FWP commission maintains push to reduce mountain lion populations

Laura Lundquist

(Missoula Current) Biologists worry that mountain lions are possibly being over-hunted, so one Fish, Wildlife & Parks commissioner tried to apply the brakes in her region. She was overruled.

When the FWP commission discussed changes to mountain lion quotas on Thursday, Region 3 Commissioner Susan Brooke proposed an amendment to reduce the quotas for male and female lions in eight hunting units of Region 3’s south-central ecoregion. Most of the quotas would be reduced by at least two lions to slow what biologists suspect is an unsustainable amount of killing.

Brooke’s proposal would return the Region 3 quotas to those that existed prior to June 2023, when the commission increased quotas in Regions 1 through 4 to reduce most of the lion populations by 40%. Wildlife chief Brian Wakeling clarified that FWP designed quotas that would lead to a 40% reduction over six years.

“The commission changed the quotas in Region 3 pretty much at the last minute, increasing some lion management units by 20, 30 and 40%. I questioned the wisdom of doing that when we do not have the data. But I voted for it and I was assured it wouldn’t be a detriment to the lion population,” Brooke said.

Brooke said she immediately got pushback about that vote from the Region 3 houndsmen who have continued to ask that the quotas be reduced. Some lion hunters, such as Justin Baertsch of Helena, backed Brooke’s amendment because of their experience in the field.

“This amendment represents a necessary correction to the overreach of the 2022 decision that drastically increased lion quotas in many units. The goal of a 40% population reduction was not grounded in sufficient biological data and, as the record shows, faced significant public opposition. As a houndsman who spends countless days in the field, I can attest firsthand to the declining lion sign and the difficulty in locating mature toms and healthy females in several of the affected LMUs,” Baertsh wrote in an online comment on Brooke’s amendment.

In 2023, FWP had no population data for lions in Region 3, so it had used a population model from Region 1 and applied it to Region 3 to come up with the new quotas, Brooke said.

“I don’t think there’s any hunter who thinks you can do wolf population modeling in Region 3 and take it up to Region 1 and say this is what your quotas are going to be. It’s a totally different set of circumstances,” Brooke said Thursday.

In late 2023, the West-Central Lion Ecoregion Population Objective Committee was able to see some of the data, and it recommended managing for a stable lion population to maintain harvest levels. Additionally, the committee noted that they would like to have the ability to proactively adjust quotas each year with biologists and “along with predators, very high human hunter numbers are impacting mule deer, elk, and white-tailed deer populations.”

Region 3 biologists suggested the quotas proposed in the amendment. In their observations over the past five years or so, they’ve seen a reduction in the proportion of lions brought in by hunters that are older than 6. A greater proportion of young lions in the hunting harvest indicates that the amount of hunting is reducing the population.

Wakeling said his biologists still had no reliable population estimates, but a preliminary analysis indicates 700 to 900 lions are in the Region 3 ecoregion and abundance seems to be lower.

“A decline within this area seems plausible to me,” Wakeling said. “While lions may be less abundant, populations are in no danger of extirpation.”

Region 2 commissioner Jeff Burrows strongly opposed Brooke’s amendment. In 2023, he presented some low mule deer population counts as justification for reducing the predator populations, such as mountain lions.

“We gave a management directive to the department - we want to drive the number of cats down. The concern for me was we had a mule deer crisis at the time. The reason I want to get cat numbers down is, in (hunting district) 250, we’re down to taking our last ram tag away because the cats are pummeling our sheep. I know it’s unfair to solely blame it on cats, because wolves have a dynamic and bears have a dynamic. I think we have a legislative mandate, we’re tasked with making sure we have these populations of ungulates out there.,” Burrows said. “I’m struggling with taking this back to the 2022 level. When we say ‘what’s the harm,’ it’s potential impacts to our ungulates.”

Brooke said that when she talked to the biologists, they weren’t concerned about sheep populations in the units where they wanted to reduce the mountain lion quotas. Region 3 Wildlife Chief Warren Hansen told the commission Thursday that the majority of the Region 3 sheep populations are stable, with the exception being the northern Gallatin Range population. Even the Tendoy Mountain population is growing.

“You can take all the lions off the landscape, and you’re still going to have trouble with mountain sheep because of disease. The disease is what’s really challenging these populations. And the first sheep that a lion is going to kill is a sick one,” Brooke said. “That’s what lions do is take the sick ones out.”

Region 4 commissioner KC Walsh backed Brooke’s amendment since it related to lion hunting just in her region.

“There’s a reason why each region has a commissioner. I know Commissioner Brooke has done her homework. I support what she’s doing. It seems to me less arbitrary than the 40% increase we did last time. And my understanding is the department is neutral on this amendment,” Walsh said.

But the vote was 4:2 against Brooke’s amendment. Region 5 commissioner Brian Cebull said the 2023 vote to increase quotas by 40% had been partially influenced by Legislative pressures.

“But the main pressure was reduction of predators and increase in ungulates. The concept wasn’t just targeting lions; it was black bears and wolves. Stay the course. When I hear sheep populations are healthy in these areas, maybe we’re having an impact,” Cebull said.

Earlier this year, several groups challenged a December FWP commission decision that eliminated female black bear quotas in Region 1. Biologists had set a limit where only 37% of black bears killed could be female. More than that would likely lead to population losses, and biologists believe black bears in northwest Montana are already on the decline due to the introduction of methods such as hound hunting. Burrows proposed the no-notice amendment to eliminate the quota.

This spring, according to FWP, three hunting units in Region 1 exceeded 37% female harvest: Units 170, 100 and 121. In Unit 121, 43 bears were killed and almost 50% were female. In Unit 100, 39 bears were killed and 38.5% were female.

Contact reporter Laura Lundquist at lundquist@missoulacurrent.com.