Montana Legislature Madness

By Stephen Capra, Bold Visions Conservation Executive Director

With the Montana legislature in session and our boots on the ground at the capitol in Helena, we have listened ad nauseam to the cruelties republican representatives are willing to inflict on wolves and all wildlife.

House Bills 176 and 222 are moving ahead quickly, with the latter sponsored by a twenty-year-old Kalispell republican freshman, originally from California, Representative Lukas Schubert. Misguided Schubert claims there are now hybrid wolves populating Montana who bare larger teeth and a higher proclivity to kill people and livestock. These are false rumors, outright lies, that have circulated off and on for decades. Doug Smith, a retired Yellowstone National Park wolf biologist, as well as countless others, has declared this claim to be nothing if not ridiculous.

These false claims, strategically crying wolf, are reactions to a lawsuit that shortened Montana’s trapping season. Governor Greg Gianforte is now making it his priority to return a longer season to his constituent trappers. This includes trappers who have lied repeatedly during the hearings in Helena, including the infamous Matt Lumley, former US govt wolf trapper, who captured and held a wolf in a trap for the Governor to make his way out to murder.

Matt Lumley has also claimed that Montana moose populations are all but gone due to wolf depredation. The truth? A new ten-year study on moose populations in Montana was published proving their numbers are on the rise and that their range is expanding. No big bad wolf found here!

Considering the shortened season, The Foundation for Wildlife “Management” is leading the charge to acquire a gift for trappers by way of paid bounties ($1000 per dead wolf), while also pushing for their right to kill wolf pups in their dens. Their executive director, Justin Webb, sited Idaho as the state where, “this smart and scientific wildlife management is being done.” So much more cruel hogwash!

There are bills that would prevent the government from buying private lands to be put in conservation, and even a bill that would allow all hunters onto tribal lands – a clear violation of tribal sovereignty. This legislative session illustrates a level of cockiness exhibited by most politicians, who are full of the power-lust associated with Trump’s victory and the wanton cruelty promoted by the Game and Fish Committee at the behest of the Governor.

During committee meetings, the consistent message is that wolves are bad and, by the way, so are grizzly bears. With many lawmakers prepared to argue this with escalated pomp and zeal, Bold Visions Conservation is working hard to collaborate with rural democrats and grassroots conservation organizations, meeting with republican representatives to educate them about wolves and sustainable wolf recovery using science and reasoning, and to stop these tragic bills from passing.

And while Billings Representative Jodee Etchart (R-HD51) made it clear in a conversation with me that she is open to learning more about wolves, at the same time she proudly displays a ‘Smoke a Pack [of wolves] a day’ bumper sticker on her car.

Thompson Falls Republican Paul Fielder, in his relentless pursuit to kill even more wolves and grizzly bears and at the behest of the governor, is doling these anti-wildlife bills out to inexperienced, freshman republicans.

Help Bold Visions in this good fight! We have been the only pro-wolf, anti-trapping organization with three staff members present during these house bill meetings, and we need your letters, emails, and calls going out to the authors of HB 176, Shannon Maness of Dillon (R) HD-70, and Lukas Schubert HB 222 (R) HD-8 of Kalispell to stop their madness.

Reach out to Billings republican representatives who need our outcry to think twice. Note that tribal members of the house are opposed to these atrocities and deserve our heartfelt thanks for their support. We will continue with updates next week, but the time is NOW to fight like hell for wolves and to stop the momentum that many misguided politicians feel they may have!

Representative Lukas Schubert

406-609-6099

Lukas.Schubert@legmt.gov

Representative Shannon Maness

406-925-3604

Shannon.Maness@legmt.gov

Billings Representatives:

Representative Denise Baum

406-208-0245

Denise.Baum@legmt.gov

Representative Larry Brewster

406-670-0929

Larry.Brewster@legmt.gov

Representative Sherry Essmann

406-670-9817

Sherry.Essmann@legmt.gov

Representative Jodee Etchart

406-318-9773

Jodee.Etchart@legmt.gov

Representative Bill Mercer

406-698-1671

Bill.Mercer@legmt.gov

Representative Anthony Nicastro

406-794-8471

Anthony.Nicastro@legmt.gov

Representative Nelly Nicol

406-670-1745

Nelly.Nicol@legmt.gov 

Representative James Reavis

406-498-2185

James.Reavis@legmt.gov

Representative Curtis Schomer

406-672-9846

Curtis.Schomer@legmt.gov

Representative Katie Zolnikov

Katie.Zolnikov@legmt.gov

50 Years in Wolves Clothing

50 Years in Wolves Clothing, Tricia Cook, Bold Visions Conservation Grants and Outreach

In 1974 and 1975, some very cool stuff happened. First, President Nixon signed into law the Endangered Species Act and in 1974, wolves in the Lower 48 were the first species declared endangered under this bright and shiny new law. Next, 1975 hailed the end of the war in Vietnam.

But time can be a cruel mistress for we cannot stop ourselves from fighting more wars. And in 2011, the Obama Administration compromised both the Endangered Species Act and wolf recovery in one fell swoop by approving a federal budget with a very sneaky rider. For buried deep within the budget’s muck and mire, the delisting of wolves was mandated for the Northern Rockies. Adding insult to injury, legal challenges were blocked and it became the first time Congress alone stripped a species of protection under the ESA.

Along came the Trump administration and in 2020 ESA protection was removed for all gray wolf populations in the Lower 48, apart from a small group of Mexican gray wolves in Arizona and New Mexico. After environmental groups successfully sued US Fish and Wildlife a couple of years later, federal protections for gray wolves were again restored over much of the U.S. but sadly, not for the Northern Rockies populations. Now one can only imagine, with great horror, what further atrocities await wolves and other wildlife with another Trump reign…

____________

I will not argue that today, most small and multi-generational family ranches are struggling to survive. Adding wolves to the equation just makes it that much more difficult, or so one may be led to believe. But while wolves become an easy target for misdirected blame and aggression, there are far more factors that are being swept under the battered rug, like so much dirt mingled with cow shit. It is far too convenient, romantic for some, to point a finger –or a gun– at an apex predator, making it their own personal scapegoat.

A while back, I phoned a good friend who helped maintain his family’s small, fourth generation ranch near Montana’s Tobacco Roots and the Highlands. A former educator, he had written his master’s thesis on the decline of family farms in American rural communities. When I asked him what he felt was the biggest threat to ranching in America he replied, “No, it’s not depredation, but rather favorable tax policies and agricultural subsidies benefiting large commercial livestock operations that are systematically wiping us out.”

But you can’t legally practice shoot, shovel and shut up on lobbyists and politicians who promote, support, and are engaged in the commercial livestock industry.

At that time, the ranch was grazing 150 cows and 70 sheep (it had been historically both larger and smaller). By means of non-lethal predator control -range riders, fladry, and livestock guardian dogs- the ranch had experienced not one loss from wolf depredation over the many decades and generations. And at the same time, there were (and are) wolves in that area. “But we have definitely lost livestock to coyotes, domestic dogs, foxes, and hunters,” he said, shaking his head.

Statistically, wolves account for a very small percentage of livestock losses nationwide, less than 0.1%. US Fish and Wildlife, using professional, field-verified reports, calculates these numbers even lower than the USDA’s National Agriculture Statistic Service, which uses unverified livestock industry reports. Non-predator causes account for around 95% of livestock losses: disease, injury, weather, poisoning, and theft. But it is much simpler to bludgeon, shoot, and trap wolves than it is to acknowledge less emotionally charged, less romantic, and apparently factual causes.

____________

“Can anyone tell me what’s good about wolves?” asked a little girl during one public meeting of the Idaho Fish and Game Commission. The meeting preceded a vote the next day for setting up that year’s hunting and trapping season for the Northern Rocky Mountain gray wolf. Her father, a hunting guide and trapper, suggested during the same meeting, "Open 'em year-round. Hunt 'em, trap 'em, run 'em over. Don't make a collared wolf illegal to shoot. Shoot 'em all!"

During the past fifty years and counting, the wolf began as a mere ghost in the Lower 48, given federal protection in great hopes of enhancing biodiversity and restoring healthy ecosystems. Nearly twenty years later, efforts went so far as to take individual wolves from their packs in Canada, turning them into non-consenting martyrs and reintroducing them, kicking and howling, into Yellowstone National Park. Twenty more years pass, and we watch in horror as wolves continue to be vilified, legally and illegally tortured, trapped, poached, and hunted.

Like most of us, wolves are neither devils nor saints. Wolves are just another animal playing an important role in the fabric of a diverse planet Earth. Collectively, we must look toward a changing landscape that impatiently waits beyond the end of our own noses, far and away from our own back forties. We need to think outside the fence-line. Until then, we will continue to huff, and to puff, and keep right on trying with all of our might to blow this house down.

Welcome to 2025!

Stephen Capra, Executive Director for Bold Visions Conservation

As we race towards the legislative session, the alarm bells are already going off, as once again Republicans in the legislature are introducing a slew of new anti-wildlife bills, all exacerbated by the continued use of bounties to feed the spread of trapping. The thought that they could change their position is impossible as long as Greg Gianforte is Governor and Paul Fielder is in the House.

It begins with the Game and Fish Commission, a self-dealing mini-empire, minus one single respectable Commissioner, Susan Kirby Brooke, whose integrity demands that she consider opinions outside ranchers, trophy hunters, and trappers.

Above them all, Pat Tabor is perhaps the most detestable. Lately, his new profit-making scheme is to allow more female black bears to be killed in the area or district where his son operates his outfitting business. Orphaned cubs? No problem; let’s just kill more. This is a man who wants no one to stand in the way of his making money. His long list of issues with the forest service, including cutting trees, dumping garbage, intimidating hikers, and otherwise thinking he and his company own the national forest, is why, as a commissioner, he feels that killing wildlife is his choice, not that of the people of Montana. He is soulless. This man must be removed from the commission; to further that cause, please share our petition to remove him with friends. This action by Tabor will find its way to the courts.

Let me now introduce to you our new freshman representative from Kalispell, Lukas Schubert, who has introduced LC 1743, likely working on orders from Fielder. This bill calls for shooting wolves on sight and year-round. Imagine that a young man would have such hatred for an animal that is part of a family unit, a predator that keeps the spread of chronic wasting disease in check; a creature that is even scientifically proven to be a significant pollinator. Wolves prey on sick and weak animals, thus making the elk and deer herds even stronger. They are a species that play together but yet endure pain and suffering at human hands. Tabor is a person who is so ambitious that he would allow the blood of such beauty to be spilled for his career advancement.

But he is not alone. It appears that Representative Shannon Maness from Dillon wants to one-up Schubert. His bill, LC 2548, would instate no-quota wolf hunting and trapping. So, the goal in these and likely other bills is to torture or destroy all wolves in our state.  Republicans are making clear that wolves and soon grizzlies will be destroyed if they have their way. The real question is why? Most of my republican friends love wolves and grizzlies, and they are very special in their minds, so why this nonsense? The views of the Governor and Commission only reflect a tiny minority of people who call themselves outdoorsmen but who are, in reality, afraid of predators, indulge in ignorance, and are scared of true, wild nature. So, they need to kill for their pathetic sense of safety and ego-driven feeling of superiority.

Again, Gianforte has taken a lot of heat on wolves and his taste for trophy hunting; rather than listen, he is going all-in to destroy the wildest part of nature. That sums up his immoral nature. With Fielder, hatred of predators is his guiding principle, and a lust to trap and watch animals suffer. But let’s not forget the third party in the room. It’s the Foundation for Wildlife Management, the stooges that are a front for trappers and a group that has broken their non-profit integrity by getting allowing their Board to collect the majority of bounties for themselves. But that group enjoys funding from the NRA, and likely from the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation as well.

The reality is that wealthy individuals like the Governor and Pat Tabor, along with the ignorance that surrounds wolves and grizzlies in Montana and the push by the livestock industry to control public lands, is the stew that is cooking our own right to wildlife viewing, and the freedom to hike and recreate on the very lands we all share.

This will be a very tough legislative session, and we will be there fighting the worst of these bills, but (as I mentioned last week,) pushing hard to pass our three bills:

    · Trapping Signage.

    · Bear spray mandated for hunters.

    · No harassing wildlife or chasing predators or furbearers on snowmobiles.

We really want a bill that ends bounties on wildlife and to reform this nightmare of a Game commission. But so far, no takers.

What we need is your voice, your emails, your letters, and your passion and smarts to crush these outlandish bills and fight for wolves like never before. Please call your representatives, make clear:

    · You want an end to the killing of wolves-period.

    · No delisting of grizzlies.

    · Never support the state funding bounties on any wildlife.

    · That you want their support on these bills that will support wildlife.

    · Let them know ignorance on wolves is not an excuse for their killing.

    · The livestock industry has the privilege to graze on public lands, not a right, and they do not have the right to kill predators; instead, they must learn to co-exist with wildlife to continue receiving the subsidies they enjoy. If you have a 1000 head of cattle it equals $20,000 a month in government subsidies.

    · Ranchers are more than compensated if their livestock is killed by wolves. This is very rare, but killing more wolves will result in decimating packs and, in turn, more deprivation.

Thank you for your continued support. Continue to be the strong voice for wildlife! We at Bold Visions will continue to fight hard for all wildlife and promise to keep you informed!

THESE TWO PEOPLE NEED GROWLS:

Lukas Schubert

House District 8, Republican

Lukas.Schubert@legmt.gov 406-609-6099

175 Hutton Ranch Rd Ste 103 PMB 102

Kalispell, MT 59901

ShannonManess

House District 70, Republican

Shannon.Maness@legmt.gov 406-925-3604

PO Box 701

Dillon, MT 59725

Send a friendly howl with your wildlife concerns:

Susan Kirby Brooke

CommissionerRegion3@mtfwp.org

406-438-0460

Bozeman, Montana