Montana officials are hoping to try a new, less expensive way to estimate the wolf population . . .

In the span of a human lifetime, gray wolves have re-established their presence in Montana’s mountains and forests.

Human settlers had driven most of the predators out by the early 1930s. But beginning in the 1970s, Endangered Species Act protections and re-introductions fostered a recovery. Montana’s wolf population has grown from about 50 confirmed animals in the 1990s to nearly 500 today.

The recovery is often hailed as a success story for wildlife management. But now, the wolf population’s growth is making management tougher.

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A group of scientists feels that Montana, as well as other states with wolf populations, are more or less just playing things by ear . . .

A group of 14 scientists with backgrounds in large carnivore research have called on state wildlife management agencies to set “clearly defined, quantitative policy goals” for wolf management.

“One of the big issues in science-based management is to have clear goals,” said Scott Creel, a professor in the Department of Ecology at Montana State University in Bozeman and the lead author of the paper published in the December issue of Science magazine. “Avoiding being listed under the Endangered Species Act is one of the goals, but it’s not clear if that’s the only goal.”

Creel said the conservation policy paper is an “attempt to redefine what is a sustainable level” of wolf removal through hunting, trapping and those killed by stockmen.

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