Help fishers and wolverines: Your Comments Needed!

 The Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission has tentatively approved "business as usual" with FWP allowing for the continued trapping of Montana's fishers and wolverines, two extremely rare species that are highly vulnerable to trapping and already struggling for survival.

Please send a comment to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission requesting the closure of the fisher and wolverine trapping season. Also, please support the reduced quota of bobcat trapping in districts 3 (400 to 300) and district 7 (800 to 600). Please write your comments into the form at the link below:

http://fwp.mt.gov/hunting/publicComments/2011furbearerQuotas.html

The deadline for comments is Monday, July 18th at 5 p.m.

Talking points to support the end of trapping of fishers:

·         Montana is not only the only state in the lower 48 that allows trapping of fishers but it is also among the few remaining states that do not have a mandatory trap check!

·         Fishers in Montana are not connected to populations in Canada, and given their low numbers in increasingly isolated mountain ranges across western Montana, the mortality from the proposed trapping quota of seven individuals, may not be sustainable.

·         The wolverine is listed as a Species of Concern in Montana, and is likely at risk for extinction due to limited and/or declining numbers, range, and/or habitat.

·         Though fishers still remain in five drainages in Montana, their status is unknown; however, the decline in fisher numbers is clearly due to logging and trapping.

·         Historic data indicates that fishers were extirpated from Montana by 1920 due to over-trapping and they had to be reintroduced!

36 individuals from British Columbia were caught in live-traps and translocated to Montana in 1959. Another 110 fishers lost their homes in Minnesota and Wisconsin in 1989 and 1991and were translocated to Montana. After that, the trapping season was reopened in Montana in 1983. The statewide quota for fishers then was 20, then it was reduced to ten and now seven individuals can officially be killed for the entertainment of trappers.

Talking points to support end of trapping of wolverines:

·         Montana is not only the only state in the lower 48 that allows wolverine trapping but it is also among the few remaining states that do not have a mandatory trap check!
·         Given the low numbers of wolverines in increasingly isolated mountain ranges across western Montana, the mortality from the proposed trapping quota of five individuals, may not be sustainable.
·         The wolverine is listed as a Species of Concern in Montana, and is likely at risk for extinction due to limited and/or declining numbers, range, and/or habitat.

·         Wolverines are struggling for survival due to various threats, including habitat fragmentation and loss, and climate change. Yet, trappers can kill them for trophies!

·         Researchers estimate that a total of 400 breeding pairs are needed for the long-term survival of this species while the total number of wolverines in the US appears to be only 500 individuals with a large part of the population non-breeding subadults.  [USDI 2008/Cegelski et al. 2006, pg. 197; Inman 2007a]

·         Trappers kill wolverine outfitted with radio-collars, in fact, trapping has impacted expensive and difficult research studies to the point where researchers are unable to collect sufficient data to meet their objectives.

·         One research study (Squires et al. 2007) found that between 2001 and 2005, 64% [9 of 14 individuals] of known mortality was attributed to trapping. The same study showed that trapping was the primary factor for decreased survival of wolverines in Western Montana.

·         Trapping is an outdated hobby of few and causes our wildlife to suffer. It is time to end this kind of commercial and recreational exploitation of Montana's wildlife. Not trapping but wildlife is our heritage!

While we don't know if the Montana FWP Commissioners consider our public comments, we nevertheless need to let them know that we as citizens concerned about our wildlife, are watching their actions. Trappers can only continue to do what they do when we don't speak up!

Please send a comment. Again, the deadline is July 18.

Thanks!

Your friends at Footloose Montana

Signature Gathering in Helena for I-160

For the past week I've been helping Montana Trap Free Public Lands gather signatures in Helena for their ballot initiative, I-160. The initiative would prohibit the commercial and recreational trapping of wild animals on public lands in Montana. Yes, this old cruel sport still continues...
This initiative has been approved not only by the Attorney General's Office, but by FWP's lawyer.

Trapping not only hurts wildlife, but has killed many many peoples' dogs and even people have stepped in these traps not knowing they were there because it's NOT a law to mark traps. The laws for trapping are extremely lax.

Trappers make up only a few thousand people in the state. Less than .5 of 1% of the population in MT traps. Yet, there are literally 10's of thousands of traps on public lands--which make up only 35% of the state.

Gathering signatures has surprisingly been easy. There are always 1 or 2 people on a given day who are upset with the initiative for many reasons:

• Trapping is someones livelihood.
• Public land is open to ALL forms of recreation.
• If adults, kids, or pets get caught in a trap the adults or parents are "idiots" and irresponsible for not watching where they go, keeping an eye on their kids or putting their dog on a leash.

I've met lots of people who know someone whose dog has been caught in a trap. I've also met people who don't even know trapping is legal.

There are ALOT of people who dislike trapping as this public opinion poll in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle shows.

The public doesn't want trapping to continue on public lands. Why should a few thousand people in this state have TOTAL control over them? This is why America has provided its citizens with the power to change old out-dated laws.

Signature Gathering

Yesterday I volunteered with Montana Trap-Free Public Lands. The weather was windy, cold and about to rain. We were gathering signatures on I-60, an initiative to end trapping on public lands, "except as allowed for scientific and propagation purposes or for the actions of government in protecting the safety and health of citizens."

We set up an info. table downtown on the St. Patrick's Day parade route. Here we spread out to gather signatures. Being in Montana, most of the responses were, "No thanks." Others were more in opposition like, "People have a right to set up traps on public land." (yeah, and is it also your right to abuse other citizens, pets, and wildlife?)

In one hour I got a whopping 7, yes, that's right, 7 signatures! The others had gathered 13 each. By now it had been raining for a half hour, so we called it quits.

MTFPL needs 25,000 signatures by June. Currently they have only 5,000. If you're registered to vote in the state of MT please sign their petition here.