There are nearly 1,100 wolves in Montana, moving in 181 packs.
Some of them, are the offspring of reintroduced wolves in Yellowstone, and some of them are from natural populations. All of them are under the management of Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.
Very few members of the animal kingdom stir as much emotion as do wolves. Some hunt to get a glimpse of them while some simply hunt them. In Montana, all of them fall under the management of the Montana department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP).
“We are charged with their management and the state legislature has put some conditions on that management and so our job again is to follow the law to do sound science and then implement the decisions the commission and the state legislature make,” said FWP Director Dustin Temple.
The Fish and Wildlife Commission takes FWP's scientific information about the wolves in Montana and with FWP’s input, comes up with hunting and trapping numbers as part of that management plan.
The commission also takes input from the public — a lot of input.
“Certainly wolves invites a big audience a big interest a big informed interest a big commitment, a lot of passion and I think it may be some long days for everybody as they either wait in line in their role to get to the podium or decision maker trying to sift through all details figuring out where they're going to vote or the agency trying to keep up with the conversations with science input as the conversation looks for them but step back a little bit it can only be a good thing when the citizenry is thick and engaged and committed and involved in all those conversations," explained FWP Chief of Conservation Policy Quentin Kujala.
FWP also coordinates with livestock producers who suffer loss from wolves. Once again, constant tracking and data collection goes in to the ultimate response to that loss.
“If wolves are confirmed as the cause of the mortality, essentially we have to determine which wolves are responsible and so we will help either if we have a GPS collar that can help us determine — yes these wolves were responsible or no they weren't. Perhaps there's uncollared wolves,” explained FWP Carnivore Coordinator Molly Parks. “They may deploy a radio collar to better inform who is responsible and then come up with a targeted strategy to respond."
“So, it may very well be lethal removal but we're trying to use the best information consult with those folks to target offending wolves because really you don’t just want a chronic situation where it’s a learned behavior and we continue to lose livestock and in the long run you end up removing more wolves,” Parks continued.
Parks notes that FWP took over management in 2011 when wolves were delisted, removing them from federal management. Keeping a population that will continue functioning under state management another key focus of FWP’s work with wolves.
“That gave us some great flexibility being able to use harvest as a tool to manage the population, be more flexible in our livestock conflict response. So, the population grew and dropped slightly and has kind of more or less stabilized,” Parks said. “We saw slight decline the last couple of years and we've stabilized again this year.
“But just with that state management authority which is kind of one of our key objectives you know we want a healthy, sustainable population we want to be able to maintain state management authority so that we have those tools available to manage the population as well as some of these different concerns that may arise over time,” Parks continued.
That always includes public input, and the longer FWP manages the wolves, the better informed the public can be about the wolves.
“You're right, as wolves have come to Montana, every year a longer history of state management and the citizenry has kept right up with the opportunities that process provides them,” Kujala said. “The commission provides them to engage and help steer the direction of wolf management.
By continuing research, monitoring and involving the public in the process FWP will continue to be able to manage Montana’s wolf population. The ultimate goal of FWP for wolves, just like for every other wildlife species in the state.
“Our commitment to those folks who do not harvest wolves, that at the end of the season when all the take is done -- whether that be from hunters, trappers, administrative take, we factor in natural mortality -- that there will remain a healthy population of wolves on the landscape so for us that's wolf management,” Temple concluded.
