Advocates seek to disqualify Montana, Idaho from funding

Several conservation groups on Thursday filed a petition seeking to disqualify Montana and Idaho from receiving millions of dollars in federal funding because of legislation that expanded wolf hunting and trapping opportunities in both states.

The Center for Biological Diversity and 26 other conservation and animal welfare groups signed a petition calling on federal authorities to strip the states of Idaho and Montana of Pittman-Robertson funds because of state laws that eased wolf hunting and trapping regulations.

“The states of Idaho and Montana have enacted laws with the goal of drastically reducing their wolf populations using methods that are inhumane, unethical, and illegal in many other states,” the petition to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Department of the Interior says.

Andrea Zaccardi, carnivore conservation legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a news release that the new laws “run completely contrary to conservation goals, and they should disqualify both states from receiving federal funding.”

The petition targets Idaho’s Senate Bill 1211, which allowed the state to hire private contractors to kill wolves. The law also permitted hunters and trappers to take an unlimited number of wolves on one tag, and to hunt the animals using hounds, ATVs and snowmobiles.

“Using these methods, hunters and trappers are now permitted to kill approximately 90 percent of the 1,500 wolves that Idaho officials estimate live in the state,” the petition says.

The petition also targets new laws in Montana. Hunters and trappers in the state can now bait wolves, take as many as 10 of the predators on a single tag or license, snare them, trap them for four more weeks and use night vision equipment to hunt them on private land.

“Wildlife biologists, scientists, game wardens, commissioners, and others have spoken against new wolf-killing tactics in Montana and Idaho as violating principles of ‘fair chase’ and conflicting with duties to sustainably manage wolves,” the petition says.

Every state in the country can apply for federal aid through the Pittman-Robertson Act to conduct wildlife conservation projects, and the states of Idaho and Montana receive millions of dollars in funding every year.

Between 2015 and 2019, Idaho received more than $75 million in Pittman-Robertson Act and associated Sport Fish Restoration Act funds. Montana received close to $100 million during that time, according to the petition.

“If the states were to lose that funding, I would hope that they would go back and revisit their wolf extermination laws to revise them to actually be conservation-oriented,” Zaccardi said.

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks did not respond to a request for a response before Thursday’s deadline, but the department reported on Monday that the state’s wolf population remained stable through 2021, despite the new methods of take.

“What the data shows us really isn’t surprising,” said FWP Director Hank Worsech in the release. “Our management of wolves, including ample hunting and trapping opportunities, have kept numbers at a relatively stable level during the past several years.”

According to Montana’s latest wolf report, at the end of 2021, its estimated wolf population was 1,141. Forty more wolves were reported the year prior. “This is not a statistically significant difference,” and the numbers demonstrate “a population trend that is very stable,” officials wrote.

Zaccardi said that both she and a number of scientists have serious concerns about how the state of Montana is reaching its wolf population estimates, and she fears numbers could be dropping more than the state detects.

“It seems illogical that the wolf population would remain the same when hunters and trappers are killing hundreds of wolves year after year,” Zaccardi said. “There is a lot of science showing the important role that wolves play in keeping a balanced and healthy ecosystem, and removing wolves to unnatural levels by killing them could have a negative impact.”

FWP wrote that the methodology it uses to count wolves has undergone a scientific peer review “both of its individual components and the cumulative process as a whole.” It’s based on a variety of data sources, which include information from biologists and hunter-harvest surveys.

“We are following the law,” Worsech said in the release. “And are doing so in a way that provides certainty that wolf populations in Montana will remain off the Endangered Species List.”

Dore can be reached at hdore@dailychronicle.com or at (406) 582-2628.