An amendment that could reduce the killing of wolves who spend most of their time in Yellowstone National Park was passed by the Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission on Friday. As revised, the regulation will divide what was Wolf Management Unit 313 north of the park into two separate hunting and trapping areas. With the change, the two smaller units — WMUs 313 and 316 — will each have a quota of three wolves each season.
Commissioners on the Montana Fish and Wildife Commission listen to testimony during an August 16 meeting in the Montana State Capitol. WMU 316 is more remote, composed largely of the mountainous Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness Area near the park’s Northeast Entrance and Cooke City, and therefore often covered with snow to deter wintertime pursuit of wildlife by hunters and trappers. WMU 313, to the west of 316, includes the more accessible Gardiner Basin near the North Entrance to Yellowstone.
Commissioner Susan Kirby Brooke, who represents Region 3 in southwestern Montana, carried the proposal after meeting with wildlife advocates as well as trappers in the area over the past year. “So as we all know, that quota is not set on any biological data,” Brooke said. “It’s a social number that was (determined) by various people that have been in commissions before me.
” Supporters of the change included business owners in the Gardiner area, such as wildlife watching tour guides, who benefit economically from having wolves on the landscape. One estimate put wolf watching revenue in Yellowstone at more than $82 million. Massachusetts resident Christine Goulet was crying as she spoke about “witnessing the beauty” of the park’s wolves for the first time with her family.
“Yellowstone wolves are loved by people around the globe,” she said. Missoula photographer Dave Borgonovo called for a buffer zone around the park to halt all killing of Yellowstone’s wolves. Jim Bell of Bozeman testifies before the Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission inside the Montana State Capitol on August 16.
For carrying the amendment, Brooke drew praise from many of the 35 people who spoke during the hearing, more than half of which showed up in person. Yet wildlife advocates also took part of their allotted two minutes of comment time to call for reductions in the wolf harvest across the state, to criticize the current model used to estimate wolf populations and to admonish the commissioners despite their approval of the amendment. “The nonconsumptive community is not going away,” said Marc Cooke, executive director of the Wolves of the Rockies.
“We will out-wait you. We will outmaneuver you, and we will, already, out-litigate you.” Cooke was referring to a 2023 lawsuit the group filed against the commission and Fish, Wildlife & Parks regarding holding a meeting without public notice and failing to provide documents requested through the Freedom of Information Act.
As part of a consent decree, the agency admitted wrongdoing and the commission had to take training on open meeting and open record compliance. Not everyone agreed with the commission’s decision. Chris Morgan of the Montana Trappers Association said higher populations of wolves in the park leads to more disease outbreaks.
He said breaking the wolf management unit in two had no scientific basis. “So are we really here for wolves or for people’s feelings?” he questioned. “And not to slight anybody’s feelings in the room or their beliefs, but in the end of it, I don’t think we’re doing wolves any favors.
” Marc Cooke, executive director of Wolves of the Rockies, testifies before the Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission inside the Montana State Capitol on August 16. Helena hunter Brian McCullough said the commission should ignore comments from nonresidents and added he supported killing and trapping wolves to improve big game populations. Even before the stream of speakers launched their criticism, Commissioner KC Walsh attempted to deflect their anger by noting it was the legislators who enacted the less restrictive wolf hunting regulations that allow baiting and night hunting on private land, as well as the killing of 20 wolves for each license holder.
The commission, he said, was simply carrying out the mandate handed down by the lawmakers. “So for folks who are interested in ..
. eliminating quotas or not having hunting for wolves, the place they really need to go argue their case is with the legislature,” he said. The commission also approved an amendment carried by Brooke that outlaws the use of “any electronic motion-tracking device or mechanism” by wolf hunters or trappers, which could be used to locate collared wolves.
Several collared wolves from Yellowstone have been killed in the Paradise Valley region north of the park, including one trapped and killed by Gov. Greg Gianforte. However, no one has ever been charged with using telemetry to locate the animals.
The state has outlawed the use of telemetry for other game species, but wolves were exempted as they were defined as a “species in need of special management.” The commission also authorized this year’s quota allowing hunters and trappers to kill 334 wolves across the state. The Montana wolf population is estimated at close to 1,100 animals.
Although FWP hasn’t set a low end for what it would like to see the wolf population at, anything less than 450 animals will make it difficult for the agency to conduct things like management actions when wolves kill livestock or pets, said Brian Wakeling, Game Management Bureau chief. Still up to the commission at its next meeting in October is when to open the wolf trapping season. In the past, out of concern for trapping endangered species like grizzly bears, FWP has enacted a “floating” start time, waiting until bears hibernate before opening the season.
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