From this week’s Hungry Horse News . . .
Contrary to rumors, a wolf killed up the North Fork by a hunter was not the alpha female of a Glacier Park pack.
Kent Laudon, wolf management specialist for Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks said the wolf was a 2-year-old and was wearing a radio collar, but it was not the alpha female of the Kintla Pack.
That’s it for Montana’s wolf hunt this year . . .
Montana is shutting down its first public hunt for gray wolves since their removal from the endangered species list after state officials said they expected to meet the season’s quota of 75 by Monday evening.
The quota was met two weeks before the season’s scheduled close. The 75 killed equals about 15 percent of a statewide wolf population estimated at 500.
Yet even with the success among hunters, the number of wolves in Montana is expected to increase this year by 20 percent or more because wolves are such prolific breeders.
This week’s Hungry Horse News provides some good background concerning wolf hunt quotas on the North Fork . . .
The recent poaching of three wolves up the North Fork didn’t count toward the hunting quota, but it has raised concerns from a conservation group about the way wolves are being managed.
The wolf quota for the North Fork was two wolves — a comparatively low number. Hunters have now shot two wolves in the North Fork, the last one on Monday in the headwaters of the Big Creek drainage. With three poachings added to that, five animals have been killed. The season for wolves in that subdistrict is now closed.
That’s it for wolf hunting on the North Fork this year. Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks announced it is closing the hunt officially a half-hour past sunset tomorrow, November 10th, after the shooting of the allowed two wolves in the “North Fork Sub-unit.” An AP article posted to the Flathead Beacon has some additional background.
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.
For those of you who wish to keep track of this season’s wolf hunt, Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks Has a web page, updated daily, showing the harvest status in the various “Wolf Management Units” throughout the state. The North Fork has its own special subunit with a limit of two wolves.
Links . . .
FWP’s “Wolf Hunting Season Status” page
Write-up on wolf hunt status and related information in the Flathead Beacon
From today’s online edition of the Missoulian . . .
Wolf advocates have opted not to appeal a federal court decision that let wolf hunting seasons proceed in Montana and Idaho.
“We’re anxious to get to the merits of our case,” said Doug Honnold, lead attorney for EarthJustice, the law firm representing 14 environmental and conservation groups that want the gray wolf returned to federal endangered species list protection. “The best way to do that is to speed up the merits process than have an appeal ongoing at the same time.”
U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy ruled that wolf hunts in Montana and Idaho can continue pending results of a lawsuit brought by a coalition of environmental groups.
Here is a selection of today’s press coverage . . .
From the Daily Inter Lake:
A federal judge said Wednesday that gray wolf hunts in the Northern Rockies can go on, denying a request by environmentalists and animal welfare groups to stop the first organized wolf hunts in decades in Idaho and Montana.
U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy said plans to kill about 20 percent of the two states’ estimated 1,350 wolves would not cause long-term harm to the population. He said federal biologists had shown the animal could sustain a 30 percent annual reduction without long-term harm.
But Molloy added that by carving Wyoming out of the recent decision to remove wolves from federal protection, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service appeared to violate the Endangered Species Act by making its decision based on political boundaries.
Molloy said that means environmentalists could ultimately prevail in their bid to restore endangered species protection for the animals.
From the Missoulian:
Wolf hunters won the battle, but wolf supporters may win the war in the lawsuit over hunting the once-endangered species in Montana and Idaho.
U.S. District Judge Don Molloy turned down requests to stop 2009 wolf hunting seasons in the two states in an order released late Tuesday evening. In his 14-page opinion, Molloy said the 13 conservation groups opposing the hunts failed to show wolf populations would suffer irreparable harm, even if individual wolves were killed by hunters.
From the Flathead Beacon:
A federal judge said gray wolf hunts can go on for the first time in decades in the Northern Rockies, just months after the animals were removed from the endangered species list.
U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy denied a request by environmentalists and animal welfare groups to stop the hunts in Idaho and Montana, saying plans to kill more than 20 percent of the estimated 1,350 wolves in the two states would not cause long-term harm to the species.
While both sides await the result of a request to stay the wolf hunts in Idaho and Montana, wolf tags went on sale in Montana and Idaho logged the first wolf kill of its hunting season.
Here are the stories . . .
From Monday’s online edition of the Daily Inter Lake . . .
Gray wolf hunting will begin in the Northern Rockies as a federal judge considers an injunction request by environmental and animal welfare groups to stop the predators from being killed…
After a three-hour hearing Monday, U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy gave no indication how he might rule on the request. Molloy said he would decide “as quickly as I can.”