Tribal gray wolf plan completed

The Tribal Wildlife Management Program announced recently that the management plan for gray wolves on the Flathead Indian Reservation has been completed and went into effect on Nov. 1.
The Tribal Council approved the final draft of the plan in late June, and the environmental assessment process under the National Environmental Policy Act has been underway since. That process ended with the signing of a Finding of No Significant Impact by the Superintendent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Julian Courville.
The planning effort attempted to consider all viewpoints in the development of alternative management scenarios for inclusion in the Gray Wolf Management Plan. Input from tribal elders and culture committees, hunters, stockgrowers and others were all considered in developing four management alternatives. The alternative most favored was the Wildlife Management Alternative, which includes a goal of providing for the long-term presence of wolves on the Reservation while simultaneously working to minimize conflicts between wolves and humans.
The Tribal Council approved a policy supporting treatment of gray wolves as a native wildlife species which requires active management. In doing so, the council realized the cultural and ecological significance of wolves to many of its constituents and acknowledged the potential for conflicts between wolves and local populations of big game and other wildlife, as well as the potential for conflicts between wolves and domestic livestock. The council decision favored a balanced approach to wolf management that attempts to take all of these factors in to account.
The plan does not attempt to manage toward a maximum or a minimum number of wolves on the Flathead Indian Reservation. Wolf population management will depend heavily upon wolf behavior and amount of conflict with other wildlife, livestock and people. For example, if there are few or no conflicts with a higher population of wolves on the Reservation, no excessive effort to reduce the wolf population will occur. However, if limited numbers of wolves occur on the Reservation and if those wolves repeatedly kill livestock, or if excessive numbers of big game or other wildlife species are documented as killed by wolves, lethal control may be implemented.
The plan relies upon close cooperation between Tribal Wildlife Management Program staff and wildlife managers of other state and federal agencies that also manage wolves to monitor populations of wolves and big game and livestock conflicts.
The Gray Wolf Management Plan for the Flathead Indian Reservation is posted on the tribal website. To receive a copy of the Wolf Management Plan, please contact Germaine White at germainew@cskt.org or 883-2888, ext. 7299.-Courtesy of Germaine White