trees that rose along the edge of a sprawling grass meadow. The mountain peaks in the distance were topped with snow. Boyd grew up in suburban Minnesota, where she was the neighborhood kid who could be found at the wild edges of the subdivision putting caterpillars in jars.

“I always wanted to go more and more wild in my life—wildlife, wild places—and it doesn’t get a lot wilder than here,” Boyd said to me last summer, as we walked through the quiet meadow.

At age 69, dressed in jeans, running shoes, and a T-shirt picturing a dog lazing on a lake pier, Boyd seemed very much the innately independent biologist who settled here at age 24. She spoke with a directness that had little room for sentimentality. The meadow area is called Moose City and was originally a 1910s homesteader ranch with six log cabins. Boyd lived alone in one of the tiny cabins without electricity or running water for 12 years.

Continue reading . . .

Survey reports growing tolerance for wolves in Montana

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

Folks in Montana seem to be growing more tolerant of wolves . . .

\As wolves gain prominence in the northern Rockies and management policies evolve to keep the populations in check, researchers are tracking the shifting social dynamics surrounding Montanans’ complex attitudes toward a species that is both reviled and revered.

According to a new survey conducted cooperatively by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) and the University of Montana, attitudes and beliefs about wolves and wolf management have generally grown more tolerant. Distributed three times – in 2012, 2017 and 2023 – the survey is aimed at providing insights to wildlife managers and officials tasked with making decisions on wolf management.

“We know people have complicated views and values on wolves, which is reflected in the results of the survey and the trends we see,” Quentin Kujala, FWP chief of conservation policy, stated in a press release announcing the latest survey’s findings. “It’s important for us and our partners at the University to continue research like this because how stakeholders feel about wildlife and its management is a critical awareness for FWP to have.”

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 . . .

Wolf management plan should be informed by science

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

Last Saturday’s (June 17) Bozeman Daily Chronicle carried a guest column by Douglas W. Smith and our own Diane Boyd on the importance of using  accurate, science-based methods  in wolf management . . .

This summer offers a timely opportunity to help craft a new wolf management plan being written by Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks (MTFWP). Wolves are always controversial, and this new plan is an opportunity to reinstate scientifically-based wildlife management. We are concerned that, of late, Montana has managed wolves in a fashion that emphasizes population reductions without clear evidence or adequate justification. Montana has provided for hunter and trapper opportunity and, despite misconceptions about wolf-elk interactions, elk have maintained healthy populations across the state and are even overabundant in some game management units. Livestock depredations are very low, less than 1/10 of 1 percent of all cattle losses in 2021.

The fundamental issue is an accurate population estimate — all wildlife management decisions depend on this. Wolves are hard to count. Initially Montana estimated numbers by MTFWP staff conducting field work along with radio collaring to come up with a minimum count of wolves across the western third of the state where most wolves live. As wolf numbers grew this method became impractical, so the state switched to a method that estimates numbers based on wolf sightings by hunters with resulting data plugged into a model. This model, called an integrated Patch Occupancy Model or iPOM, uses some other information about wolves like territory size and pack size, and calculates a population estimate.

This method is well-known and respected scientifically for estimating distribution (the area occupied). It is not known to be a good abundance estimator. The rationale is that Montana wolves are thought to be well above the required minimum set by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, hence a precise estimate is not necessary. For scientifically based management of a high-profile predator, we need a better population estimate.

Continue reading at the Bozeman Daily Chronicle . . .

Montana FWP soliciting public comments on wolf management plan EIS

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

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks is soliciting public comment on revisions to their wolf plan environmental impact statement (EIS) . . .

FWP is preparing an environmental impact statement (EIS) and conducting public scoping on a proposed action to revise the existing Montana Gray Wolf Conservation and Management Plan, which was developed in 2003.

The 2003 Wolf Plan and associated EIS were developed 20 years ago. Since then, new and improved research, management tools and methods have been developed and incorporated into Montana’s gray wolf management strategy; however, they are not described in the 2003 Wolf Plan. Gov. Greg Gianforte asked FWP to update the 2003 Wolf Plan with broad public engagement due to the interest in wolf management across the state . . .

Continue reading . . .