Judge allows hearing on wolf hunts

U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy has granted a request for a hearing to consider a preliminary injunction that would halt pending wolf hunts in Montana and Idaho. The three-hour hearing is scheduled for Aug. 31 at 9 a.m. in the U.S. District Court in Missoula.

Wolf permits went on sale Monday in Idaho, which has set a quota for hunters to kill 220 wolves in a fall season that starts Sept. 1. Idaho permit outlets are reporting brisk wolf tag sales.

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks plans to start selling permits on Aug. 31, with a statewide quota of 75 wolves during a season that starts Sept. 15. Montana wolf hunting would be divided into three districts.

• One district, covering the northern tier of the state, including Northwest Montana, has a quota of 41 wolves, with a subquota of two wolves in the North Fork of the Flathead River.

• In the second district, a patch of southwestern Montana from Missoula south through the Bitterroot and Upper Big Hole valleys, the wolf harvest quota is 22.

• In the third wolf-hunting district, which extends across southern Montana east of Dillon, the wolf quota is 12.

The wolf-hunting season will run from Sept. 15 to Nov. 29 in early backcountry deer and elk hunting districts and from Oct. 25 to Nov. 29 statewide. If certain quotas aren't met, the wolf-hunting season could be extended until Dec. 31 in some areas.

Last year, Molloy issued an injunction that stopped similar hunts approved by both states, and he later ordered the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to review a decision to remove wolves from protection under the Endangered Species Act.

The Fish and Wildlife Service did just that, and the Obama administration delisted wolves in Montana and Idaho earlier this year. But this year's delisting excluded Wyoming, a difference that likely will figure prominently in the arguments of a dozen environmental and animal rights organizations that are seeking another injunction.