Today’s online edition of the Missoulian has an article explaining why the recent wolf poaching incidents on the North Fork did not affect the local wolf hunt quota . . .
When a Columbia Falls man pleaded guilty last week to poaching two wolves just outside Glacier National Park, many thought the area’s wolf-hunting quota would be adjusted accordingly.
They were wrong.
“Looking at Idaho might have been somewhat constructive,” said Louisa Wilcox of the Natural Resources Defense Council. “They had a poaching incident there, and they cut the quota in response.”
But state wildlife officials say Montana and Idaho came at their quota counts in different ways, and in Montana those poached wolves already were considered dead, long before they were killed.