Montanans Want A Way
To Deal With Wolves

HELENA, Mont. —(AP)— Getting native wolves off the endangered species list this summer is not soon enough to protect livestock, about 30 farmers and ranchers told Montana Republican Sen. Conrad Burns.

``We need the mechanism to defend our property to start as soon as possible while we're waiting for delisting,'' Jake Cummins of the Montana Farm Bureaus said.

``If we're not allowed to protect our livestock you're going to make outlaws out of all of us,'' Glen Magera of the Northwestern Montana Stockman's Association told U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service representatives at a meeting last week.

Regulations in place for experimental wolf packs transplanted from Canada to Yellowstone National Park and central Idaho allow ranchers to respond to predatory wolves. But the naturally occurring wolves in northwestern Montana are protected as an endangered species and cannot be shot at or killed by property owners.

Magera said his organization believes there are more wolves in the area than have been reported by the Fish and Wildlife Service. He proposed delisting wolves in one area of northwestern Montana with large agricultural concerns, but leaving wolves in other areas that are primarily wilderness on the endangered species list.

There is some movement in delisting the northwestern Montana wolves, said Ed Bangs, the Fish and Wildlife Service's wolf recovery coordinator.

A proposal will be issued this summer to delist wolves in the Midwest, primarily Minnesota. The proposal will also recommend reclassifying wolves in the western United States, including northwestern Montana, as "threatened" rather than "endangered."

If that proposal is approved, farmers and ranchers will have options for controlling predatory wolves, Bangs said.

Burns questioned why the United States has spent $12 million on wolf recovery since 1974 when the effort has harmed ranchers.

``Our first allegiance is to the land and to providing food and fiber to this America,'' Burns said. ``There is a level that wolf populations can be tolerated but, by golly, we have the right to protect our personal property.''

Only one person in the audience spoke in favor of allowing the wolf reintroduction program to run its natural course.

``I don't think the biggest problem our farmers and ranchers face is 300 wolves. Maybe we need to address fair trade agreements or farm subsidies,'' said Nancy Pitbaldo of Helena. ``I think the majority of Montanans want the wolves restored to the wild. Wolves were here before people.