Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) has released its final 2025 Gray Wolf Conservation and Management Plan—the first update to the state’s wolf strategy in 22 years.
Completed on March 26, the plan sets a minimum population baseline of 450 wolves to maintain at least 15 breeding pairs, aligning with federal recovery goals established when wolves were delisted in 2011 and state management began.
“The former wolf plan served us well, but it was time to make sure our management plan contained the evolutions we’ve made in wolf research, monitoring, conflict management, and the changes to the legal framework we operate under today,” said FWP Director Christy Clark.
Wolves are now well established in the state, with the population expanding rapidly after recovery goals were met and stabilizing from 2019 to 2023 at an average of 189 packs and 1,134 wolves each year. Since wolves were delisted and management shifted to FWP in 2011, the state has maintained population numbers six to eight times above the federal recovery minimum. FWP said hunting and trapping—legalized in 2009 and 2012, respectively—are the primary sources of wolf mortality, while depredation removals have declined and other human-caused deaths remain minimal.
According to FWP, since adopting the 2003 Montana Gray Wolf Conservation and Management Plan, the agency has continually integrated new research and tools into its wolf management program. The 2025 plan updates this framework by incorporating “new science and tools as they become available,” while reaffirming the state’s commitment to “transparency related to wolf management practices” and ongoing public engagement.
FWP partnered with the University of Montana to develop and implement the integrated patch occupancy model (iPOM), which combines hunter surveys, habitat data and field observations to produce reliable, cost-effective estimates of wolf abundance and distribution. According to FWP, “iPOM estimates of wolf population size are currently the preferred monitoring method due to the accuracy, incorporation of statistical uncertainty, and cost efficiency.” The agency said that biologists continue to supplement this data through fieldwork and observation, ensuring a comprehensive understanding of Montana’s wolves.
Molly Parks, FWP carnivore coordinator, acknowledged public concerns about the iPOM but expressed strong confidence in its reliability.
“It is three different component models integrated into one and each has gone through thorough peer review,” she told Mountain Journal. “We feel very confident in its estimates of the wolf population.”
Parks emphasized that the 2025 wolf plan is primarily about increasing transparency and public understanding. “More than anything, the new plan is just helping the public understand the methods, tools and advances in research we are currently using [to manage wolves] … It’s an opportunity to compile it all together and be transparent about what we’re doing—nothing has really changed.”
Using a combination of non-lethal deterrents and lethal control, the agency aims to “mitigate producer-predator conflicts, reduce livestock losses, [and] reduce wolf mortalities associated with conflict,” as outlined in the 2025 Montana Gray Wolf Conservation and Management Plan.
The Montana Livestock Loss Board supports these efforts by compensating verified wolf-related losses and promoting preventive strategies. FWP said that because the wolf population is well above recovery thresholds, state law permits landowners to haze wolves without a permit or use lethal means under specific circumstances, with strict reporting and carcass handling requirements.
The plan also outlines several state laws that authorize lethal removal to address wolf-livestock conflicts, including the ability for landowners to kill wolves posing an immediate threat to human safety, livestock or dogs, or if a wolf is caught attacking a domestic dog on public or private land. As detailed in the “Wolf-Livestock Conflict in the Future” section in the plan, landowners, livestock producers, or their agents may also remove wolves under commission-approved harvest regulations or through special conflict-related authorizations on public and private lands.
Defenders of Wildlife said the new plan reflects the state’s ongoing hostility toward wolves and disregards the fact that most Montanans support wolf conservation. “Managing for a bare-minimum population that hovers just above an endangered or threatened status falls far short of best conservation practices and hamstrings any hope of effectively managing a native wildlife species that provides vital value to the state’s ecosystems,” said Eric Clewis, northern Rockies senior representative for Defenders of Wildlife.
The release of Montana’s new plan comes as several wolf-related bills were introduced in the state legislature. Rep. Paul Fielder (R-14) introduced House Bill (HB) 258 and HB 259 to expand wolf hunting seasons and methods, though HB 258 failed and HB 259 was returned from enrolling.
Another proposal, HB 176, sponsored by Rep. Shannon Maness (R-70), would have allowed an unlimited wolf quota once the population reached 550, but also failed. Meanwhile, HB 219, introduced by Rep. Lukas Schubert (R-08) to revise language around wolf hunting reimbursements and contests, is awaiting the governor’s signature. — Charles Wallace, WLJ contributing editor
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