Group doesn't want wolf trapping near Yellowstone

The Associated Press

Published: Saturday, Jul. 28, 2012

BOZEMAN, Mont. -- A conservation group wants a trap-free buffer in Montana to protect wolves roaming outside Yellowstone National Park.

The Greater Yellowstone Coalition says the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission shouldn't allow wolf trapping in three management units that cover southern Montana from the Absaroka Mountains to the Madison Range.

Montana wildlife commissioners earlier this month approved new wolf hunting rules that allow trapping and the killing of up to three wolves by one trapper to reduce the state wolf population by 60 percent.

Commission Chairman Bob Ream tells the Bozeman Daily Chronicle (http://bit.ly/P0sO2i) the agency considered the group's comments and is why it set a wolf quota for one of the management units.

Greater Yellowstone Coalition spokesman Chris Colligan says trapping could decimate the greater Yellowstone wolf population.

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