SEATTLE — Bow-and-arrow hunters have shot 17 of Montana’s once-threatened wolf population since a controversial wolf hunt started at the beginning of September, while 60 wolves have been killed in neighboring Idaho.
Now, big game rifle-hunting season is about to start, bringing thousands of hunters into the mountains at a time when early snowfall will make wolves much easier to spot and chase. Conservation groups went to court Monday seeking an emergency injunction to block the hunts until a federal appeals court can decide whether they’re legal.
“General rifle season is about to start in Montana; it just started in Idaho. About 37,000 people now have wolf-hunting permits, and they’re going to be going with high-powered rifles and long-range scopes after a little more than a thousand wolves,” Michael Garrity, executive director of Alliance for the Wild Rockies, said in an interview.
He said a coalition of groups, including Friends of the Clearwater and WildEarth Guardians, is asking the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to rule quickly on an emergency order, pending a hearing next month on claims that the fast-track federal legislation that authorized the hunts is illegal.
