Hunters can get things changed

Dear Editor:

Last winter local sportsmen held a meeting in Trout Creek with the Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks to discuss the wolf problem in Region 1. Over 300 people attended the meeting and openly expressed their concerns that the wolves were decimating the deer and elk populations. FWP told the public they didn’t feel there was a wolf problem and our elk and deer were doing just fine. It was obvious that FWP was not going to listen to what the sportsmen had to say. Our local legislators were listening. Bob Brown and Jennifer Fielder both sponsored bills in the legislature to help local hunters and trappers remove more wolves. The bills were not backed by FWP and they failed to pass.

So here we are with another hunting season over with and numbers are in. A whopping 15 elk came through the Thompson Falls check station. I don’t have check station statistics from years before the wolves arrived, but I would bet that 15 elk were checked in on a single weekend, instead of a total of five weekends. The sportsmen at the meeting last winter predicted this, and our FWP biologists wouldn’t listen or just didn’t care. Our FWP biologists should be ashamed of themselves.

I’m sure most local hunters feel they have done all they can, but there is something that can be done to get things changed. We will be voting for a new governor, and the governor appoints the Fish & Game commissioners. Find out which candidates for governor will support predator control, and back them. This won’t be a quick fix, but hopefully our kids and grandkids will get to experience the hunting that we once had here.

Jeff Smith,

Trout Creek