Montana Wolves Need Your Voice More than Ever!
Information for the Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission Meeting
August 25, Helena Capitol, Room 317
The management of Montana’s wildlife, especially wolves, has been taken over by a political agenda of commercial exploitation and profit-making. The Fish and Wildlife Commission will decide the fate of wolves--statewide including Yellowstone National Park wolves—for the coming year at the August 25 meeting in Helena. If proposed changes are adopted, at least 460 wolves (!) can be killed—this is close to half of Montana’s estimated entire wolf population!
If we don’t stand up for wolves, the FWP Commission will make it easier for more wolves and pups to be gunned down, suffer in traps before they are shot, and strangled in snares.
Instead of reducing Montana’s wolves, we must urge the FWP commissioners to suspend the wolf killing in Montana.
Talking Points – Wolves Statewide:
Talking Points - Wolves of Yellowstone National Park:
Background Information
Legislators, FWP and its Commission all work against wolves:
Montana wolves are being persecuted by legislators dictating management policies that are “anti-predator and anti-science” https://bit.ly/3uXap4V article by Chris Servheen.
Legislation passed in 2021:
The 2021 Legislature passed SB 314, which states:
The commission shall establish by rule hunting and trapping seasons for wolves with the intent to reduce the wolf population in this state to a sustainable level, but not less than the number of wolves necessary to support at least 15 breeding pairs.
Note that this law does not define “sustainable level”, nor does it impose a timeline for reducing the wolf population. However, Fish, Wildlife and Parks and the Fish and Wildlife Commission use SB 314 as an excuse for an all-out extermination of wolves as fast as possible. When you don’t know how many wolves are here, it’s easy to make up a number that allows slaughter.
To justify killing quotas in Region 3 bordering Yellowstone Park, FWP’s supporting information uses wolf population data from 2011-2015—seven years ago when wolves were at the highest number, before they leveled off. In 2021, Commissioner Pat Tabor, an outfitter, claimed there were more than 1,000 wolves in Montana. Outfitters make top dollar taking clients wolf hunting and trapping. It’s a conflict of interest for Tabor to be deciding wolf hunting and trapping quotas and thresholds.
Last year, the commission allowed 450 wolves to be killed. Nonetheless, a total of 273 wolves were reported killed, including 21 Yellowstone wolves who crossed the boundary line. This indicates there are far fewer wolves in Montana than FWP claims. The Commission allows extremely large quotas for wolves (20 per hunter/trapper) and additional killing methods, such as snaring, baiting, night hunting and longer seasons, based on nothing scientific, no biological necessity and no ethics or fair chase.
Your Voice Counts!
For the Animals,
THANK YOU from Footloose Montana
Information for the Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission Meeting
August 25, Helena Capitol, Room 317
The management of Montana’s wildlife, especially wolves, has been taken over by a political agenda of commercial exploitation and profit-making. The Fish and Wildlife Commission will decide the fate of wolves--statewide including Yellowstone National Park wolves—for the coming year at the August 25 meeting in Helena. If proposed changes are adopted, at least 460 wolves (!) can be killed—this is close to half of Montana’s estimated entire wolf population!
If we don’t stand up for wolves, the FWP Commission will make it easier for more wolves and pups to be gunned down, suffer in traps before they are shot, and strangled in snares.
Instead of reducing Montana’s wolves, we must urge the FWP commissioners to suspend the wolf killing in Montana.
Talking Points – Wolves Statewide:
- The proposed threshold of killing 450 Wolves plus ten in proposed WMU 313 bordering Yellowstone National Park is not sustainable.
- SB 314 does not require a drastic reduction in wolf numbers. It requires a reduction to a sustainable population, which is not quantified and should be scientifically determined. There is no deadline for reduction, it can be over many years, using reliable scientific information rather than free-wheeling and potentially doing so much damage, a relisting of wolves will be automatic.
- Wolf hunting and trapping should be suspended at least until FWP has completed their counting (by the end of September) and can provide solid data, and the science used by FWP has been peer-reviewed. The model FWP uses to estimate the state’s wolf population is flawed, which means the actual total number of wolves in Montana is unknown. At a minimum, the FWP Commission should use the precautionary principle and act extremely conservatively. The current count does not take into consideration last season’s killing of 273 wolves or of wolves poached. It does not include wolves who died of natural causes. The count only goes up to Sept. of 2021, if a count on the ground was conducted at all.
- Wolves should not be killed for recreation, or any other senseless reason. There is no scientific, biological, or social reason to kill hundreds of wolves. This is a decision made by legislators who lack scientific knowledge and ethics. Before the commencement of killing wolves, not killing wolves at all has worked even better. The wolf population hit a high a decade ago and then leveled off.
- FWP should not use wolves as a profit-maker: FWP profits from the sale of hunting and trapping licenses: In 2021-20222, FWP sold 20,828 wolf licenses for nearly $340,000 from the killing of 273 wolves. This is nothing more than commercialization of wildlife.
- Trapping is indiscriminate and cruel: Traps and snares kills an unknown number of non-target animals, and threatens other species as well, including grizzly bears and Canada lynx. Traps and snares are brutal, indiscriminate devices that cause extreme suffering to wild animals and pets caught in them.
- Wolves are a keystone species: Wolves are the best ecosystem managers, containing disease in game animals and keeping them on the move, which prevents erosion and the cutdown of creeks and streams, which in turn provides habitat for beavers and plant and animal species. Peer-reviewed science has shown that wolves regulate themselves, are necessary for ecosystems, and are highly evolved and complex beings with sophisticated emotional and cognitive capabilities, and complex social relationships.
- Wolves do not present a threat to livestock: Random killing of wolves has no impact on livestock protection. Montana has 2.7 million cattle and sheep. In 2021, wolves killed 80 livestock. That is 0.003 percent of livestock, such a small fraction it isn’t even a statistic. Montana and the federal government reimburse ranchers more than 100 percent.
- Wolves are not a threat to elk: FWP is currently being sued for mismanagement of elk that has led to 50,000 more elk than objective. In northwest Montana, elk have never been abundant; the habitat does not support them.
- Wolves are not insatiable killers: Wolves take lethal risks pursuing prey ten times their size and only kill what they need. As subsistence hunters, they feed and return to their kill because they cannot eat it all at once. Their kills feed many species of birds and animals.
- Do not extend reporting time from 12 to 24 hours. This is simply a way to kill more wolves. Last year two more Yellowstone Park wolves than the quota allowed were killed in the 12-hour reporting time.
- Use quotas, not thresholds: The quota system is more accurate and the killing of wolves can be closed more quickly than the vague threshold, which would merely prompt the Commission to convene to determine if the killing in a particular region should be closed or continue.
- Wolves belong to all of us: Under the Public Trust Doctrine, wolves belong to all, not a small special interest group that aims to make a profit from wolf killing. It is Montana’s responsibility to protect wolves, let them be, and let them help contribute to the health of land and water and other wildlife.
Talking Points - Wolves of Yellowstone National Park:
- Greatest Conservation Success in History is being destroyed: The reintroduction of Yellowstone wolves has been a tremendous success, helping bring the ecosystem into balance, allowing extensive research on wolf behavior, helping other species in Yellowstone survive on wolf kills, proving the species’ self-regulation, and providing a unique wildlife watching opportunity that has attracted millions of people from around the world and supports the local economy.
- The quota for killing wolves in the proposed WMU 313, if adopted, should be zero or the minimum number of wolves—not 10 as proposed. If there are 29 wolves in proposed WMU 313, ten wolves are one-third of the population. FWP claims this is the average mortality from all causes, not just hunting, trapping and poaching. Wolves are hit by cars and die of natural causes. Add human killing and the number exceeds one-third by a long shot.
- Shooting and trapping wolves coming out of YNP is morally abhorrent and destructive. Also, last year, 96% of the wolves killed in the current WMU 313 denned in YNP. Twenty percent of YNP wolves were killed in last year’s season. Taking out ten more wolves from the 89 surviving in the park threatens to scatter and destroy the wolves left. They need each other to survive. When humans kill wolves, wolf families splinter, wolves fall on hard times, and conflicts with humans increase.
- YNP is being used as a production facility for wolf killers. Research has been severely impacted. The wanton waste is a stain on Montana—killing off a conservation effort that cost American taxpayers millions, and that is revered the world over. YNP’s wolves are habituated to the presence of humans and do not fear them, thus they are not wary. Wolves are protected within the park and are not suspicious of humans but once they step across the park’s invisible line, which some of them will inevitably do either in search of food, a mate or territory, they get shot or trapped (and then shot). FWP and outfitters use wolves from YNP for a continued supply of wolves to be killed. This is unacceptable.
- Wolves do not Reduce Elk Herds: The northern Yellowstone elk population has been at or over FWP objectives since wolves returned in 1995. In all of Region 3, elk populations are over objective.
- Wolves are Essential to the Economies Surrounding Yellowstone: Wolf watching in Yellowstone brings more than $82 million to communities near YNP. Tourism creates 3,270 jobs—3 out of 5—in Park County alone. These communities, damaged by floods, need the wolves and they need our help.
Background Information
Legislators, FWP and its Commission all work against wolves:
Montana wolves are being persecuted by legislators dictating management policies that are “anti-predator and anti-science” https://bit.ly/3uXap4V article by Chris Servheen.
- In 2020, legislators without any biological knowledge nor compassion for wildlife, implemented regressive legislation based on ignorance and profiteering off of predators such as wolves. Grizzly bears are on the list of predators that they want to kill, perhaps even eradicate.
- FWP has been defending the anti-science legislative mandate with flawed data and estimates that are not even peer-reviewed – thus they are not held accountable. Most importantly, truly peer-reviewed science shows that 1) wolves regulate themselves, 2) are indispensable for the stability of ecosystems we all depend on, 3) are highly evolved beings, emotionally, cognitively, and socially.
- The current FWP Commission is composed of outfitters and a member of the Safari Club International (SCI), an aggressive trophy hunting and lobbying organization. Not surprisingly, the FWP Commission makes decisions that favor the interests of outfitters, trophy hunters and trappers, over science and ethics. FWP Director Hank Worsech was the director of the Montana Outfitters and Guides Association.
Legislation passed in 2021:
The 2021 Legislature passed SB 314, which states:
The commission shall establish by rule hunting and trapping seasons for wolves with the intent to reduce the wolf population in this state to a sustainable level, but not less than the number of wolves necessary to support at least 15 breeding pairs.
Note that this law does not define “sustainable level”, nor does it impose a timeline for reducing the wolf population. However, Fish, Wildlife and Parks and the Fish and Wildlife Commission use SB 314 as an excuse for an all-out extermination of wolves as fast as possible. When you don’t know how many wolves are here, it’s easy to make up a number that allows slaughter.
To justify killing quotas in Region 3 bordering Yellowstone Park, FWP’s supporting information uses wolf population data from 2011-2015—seven years ago when wolves were at the highest number, before they leveled off. In 2021, Commissioner Pat Tabor, an outfitter, claimed there were more than 1,000 wolves in Montana. Outfitters make top dollar taking clients wolf hunting and trapping. It’s a conflict of interest for Tabor to be deciding wolf hunting and trapping quotas and thresholds.
Last year, the commission allowed 450 wolves to be killed. Nonetheless, a total of 273 wolves were reported killed, including 21 Yellowstone wolves who crossed the boundary line. This indicates there are far fewer wolves in Montana than FWP claims. The Commission allows extremely large quotas for wolves (20 per hunter/trapper) and additional killing methods, such as snaring, baiting, night hunting and longer seasons, based on nothing scientific, no biological necessity and no ethics or fair chase.
Your Voice Counts!
For the Animals,
THANK YOU from Footloose Montana
