FWP seeks comments on wolf regs

The Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission is seeking public comment on changes for the 2013-2014 wolf hunting and trapping seasons.

For the upcoming seasons, archery only hunting would run from Sept. 7 through Sept. 14. The general hunting season would run from Sept. 15 through March 31, 2014. The trapping season would run Dec. 15 through Feb. 28, 2014, and those new to wolf trapping would have to complete an education course to participate.

The overall bag limit for the upcoming seasons would be five wolves per person in any combination of wolves taken by hunting or trapping.

Also proposed for the 2013-14 seasons is a regulation allowing hunters to take a wolf over bait placed for trapping and a requirement that trappers in most of Montana would be required to set pan tensions to 10 pounds to minimize the unintentional trapping of lynx, wolverines and other nontargeted species.

Over the course of Montana’s 2012-2013 wolf seasons, hunters harvested 128 wolves and trappers took 97 wolves. In Montana, officials estimate that at least 625 wolves, in 147 verified packs, and 37 breeding pairs inhabited the state at the end of 2012.

Wolf quotas would be maintained in areas near national parks, with a quota of seven wolves in an expanded Wolf Management Unit 316 near Yellowstone National Park and a quota of two wolves in WMU 110 near Glacier National Park.

For more information, visit online at http://fwp.mt.gov and click “Hunting.” Comments can be mailed to FWP Wildlife Bureau, Attn: Public Comment, P.O. Box 200701, Helena MT 59620-0701. Deadline is June 24.