With more than 4,000 comments collected during Montana’s 60-day wolf management scoping effort, the first phase of Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks’ year-long process to develop and adopt a wolf management plan closed Tuesday, April 30.
FWP Director Jeff Hagener said today that the high public interest, and the breadth of participation, will ultimately result in a ground-breaking wildlife management plan. "We’re well on the road to having a flexible, science-based wolf management plan for Montana–one that meets the needs of wolves and people," Hagener said. “We have the momentum to keep progressing toward a final plan and we’ve established excellent working relationships with Wyoming and Idaho whose wolf management plans are also progressing in anticipation of the recovery and federal delisting of the region’s gray wolf population."
FWP is required to allow at least 30 days for EIS scoping under the Montana Environmental Policy Act. The agency, however, designed a 60-day process to ensure wider opportunities and more time to comment. FWP conducted community work sessions in 12 Montana towns in March and April, provided opportunities to comment on-line, in addition to taking comment via Fax and regular mail correspondence.
More than 800 people participated in FWP’s community works sessions and the agency received more than 4,000 comments since the scoping period began on Feb. 25. Comments, which officials are still recording, have come in from nearly every Montana county; 49 states, including the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico; and eight foreign countries, including Australia, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Israel, Mexico and the United Kingdom.
"The comments reflect the willingness of Montanans from across the political spectrum to share their concerns and participate in the development of the wolf program," said Carolyn Sime, FWP’s wolf planning coordinator.
FWP’s effort to prepare an environmental impact statement on wolf management in Montana was launched in January with the release of the "Montana Wolf Conservation and Management Planning Document." The planning document is based on recommendations made by Montana’s Wolf Management Advisory Council, a governor-appointed group of livestock producers, hunters, educators, conservationists and other citizens.
In February, FWP began to accept comments on a state-run wolf-management program for the required environmental impact statement. FWP also asked the public to identify the concerns and issues that need to be addressed in a state program.
Later this year, a draft EIS will be released for public comment and a second round of public meetings will be scheduled. A final EIS and management plan is expected to be approved by year’s end and would go into effect when the wolf is delisted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Before wolves can be delisted, Montana, Idaho and Wyoming are required to have adequate regulations in place to prevent wolves from becoming threatened or endangered again.
Idaho’s Legislature recently approved a wolf management plan. In Wyoming, wildlife officials announced in April that the state would launch its wolf management planning effort. Also in April, Montana Governor Judy Martz, Idaho’s Gov. Dirk Kempthorne, and Wyoming’s Gov. Jim Geringer reaffirmed their commitment to regional management of wolves by updating agreements that ensure the three states will take a coordinated, regional approach to wolf management. The governors’ agreement is key to delisting the species under the federal ESA.
An estimated 570 wolves in 35 or more breeding wolf packs inhabit the Montana, Idaho and Wyoming recovery areas, with 18 wolf packs and about 100 wolves in Montana. Federal wolf managers conclude that a total of 30 breeding pair, equitably distributed in the tri-state recovery area for three years, will trigger USFWS’s proposal to delist the wolf, a process that could begin in 2003.
The gray wolf is listed as "endangered" in northwestern Montana under the federal Endangered Species Act . Wolves in southwestern Montana, northwestern Wyoming and central Idaho are classified as "experimental, nonessential" populations.
For more information, visit FWP’s Wolf Management link at: http://www.fwp.state.mt.us/.
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