The general rifle hunting season opened recently across Montana. Thousands of hunters began pursuing elk and deer with the intention of putting meat in their freezer, hunting with a reverence for the wildlife they are pursuing. But there is another hunt going on, void of respect and with no purpose but to kill. So we sued.
WildEarth Guardians and Project Coyote sued the State of Montana, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks (MFWP), and the Fish and Wildlife Commission because the state’s extreme anti-wolf hunting and trapping policies violate the law, the state constitution, and the public trust.
We sued because the laws and regulations currently governing wolf management are clearly not based on science and thus do not provide an adequate foundation for conserving this iconic Montana species.
We sued because the state’s wolf ‘management’ is based on a 20-year-old, legally invalid wolf management plan. The science of wolf conservation has developed significantly since 2002, yet, for the second year in a row, the state will allow nearly half of the wolf population to be killed while its management plan is 20 years behind. Wolf managers in Montana illegally relied on the outdated plan to set the current quota and hunting regulations…