Can We Trust How Wolves Are Being Managed In Montana Or Other States?

If we back up through a regression of what is controlling wolf management, if nothing else we have to scratch our heads. The fate of the gray wolf in the Northern Rocky Mountains as well as the Western Great Lakes region lies in the hands of two judges. One judge in Montana (Donald Molloy) says Wyoming’s wolf management plan isn’t good enough to sustain a wolf population. The same judge says we must continue to protect the wolf because he thinks until sub populations of wolves interbreed there is little hope the wolf will survive.

The judge in Washington, D.C. (Paul Friedman) who ruled to place the wolf in the Great Lakes region back under federal protection says the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service can’t create Distinct Population Segments because there is no definition of what that is.

So the courts have the final say, albeit all too often based on puzzling reasons. Getting to that point becomes interesting to say the least. How do we know what we are reading and hearing about wolves and the management of them is true? Well, we don’t really. I, like a lot of other people, assume a lot but with some effort, that guessing can be reduced considerably……that is if you are open to the truth and gathering facts.

Is what we hear from state fish and game departments something we can believe in? Shouldn’t we be able to? If Montana says there are “X” number of deer, elk, etc. living within the borders of the state, shouldn’t we be trustful enough to believe that data to be true? Isn’t that what our license fees pay them to do?

And what about wolves. If the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, along with the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks says there are “X” number of wolves, shouldn’t we also have faith in that number? After all, it would be utterly ridiculous to think a federal judge would make a ruling that affected so many people based on incorrect data……..wouldn’t it?

Not everyone does have that blind faith and that’s a good thing. There is danger in quiet submission, following along blindly to what those who are in authority tell us. This certainly is not what made America great and has resulted in the destruction of many societies that have come before us.

It’s also great to hear questioning of authority from someone else of authority, someone with background and experience, someone who’s been there.

I recently was the recipient of an email that contained an open letter from Allen Schallenberger to Jeff Hagener, Director of the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Department. Allen Schallenberger is a wildlife consultant in Sheridan, MT, and former (retired) wildlife biologist for the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Department, among a myriad of other interests. If you would like to learn a bit more about Mr. Schallenberger and read more of some of his writings, Mike at Western Institute for Study of the Environment, has a bit more.

Schallenberger’s open letter to Jeff Hagener addresses what he believes are serious problems with wolf management in Montana. With permission from the author, here is that letter.

Jeff Hagener, Director

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Dept.

P.O. Box 200701, 1420 East 6th Ave.

Helena, MT 59620-0701

Dear Jeff:

We have large problems in the wolf management program here in Montana. Speaking for some of the organizations copied below, we believe we have a wolf diva rather than a Montana public servant running that program.

The legislature passed requirements for the Dept. to monitor wolf packs and report their locations. That is being done very poorly. To go to wolf monitoring on your website you must click on wild things, threatened and endangered species, gray wolf, wolf conservation and management, wolves in Montana and the Northern Rockies and then finally the buried wolf monitoring. You will find that flight reports are mixed from 2007 and 2008 in a haphazard manner. That makes it very difficult to find the current flight data. No information is usually given on who made the flight, observer and pilot, flight and weather conditions, elevations used to search for animals in the mountains and other useful records such as areas not covered well or not at all. Instead the catch-all phrase “radio not heard” is used which covers a multitude of aerial coverage errors by the Dept. Animal locations are often to general to have any meaning and there is no effort to accurately identify drainages with the same names.

Your supposedly weekly wolf report often comes out bimonthly or monthly and is not timely. Inaccurate information and current and past history is put out for public education and often not corrected. Let’s take the Freezeout pack for example. That pack over the years has killed hundreds of domestic livestock and big game animals and appears to be responsible for the elk leaving the Blacktail and Robb-Ledford Wildlife Management Areas in winters since at least 2003. This spring it was decided to eliminate that pack after it killed many domestic sheep. At the time it consisted of about two or three adults and seven pups after three adults were removed this spring. The wolf diva put out a news release saying that the pups would have to be killed before the adults. To this date we have not had an accurate report of what happened to that pack and if all the members have been killed.

You report all the livestock verified killed and there may be eight to 10 times that amount based on detailed studies. You and the wolf diva present very little information on the big game animals killed by wolves, the effects on our game herds and where we are headed in the future. Also you have not told the public how elk herds and their distribution are affected by wolf harassment and predation. You have not provided an accurate assessment of how this is affecting hunters, ranchers, businesses, private and public land use. You have not come up with information on how closely wolves are tied to brucellosis and other disease problems. Recently a news release by the Dept. quoted a warden saying we should be outraged by the one moose shot and killed and left on the ground near Boulder. We are outraged that Dept. employees are not more concerned about the thousands of big game animals and livestock killed by wolves and the other problems wolves cause.

After reading the wolf reports it appears that many young women without much experience or appreciation for our big game ungulates are being hired by your Dept to work with wolves. Some appear to excel in taking pictures of fuzzy pups and showing them to school kids. FWP is pumping the press and public full of false propaganda not backed by wildlife science or wolf history. You could learn much from Alaska, Canada, Russia, Idaho and Wyoming wolf managers about wolf impacts. Quit saying wolves can kill and eat all the big game animals they want. Those animals are the property of the people of Montana who entrusted you with active, scientific wildlife management. Provide us soon, accurate information on numbers of each game animal species killed by wolves and the herds adversely affected by wolf kills and harassment.

Please respond soon on how you are going to improve the wolf management program. If that does not occur, our legislature should provide you detailed guidance.

Sincerely,

Allen Schallenberger

Experienced wildlife biologist and concerned sportsman

c. Gov. Brian Schweitzer, FWP Commission, Rep. Diane Rice, Rep. elect Robert Wagner, Senator elect Debbie Barrett, Senator Joe Balyeat, Montana Shooting Sports Association, Friends of Northern Yellowstone Elk, Inc., Montana Bowhunters Association, Montana Outfitters and Guides Association, Beaverhead Outdoors, Skyline Sportsmen, Anaconda Sportsmen, Tobacco Root Archers, Foundation for North American Wild Sheep, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Montana Wool Growers, Montana Stockgrowers Association Western Ag Reporter, Billings Gazette, Bozeman Daily Chronicle, The Montana Standard, Missoulian, Daily Interlake, The Great Falls Tribune, Helena Independent Record, numerous ranchers and sportsmen.

Tom Remington