Montana Governor Gets Written Warning After Killing a Wolf

From the New York Times:

Gov. Greg Gianforte of Montana violated a state hunting requirement last month when he trapped and killed a wolf near Yellowstone National Park without first taking a mandated trapper education course, state officials said on Tuesday.

Mr. Gianforte, who has a license to hunt wolves, received a written warning for the violation, according to Greg Lemon, a spokesman for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. “We’ve treated this as we would anybody” in a similar situation, he said. “It’s important to us the integrity of our process, no matter who we’re dealing with, is maintained.”

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Tribal officials hopeful new Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland can end wolf hunting in Wisconsin

From the Green Bay Press Gazette:

Tribal officials, especially those from Ojibwe nations in northern Wisconsin, are hopeful new U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland can help restore protections for gray wolves and stop another hunting season this fall.

Haaland was confirmed by the Senate last week as the first Native American to head a presidential cabinet department.

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5 wolves found dead in Oregon, US Fish and Wildlife investigates

From KATU.com:

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Oregon authorities say five wolves were found dead in northeastern Oregon in February.

Oregon State Police said Friday that on Feb. 9, a collar on a wolf indicated a mortality signal in the Mt. Harris area in Union County. Police Capt. Timothy R. Fox said in an email that arriving officers found a total of five wolves dead.

He says the cause of death is unknown.

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After leaving Isle Royale on an ice bridge, wolf made epic journey

From MPRNews.org:

In late January 2019, during a bitterly cold winter spell, scientists flew to Isle Royale in Lake Superior to try to locate three wolves that had recently been relocated to the island, the first part of a landmark effort to restore the delicate balance between wolves and moose — their chief prey — in the remote national park.

Four wolves from the Grand Portage reservation on the far northeastern tip of Minnesota were trapped and moved to Isle Royale the previous fall. One died shortly thereafter. The other three survived, but scientists had lost track of them. The wolves’ GPS collars hadn’t transmitted any locations for five days.

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Critics say Wisconsin winter wolf hunt was too much, too soon

From the Duluth News Tribune:

Wildlife biologists from tribal and conservation groups are decrying Wisconsin’s February wolf hunting season as a wildlife management “debacle’’ that placed politics above science and that will help anti-hunting efforts across the board.

And they’re now asking for changes to state laws before the same thing happens again in November.

“This wolf hunt really gave a black eye to sound wildlife management,’’ said Adrian Wydeven of Cable, representing the Northland College-based Timber Wolf Alliance. “It plays right into the hands of groups that want to stop any kind of wolf management, or any kind of hunting, because it was so excessive.”

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France: Wolf identified in southeast Vienne is first in a century

From The Connexion in France:

A wolf has been found in Vienne, southeastern France, for the first time in a century – after the animal suffered from eradication in the 1930s.

The animal was discovered dead next to a railway link near the commune of Lathus-Saint-Rémy, in the southeast of the department.

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Rare gray wolf returns to Tuolumne County in California

From The Union Democrat:

A yearling male gray wolf, named OR-93 for his origins with an Oregon pack and tracked in late February in Calaveras and Tuolumne counties, returned to Tuolumne County on Wednesday.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife confirmed the wolf “is currently back in Tuolumne County,” Kelle Schroeder, the Tuolumne County agriculture commissioner, announced in a statement released Wednesday afternoon that also reminded people that gray wolves are a protected species in the Golden State.

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Montana: ‘Reimbursement’ or ‘bounty’

From Montana Free Press:

The Montana Legislature is debating aggressive measures to reduce the state’s wolf population, marking an inflection point in the state’s management of wolves, which has become a lightning rod for rhetoric.

This week the House Fish, Wildlife and Parks Committee heard testimony on two bills that passed out of the Senate earlier this month with near-unanimous Republican support. Senate Bill 267 would allow for the “reimbursement for receipts of costs incurred relating to the hunting or trapping of wolves.” Another measure, Senate Bill 314, would remove bag limits, authorize hunting with bait and legalize nighttime wolf hunting (a practice known as spotlighting) on private land.

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Rio Blanco County takes steps affirming Colorado wolf reintroduction opposition

From The Fence Post:

On Tuesday March 16, 2021, the Rio Blanco County Board of County Commissioners unanimously passed a resolution to reaffirm the county’s opposition to wolf reintroduction to become a Wolf Reintroduction Sanctuary County. Rio Blanco County is the first in the state to adopt a Wolf Reintroduction Sanctuary Resolution since Proposition 114 passed on November 3, 2020.

Through the resolution, the commissioners stated the county would allow for the natural migration and repopulation of Gray Wolves, but would not allow for artificially introduced wolves. Further stating that “designated lands” for artificial reintroduction must not include Rio Blanco County or any other county in the state that adopts the Sanctuary County Resolution.

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Mexican wolf: Rarest subspecies of wolf in North America sees population almost double in five years

From The Guardian in the UK:

Once on the verge of extinction, the rarest subspecies of grey wolf in North America has seen its population nearly double over the last five years, with more gains being reported in 2020.

The results of the latest annual survey show there are at least 186 Mexican grey wolves in the wild in New Mexico and Arizona, US wildlife managers said on Friday. That marks the fifth straight year that the endangered species has increased its numbers, according to the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

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