A US judge has lifted a temporary restraining order that limited wolf hunting and trapping in the state of Montana, saying there is nothing to suggest rules now in place will make wolf populations unsustainable in the short term.
District judge Christopher Abbott also rejected concerns raised by environmental groups that harvesting up to six wolves just outside Yellowstone National Park this season could harm the park’s wolf population and conservation efforts.
Lizzy Pennock, the Montana-based carnivore coexistence advocate for WildEarth Guardians, said of the ruling: “We are devastated that the court has allowed countless more wolves – including Yellowstone wolves – to be killed under the unscientific laws and regulations we are challenging.
“We will keep fighting for Montana’s wolves in the courtroom while our case carries on and outside the courtroom in every way.”
The decision dissolves a temporary restraining order that Judge Abbott issued on November 16 reducing individual bag limits from 20 to five and blocking the use of snare traps.
The hunting rules set by the US Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission in August take effect immediately, the agency said, including allowing individuals to take up to 10 wolves by hunting and 10 by trapping.
The trapping season opened on Monday.
Judge Abbott wrote: “The state has a legitimate interest in managing wolves… that accounts for all the interests at stake, including those of hunters and ranchers.”
The official heard testimony on Monday in a lawsuit filed by WildEarth Guardians and the Coyote Project, which argued the state changed the method it uses to estimate the wolf population in a way that the groups believe leads to an overestimation.
The population estimate informs hunting quotas.
But Judge Abbot said the state’s population estimates were not so unreliable that this year’s quota of 456 wolves would trigger irreparable harm.
Montana’s wolf population is estimated at just over 1,100, a number that has remained steady over the past several years, even though 329 wolves were taken in 2021, Judge Abbott noted.
The 2021-22 quota had been set at 450 without any limits set near Yellowstone park. Twenty-three park wolves were killed last winter, including one by Montana governor Greg Gianforte.
Idaho is among other US states that also loosened wolf-hunting rules at the urging of hunters and ranchers.
As of Tuesday, Montana hunters had killed 69 wolves since the season opened in September.
The dispute over Montana’s wolf hunting season comes as conservationists have pushed for the animals to be restored to more areas, beyond currently occupied wolf habitat in the northern US Rocky Mountains, the south-west and the western Great Lakes.
