Montana avoids federal grizzly bear trial with new wolf trapping rules

Monique Merrill

(CN) — Montana narrowly avoided a federal trial challenging wolf trapping and snaring in the state’s grizzly bear territory by adopting new trapping regulations to settle the case in the nick of time.

The bench trial was scheduled to begin on Dec. 2, with conservation groups Flathead-Lolo-Bitterroot Citizen Task Force and WildEarth Guardians set to ask the court to extend its preliminary injunction and extend the wolf-trapping injunction to include coyote trapping.

The groups argued that the state’s trapping regulations endangered grizzly bears in the area who could get ensnarled in the traps and become injured, which constitutes an illegal “take” under environmental law.

“This saves the people and the judicial system time and money by avoiding a trial. This is in the best interests of all involved,” Patty Ames, president of the Flathead-Lolo-Bitterroot Citizen Task Force, said in a statement.

On Nov. 12, the Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission adopted new trapping regulations that include both provisions on coyote trapping and the preliminary injunction’s geographic locations. Both parties filed a stipulated motion for an order of dismissal on Thursday.

“The terms of the settlement increase protection for grizzly bears across their habitat area in Montana, which is what we sought all along,” Ames said. “Wolf trapping will not occur when grizzly bears are out of their dens.”

Under the new regulations, trappers are required to obtain a free supplemental trapping permit in addition to a trapping license when trapping inside the geographical area identified in the preliminary injunction, primarily areas where grizzly bears are known to habitat.

The rules also reduced the wolf trapping season to Jan. 1 through Fed. 15, a time when most if not all the grizzly bears are in dens for winter hibernation, and added a provision encouraging trappers to avoid setting coyote traps in areas where grizzly bears or their tracks are observed.

The conservation groups sued the state in September 2023, arguing that its trapping regulations harmed protected grizzly bears and violated the Endangered Species Act. In November of that year, Chief U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy granted the conservation groups’ requested preliminary injunction, prohibiting trapping across a swath of the state larger than what the conservation groups had requested.

The conservation groups argued that the season for wolf trapping, which was set to begin as early as the first Monday after Thanksgiving and run until March 15, would harm grizzly bears in the area. Grizzly bears have become increasingly active through the winter months due to climate change, making them more susceptible to traps and snares used during the season, the conservation groups claimed.

Molloy, a Bill Clinton appointee, found that the groups had shown irreparable harm sufficient for the injunction by showing that the unlawful take of grizzly bears in wolf and coyote traps was “reasonably certain” under Montana’s regulations.

A panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Molloy’s injunction in April, but noted that the injunction was overbroad and comprised “what appears to be more than half the entire state of Montana,” U.S. Circuit Judge Mark J. Bennet, a Donald Trump appointee, wrote in the panel’s 44-page opinion.

The groups then submitted a motion for summary judgment in August, but Molloy denied it, writing in a 30-page order that there are still material questions of fact in the case that are best answered at a bench trial. Molloy also narrowed the geographic scope of the injunction.

Now, with new rules on the books, the conservation groups are celebrating the win for Montana’s grizzly bears.

“As we have been telling the Fish and Wildlife Commission for three years, the wolf trapping regulations we challenged harmed grizzly bears in violation of federal law,” Lizzy Pennock, carnivore coexistence attorney at WildEarth Guardians, said in a statement. “We are pleased that grizzly bears will face one less threat this winter, as the population slowly works toward recovery.”

While the case has been dismissed, the state isn’t entirely off the hook. Part of the joint motion for dismissal requires the state to cover the conservation groups’ attorney fees, which ran to $210,000. Under the terms of the settlement, no party admits liability.

Lawyers for the state of Montana did not respond to requests for comment before press time.