Montana FWP’s Wolf Proposal Pushes Wolves to the Brink—Take Action Now!
Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks (FWP) is championing a mass slaughter of 600 + wolves to strut their power of annihilation in front of select politicians and trophy hunters. The state agency cultivates a climate of violence and killing of apex predators with no justification. It has abandoned its mission of responsible wildlife management and its stewardship to sustain wildlife populations for future generations. Instead, the agency feeds anger and hatred through propaganda that wolves and other predators are killing all the cattle, all the deer and elk. Nothing could be further from the truth, but disenfranchised people are eager to blame and kill these animals in revenge.
Legalized thrill-killing in an era when so many species are vanishing that it’s called the Sixth Greatest Extinction is irreversibly destructive. Every wild species faces bitter challenges for survival through climate change, direct human-caused deaths, and loss of habitat. Wolves are a keystone species because they help keep what’s left healthy, and their kills feed multiple other species.
Its up to all of us to convince the Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission to reject the FWP proposal. We all must demand reasonable wildlife management that preserves the healthy wildlife and wild lands Montanans cherish. Many, many of you have written comments to the commission, which is a wonderful show of strength. Now it’s time to call your commissioners. Talking with them is something they will remember when they make decisions.
Dangerous amendments to the proposed wolf rules head to a Fish & Wildlife Commission vote on August 21, Please send a separate comment for each amendment by August 17th. Instructions below.
TAKE ACTION NOW
Submit Your Comment Before August 17th!
1. Online Submission
- Go to the August 2025 FWP Commission meeting page https://fwp.mt.gov/aboutfwp/commission/august-2025-meeting
- Scroll down to the section titled Amendment – Change Season Dates in R1 & R2 – Commissioner Burrows
- Click Submit Comment for that amendment
2. Email Submission
To: FWComm@mt.gov
3. Directly Contact Your Commissioner!
Region 1 – Ian Wargo – Commission Vice Chair, Whitefish
CommissionerRegion1@mtfwp.org
406-438-1714
Region 2 – Jeff Burrows, Hamilton
CommissionerRegion2@mtfwp.org
406-438-1148
Region 3 – Susan Kirby Brooke, Bozeman
CommissionerRegion3@mtfwp.org
406-438-0460
Region 4 – KC Walsh, Martinsdale
CommissionerRegion4@mtfwp.org
406-438-3625
Region 5 – Brian Cebull, Billings
CommissionerRegion5@mtfwp.org
406-438-2551
Region 6 – Lesley Robinson – Commission Chair, Dodson
CommissionerRegion6@mtfwp.org
406-301-0787
Region 7 – William Lane, Ismay
CommissionerRegion7@mtfwp.org
406-438-0143’
AMENDMENT 1 – Mineral County Setbacks– BURROWS
This amendment by Fish and Wildlife Commissioner Jeff Burrows will cancel trap setbacks on roads seasonally closed to all but snowmobiles in Mineral County. The purpose is to make it quick and easy for trappers to kill more wolves.
Without setbacks, traps and snares can be set on and beside roads, trails and everywhere else. Hidden and baited traps can maim or kill any creature who steps in them and cause serious injury to children and adults. Wolf traps are extremely difficult to open. Few people are prepared for this kind of danger. This amendment ditches public safety, which should be the first consideration for all official decisions.
Mineral County borders Idaho from close to Lolo Pass all the way north to Lookout Pass on I-90. Wolves crisscross the state line through the Bitterroot Mountains and den on both sides. But the wolves’ dens do not matter because Idaho has an even more brutal extermination scheme than Montana, including killing pups in their dens. The state of Idaho itself pays wolf killers’ expenses, including gear, fuel, licenses and even ATVs to kill unlimited numbers of wolves. The president of the Idaho Trappers Association uses the bounty to make payments on his truck. Montana officials look to Idaho’s savagery and want to copy it without regard for people and pets.
The vast majority of Montanans do not want to copy Idaho’s vicious atrocities. This wholesale killing of a native apex predator for no reason but hatred is shameful. It shows weakness, ignorance and corruption.
There is no defense for getting rid of trap setbacks anywhere. Pets already get caught in wolf traps with setbacks in place. Children and adults have been caught in traps too. This amendment will cause more trauma and tragedy. All to torture and kill keystone wolves for bragging rights. This is not wildlife management.
leg had to be amputated.
Commissioner Burrows got a similar amendment banning setbacks passed for all of Ravalli County. Rep. Paul Fielder got legislation passed that bans trap setbacks all of Sanders County and half of Lincoln County. The goal is to get rid of public safety setbacks county by county throughout the state to exterminate wolves.
AMENDMENT 2– Adopt a Statewide Wolf Quota of 458 Wolves – BURROWS
This amendment is a sham. FWP’s own wolf forecast data report states that if 450 or more wolves were killed for more than a year, “…the wolf population size would approach levels that could not support 15 breeding pairs…”
Furthermore, the wolf forecast report states that the 248 wolves killed in 2022 “showed a decline in wolf population estimates.” Therefore, there is no rationale to increase the wolf quota above 250 in order to satisfy legislation that calls for wolf reduction. This amendment mistakenly implies that the federal government wants a limit of 1,100 wolves in the Northern Rocky Mountains. The truth is the federal government did not put a ceiling capon the number of wolves in the Northern Rockies.
ATTEND THE HELENA COMMISSION MEETING
Fish & Wildlife Commission Meeting: August 21, 2025
📍 Montana WILD Auditorium, 2668 Broadwater Ave., Helena, MT
Can’t attend in person? 💻 Testify via Zoom – link at mt.gov/fwp
