Something needs to give, when it comes to wolves and the state of Montana's ability to manage them.

Howling over wolf management

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks officials got an earful last week from ranchers who are frustrated with the state's performance in managing wolves in the greater Yellowstone area. The problem, it appears, is that the state agency has been given some management authority by the feds, but it is still largely restrained in its ability to respond to wolf-livestock conflicts.

The ranchers and big-game advocates who met with the Montana Environmental Quality Council in Ennis recently complained that the state simply is taking too long to respond to problem wolves.

"It like a guy's robbing a bank and you have to get an arrest warrant," said Sen. Jim Shockley, R-Victor, who sits on the council.

That's not how it was supposed to be. The wolf management plan that was adopted by Fish, Wildlife and Parks was pitched to the public as a path toward more responsive and flexible wolf management.

From one part of the state to another, from one pack to the next, the state was supposed to be far more responsive than the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has been with its limited team of wolf managers based in Helena. The state was supposed to have the ability to manage packs that have excessive impacts on big-game populations. Livestock owners, in fact, were supposed to have the ability themselves to respond to problem wolves.

So how can it be that some of the critics in Ennis were pining for the old days when the Fish and Wildlife Service responded to conflicts?

To be fair, we still believe that Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks is far better suited to manage wolves. They have wardens and biologists who know their local habitats. They also know their communities, and the hunters and ranchers who are most concerned about wolves. And now the state has wolf management specialists, including one here in Northwest Montana, who know the wolf packs that roam in their areas.

The problem is that Montana is still joined at the hip with Idaho and Wyoming in the process for removing wolves from protection under the Endangered Species Act. Wyoming has failed to come up with a wolf management plan that's acceptable to the federal government, so the state of Montana cannot fully implement its own management plan either.

This has gone on way too long. Some of the folks in Ennis want the Legislature to take legal action to compel the federal government to de-list wolves in Montana. They may be right. Waiting around for Wyoming just isn't going to work anymore.