OPINION: FWP 'listening' session did not 'hear' me

I attend most of Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks’ public meetings and did so again for the “listening” session that was held in Kalispell on Aug. 12. This was a traveling show that went around the state designed to delude the general public that Fish, Wildlife and Parks is giving credence to the citizenry’s opinions on the job they are doing. It was a self-serving public relations exercise.

Jim Williams, FWP Supervisor of Region 1, was the sponsor and moderator for this one in Kalispell. (Disclosure: Jim and I have locked horns over his treatment of wildlife for years.) He is a likable, charismatic, silver-tongued devil who has that gift of gab and can sweet-talk anyone into anything. It has resulted in his political, meteoritic rise to his current position of power.

In this particular session, as would be expected, the hunters outnumbered the sole environmentalist 40 to 1. Besides me, there was an enviro-pretender who prefers that everyone love him and he never joins me in fighting hard for wildlife, so he doesn’t count. The hunters support FWP through the collection of hunting license fees and so are the ones “listened” to. Money talks and controls the “politics” of wildlife management.

In this case, “management” of animals is a euphemism for “killing” animals. On Williams’ hit list, famously, are mountain lions, deer, elk, wolverines, lake trout, and soon to be grizzly bears, which he is already planning for once they are removed from the Endangered Species List by Chris Servheen of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The session involved some hi-tech clickers that were used to respond electronically to a multiple question survey appearing on an overhead screen. Its intent was to establish the survey must be valid; however, as I testified to the audience, my college professor of mathematical probability and statistics would have turned over in his grave at the invalidity of the testing and scoring system, since the audience was skewed and it dictated the results.

My own public comments offered were that: (1) Environmentalists are not allowed to be members of FWP’s long-standing Citizen Advisory Committee since it is dominated by hunters, trappers, ranchers, guides, anglers, etc., decreed by FWP; (2) the mission statement of FWP is that they protect people from wildlife, rather than protecting wildlife from people; and (3) by following the money (licensing fees) it is obvious that politics trumps science at FWP.

It is a tiring, constant effort to fight Fish, Wildlife and Parks in order to save wildlife, and to also ensure their survival by fighting with Joe Krueger’s management planning at the U.S. Forest Service in order to protect their habitat and, hopefully, increase it by converting some national forest to more designated wilderness areas, which increases wildlife protection from destructive logging and intrusive, noisy, recreational vehicle access.

I lament the fact that the turnout of people defending wildlife was so sparse and that environmentalists have hopelessly given up trying to persuade FWP that animals have the primary right of survival in Montana.

Since Fish, Wildlife and Parks has no one on staff dedicated to and focused on specifically fighting only for the animals, and since they will never “hear” us who call ourselves real environmentalists, and it is unlikely we can ever change their psychological culture nor replace the management team at FWP, then litigation is the only recourse we have to save wildlife.

Baum is a resident of Badrock Canyon.