Tag Archives: wolves

Wacky wildlife bills progress through Montana legislature

Environmental Issues, News,

From this week’s Hungry Horse News . . .

Hunters just might be able to use a spear next season if a law that makes them legal holds up. The Senate passed a bill by a 27-21 vote in January that would make a spear a legal weapon.

Senate Bill 112, sponsored by Sanders County Republican Greg Hinkle, is now being considered by the House. It’s just one of the many fish and game laws that are under consideration by the Legislature this year.

Gov. Brian Schweitzer has openly made fun of the bill and has promised he’ll veto it.

But spear chucking isn’t the only thing in lawmakers sights. They’d also like to nullify the Endangered Species Act. . .

Continue reading . . .

Tester amends federal budget bill to declare wolves recovered in Montana and Idaho

Environmental Issues, News, , ,

From today’s Missoulian . . .

U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., has inserted language into the Senate’s Continuing Resolution – the bill that funds the entire national budget – declaring the gray wolf a recovered species in Montana and Idaho.

The $1.077 trillion, seven-month spending bill is expected to reach a full Senate vote on Tuesday, and then return to the House of Representatives.

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Baucus and Tester introduce bill for state control of gray wolves

Environmental Issues, News, , , ,

According to the Missoulian, Senators Baucus and Tester are taking another run at restoring wolf management to state control in Montana and Idaho. The article also provides a pretty good retrospective of other significant wolf news from the past week . . .

Montana’s Senate delegation has introduced a new attempt to put gray wolves back under state control.

The one-paragraph bill by Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester would short-circuit a court decision by Missoula U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy that has kept wolves under federal Endangered Species Act protection in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming. Molloy ruled last year that wolves could not be delisted in Montana and Idaho while Wyoming was still under federal management.

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Malloy’s ruling could further restrict wolf hunts

Environmental Issues, News, ,

This one is kind of confusing. Apparently, there’s a possibility of a technical change in the designation of the gray wolf population in the Northern Rockies that would affect the way the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is allowed to manage them . . .

A federal judge is asking if gray wolves should lose their experimental designation across much of the Northern Rockies  — a move that could mean new restrictions on when the animals can be killed.

Continue reading . . .

Rehberg & Tester start push for state wolf management control

Environmental Issues, News, , ,

According to the Missoulian, Montana’s congresscritters are starting this year’s push to get wolf management moved out from under federal control . . .

Gray wolves returned to the crosshairs of Montana’s congressional delegation Wednesday.

Rep. Denny Rehberg announced the introduction of two pieces of legislation that would permanently remove them from the protections of the Endangered Species Act, and Sen. Jon Tester sent a letter to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar asking him to allow hunting of wolves in Montana to control their population growth.

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(Note that there was also a supporting resolution passed in the Montana House.)

Regional wolf management specialist has big territory and big job

Environmental Issues, News, , ,

Today’s Daily Internet Lake has an interesting story about Kent Laudon, Northwest Montana’s wolf management specialist for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. The guy really has his hands full these days . . .

Wanted: Social arbiter and diplomat in one of the most emotionally charged arenas of wildlife management. Must be a detective and data cruncher with an uncanny ability to trap live gray wolves.

That’s pretty much the job description for Kent Laudon, Northwest Montana’s wolf management specialist for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

Continue reading . . .

Wolf bills have little chance of passage this year

Environmental Issues, News, , ,

The various House and Senate bills aimed at removing Wolves from the endangered species list in some western states are unlikely to go anywhere this year.

From today’s Flathead Beacon . . .

Lawmakers from the Northern Rockies say pending bills aimed at getting gray wolves off the endangered species list have little chance of passage this year.

A time crunch, coupled with unresolved partisan differences on the issue, means several wolf bills introduced in the lead-up to the election are likely to die without action.

Read the full story . . .

U.S. FWS investigating wolf poaching in Flathead Forest; reward offered

Environmental Issues, News, , ,

From today’s Daily Inter Lake . . .

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is investigating the recent shooting of two wolves on the Flathead National Forest.

The carcasses were found on the same day, Nov. 6, in different locations on the forest.

One was found along Coal Creek Road in the North Fork Flathead drainage and the other in the Miller Creek area west of Olney.

Read the full article . . .

The Missoulian also posted an article on this incident.

Ben Lamb: Why the Baucus/Tester wolf delisting bill is the better choice

Commentary, Environmental Issues, , , ,

Ben Lamb had an excellent guest commentary posted to last Wednesday’s New West. He’s lost patience with all the political posturing over wolf management. It’s an entertaining read . . .

The political wrangling over wolves since the latest relisting in August is now in full force. It’s unfortunate that we’ve arrived at a place where the only solution that most Montanans see regarding wolves is political in nature.

Looking back over 100 years of wildlife conservation in the state of Montana, political solutions have rarely helped wildlife. In the past, hunter-conservationists struggled mightily to remove political influence from wildlife management, and we were largely successful. . .

Read the entire article . . .