Montana
FWP Reopens Comment Period for Grizzly, Wolf Management Plans – Flathead Beacon
Facing a groundswell of interest in the long-term management of grizzly bears and wolves in Montana, the state’s wildlife management agency announced this week it is reopening the public comment period for both the 2024 Grizzly Bear Management Plan and the Montana Gray Wolf Conservation and Management Plan.
The new deadline for the public to comment is March 9, an extension that Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) officials are allowing “to ensure Montana counties, Tribes, and state and federal agencies have a chance for input,” according to the state agency’s Feb. 13 announcement.
“Wolves and grizzly bears are iconic and controversial species,” said FWP Director Dustin Temple, who added that the extension will ensure that Montana statute requiring FWP to notify county commissioners of opportunities to comment on management plans for grizzlies, wolves and other large carnivores has been met. “We want to ensure that everyone who has a stake in how these two species are managed can have a chance to comment on our draft plans before they are final.”
It will also allow for additional time for tribal partners and other state and federal agencies to provide input, Temple said.
The new grizzly bear plan will inform management statewide, focusing on the 30 counties in which grizzly bear presence has been documented in recent years or may be documented in the near future. Since grizzly bears are still listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, the plan is designed to inform state management while this species remains federally listed. The plan also addresses FWP’s future vision for management when any grizzly bear populations in Montana are delisted and full management authority for them is returned to the state.
The wolf plan shifts a key counting metric from the number of breeding pairs to the number of wolves representing at least 15 breeding pairs. The plan establishes that 450 wolves would ensure 15 breeding pairs. Population estimates will continue to be determined by the peer-reviewed Integrated Patch Occupancy Modeling method, or iPOM. The plan also describes the current depredation prevention and response program.
The latest data compiled at the end of 2022 revealed there are just under 1,100 wolves in Montana, or about 181 packs. Total wolf numbers peaked in Montana with 188 packs and 1,259 wolves in 2011, which is the same year that Congress stripped ESA protections from the species, allowing Montana to begin harvest management. Approximately 480 wolves roam the land managed by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks in Region 1, an area spanning northwest Montana that includes the Flathead Valley.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) denied a petition from an alliance of more than 70 conservation groups seeking to restore federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) protections for gray wolves, which they framed as necessary as some western states, including Montana, expand wolf hunting and trapping opportunities. Although federal wildlife managers said the decision follows “a path to support a long-term and durable approach to the conservation of gray wolves,” and pledged to adopt a first-of-its-kind National Recovery Plan, the conservation groups on Feb. 7 notified FWS of their plans to sue the agency over its decision.
In Montana in 2021, the state’s Fish and Wildlife Commission voted 3-2 to increase wolf harvests by allowing neck snaring and trap baiting statewide, as well as night hunting on private land and other changes to the season. The vote followed direction from the 2021 Legislature requiring state agencies to decrease wolf numbers and legalize new hunting measures to do so. Testimony on behalf of the suite of bills targeting wolves cited depressed elk numbers and diminishing rates of hunter success in wolf-heavy areas of the state, including northwest Montana.
According to FWP’s Montana Wolf Harvest dashboard, Montana hunters and trappers killed 258 wolves during the 2022 harvest season and have already killed nearly 263 wolves in the 2023 harvest season, which runs until March 15. That includes 110 wolves in FWP’s Region 1, where the quota is 131; 79 wolves in Region 2, where the quota is 104; and 48 wolves in Region 3, where the quota is 52. Harvest quotas have already been met in Regions 4, 5, 6 and 7, prompting the season’s closure. The hunting season for wolves was also closed in Wildlife Management Unit 313, where the quota of six wolves was met.
Both draft plans were out for public comment in 2023. People who previously submitted comments on the draft plans do not need to submit them again.
To comment on the Grizzly Bear Management Plan, go to fwp.mt.gov/aboutfwp/public-comment-opportunities/grizzly-bear-management-plan.
To comment on the Gray Wolf Conservation and Management Plan, go to fwp.mt.gov/aboutfwp/public-comment-opportunities/draft-wolf-mgmt-plan.
HELENA — You probably have goals and plans for 2026—the Montana Department of Agriculture does too.
“We’re really focusing on innovative agricultural practices,” Montana Department of Agriculture director Jillien Streit said.
It’s no secret that agriculture—farming and ranching—is not easy. There are long days, planning, monitoring crops and livestock, and other challenges beyond farmers’ and ranchers’ control.
(WATCH: Montana Department of Agriculture focusing on innovation in 2026)
Montana Department of Agriculture focusing on innovation in 2026
“We have very low commodity prices across the board,” Streit said. “We still have very high input prices across the board, and we have really high prices when it comes to our equipment, and so, it’s a really tough year.”
But innovation, including new practices, partnerships and technology use, can help navigate some of those challenges.
“We can’t make more time and we can’t make more land, so we need to start putting together innovative practices that help us maximize what our time and land can do,” Streit said.
Practices range from using technology like autonomous tractors and virtual fencing—allowing rangers to contain and move cattle right from their phones—to regenerative farming and ranching.
“It is bringing cattle back into farming operations to be able to work with cover cropping practices to invigorate the soil for new soil health benefits,” Streit said.
The Montana Department of Agriculture is working to help producers learn, share, and collaborate on new ideas to work in their operations.
The department will share stories of practices that work from farms and ranches across the state. Also, within the next year or so, Streit said the department is hoping to roll out technology to help producers collaborate.
“(It’s) providing a communication platform where people can get together and really help each other out by utilizing each other’s assets,” she said.
While not easy, agriculture is still one of Montana’s largest industries, and Streit said innovating and sharing ideas across the state can keep it going long into the future.
Montana
Frontier Conference women: MSU-Northern, Montana Western pull upsets to advance to semifinal round
BUTTE — MSU-Northern and Montana Western pulled a pair of upsets Saturday at the Butte Civic Center to wrap up the quarterfinal round of the Frontier Conference women’s basketball postseason tournament.
The fifth-seeded Skylights started the day with a red-hot shooting performance to down No. 4 Rocky Mountain College 82-74. Western, the sixth seed, used a third-quarter surge to defeat No. 3 Carroll College 65-56.
MSU-Northern (17-11) and Western (14-13) now advance to Sunday’s semifinal round, where the Skylights will play No. 1 seed Dakota State at noon and the Bulldogs will face No. 2 Montana Tech at 2:30 p.m.
MSU-Northern 82, Rocky Mountain College 74
MSU-Northern sizzled in the first quarter, making seven 3-pointers to take a double-digit lead, and put together a crucial third-quarter run to get past Rocky and advance to the semifinal round.
Becky Melcher splashed four 3s in the first 10 minutes, and Taya Trottier, Canzas HisBadHorse and Shania Moananu added one apiece as the Skylights built a 29-13 lead. Melcher scored 14 first-quarter points and finished with a game-high 30 on 10-of-19 shooting (7 of 15 from 3-point range). She added 11 rebounds, a blocked shot and three steals to her stat line.
Rocky battled back to tie the game at 36-36 in the second quarter on a Brenna Linse basket, but MSUN responded with consecutive triples from Trottier and Melcher and took a 44-38 lead into halftime. The Bears eventually stole the lead back in the third quarter following a 9-0 run capped be an Isabelle Heggem bucket.
But the Skylights again answered — this time with a 13-2 run to take a 60-51 lead. MSUN led 66-59 going to the fourth and wouldn’t trail the rest of the way. The Skylights trailed for less than two total minutes of the game.
As a team, MSUN made 14 of 26 3s in the game. Ciera Agasiva was 3 for 3 from behind the arc, and Trottier was 2 for 3. Trottier had 18 points, eight rebounds and six assists, while Agasiva had 13 points.
Paige Wasson led Rocky (20-9) with 29 points but was 0 for 10 on 3-point attempts. Heggem had a double-double of 21 points and 12 rebounds.
Montana Western 65, Carroll 56
After neither team led by more than five points in the first half, Western broke open a 25-25 tie game by outscoring Carroll 20-9 in the third quarter.
Bailee Sayler scored 10 points in the quarter, including making two 3-pointers, to help the Bulldogs take control. They led 45-34 going to the fourth, and Carroll wouldn’t get closer than six points the rest of the way.
The Fighting Saints were just 18-of-65 shooting (27.7%) for the game.
Sayler scored an efficient 22 points on 7-of-8 shooting. She was 2 for 3 from 3-point range and 6 for 7 at the free throw line. The Missoula native also had nine rebounds.
Isabella Lund added 16 points for the Bulldogs, and Keke Davis had 11 points and 11 rebounds.
Carroll (19-10) was led by Kenzie Allen with 12 points. Willa Albrecht and Meagan Karstetter scored 11 points apiece for the Saints.
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