Jul. 20—State wildlife officials are looking to loosen regulations and increase quotas on wolf hunting and trapping for the 2025-26 season.
Among the potential changes is a 50% increase to both the statewide harvest quota and individual bag limits, which Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks officials say will help the agency meet its obligation to “decrease wolf numbers to a sustainable level.”
About 1,091 wolves are thought to roam the Treasure State, including some 500 in Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Region 1, which includes all or most of Flathead, Lake, Lincoln and Sanders counties. Both estimates fall in line with the department’s previous reports, suggesting that state and regional wolf populations have varied very little since 2011, when Montana’s packs were officially removed from the Endangered Species Act.
For some lawmakers, those consistent population numbers are a sign that state wildlife managers have failed.
“The wolf population is far too high, significantly too high,” said Rep. Lukas Schubert, R-Kalispell, during a meeting of the House Fish, Wildlife and Parks Committee earlier this year.
Schubert was one of four lawmakers to introduce a bill during the 2025 legislative session aimed at revising harvest regulations on wolves. Only one measure, requiring wildlife officials to implement region-specific management techniques and allowing the use of infrared and thermal imagery scopes while hunting wolves, ultimately passed.
“We did recognize the very clear message to increase harvest to reduce the wolf population more so than it has been,” said Quentin Kujala, the chief of conservation policy for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, in a video explaining the proposed changes.
Data collected by the University of Montana and Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks suggests that the sentiments of state lawmakers may not reflect wider perspectives on wolf management. In a 2023 survey of nearly 3,500 Montana residents, researchers found that “a large majority of general residents are now tolerant or very tolerant of wolves on the Montana landscape.”
The results also suggested that the general population’s tolerance for wolf hunting and trapping is on the decline. Wolf license holders, meanwhile, were much more likely to express tolerance for wolf hunting and trapping and much less likely to express tolerance for wolves.
“All these findings suggest that wolf management in Montana will continue to be a contentious issue among Montanans,” wrote the researchers in the final survey analysis.
Such divergent opinions make the job of wildlife managers especially difficult, as the former lead wolf biologist for Yellowstone National Park, Doug Smith, explained to the House Fish, Wildlife and Parks Committee earlier this year.
“There’s kind of two population levels for wildlife … one is biological carrying capacity. The other is social carrying capacity,” said Smith. “One is what the landscape can support. The other is what people are willing to tolerate, and wolves are very much, almost North America-wide, managed by social carrying capacity.”
If the Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission approves the agency’s plan, the statewide harvest quota for wolves would increase from 334 wolves during the 2024-25 season to 500 wolves for the 2025-26 season. No regional quotas have been proposed, differing from the recent norm for wolf management.
Instead, the department is proposing changes to the bag limit for hunters and trappers. Since 2021, hunters and trappers have been able to harvest 10 wolves each season, for a total potential harvest of 20 animals per person. While trappers could meet their bag limit under a single license, hunters were required to purchase a separate license for each wolf they harvest.
Under the suggested regulations, both hunters and trappers would now be able to harvest 15 wolves under a single license, as long as five of those animals were harvested in Regions 1 or 2.
The governor-appointed Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission will vote on whether to accept the agency’s proposal on Aug. 21. Public comments on the proposal will be accepted through Aug. 4.
Reporter Hailey Smalley may be reached at 758-4433 or hsmalley@dailyinterlake.com.