LOBO WATCH founder and website host Toby Bridges was one of the first to make a public comment. Angered at the manner in which MT FWP has repeatedly lied about wolf impact on big game, and the continued cover up of the real number of wolves in the state, he had absolutely no hesitation in telling the committee how poorly FWP has mismanaged wolves. Study after study from around the world has show that wolves cannot be treated as big game animals and controlled through sport hunting and a wolf hunting season. He emphasized that an all out effort has to be made to get wolf numbers drastically down...and kept there. He also accused FWP of purposely allowing wolves to destroy the big game herds of western Montana, turning much of the western one-third of the state into a wildlife wasteland - where it's now getting harder and harder to find even a wolf track, since there's not enough prey to keep them fed. He also had no problem telling the state senators and representative of the Environmental Quality Committee that FWP's upper management has done such a lousy job, they should all be handed a pink slip...and shown the door.
State Senator Debby Barrett, a rancher from the Dillon, MT area, shared with the committee that FWP was actually in violation of state law. The week before the EQC meeting, Senator Barrett shared with LOBO WATCH that the agency claims, because of the lack of funding, it cannot implement the Montana Gray Wolf Conservation & Management Plan that had been demanded by USFWS in 2004 - even though it was agreed to and signed. That plan, and the Montana Elk Management Plan are part of the Montana Environmental Policy Act, and she read to the committee portions of what had been codified into law, and how FWP has been in violation of those laws, and continues to work outside of what is required of them.
Apparently some of Bridges' comments and what Senator Barrett shared with them didn't set well with the committee. The taped portion of Barrett's reading of the laws being violated by FWP were scrambled. Likewise, a few of LOBO WATCH's comments were purposely omitted. What is said in Helena apparently stays in Helena.
Perhaps the continued cover up of the truth about how poorly wolf management is run in this state goes deeper than Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.
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