Fish and Wildlife Commission adopts wolf trapping regulations for 2024-25 season

The Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission adopted regulations for the upcoming wolf and furbearer trapping seasons on Tuesday that keep court-ordered rules for trapping wolves in place but include a permit process for some trappers and the removal of some setbacks on certain roads in Ravalli County.

The amendments and full slate of regulations received some support and opposition on different facets from both trapping groups and those that want Montana to conserve more wolves.

While no commissioners audibly voted against approving the regulations, Region 3 Commissioner Susan Kirby Brooke did vote against Region 2 Commissioner Jeff Burrows’ amendment to remove setbacks on the Ravalli County roads that are closed to motor vehicle and off-highway vehicle use during the trapping season.

The wolf trapping season will for a second season in a row run from Jan. 1 through Feb. 15 in Regions 1 through 5, and from Dec. 2 through March 15 in Regions 6 and 7, as the commission follows a federal court order handed down to minimize the threat of grizzly bears, which are protected under the Endangered Species Act, from being incidentally caught in traps for wolves or coyotes.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said earlier this year it plans to issue a decision on whether to delist grizzlies in two Montana ecosystems by the end of January, and the Gianforte administration is pushing to try to show the federal government it is ready to take over state management of the species.

The regulations will also require trappers protecting livestock to sign a declaration – a change in wording from the originally proposed “affidavit” that was also adopted at Tuesday’s meeting – affirming they have permission to trap on that land from the owner, which received some initial pushback from landowners who did not want their name to be public record.

FWP clarified ahead of the meeting that the free supplemental trapping permits would be required for nongame species and predators, most particularly coyotes, in part due to the court order. The permit is aimed at collecting better trapping data, commissioners said during the meeting.

Under the regulations, anyone who incidentally traps a grizzly bear in the court-restricted area would trigger additional requirements that would go into effect within 48 hours of Montana, Fish, Wildlife and Parks being notified of the incidental take.

Those include limiting trap jaws to 5 ½ inches and requiring any snares to have a breakaway lock device, be fastened to an immovable object secured to the ground, and to have a top loop not higher than 26 inches off the ground.

Burrows’ amendment on removing setbacks — the distance a trap can be from a road — on certain Ravalli County roads, which was also adopted, was opposed by FWP. It removes setbacks from all county roads closed to motor vehicles and off-highway vehicles during the trapping season, including those that can be used by snowmobilers. The amendment contains some exceptions for Skalkaho Pass, Lost Horse Creek and Nez Perce Pass Road.

Burrows explained that since “judicial action” had shortened the trapping season, he worked with the Bitterroot National Forest and trapping groups to figure out which roads would be ideal to expand trapping opportunities while trying to limit the chances of other recreationists, like snowshoers or cross-country skiers, or their pets getting caught in traps or disturbing trap lines.

“The current trap setback regulations were the result of extensive public process and are in place to reduce conflicts between trapping and non-trapping users,” FWP said in its comments opposing the amendment. “The department believes trap setbacks reduce both incidental capture of non-target species and social conflicts with recreational non-trapping recreational users of public lands.”

Several members of the public who commented on the proposals said the commission was giving handouts to trappers, a small minority in the state, while disregarding the broader public’s safety and use of public land.

“Amendment setbacks are essential, and again, this amendment is a complete disregard for anybody and everybody outside of (the Montana Trappers Association),” said Kim Bean, with Wolf and Wildlife Advocates.

Burrows acknowledged that the amendment was coordinated with trappers to benefit them.

“There were some accusations, I guess that it was benefitting the trappers, and I’ll have to agree with that. And I’ll have    to agree with that; this amendment, there’s no question about it, is beneficial for trappers,” he said. “It should help increase the efficiencies of the trapping and the trap checks, and that’s the rationale behind what I did.”

Several trappers spoke out against the free permit requirement, saying it was an unnecessary addition that infringes on their rights to trap, as well as the changes that would go into effect if a grizzly bear is captured, arguing that doesn’t happen often and will force trappers to make quick changes to their traps or lines. The 48-hour notice, some said, might not even make it to trappers before it goes into effect, leaving them unaware.

“Realistically speaking, if we’re going to be having this document on a trust basis-type situation, why can’t we just talk to our wardens, potentially, and let them know we’re doing that? The whole thing, to me, kind of seems a little confusing,” said Chris Morgan with the Montana Trappers Association.

He and others told the commission they also did not believe FWP had the ability to issue the free coyote permit because the agency does not regulate coyotes, they said.

“Requiring a license and an affidavit for a classified predator species that FWP doesn’t currently manage, for a species they hope to manage, seems a little ridiculous,” said Jeff Darrah, the executive director of Montana Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife.

Chris Servheen, a former grizzly bear recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service who spoke on behalf of the Montana Wildlife Federation, told the commission the regulations read as if no grizzly bears had been incidentally caught in Montana.

He said that FWP has documented 17 cases of grizzlies being incidentally captured in traps, including six in coyote traps. And he said that FWP data showed there were 306 instances of non-target species being captured in various traps or snares during the past five years – at least 143 of which were dogs.

“These records are only a portion of the total number of such grizzly captures in such traps and snares, because the majority of these bears probably leave with the snares on their neck, and they chew the snare and leave with the trap, and there’s nothing to report,” Servheen said.

Many of the people who spoke either in opposition to the full regulations, or only some of the amendments, said they felt like the commission and FWP were prioritizing the voices of the trapping “consumptive” community over many others who would like to see more wolves on public lands or safely use lands where trapping might occur.

“When is the leadership at FWP, including the commission, going to start taking it into account that the non-consumptive community and visitors want to see wolves?” said Marc Cooke, with Wolves of the Rockies.

FWP Director Dustin Temple said he understood that there were discussions with the plaintiffs in the lawsuit that led to the restricted wolf trapping season that if the commission adopted the proposed framework, they would not advance the lawsuit. But he said there was more to it than having to continue going back to court, and made clear that the proposal was not developed in order to be a settlement.

“The department formulated this proposal as a responsible policy move,” Temple said. “Certainly, the lawsuit’s a backdrop to that. But primarily, I think the objective here was, again, to facilitate grizzly bear delisting, return that bear to state management. So, it’s not a settlement, wasn’t a consideration as being a settlement.”

As of Wednesday, 70 wolves have been killed since the start of the hunting season in early September. That number does not include a fifth wolf shot and killed in a unit north of Yellowstone National Park, which was discovered earlier this month despite there being a quota of three wolves in that unit.

Blair Miller is a Helena-based reporter for the Daily Montanan, a nonprofit newsroom.