Following a decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that gray wolves do not need federal protections under the Endangered Species Act, conservation groups filed a lawsuit in June.
In a recent court hearing, attorneys representing Montana and a coalition of conservation organizations debated whether a judge should impose a temporary halt on the state’s ongoing wolf hunting and trapping season. Lewis and Clark District Judge Christopher Abbott did not specify when he would make a ruling on the request for a preliminary injunction to pause wolf killings in Montana while a broader challenge to state hunting and trapping policies unfolds.
In August, the Montana Wildlife Commission established quotas permitting the killing of up to 458 wolves during the current and upcoming hunting and trapping seasons. Jessica Blome, an attorney for WildEarth Guardians, Project Coyote, the Gallatin Wildlife Association, and Footloose Montana, argued that the variety of wolf-killing methods approved by the state in recent years increases the likelihood of reaching that higher target.
“The state’s own population projections indicated Montana’s wolf population will plummet if defendants are permitted to implement their plan to kill 558 wolves this winter,” she stated.
Since 2021, Republican lawmakers and the increasingly GOP-dominated Fish and Wildlife Commission have adopted various policies to boost the annual wolf harvest, including higher bag limits, increased funding to reimburse hunters and trappers for expenses, extended seasons, and additional methods for killing wolves, such as baiting and nighttime hunting with infrared.
“All these factors work together to make it more likely that they will achieve that target,” Blome said. “It’s absurd for them to argue that they won’t reach it, and that we should just trust them.”
Attorneys for Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks countered by telling Judge Abbott that the total number of wolves harvested so far aligns with past seasons, despite the expanded methods available for killing the predators. They also dismissed the plaintiffs’ claim that they aim to reduce the wolf population to 450 wolves, a figure set by federal wildlife regulators as the minimum when management was transferred to Montana.
“We’re not managing to a minimum population of 450 wolves,” FWP attorney Alex Scolavino explained. “We are statutorily mandated to reduce the wolf population to a sustainable number, but we are not managing to that number. Our intent is not to reduce it to that number.”
Montana’s wolf hunting season spans more than half the year, running from early September to mid-March, with trapping season commencing in December. As of Friday, hunters had killed only 62 out of the maximum 458 wolves allowed this year, according to FWP’s public dashboard. The agency also noted that no statewide quota set by the commission has been met in previous years, with the highest number of wolves killed in a single year being 350 in 2020.
Recognizing that hitting the quota this year may be unlikely, Abbott questioned Scolavino about the implications if it were achieved. “Let’s say it does and you stop the season early… at that point your number is really close to that 450 number, so I’m wondering why the quota is so high that if it were completely successful it would push that population potentially so close to that line?”
Scolavino responded, “We have not recognized a significant reduction in the population in recent years. In our view, it has remained stable, and we are statutorily mandated to reduce the wolf population.”
In addition to the 458 wolves allowed by the Fish & Wildlife Commission this year, another 100 animals could be killed through “controlled removals,” which involve wolves killed by individuals or federal wildlife officials in response to livestock attacks.
However, even if hunters and trappers fail to meet the state’s quota again, as they have in every previous year since a statewide quota was established, Blome’s co-counsel, Susann Bradford, argued that the state cannot accurately track the number of wolves remaining.
The plaintiffs contend that the state’s method for estimating wolf populations, known as the “IPOM model,” lacks scientific rigor and may overestimate the number of wolves that survive.
“This is not defensible, managing to a minimum number of 450,” Bradford stated. “Both the number is not supported by any science, and they have a duty to substantiate their findings with science. Their ability to know this number and ensure that it is being met is not supported by peer-reviewed, reproducible, documented science.”
The plaintiffs have amended their lawsuit multiple times and are now seeking permission to amend it again. Among the new allegations is the claim that killing so many wolves constitutes unconstitutional degradation of the environment.
Abbott acknowledged that there is limited case law regarding when and how that constitutional threshold is triggered, particularly concerning Montana’s wildlife. “It can’t be the case that any hunting of wolves violates that—I don’t think that’s what anyone would have in mind,” he remarked. “It does seem like there’s a strong argument that there’s a threshold that exists somewhere.”
Bradford referenced the state’s own data, which indicated that the past 20 years of wolf management in Montana demonstrated a “sustainable” population with an annual wolf death rate at 27% of the population. She requested to maintain the status quo “due to the high uncertainty” surrounding the state’s population models.
Source: https://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/judge-hears-arguments-in-challenge-to-montanas-wolf-hunting-trapping-seasons/article_5e2710ee-9b7e-5652-bd91-732e91058e35.html
