It's the wolf, stupid! Don't blame nameless predators

“More deer, elk might be available to hunters,” the headline said.

Might be? Before we get all gushy about hypotheticals in regard to deer and elk populations that would give Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks plausible deniability, can anyone think of a word that starts with “w” that determines why more deer and elk aren’t available in the first place?

MFWP, can you tell me, what is the intrinsic value of wild deer and elk populations in Montana? If it could be quantified, could you even put a price on it? What is it worth for Montana families to have a chance to put a natural supply of meat in the freezer every year? For hunting families like mine who are just barely scraping by in this economy, that value is priceless.

When a teen hunter successfully kills that first deer, what is it worth to the future of hunting? What is the economic impact of millions of dollars spent annually by hunters in Montana and the total value of recreational days hunters spend in the field? These are real questions that need real answers for those of us who are looking in the rear-view mirror and starting to believe that the good old days of hunting in Montana may be behind us forever. 

What would be the economic impact on Whitefish if Big Mountain Ski Resort had no skiable snow this year, next year and the year after that? But hunters don’t hunt on just one mountain, or even in just one state. Ask the cashier at any sporting goods store or motel owners across Montana if the economic value of hunters makes a difference to them. Then ask the waitress at the local grill who depends on extra tips from hunters to help pay for Christmas presents. Let’s ask the convenience store owner in Gardiner, Mont., who no longer hangs a big orange “welcome hunters” sign in the window what an expanding elk herd used to be worth to the Yellowstone economy. Then, ask yourself if the future of hunting is something you are willing to fight for. Even if you are a non-hunting business owner — as hunting goes, so goes your slice of the pie. 

The Oct. 16 article, “More deer, elk might be available…” [based on Fish, Wildlife and Park projections] is laughable! Isn’t saying “more deer and elk might be available” the same as saying they might not be available? Hunters understand quite well why more elk and deer “might” NOT be available; an expanding population of federally protected wolves is going to eat all those available calves and fawns this winter!

Wildlife manager Jim Williams, you use the word predation so carefully. What a nice conveniently couched politically correct neutral term to describe the useless slaughter of a valuable resource which hunters pay for with their taxes! Mr. Williams, we’ve always had cats, bear and coyotes; it’s the wolf, stupid! Why can’t you just come out and say, Wolf? Mr. Williams, don’t patronize us, and don’t tell hunters how and what we should think about disappearing elk and deer.

Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks — by your own admission, you failed to factor in wolf predation and far overshot sustainable quotas for whitetail B tags year after year. You have also have bitten the hand that feeds you. When you do nothing but capitulate to the federal wolf agenda, it’s time to stop buying your expensive hunting licenses. Thanks to your failed policies, we now have a buck-only deer season that could very well devastate Montana’s trophy quality deer hunting.

Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks likes to tell us over and over again that deer numbers are down because of a “bad winter” a few years ago. (Excuse me… I just had to laugh.) No, 1996-97 was a bad winter, but we didn’t have the wolf numbers back then like we do now. If we see another winter like that, the wolves will go through what is left of the deer population in winter yards like a chainsaw through cheese.  Mark my words, when that happens, your .30-06 will be a dust collector in the linen closet because we will see a lottery system only implemented for a very small token amount of deer A tags.

Got moose? Seeing a moose in Northwest Montana used to be a fairly common event, but now it’s about as rare as cheap campaign rhetoric about hope and change in America. Will it take having moose listed as a federally endangered species before something is done to control wolf populations? I think it will take a lot more, because wolf recovery in the Northern Rockies really isn’t about wolf recovery anymore than government mandated health care is about health or care; it’s about federal control vs. state sovereignty. There are other threatened and endangered species in the lower 48, like the woodland caribou, but we don’t hear the feds talking about caribou reintroduction and recovery in Idaho and Montana, do we? 

In 1937, a coalition of concerned sportsmen came together to pass the Pittman-Robertson Act, which provided for big game recovery by placing a tax on hunting equipment. Can anyone even imagine our government helping to do anything remotely similar to support the shooting sports and promote big-game populations today? Other than the TARP bankster bailout, the federal wolf recovery program is the greatest theft of the century, stealing billions from every hunter in America who has ever contributed to big-game recovery under Pittman-Robertson over the last 73 years.

There may not be wolves in Pennsylvania yet, but Pennsylvanians aren’t going to shell out big bucks to hunt fewer and smaller bucks in Montana when they can spend less and have a quality hunt in neighboring Ohio.

When a single federal judge has the power to hamstring hunters in wolf-infested Western states, it is an act of tyranny so egregious, that it is tantamount to a declaration of war against our way of life in Montana. Montana needs to follow Idaho’s lead and stop subsidizing federal wolf policy with Montana dollars. Is anyone naive enough to think that federal wolf repopulation will stop at the borders of Montana, Wyoming and Idaho? Hell, these extremists won’t be satisfied unless they have wolf recovery in back yards all across America!

Yes, the wolf has a right to exist, but not in uncontrolled numbers that threaten the value and importance of the hunting traditions that make our quality of life in Montana worth fighting for. Make no mistake, Washington, Colorado, the Dakotas, and all the other states that have huntable surplus populations of deer… you are next in the crosshairs. When the wolf suddenly makes a magical reintroduction and recovery in your state at the expense of deer and elk herds… remember, you saw it here first. 

What else can we do? How much more can we take? Obviously, our representatives don’t represent us. Once they get reelected, they cynically throw us to the wolves like they always do. That’s why our republic is in systemic decline. Our representatives in sheep’s clothing love to talk in great glowing terms about the virtues of democracy, yet they consistently refute the will of the people and the “democratic” ideals they so arrogantly claim to stand for. 

In times of crisis, and make no mistake this is a crisis, humans will fight or take flight. But where can we run? Brothers and sisters, we are the tip of the spear and it’s time to fight. The illegal introduction of wolves in Montana was a 9/11 event for hunters everywhere in America. It’s time for hunters across America to come together and form a coalition to sue the federal government in a class-action lawsuit. It’s also high time to sue MFWP for, at least, gross incompetence and dereliction of duty.

Under the federal wolf recovery program, ranchers receive compensation, albeit a pittance, for livestock killed by wolves. This is a de facto admission of guilt by the federal government that their wolf policies are causing real economic damage to real people. This sets a powerful precedent to bring charges against the feds by hunters, outfitters, the service industry and anyone else who has been economically damaged by these same policies. 

Remember, there are a lot more of us than there are of them, but divided we fall. It’s time to come together and take our lives back from the jaws of the equal opportunity destroyer… before it truly is too late.

Robert Seymour is a resident of Kalispell.