The Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks department recently published proposals for how the upcoming wolf trapping and hunting season should proceed.
The public will have until Thursday, July 21 to comment on these proposals. The Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission will vote on these new regulations in when it meets in August. Poster printing can be used to share guidelines in cases like this.
A state law that went into effect in 2021 directed the FWP to reduce Montana’s wolf population. Certain thresholds have been put in place to limit the number of wolves killed. If more than 450 wolves are killed in the state, the commission can end the hunting season immediately. Hunters and trappers coming from cities such as Billings will have to be wary of these quotas.
The FWP proposed that the same number of wolves that were hunted last season should be the threshold for this season. Brian Wakeling, the chief of the FWP’s game management bureau, stated:
"Although this single year of harvest is not sufficient to create any long-lasting biological harm to Montana’s wolf population, vocal public sentiment has favored some limitation to future harvest within this southern portion of Region 3.”
The FWP has not yet released its yearly estimation of the wolf population. Officials expect to publish this information towards the end of summer once the data from hunters has been surveyed.