Hunting numbers concern sportsmen

Hard winters, predator numbers and lower harvest quotas for the 2009 hunting season sparked Lincoln County commissioners to request a special hearing with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

Seats in the commissioners’ quarters filled with one dozen area sportsmen to hear FWP Region 1 Wildlife Manager Jim Williams address potential correlations between low hunter success, game populations and increasing predator numbers.

“Hunters are passionate,” Williams said. “We are all a little frustrated right now.”

Williams concentrated on white-tailed deer, the largest constituency in Region 1 with 2008 population estimates just under 102,000.

Williams predicts Region 1 will continue to see declining game populations, but is confident those numbers will rebound.

Sportsman Charlie Decker said whitetail are a versatile and adaptable species and their numbers could be likened to a yo-yo. He is concerned with what he considers a high number of elk tags administered for Region 1 and low elk numbers.

Williams said elk are a hardier animal and can weather a hard winter easier than deer. He added that there is no proposed decrease in elk tags allotted in Region 1.

Williams said they are not seeing the impacts on elk like the deer and that whitetail will continue to be the number one food source for predators.

Much of the conversation centered on wolves and their impact on the region.

“Wolves are a real hot button right now,” Williams said. “We are only allowed to manage wolves linked to livestock depredation. Our hands are somewhat tied with all the regulations.”

Williams threw out some statistics pertaining to the fate of white-tailed deer. He said an average year sees a 67-percent survival rate, with 16 percent lost to lions, 9 percent to hunters and 6 percent to wolves.

In 2008, whitetail had only a 49-percent survival rate, with 21 percent to lions, 15 percent to hunters and 11 percent to wolves.

Williams said 2008 was second only to 1996 in terms of hard winters with snow and cold. He added that the presence of more predators would drive game numbers down further and faster.

Due to lag time between natural events, population trends may surface a season or two later for both predator and prey. 

“Food drives everything,” Williams said. “We are also looking at lower predator numbers.”

Many sportsmen claim they did not see the normal signs of game during the season. However, many at the meeting claimed to notice an overabundance of wolf signs, strongly correlating low success with wolves – though not ruling out the hard winter and mild weather during last season. 

Hunter success for 2008 at Region 1 check stations was 7.6 percent, though the number of hunters checked was a 12-year high at 24,995. Whitetail checked was 1,532 with 219 mule deer and 147 elk.

From 1997-2000, check stations annually averaged 21,771 hunters, 940 whitetail, 224 mule deer and 70 elk, and a success rate of 5.6 percent.

In 1994, there were 48 wolves documented around Glacier National Park as well as the augmentation of Canadian gray wolves into Yellowstone National Park and central Idaho. Wolves have continued to disperse to all corners over the last 15 years.

The 2007 Montana wolf report estimates a minimum of 213 wolves in the northwest Montana endangered area. 

Kent Laudon, FWP wolf management specialist, said he favors state management and a wolf-hunting season. He questions what hunters blamed low success rates on before the wolves.

In response to declining populations, the FWP instituted emergency changes for 2009, dropping whitetail antlerless B-tags from 5,700 to 5,200 as well as canceling the ability to take either sex whitetail the last four days of the season.

Lincoln County Commissioner John Konzen said he feels like people are being held “hostage” by the wolf situation. He said FWP has done a reasonable job with wildlife management but questions why so many tags were issued in 2008 if FWP knew game numbers were declining.

Williams predicts that wolves will be delisted but expects the issue to again end up in federal court.

He said the topic is ironic because the feds agree with the states on management but it gets “tripped-up” in court.

Local sportsman Mike Munro said he couldn’t understand the courts.

“We need to put pressure back on the judges to say, ‘You need to be using science.’”

Williams said the minimum number of breeding wolf pairs for Montana is set at 15. FWP estimates there were 23 pairs in Region 1 alone at the end of 2007.

If wolf management is turned over to state control, Williams said FWP has a wolf hunting season proposal ready to roll. He said the Region 1 quota is slated at 45, however, trapping of the predator will not be allowed initially.

Decker said he has been on wolf hunts in Canada and Alaska and the animals are extremely smart.

“It is hard to manage wolves by hunting,” Decker said, adding that trapping is most likely the best management tool to implement.

Outfitter and sportsman Lenny Howells said the state of Montana along with FWP stands to lose a worst-case scenario $187 million in revenue brought in by hunters, both in-state and out-of-state.

“We are in a nose-dive right now,” Howells said, “and we are going to crash.”