From today’s Missoulian . . .
A federal appeals court on Wednesday rejected a lawsuit from conservation groups that want to block wolf hunting and trapping that have killed more than 500 of the predators across the Northern Rockies in recent months.
The ruling from a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Congress had the right to intervene when it stripped protections from wolves last spring.
Who says politics is a lost art? The Wyoming legislature just passed a rather schizoid wolf management bill — wolves are nuisance predators, except where they aren’t . . .
The Wyoming Legislature has sent Gov. Matt Mead a bill to change the state’s wolf-management law — a critical step toward ratifying the agreement the governor reached with the federal government last year over how to end Endangered Species Act protections for the animals.
However, uncertainty remains over possible legal challenges to Wyoming’s wolf management plan. Many hunters and ranchers in the state worry that a large wolf population poses an unacceptable threat to other wildlife and livestock.
Under the bill now awaiting Mead’s signature, the state would allow trophy hunting for wolves in a flexible zone around Yellowstone National Park beginning this fall, while classifying wolves as predators that could be shot on sight in the rest of the state.
Posted yesterday evening to the Missoulian . . .
The number of wolves in Montana increased by 15 percent to at least 653 animals despite the state’s efforts to reduce the population with an extended hunting season, state wildlife officials said Wednesday.
Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks officials said 87 more wolves were counted at the end of 2011 than were in the state a year before. There were 130 verified packs and 39 breeding pairs counted, also increases from 2010 numbers.
The wolf hunting season wrapped up with about 74% of the quota taken . . .
Hunters in Montana have shot about 160 wolves as the season comes to a close, falling short of the state’s 220-animal quota.
State wildlife commissioners are considering extending the season in the Bitterroot Valley near the Idaho border in response to complaints about declining elk numbers.
But for most of Montana the season ends after sunset Wednesday. The 163 wolves killed through Tuesday equals almost 75 percent of the statewide quota.
It looks like Montana’s wolf hunt will finish up on February 15 at just over 70% of the original quota . . .
Unless the wolf hunt picks up substantially over the next few days, it appears Montana will fall well short of its statewide quota when the extended season closes Wednesday, Feb. 15.
So far, 156 wolves have been harvested, just over 70 percent of the 220-animal quota. In Northwest Montana’s Region One, 61 wolves have been harvested in six wolf hunting districts with a total quota of 73.
Here is a little more detail on the closure of the wolf hunt in the North Fork area, as well as general hunt status in this corner of Montana . . .
A wolf hunting district covering the North Fork Flathead drainage has been closed by the state because the district’s wolf quota recently was reached.
Wolf Management Unit 110 had a quota for two wolves to be harvested by hunters with wolf permits. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks announced the closure Tuesday.
Only one other wolf-hunting district in Northwest Montana has been closed. District 101 covering the Salish Mountains west of Kalispell had a quota of 19 wolves that was reached Dec. 29.
The wolf hunt is officially over for the North Fork and environs. Here is the press release . . .
The hunting of all wolves in Montana Wolf Management Unit 110 which includes portions of Lincoln and Flathead Counties, in northwestern Montana, will close Wednesday, February 1, 2012 at one half-hour after sunset.
The order halting the hunt came after Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks officials received word that the pre-established harvest quota for wolves in the WMU had been met.
For more information, visit FWP’s website at fwp.mt.gov click “Montana Wolf Hunt,”or call the toll-free number at 1-800-385-7826.
And here is a related Associated Press article . . .
Montana officials are closing down wolf hunting in parts of northwestern Montana bordering Glacier National Park after hunters filled the area’s two-animal quota.
Hunting closes after sunset Wednesday in portions of Lincoln and Flathead counties west of the park.
This AP article is referring to Wolf Management Unit 101, which covers a good portion of Flathead and Lincoln counties. Wolf hunting is still open in Unit 110, covering the North Fork. See the FWP Wolf Hunting Guide page for more detail . . .
Wildlife officials say wolf hunting will close in portions of northwest Montana on Thursday after hunters filled the harvest quota for the area.
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks spokesman Tom Palmer said hunters filled the 19-wolf quota for a wildlife management area that includes portions of Lincoln and Flathead counties.
As expected, Montana FWP extended the wolf hunt into next year — not expected was its extension to Feb. 15 . . .
Montana on Thursday extended its wolf hunt to Feb. 15 as the number of predators killed so far has fallen far short of the quota of 220 animals.
The state’s Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission also approved a plan to allow hunters to assist state and federal officials in killing problem wolves that prey on livestock, a duty that previously solely belonged to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services.
From the Daily Inter Lake . . .
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks has closed wolf hunting in a district covering areas east of Kalispell and in the Swan Valley because the allotted quota was recently met.
The quota for District 130 was 12 wolves, and over the weekend the state announced that the quota had been met and the district would be closed as of sunset Monday…
The Montana wolf hunt is scheduled to continue through Dec. 31. A proposal to extend it one more month is under consideration.