Judge sides with FWP in elk management lawsuit
A herd of elk feed outside Libby in November 2023. (Scott Shindledecker/The Western News)
A state district court judge on Monday sided with Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks and a coalition of hunting groups in key aspects of a lawsuit where property owners had sought to compel the state to aggressively reduce elk populations.
In a trio of rulings, Judge Gregory Todd found that the arguments made by the state and hunting groups that joined the lawsuit were more compelling than those brought by the plaintiff, United Property Owners of Montana. UPOM, a membership-based nonprofit that exists to promote its members’ business interests, has argued high elk populations create undue hardship for landowners.
The orders have narrowed the scope of the lawsuit UPOM filed in 2022 to compel the state to “remove, harvest, or eliminate thousands of elk” to bring population counts into alignment with established targets.
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