This action alert is from a group of Yellowstone Park wolf watchers; your comments will likely be a bit more “extreme” (such as, “No hunting–leave the wolves alone,” etc.) but there’s good contact info here…

Please Write Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks Commissioners: Ask to Revise FWPs Wolf Hunt Proposal 2013-14
June 24 at 5 pm is the Deadline for Public Comment

On May 9, advocates for Yellowstone wolves spoke in Helena and Bozeman, asking for revisions to the FWP Wolf Hunt Proposal. The Commissioners want public comments before they make changes or ratify the Proposal. Now’s the time to send in your comments!

Email Chairman Vermillion and the Commissioners at this link: http://fwp.mt.gov/hunting/publicComments/2013_14proposedWolfSeason.html

Comments can be mailed to FWP – Wildlife Bureau, Attn: Public Comment; P.O. Box 200701; Helena, MT 59620-0701

Send copies of your letter to:

FWP Director Hagener: jhagener@mt.gov

Governor Bullock at this link: governor.mt.gove/contact.aspx

Office of the Governor: P.O. Box 200801: Helena, MT 59620-0801

Overview:

Yellowstone wolves rarely depredate on livestock and are essential for Montana tourism and research. Tourism and the science are intertwined in Yellowstone. For 18 years,data coming out of the Yellowstone Wolf Project has been is one of Montana’s great exports to the world. Science creates radio collared wolves, which can be located, drawing millions of tourists to Montana each year. This sort of tourism encompasses wolf biology, creating citizen scientists who learn about wolf behavior and collect and share data with biologists.

Suggested Points for your Comments:

Applaud the expansion of WMU 316 to include HD 313in your 2013-14 Wolf Hunt Proposal as a big step forward.

FWP gave us something we wolf advocates asked for. Expanding WMU 316 to include parts of HD 313 will save many Yellowstone wolves—because most YNP wolves were killed in HD 313. These wolves live within Yellowstone 95% of the time and leave the park in autumn to follow elk and scavenge on elk gut piles from the hunt.

Ask FWP to extend 316 to include the rest of HD 313.

This closes the gap on Eagle Creek and allows FWP to legally close the hunt around YNP. The new Montana law allows FWP to set low quotas or close hunting around Yellowstone only in designated Wolf Management Units (WMUs.)

Ask FWP to set the quota in expanded WMU 316 at 3 or fewer wolves.FWP has set the quota at 7 wolves. 7 wolves is the same number of Yellowstone park wolves that were killed in 2012—a disaster for wolf tourism and for Yellowstone Wolf Project research.WHY NOT ASK FOR A QUOTA OF ZERO or 1 WOLF IN 316? The Chairman of the Commission, Dan Vermillion, says they will not consider a quota that low.

4. Ask FWP to restrict wolf tags in WMU 316 to one tag per hunter. With a limited quota in WMU 316, one hunter could easily fill the quota all by himself.

5. Ask FWP to delete baiting over traps. It is unethical and unsporting.

6. Ask FWP to close the season in February when hunters will kill and disturb pregnant females as they try to den up.

7. Ask FWP to include wolf tourism and research in FWPs Measurable Objective #3 Objective #3 reads: “Maintain positive and effective working relationships with livestock producers, hunters, and other stakeholders. Revise it to add “wolf tourism, research, and other stakeholders.”