[MCN] New lawsuit filed to stop unscientific, senseless wolf slaughter in Montana

[Matthew Koehler]

For Release: Thursday, October 27, 2022



*Wildlife advocates sue to stop unscientific, senseless wolf slaughter in
Montana*

*Lawsuit alleges State actors flouted law, relied on outdated, unscientific
data*


*Contacts:*

Lizzy Pennock, WildEarth Guardians, (406) 830-8924,
lpennock at wildearthguardians.com

Michelle Lute, Project Coyote, (406) 848-4910, mlute at projectcoyote.org

*HELENA, MONTANA—*Conservation groups WildEarth Guardians and Project
Coyote, a project of Earth Island Institute, filed a lawsuit
<https://wildearthguardians.org/press-releases/wildlife-advocates-sue-to-stop-unscientific-senseless-wolf-slaughter-in-montana/>
today
in Montana State Court alleging that the state’s extreme anti-wolf hunting
and trapping policies violate the Montana Constitution, Montana
Administrative Procedure Act (MAPA), Public Trust Doctrine, and several
federal laws meant to protect wildlife on federally-managed lands.

The lawsuit claims that the State of Montana, the Montana Department of
Fish, Wildlife, and Parks (MFWP), and the Montana Fish and Wildlife
Commission (the “Commission”), are violating the law by relying on stale
and insufficient scientific data in order to authorize the killing of
roughly 40% of the state’s wolf population this coming winter. Moreover,
the lawsuit alleges that the state is flouting its responsibility to manage
wildlife for the benefit of the entire public and is overstepping its
management authority by allowing wolf slaughter on the boundaries of
federal lands.

Since Montana’s wolves lost their federal protections under the Endangered
Species Act (ESA) in 2011, the state has been managing its wolves and
developing yearly regulations and quotas based on a plan developed in 2002.
Despite the requirement that Montana’s 2002 wolf plan be reviewed every
five years, the state has never updated it or engaged in a formal review,
even with the rapid development of conservation science and carnivore
ecology over the past two decades.

The lawsuit comes in the middle of Montana’s 2022/23 wolf hunting season,
with wolf trapping—a season during which roughly half of all killing
occurs—set to start on November 28. While hundreds of wolves have been
killed in the past decade during hunting and trapping seasons, the state
has drastically ramped up its effort to decimate the wolf population.
Anti-carnivore legislation enacted in 2021 expands hunting seasons and
broadens the brutal methods by which one can kill a wolf. This year, the
Commission approved regulations allowing each license holder to kill up to
20 wolves until 456 wolves are killed statewide through cruel and unethical
methods such as strangulation snares, bait (used to lure wolves out of
Yellowstone and other protected areas), and nighttime hunting on private
lands with spotlights, thermal imaging, and night vision.

“Montana’s politically-motivated wolf slaughter is illegal and completely
unmoored from scientifically sound wildlife management,” said *Lizzy
Pennock, the Montana-based carnivore coexistence advocate at WildEarth
Guardians.* “Trophy hunting for wolves does not put food on anyone’s table,
make elk populations healthier, or protect livestock. Montana’s pile of
wolf carcasses stacks higher every day, and we are done waiting for
somebody else to act.”

Specifically, *today’s lawsuit includes the following five claims*:



   1. a claim that respondents violated the MAPA and state constitution by
   amending the 2002 wolf plan to allow the use of a new wolf population
   model, without following proper rulemaking procedures, including scientific
   review or public participation;
   2. a claim that Montana violated state law by establishing a quota and
   issuing wolf hunting and trapping licenses based on reliance on a stale
   wolf plan;
   3. a claim that Montana has failed to manage the state’s wolves for the
   benefit of the public as a whole in violation of the state’s Public Trust
   Doctrine as enshrined in Montana’s constitution;
   4. a claim that the state’s anti-wolf legislation, regulations, and
   quotas interfere with federal policy in the management and administration
   of multiple national parks in the state, and are thus preempted by the
   federal law (National Park Service Organic Act); and
   5. a claim that the state’s anti-wolf legislation, regulations, and
   quotas interfere with federal policy in the management of public lands by
   the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service, and are thus
   preempted by federal land management statutes.


“While the rest of the world is trying to reverse our current course
causing the mass extinction of life, Montana seems hellbent on flaming the
proverbial fires,” said *Michelle Lute, PhD in wolf conservation and
carnivore conservation director for Project Coyote, an organization that
works to protect native carnivores*. “Science and Indigenous knowledge have
already taught us that we slaughter wolves to our own detriment. Wolves are
apex predators with outsized benefits across our communities. By regulating
prey behavior to prevent overbrowsing, they are ecosystems guardians and
increase the diversity and abundance of myriad species. With this lawsuit,
we seek not only to save wolves but to save ourselves and our
broadly-defined family of life.”

*BACKGROUND: *In 2021, Montana Governor Greg Gianforte signed four bills
designed to reduce the state wolf population. Senate Bill 314, codified at
MCA § 87-1-901, provided that the Commission was to reduce the wolf
population to a “sustainable” level, and authorized the Commission to
permit a variety of aggressive hunting tactics. House Bill 224, codified at
MCA § 87-1-901, requires the Commission to allow the use of snares for
trapping, and House Bill 225, codified at MCA § 87-1-304, gives the
Commission authority to extend the wolf trapping season. Finally, Senate
Bill 267, codified at MCA § 87-6-214(1)(d), allows private parties to offer
bounties in exchange for proof of the hunting or trapping of wolves.

On August 21, 2021, the Commission adopted four regulations implementing
these new laws. These votes followed a public process in which the
Commission received more than 26,000 public comments, most of which opposed
aggressive wolf-hunting tactics. The Commission set wolf quotas in seven
regions, and provided for the Commission to review the regulations if 450
wolves were killed. The regulations also allowed the use of neck snares in
addition to leg snares, the use of bait, nighttime hunting on private lands
with spotlights, and a “bag limit” of 20 wolves for each individual via
hunting and trapping. The Commission adopted similar regulations on August
25, 2022, allowing up to 456 wolves to be killed.

On February 10, 2022, WildEarth Guardians and allies won a lawsuit
<https://wildearthguardians.org/press-releases/judge-restores-gray-wolf-protections-reviving-federal-recovery-efforts/>
that
restored federal Endangered Species Act protections for the gray wolf after
they were eliminated by the Trump administration in 2020. The ruling
ordered the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to resume recovery efforts for
gray wolves, redesignating the gray wolf as a species threatened with
extinction in the lower 48 states with the exception of the Northern
Rockies population, for which ESA protections were removed in 2011 via a
Congressional budget rider orchestrated by Senator Jon Tester (D-MT).



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