Wolf delisting derailed

There's no disputing the fact that more wolves have been hanging around Libby lately.

But despite the steady increase of wolves and the resulting federal attempt to delist gray wolves in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming, 13 conservation groups challenged the delisting, effectively putting it on hold.

The decades-long restoration effort to bring back the gray, or timber wolves, will be made obsolete if the wolves do not remain protected, according to Louisa Willcox, the Senior Wildlife Advocate for the Natural Resources Defense Council, one of the groups who sued within hours of the federal delisting.

“This proposal will push wolves back to the brink,” said Willcox. “We've already spent millions of dollars getting them off extinction.”

But for many people in Libby, including Jerry Brown, a local biologist with Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks (FWP), the numbers prove wolves have recovered enough to begin harvesting by the state.

“There were no wolves here when I started working in the early seventies because they had been eradicated,” said Brown. “Now, everywhere I go I see the tracks, but I don't see them.”

In the northern rockies in the 1970s, wolves were endangered. It wasn't until 1986 that the first documented wolves started coming into Northwest Montana on their own, at the North Fork Flathead, from Canada, according to Brown.

Since then, their numbers have slowly been increasing as part of a natural recovery area, and in 1996-97, wolves were re-introduced in Yellowstone National Park as well as central Idaho.

Brown said the delisting process began once the wolves met the recovered population level, or 100 wolves per state - 300 total.

“They reached that level in our region three years ago,” said Brown. “So we started the process, and since that time they've increased.”

Kent Laudon, a wolf management specialist for FWP, monitors the wolves' numbers every summer, spring, and fall, trapping and fitting them with radio collars to track packs and their areas of operation.

Laudon's research has helped to prove that a slow increase over the last decade has taken place, with stronger numbers in the last three years.

According to the FWP's Wolf Packs and Population data, the total number of wolves in the Northwest Montana recovery area grew from 126 in 2005 to 167 in 2006.

The 2007 annual survey is expected publicly “any day now,” according to Laudon, but revealed the 2007 numbers grew to 213 wolves.

“It's good,” said Laudon of the increase, “because Northwest Montana has had a real slow population growth, and it seems to be vulnerable to some enviromental aspects.”

As an example, Laudon noted the winter of 1996-97, when deep snow forced wolves to turn to livestock, causing a decline for the next two years.

“If we start having regular population growth, the population can better withstand those types of pressures,” he added.

The rising numbers have resulted in more sightings in the area of wolves - dead as well as alive, or the dead they leave behind.

“There are some pictures going around the internet,” said Brown. “Wolves apparenty killed a bull elk in Wolf creek in the last two or three weeks - some local loggers found it and determined it had been freshly killed.”

Other reports include an elk killing in Troy as well as a moose killing in the Yaak.

“They're killing stuff every day,” added Brown. “That's what they do, because that's how they live.”

Although white Tail deer constitute the northwestern Montana wolves' primary kill base, Brown said they will kill an occasional elk, mule deer and moose.

“They're not all that selective,” said Brown. “If they run into a moose they are going to kill it.”

Laudon said the snow this year has forced a lot of wildlife to lower elevations this year.

“The deer and elk concentration is usually on the valley bottom because of the snow pack, so the wolves follow.”

“Wolves work the herd,” said Laudon. “There is no surprise attack. You're taking something down larger than yourself, and can see the animals that are having a hard time.

“Weaker animals fall out, and those animals start heading down hill. They chase them down the hill where they hit the valley bottom where kill happens.”

Laudon said a lot of the main roads are at the bottom of these hills, which could account for many of the traffic deaths involving wolves, or wolves leaving a fresh kill due to an approaching vehicle or human.

He added that wolves are actually notorious for eating most of their prey, and don't typically “kill for fun,” as they are sometimes accused of.

According Laudon, there were two wolves that died on the road due to vehicles last week in the NW Montana area, which includes Frenchtown out of Missoula to I-15 on the east front of the Rocky's by Shelby to the Yaak.

“They cross roads just like any other critter,” said Laudon. “A couple of things that might increase there vulnerability - besides being predators, they're scavengers as well.”

Willcox noted that wolves and elk have co-evolved for thousands of years and are a valuable asset of the ecosystem, keeping the herd healthy by eliminating the weak and sick.

“It's a controlled, naturally self-regulating system,” she said. “At the top of their food chain, they play an important role in regulating the health of the prey base.”

But while hunters may begrudge the wolves attacking game, it's the livestock killings that call in the big guns.

According to Laudon, there were 32 total mortalities for the northwest region of Montana in 2007.

Of those 32, 19 wolves were killed - or “controlled” - by the Dept. of Interior due to livestock damage.

This was up from 2006, when the number of wolves killed included 15 controlled, five by humans (such as poaching or vehicle) and one unknown death.

In 2005, two were controlled, six died from humans and three died from unknown causes.

Areas that have less livestock, such as Wolf Creek, can be particularly suspectible.

“In the Wolf Creek drainage we had one calf that was injured by a wolf when cattle got kicked out on the grazing allotment in the hills, near Plum creek,” he said. “Folks start calving and they become more susceptible.”

There is a compensation program available for verified losses, paid out by Defenders of Wildlife.

Laudon said eventually Montana will assume its own recovery program, especially on grazing allotments, but the problems of unverified loss remains.

“When there is no way of telling (if it's a wolf kill), they can't be compensated for unknowns.”

One pack in Clearwater was eliminated for killing five cattle in the Seeley lake area, according to Brown.

But repeated livestock killings starting in 2006 spelled doom for most of another pack.

“Probably the most significant (controlled killing) this year was 12 of 19 wolves in the Hewolf, south of Hwy 200 between Arlee and Dixon,” said Laudon.

There are plenty of other options for dealing with livestock trepidations that Montana could employ, but doesn't, according to Willcox.

“Montana is killing more wolves through the feds than either Wyoming or Idaho,” she said, noting that the Montana FWP ordered the killing of 53 wolves in response to 38 wolf depridations on livestock, while Wyoming only had 28 and Idaho had 22.

“The problem is the heavy handed approach of a wildlife season combined with a hunting season,” she said. “It could kill 30% or more of the population annually.

“While wolves are resiliant and reproduce well, it's going to be hard to maintain them in any healthy state if there is that much killing going on.”

Willcox, who works out of Livingston, Montana, said alternatives to killing wolves should be considered.

“We're concerned about that - the problem with local hostility has not been resolved, and there's much more that can be done,” said Willcox.

Willcox added that wolf repellants such as electric fences around sheep pens and “fladery,” or scarecrow-types of constructions like vertically hung strips of red flagging around livestock are areas that wolves tend to avoid, according to studies.

“Instead of turning back the clock, we need to learn how to co-exist with the wolves and put more money into that,” she said.

Brown said one alternative to controlling - relocation - can be tricky.

“They've tried relocating them in the past,” he said. “They can put them someplace where there are no livestock, but when the whole pack is involved in livestock killing, you almost always have to take the whole pack out.”

According to Laudon, aside from meeting the recovery goal, the 2007 numbers make an even stronger argument for delisting due to the resiliency of the wolf population.

“The total mortalities in wolf population are greater, but the population is still going up - and more resilient,” said Laudon.

“It has take ten years for the population to regain their strength - due to the landscape, weather, etc.,” he said. “These are total population numbers - so for us, that rate has increased in the last three years and that increase now is comparable to central ID and Yellowstone, where before it wasn't.”

According to Laudon, the other two areas include two of the biggest wilderness areas in the lower 48 states, where no hunting and little livestock are allowed, creating huge refuges where wolves are protected and buffered from things that get them into trouble in NW Montana, such as livestock or poachers.

“We have Glacier and the Bob Marsh wilderness, but if you compare the two, - there is no comparison.”

Laudon said Montana is ready to take over regulating their wolf population.

“We're absolutely for the delisting,” he said.

But Willcox disagrees, noting the overall result of delisting will involve the killing in the hundreds of wolves, from the present 1500 wolves that roam the northern rockies.

“We have that many now,” she said. “But under the state plans and laws in the three state combined, when you total it up, you could see 80% of the entire region's wolves disappear, and that would reverse the progress we've made through recovery.”

Willcox maintains that Montana's plan wouldn't prevent too much killing.

“If you read their plan (fwp.mt.gov under the “Montana Wolf Season” link), they haven't made enforceable commitments” she said.

But Brown disagrees.

“Harvesting wouldn't damage the levels,” he said.

According to Brown, there are five or six packs alone in the Yaak ID/MT border, or hunting district 100.

There is a pack in Wolfcreek and another operating in the Houghton Creek and McGinnis area is called the Fishtrap pack.

Another south of Libby near Flower Creek has been noted, but has yet to be caught and radioed.

Two other groups operate on McMillan ridge and south of Troy, while another is out by Meadow Peak. More can be found on their website.

Each pack usually has two to four breeding pairs, with seven or eight - or as many 11. In Alaska the packs are even bigger.

Laudon said wolves disappear for various reasons, including accidents, disease, illegal poaching and leaving the pack.

Wolves may leave the pack if it is getting too big for the food source available in their territory.

“When food isn't that plentiful, it won't support larger packs and creates inner pack strife - a precurser to dispersal.”

Laudon came to MT Fish Wildlife and Parks in October of 2004 and noticed a difference from the Idaho packs he had been studying since 1997.

“Libby - basically northwest montana - is a whitetail deer economy, and our pack sizes are smaller than pretty much everywhere else in the Northern Rockies,” he said.

In the last year, 4-500 wolves have been reported from the public, which Laudon relies on to pinpoint new packs of wolves.

“Online reporting has really helped a lot,” he said. “When I look at clusters, if there are five reports in one spot, then I investigate it.”

To report a wolf siting online, go to fwp.mt.gov and click on Montana Wolf Season, then Report a Wolf Observation; or call 406-751-4586.