For Immediate Release, October 21, 2025
CONTACT:
- KC York, President, Trap Free Montana, 406-218-1170
- Kim Bean, President, Wolf and Wildlife Advocates, 970-412-0905
- Patrick Kelly, Montana/Washington State Director, Western Watersheds Project, 208-576-4314
- Mike Garrity, Executive Director, Alliance for the Wild Rockies, 406-410-3373.
Conservation Groups Move to Intervene and Stop Lawsuit Filed by Anti-wolf Politicians against the Montana Fish & Wildlife Commission
MISSOULA, Mont. – Today, conservation groups moved to intervene to take down the recent lawsuit filed by the Outdoor Heritage Alliance, Montana Representative Paul Fielder, Representative Shannon Maness, and hunting outfitter Craig Neal that seeks to contort law and fact to argue that the State of Montana is not killing enough wolves. Conservationists dispute that Montana law requires even more wolf killing and instead seek to defend the statutory discretion of the Fish and Wildlife Commission and FWP. Conservationists also argue that the Montana Constitution does not provide Plaintiffs a fundamental right to hunt and trap wolves.
To prevent the extermination of wolves in Montana, Trap Free Montana, Wolf and Wildlife Advocates, Western Watersheds Project, and the Alliance for the Wild Rockies filed a motion to intervene in state district court in Sanders County to argue that the plaintiffs lawsuit should be dismissed.
“Having been thwarted in their mission to eradicate wolves through legislative measures and the Fish and Wildlife commission meeting, the plaintiffs have now turned to a frivolous lawsuit in their latest attempt to achieve their goal,” said KC York, president and founder of Trap Free Montana. “The killing of wolves, riddled with unfair chase, bounties, and even higher quotas in the current regulations, could already easily put what wolves remain over the edge. Unfortunately, some anti-wolf extremists are in powerful positions, but that does not mean they possess absolute control over the destiny of wolves. We fear if we don’t intervene, the MT Fish and Wildlife Commission and FWP, who are no friends of wolves, will either settle with the plaintiffs or not adequately defend themselves in court.”
“After failing to win over their fellow legislators, the Fish and Wildlife Commission, and the citizens of Montana, anti-wolf politicians have now resorted to filing a legally baseless lawsuit in order to force the state to kill even more wolves,” said Patrick Kelly, Montana & Washington Director for Western Watersheds Project. “This is yet another example of the anti-wolf hysteria still gripping some members of Montana’s legislature. Not satisfied with the recently approved 458-wolf kill quota, these politicians are making a last ditch effort to make sure that even more wolves are shot and trapped across Montana.”
“This lawsuit not only threatens to undermine the already tenuous authority of Montana’s Wildlife commission, but it could likely drive the wolf population below a critical threshold for sustainability, jeopardizing the future of this vital species. It is essential to prioritize sound science over personal vendettas in wildlife management,” said Kim Bean, President of Wolf & Wildlife Advocates. “Given that numerous studies have shown that Montana’s flawed method for counting wolves has artificially inflated the population to nearly double their actual number, killing even more would have serious and potentially devastating impacts on this valued apex predator”
“Representative Fielder and others are suing the state of Montana to force them to kill more wolves even though the Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission signed off on a quota for hunters and trappers to kill 458 wolves this hunting season in addition to the 100 wolves landowners can kill, ” said Mike Garrity, Executive Director of the Alliance for the Wild Rockies.
“This is more than half the 1091 wolves that FWP claims are in Montana based on their controversial computer model. FWP does not count individual wolves. Many wildlife biologists contend there are only 700-800 wolves in Montana. Contrary to what the plaintiffs argued in their complaint, the Fish and Wildlife Commission in August 2025 authorized the most aggressive wolf slaughter since the Montana legislature passed the guiding wolf management statute in 2021. We are seeking to intervene in this action to ensure that the Court is presented with an accurate factual record and reading of the law in Montana, as well as to protect our members’ interests in wolf conservation in Montana,” concluded Garrity.
Background:
Earlier this year, Trap Free Montana, Western Watersheds Project, and Alliance for the Wild Rockies and others successfully sued the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service for rejecting a petition to have the gray wolf relisted under the Endangered Species Act in the Northern Rocky Mountains due to the alarming new pressures on wolves from state management in Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming.
A court in the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana ruled in an August 2025 decision that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ignored the best available science in withholding Endangered Species Act protections from wolves, noting that “the state management regimes in Montana and Idaho changed dramatically in 2021, resurrecting many of the management practices and policies responsible for the prior extirpation of the gray wolf from the West.”
The court ultimately rejected the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision to deny the petition to relist the wolves under the Endangered Species Act, in part because the court found the Service had “no reasonable basis to conclude that Montana’s wolf management commitments are adequate to protect the species from extirpation.”
The motion to intervene can be found here.
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