Wolf plan doesn't have to be a challenge

We continue to hear how difficult it is to manage wolves in the wild, due to depredation on livestock and the decline of elk populations in the state of Montana. We also hear that wolves are waiting at bus stops to drag our children off into the forests, all of which is nothing more than propaganda to serve a very clear purpose.

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks director Jeff Hagener claims FWP utilizes the state’s science-based plan to manage wolves. The only science that is being used is the minimum number of wolves that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service claims for viability on the landscape. Other than that — I ask you, Mr. Hagener, where is the science?

There are approximately 2.8 million cattle on the landscape in the state of Montana. In 2012, sixty-seven were killed by wolves — many more wolves were killed and the cattle were compensated for, all the while depredation continues to decline.

As a whole, wolves are a non-issue when it comes to livestock mortality — the majority of livestock die due to disease and weather conditions, yet wolves continue to be the scapegoat for special interest.

Elk populations are up in the state of Montana. According to FWP research, elk numbers are 55 percent over objective. In areas where numbers are below objective (utilizing FWP science), it is due to over-hunting and encroachment by humans — wolves, again, are a non-issue but will continue to be persecuted for irresponsible management of the human component.

Mr. Hagener claims that FWP is trying to balance the wildlife on the landscape — yet it appears that FWP is not content with 55 percent over objective elk numbers, and wolves, lions and bears continue to pay the price for over-hunting. Filling the lands with excessive ungulate populations and extreme hunting of predators does not constitute a balanced ecosystem.

Mr. Hagener recognizes the importance of Yellowstone National Park wolves and states that FWP placed quotas around the park for this reason. Mr. Hagener and the upper management of FWP were made well aware of the sensitivity of the YNP wolf population and were asked by YNP, numerous businesses and advocates around the world to help protect that ecosystem and the $35.5-plus million revenue by closing a small area or placing a very low hunting quota in the Gardiner Basin — all data and requests were ignored.

There are no known wolf packs that reside in the Gardiner Basin area. Wolves from YNP wander out of the park during the hunting season for an easy “gut-pile” meal left by hunters. With the ability to use electronic call boxes, gut piles and the numerous other means of killing — it is a crap shoot and make no mistake, this is targeting the renaissance of YNP wolves.

With FWP losing federal funding for wolves in 2015, it is time that they embrace the non-consumptive land user for the much needed revenue. They cannot continue to snub the non-consumptive Montanan and continue to stroke biased hunting organizations such as Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and Big Game Forever that prefer elk farming over healthy and balanced eco-systems.

It is the constant disregard from FWP that places everyone at odds with their management plan. It is the want of many biased and stacked legislators to remove predators from our public lands by placing numerous over-the-top tools in the hunter tool box. It is a hate campaign by special interest groups that continue to divide the non-consumptive land users and the moral, fair chase hunters from coming together for the betterment of our public lands and wildlife.  

Show us the science Mr. Hagener, on paper as I have asked for numerous times and, no, “we count them” will not suffice. Where is the science in collecting wolf numbers on the Montana landscape? Interviewing ranchers, landowners and 8,000 hunters is not a scientific means of collecting viable data — it is nothing more than the opinions of a select group of FWP constituents.

It’s time to be honest — is elk and cattle farming what you see as the continued future for Montana, causing unhealthy, overgrazed public lands for the benefit of a few special interest groups?

Kim Bean is the vice president of Wolves of the Rockies.