Montana lawmakers want feds to pay for wolf management




By CURT WOODWARD


Associated Press Writer




HELENA, Mont. (AP) - Four Republican lawmakers want substantial financial guarantees from the federal government before the state assumes management of transplanted Canadian wolves.




In a letter to Gov. Judy Martz, the lawmakers said the money would be used, among other things, to offset what they fear will be imminent losses of wildlife, specifically elk, to the growing wolf population.




But a federal wildlife manager and environmentalists called the demand troubling, saying it was out of touch with the science on the issue.




"It is a politicizing, and it's a return to the dark ages, really, in basic principles of wildlife management and wildlife science," said Tom France, the Northern Rockies director for the National Wildlife Federation.




In their letter, Reps. Dan Fuchs and Joe Balyeat, and Sens. Mike Sprague and Jack Wells outlined their concerns with the wolves and the process of removing them from the federal endangered species list.




As the wolf populations expand in the central Idaho wilderness and the Yellowstone National Park area, federal and state officials in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming have begun the process of removing them from federal protection and turning management over to the states. Before that can happen, each state must have an approved management plan. Idaho adopted its plan last winter.




The Montana lawmakers want the federal government to pay for 80 percent of the state management cost and a per-animal reimbursement for game animals wolves kill.




Fuchs says one late-season elk hunt may have been scaled back because of wolf depredation.




Ed Bangs, the wolf recovery leader for the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service, conceded that wolves have an impact. But Bangs said the image of packs of hungry wolves exploding across the state is unfounded.




"In northwestern Montana, we really haven't had any wolf population increase in six years," Bangs said. "The idea that wolves are spilling all over the planet - that's not true."




France said there are areas where the wolf population should be controlled, "but I don't think we're at that place yet. To suggest that wolves are having a significant impact on elk is ignoring the data."