Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission Passes Measures that Signal Progress for Yellowstone Wolves
When I was 13 years old, my parents took me to Yellowstone National Park to watch wolves in the Lamar Valley. I was lucky to have such an opportunity – the experience has since proven to be formative. There is something about the story of the successful reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone National Park that conjures a sense of hope, pride, and optimism for the future. For me it is a story of repair and revival – an example of many courageous people who were willing to come together to correct past wrongs. The restoration of wolves in the Northern Rockies has no doubt been riddled with controversy and conflict, but it is also a conservation story that has been celebrated around the world. Yellowstone’s wolves are iconic, and people of all walks travel to our region to see these inspiring animals in the wild.
Last Friday, the Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission (Commission) voted for incremental, yet critically important changes to state policies aimed at improving conditions for Yellowstone wolves and the people that depend on them. These changes will reduce the risk that entire Yellowstone packs can be killed just across the park boundary and ban the use of motion tracking devices (e.g., telemetry) as hunting practices that could provide an unfair advantage to wolf hunters.
A wolf at Biscuit Basin in Yellowstone National Park. (Photo NPS/Jim Peaco)
Recent Changes to Management Practices on the Border of Yellowstone National Park
Since wolves in Montana were delisted from the Endangered Species Act in 2011, hunting and trapping quotas have been in place for the lands immediately north of Yellowstone. These low quotas were intended to protect the Yellowstone wolves that frequently venture across the park boundary to the north. Once across the park boundary, the laws and regulations of the state govern how citizens can interact with the animals. In other words, once Yellowstone wolves step across the park boundary, they are subject to wolf hunting and trapping during a large portion of the year.
Prior to the 2021-2022 Montana wolf hunting and trapping season, quotas ranged from two to four wolves in Wolf Management Units (WMUs) 313 and 316 – which border the park to the north – and limited wolf mortality on the park boundary. Despite the success of this approach, in 2021 the Commission eliminated wolf hunting and trapping quotas from the units just north of Yellowstone. This resulted in 21 wolves being taken from the units in the subsequent hunting season, 19 of which were confirmed to be wolves that spent nearly all their time within Yellowstone National Park.
The Greater Yellowstone Coalition and many others advocated for a reinstatement of the low quotas that historically characterized the area, to protect the tremendous economic, ecological, and scientific value of Yellowstone’s iconic wolves. A collective effort by many wildlife tourism-reliant businesses, locals, and conservation organizations successfully swayed the Commission to reinstate a quota of six wolves for the area during the 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 wolf hunting and trapping seasons.
While not a perfect remedy, this change represented a solid step in the right direction and good news for Yellowstone wolves. We were appreciative of the Commission for listening to Montanans on the issue, and felt it was a starting point for us to work together on compromises that recognize the key role wolves play on the landscape.
When the quota of six wolves was established, the Commission also voted to combine the former WMUs 313 and 316 into one unit – known as WMU 313 – despite words of caution from wolf biologists. We now have two years of information about the impact of this approach. The 2022 change to create one WMU allowed for wolf hunting just outside the park to disproportionately impact a small number of wolf packs, resulting in pack dissolution. This is because hunting pressure was concentrated in one area of the unit that serves as a natural geographic pinch point for wolves moving across the park boundary.
Wolf hunting and trapping in WMU 313 with a quota of six wolves resulted in the elimination of one pack and one group that was forming a new pack during the 2022-2023 hunting season and the elimination of three packs in the 2023-2024 season. We are concerned about the loss of these social units, particularly since these packs are lost right where their social and economic importance is greatest: at the only entrance to Yellowstone National Park that is open to the public year-round and where most individuals and businesses go to watch wolves.
The Wapiti Lake Wolf Pack near Otter Creek in Yellowstone. (Photo NPS/ A. Falgoust)
Building Moderate Solutions
The Greater Yellowstone Coalition and several partners worked together to build a strong coalition of local organizations, impacted businesses, and conservation interests that proposed a return to two separate WMUs – originally 313 and 316 – and an accompanying split to the quota. The goal of the proposal is to better distribute the risk of wolf mortality across the geography of concern, and in turn protect against elimination of entire Yellowstone packs.
Our coalition drew attention to these realities:
Research shows wolf trapping and hunting can have disproportionately negative effects on wolves that use protected areas, including national parks. For example, the loss of a pack leader can decrease the chance of a pack persisting to the following year by 73 percent.
Yellowstone National Park’s iconic wolves draw national and international attention and economic value to both the Greater Yellowstone region and the state of Montana. According to a June 2022 economic study, Yellowstone wolf watchers alone contribute at least $82 million annually to communities in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, including Gardiner. In Park County, where WMU 313 is located, visitors to the park and surrounding area spend more than $236 million annually which helps create 3,270 jobs—or one-in-five jobs in the county.
WMU 313 represents an exceedingly small percentage of the land area of the state of Montana. The relatively small number of wolves taken from this area does not substantively impact overall state wolf management goals, but can bring disproportionate repercussions to the economic, scientific, and cultural values of the local communities and all who visit the park to view wildlife.
Livestock depredations have not been reported in WMU 313. The Montana Department of Livestock reported only seven cattle depredations in all of Park County attributable to wolves between 2013 and 2021, which equates to less than one occurrence per year.
Elk numbers in all elk hunting districts surrounding WMU 313 are either within or above targeted population ranges. Aggressive wolf management approaches in WMU 313 has no impact on maintenance of elk population objectives.
August 16, 2024 Decision
Region 3 Commissioner Susan Kirby Brooke showed tremendous leadership in responding to and understanding the concerns of her local constituents. Commissioner Brooke proposed an amendment to the draft 2024-2025 wolf hunting and trapping season regulations that would split WMU 313 and its accompanying quota across two hunting units that represent the previously identified WMUs 313 and 316. Additionally, Commissioner Brooke proposed an amendment that would explicitly ban the use of motion tracking mechanisms (like telemetry) when hunting wolves. Both amendments reflect concerns and solutions our coalition has raised with an eye toward incremental improvements to wolf management in Montana.
On August 16, 2024, the Commission voted unanimously in support of Commissioner Brooke’s amendments to split WMU 313 into two units with quotas of three, and ban the use of telemetry when hunting wolves. We applaud the Commission for listening to local constituents and forging a path for compromise solutions that balance the interests of all impacted stakeholders. We want to see wolf management decisions and state policies that are science-based, ethical, and acknowledge the value of wolves – and these decisions represent a crucial step in that direction. We are grateful for our partners at Park County Environmental Council, Bear Creek Council, National Parks Conservation Association, and the Wild Livelihoods Business Coalition for working hard with us to advocate for this step.
We look forward to building on this important progress that strengthens protections for Yellowstone wolves, and finding additional opportunities to carve out conservation measures for wolves in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Thank you for your interest in Greater Yellowstone’s iconic wildlife.
—Brooke Shifrin, Wildlife Program Manager (Bozeman, Montana)
After loss of prey and aggressive predator control eliminated wolves from the landscape in the early 20th century, the Yellowstone National Park and Central Idaho wolf reintroductions brought this keystone species back to the Northern Rockies in the mid-1990s. GYC advocated for wolf reintroduction and continues to support the long-term health of this iconic animal.
The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem is the land of 49+ Indigenous Tribes who maintain current and ancestral connections to the lands, waters, wildlife, plants, and more.
