Comment sought on MT wolf hunting, trapping proposals

Posted: May 11, 2013 by KPAX/KAJ Media Center

 

 

HELENA - State wildlife officials are looking for the public to weigh in with public comment on proposed changes for the 2013-14 wolf hunting and trapping seasons.

The Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission is considering archery only hunting to run from Sept. 7 through Sept. 14, with the general hunting season to follow and run 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.

Hunting and trapping of wolves is provided for in Montana's wolf conservation and management plan and over the course of Montana's 2012-13 wolf seasons, hunters harvested 128 wolves and trappers took 97 wolves.

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

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.

Also proposed for the 2013-14 seasons is a regulation that would allow 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.

The complete wolf hunting and trapping season proposals, and opportunities to comment and submit public comments, are available on the FWP website.

Comments are due by June 24 at 5 p.m. Comments can be mailed to FWP - Wildlife Bureau, Attn: Public Comment; P.O. Box 200701; Helena, MT 59620-0701.

Wildlife officials estimate that at least 625 wolves, in 147 verified packs, and 37 breeding pairs inhabited the state at the end of 2012.

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