Fish and Wildlife Commission adopts new administrative rules on grizzly, wolf management

The Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission adopted new administrative rules last Thursday regarding grizzly bear and wolf management that have drawn criticism from environmental and conservation groups throughout the rulemaking process.

The adoption of the rules for both species marks key steps as the state updates its wolf management plan for the first time in two decades and prepares to manage grizzly bears in the event the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decides to delist them in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem – a decision currently under review.

But the proposed rules have faced controversy and criticism from nearly the beginning in both their substance and process, particularly from people and groups who say the state’s efforts to allow more hunting and trapping of the animals goes against the state’s goal of conserving wildlife.

The amendments to the wolf administrative rules remove any reference to the Montana Gray Wolf Conservation and Management Plan, which Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks argues is needed because the plan is being updated and there should be no notion that the wolf plan is a rule.

The original amendment would have kept language that referred to “the department’s most current wolf management plan,” but that was removed over the objections of conservation groups.

The commission was also sued over alleged public notice violations for the September meeting, which those same groups said was held without proper notice.

FWP had admitted to violating the public right to know in previous meetings and entered a consent decree in which it agreed to give Wolves of the Rockies more public comment time at a meeting next June and to take open meeting training – training the commission went through on Wednesday.

The Greater Yellowstone Coalition and Large Carnivore Fund were among the groups that objected to the removal of the reference to the wolf management plan. The groups argued that removing the language would give the state the ability to manage wolves outside of the plan.

“Removing reference to the Wolf Plan within administrative rule language governing control actions calls into question whether there is intention for control actions to diverge from the Wolf Plan and a science-based approach,” the Greater Yellowstone Coalition’s wildlife conservation coordinator Brooke Shifrin wrote in comments to the commission. “Why invest substantive resources and time into revising the Wolf Plan if there is no intention for it to guide wolf management actions moving forward?”

In response, the commission said it maintains that any rule reference to a wolf conservation and management plan “is inappropriate.”

“Wolf plans contain recommendations to guide the decision-making processes in accordance with governing law,” the commission wrote in its notice of Thursday’s decision.

During public comment at Thursday’s meeting, the commission heard mostly opposition to the rule changes – again, primarily from conservation groups, including some that spoke more about the opposition to the draft management plan and the number of wolves it would allow to be killed.

Derek Goldman, with the Endangered Species Coalition, told the commission he remained confused about why the rule was even being changed, since the new Montana Gray Wolf Conservation and Management Plan will be titled the same as the old one that is currently in ARM.

“It raises the question whether or not the wolf plan is intended to guide wolf management in the state or not if it’s not referenced in ARM,” Goldman said.

There was little discussion by the committee on the final vote on the amendment, which passed in a unanimous voice vote.

The commission made more changes to the grizzly bear administrative rules after a public comment session in November in which the proposal was heavily criticized over allowances for ranchers to kill bears on public lands and for not accounting for the fact that even if grizzlies are delisted in the two ecosystems, they would still be a threatened species in other parts of Montana.

The commission in the past few weeks added language clarifying that one or more non-lethal and preventative measures must be demonstrated by a landowner before they can kill a grizzly bear on public land.

“The Department understands that there are scenarios in which lethal grizzly bear-livestock conflict mitigation must take place, even if on public lands,” the commission wrote in the meeting notice in response to public comments about that portion of the rule. “Bear management specialists or other Department personnel may assist if requested and may be involved in any aftermath if the attempted take was not successful. Especially if human safety is a concern.”

Commissioners also added language clarifying the rules apply to “delisted” grizzly bears, more clarification of what bears apply to the quota, and language saying that FWP would have to wait “at least” five years after delisting before opening a hunting season.

Karli Johnson, the Montana Farm Bureau Federation’s state governmental affairs manager, said the organization supported the final rules, saying it felt they are a “reasonable compromise” between maintaining a healthy grizzly population and ranching interests.

But most of the others who spoke about the rules Thursday were still opposed.

Jeff Lukas, with the Montana Wildlife Federation, said the federation was disappointed with the final product, which he said ignored opposition to sport hunting management of grizzlies. Other speakers afterward echoed his comments.

“This ARM will be another serious barrier to ever delisting grizzly bears in Montana because it weakens the adequate mortality regulatory mechanisms that are necessary to delist,” Lukas said. “Giving permits to folks who feel their livestock, or they, are threatened by grizzly bears will result in more dead grizzly bears and solve very few problems.”

As with the wolf rules, the commission also adopted the grizzly bear rules unanimously.

FWP just finished holding six meetings across the state to discuss the wolf management plan, and there is a public comment portal open for the public to comment on the plan through Dec. 19. The draft plan seeks to keep a baseline of 450 wolves in Montana, where there currently are an estimated 1,087 to 1,260 wolves, though some have challenged those estimates as being too high.

The USFWS is also in the final months of a 12-month study period in which the agency is analyzing whether grizzlies should be delisted in the two ecosystems in Montana.

Grizzlies’ Endangered Species Act protections were a critical factor in a federal judge’s decision last month to limit wolf trapping and snaring season in Montana to Jan. 1 to Feb. 15 in areas of the state inhabited by grizzly bears, as he ruled that the traps presented threats to grizzlies out of their dens for the winter. The state is appealing that decision.