Montana aims to settle lawsuit or remove, kill gray wolves

Montana's top wildlife official said Thursday if the state can't settle a lawsuit that has derailed this year's fall wolf hunt, it will press for authority to kill certain wolves to control their population. "The wolf is recovered; more than 500 wolves live in Montana," said Joe Maurier, director of Montana's Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks. "There is a place in Montana for them, but wolves have to be managed, just like other wildlife. Right now we can't do that." Maurier and other state wildlife officials said Montana wants to reduce its wolf population to about 450 animals, and is talking with federal officials, looking for the best and legal way to do it. "We're just trying to figure out what's the best course to take," said agency spokesman Ron Aasheim. "The playing field changes almost daily. ... We've got to find some way to manage wolves, period." Montana may appeal Molloy's ruling to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Maurier said, but the state also wants to continue to try to settle the case with the 13 conservation groups that filed suit, including Defenders of Wildlife, the Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council and Alliance for the Wild Rockies. If the state can't manage wolf packs in the state, wolves will continue to grow and affect ranchers and Montana's wildlife herds, he added. "It's disappointing, when FWP and the people of Montana have worked so hard and done everything we were asked to do, to see a legal technicality upend the intent of the Endangered Species Act, which is to recover a species," Maurier said...more