Montanans sue to stop unlimited black bear hunt
Laura Lundquist
(Missoula Current) Nine Montanans are asking the courts to stop a hunt that could hurt black bear populations in northwest Montana.
On March 22, attorney Timothy Bechtold asked the Lewis and Clark County district court for an injunction to stop Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks from holding an expanded spring black bear hunt in FWP Region 1 in northwest Montana. The hunt is scheduled to start on April 15.
The injunction request says the FWP commission violated Montana’s open meeting laws and the public’s Constitutional rights when it approved an amendment on Dec. 19 that wasn’t announced ahead of time.
“Plaintiffs have raised serious questions on the merits of their claim that Defendants violated Plaintiffs’ constitutional rights to know and participate by failing to provide adequate notice that a regional quota to protect black bear populations from the effects of expanding hunting in areas with already high harvests was on the chopping block,” according to the filed brief.
At the Dec. 19 FWP commission meeting, Region 2 Commissioner Jeff Burrows proposed an amendment to the spring black bear hunt to eliminate a quota for female black bears that FWP biologists had put in place to protect the population. The amendment had not been publicized as part of the commission agenda, but the commission approved the amendment.
Ten months earlier, under pressure from Region 1 Commissioner and outfitter Pat Tabor, FWP had made a proposal to lengthen the spring black bear season by two weeks. But FWP also created a quota that would stop the hunt once female bears were 37% of the bears killed. Once female bears exceeded 40% of those killed, research indicated the population would decline. At that meeting, the commission approved extending the season to June 15 and the 37% quota.
Few people attended the Dec. 19 commission meeting since the published agenda was short. During public comment, Montana Wildlife Federation spokesman Mike Mershon protested Burrow’s no-notice amendment.
“I want to express concern over how this is being brought forward,” Mershon said on Dec. 19. “These agenda amendments make it difficult to get the word out to the public and shortens the window to respond, research and develop comments.”
FWP Region 1 supervisor Neil Anderson said during the Dec. 19 meeting that the 37% limit was imposed for a good reason: Black bears in Region 1 have been hammered, especially after hunting regulations started changing in 2021.
“We were coming off two years of almost record harvest in black bears. In 2021 and 2022, we harvested over 700 bears each year in Region 1 alone, almost 1,500 in two years,” Anderson said. “Over the last two years, black bear harvest dropped to 455 in 2023 and again last year. So we probably did dig into the black bear population pretty good in 2021 and ’22, even though the season at that time ended on May 31.”
The plaintiffs didn’t attend the meeting. But they say they and others would have attended to oppose the amendment had they known about it. The plaintiffs include Denise Boggs, Patrick Kelly, Michael Bader, George Nickas, Clint Nagel, Phil Knight, Paul Edwards, Michele Dieterich and Larry Campbell.
“What they were supposed to do was only eliminate the quota in three wilderness units with real low harvest. So it didn’t really hit the radar screen for anybody. But then they illegally removed the quota for the whole region. So that was a huge change,” Bader said. “This (lawsuit) will hopefully prevent a repeat performance.”
However, the Dec. 19 unannounced amendment was a repeat performance. At the end of 2012, the commission was sued under Montana’s open meeting laws for not providing advance public notice of a decision to close wolf hunting and trapping in two hunting districts north of Yellowstone National Park. Attorneys Cory Swanson and Jim Brown filed the lawsuit for a rancher and four organizations including Citizens for Balanced Use, saying the commission had violated open meeting laws and the right to public participation.
On Jan. 15, 25 people, including the nine plaintiffs, sent a letter to the FWP commission stating that the commission had broken the law and therefore the vote approving the amendment was legally void. The commission didn’t address the letter during its Feb. 13 meeting.
Contact reporter Laura Lundquist at lundquist@missoulacurrent.com.