The Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission on Wednesday approved a harvest quota of 300 wolves for the upcoming hunting and trapping season, landing between the state agency’s recommended ceiling and the prior year’s higher limit as commissioners weighed population uncertainty against management obligations.

The Decision

The new quota marks a significant reduction from the 452-wolf limit set for the 2025-26 season, but exceeds the 250-wolf cap that Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks staff had recommended. Commissioner Ian Wargo framed the compromise in practical terms. “Why not split the difference? We’re bound by the law on one side, we’re bound by relisting on the other,” Wargo told the Daily Montanan.

The reference to “relisting” points to a persistent concern in Montana wildlife management: if the state allows the wolf population to fall too low, federal authorities could reassert control under the Endangered Species Act. Montana FWP has established a management baseline of 450 wolves as a buffer against that outcome — a floor the commission must keep in view when setting harvest limits.

The new season opens September 15.

A Revised Population Picture

Central to this year’s deliberations was a substantially lower wolf population estimate. Montana FWP’s updated modeling tool, called the integrated Patch Occupancy Model version 2.0 (iPOM 2.0), puts the statewide gray wolf population at approximately 725 animals — a sharp drop from the prior estimate of 1,094 produced by the previous methodology.

That difference in estimates, rather than necessarily reflecting an actual population crash, likely reflects the shift in modeling approaches. Still, the lower number gave commissioners reason for caution and drove the department’s recommendation toward a more conservative 250-wolf quota.

Wildlife advocates argued the commission should have gone further. Mark Cooke of Wolves of the Rockies contended that “uncertainty should lead to caution, not greater killing,” as reported by the Daily Montanan — a position that did not carry the day with a majority of commissioners.

Context: Last Season’s Harvest and Livestock Losses

The 2025-26 wolf hunting and trapping season, which closed March 15, produced a harvest of 247 wolves — 145 taken by hunters and 102 by trappers. That combined total was the lowest recorded since 2016, a data point that informed both the department’s caution and the commission’s willingness to set the quota somewhat higher than staff suggested.

Livestock losses attributed to wolves also continued to register as a significant pressure point. Montana’s Livestock Loss Board paid out more than $90,000 in reimbursements to ranchers for wolf-caused livestock deaths in 2025, underscoring the ongoing tension between predator management and agricultural interests across Montana’s rural landscape.

Gray wolves in Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming have been managed at the state level since their removal from the federal endangered species list in 2009, following a recovery period that began with reintroduction in the mid-1990s. The delisting transferred authority — and the accompanying political and legal pressures — to state fish and wildlife agencies.

What Comes Next

With the quota set at 300 and the season starting September 15, hunters and trappers will operate under rules that allow for a larger take than last year’s actual harvest while still falling well short of the previous season’s authorized ceiling. Whether harvest numbers approach the new limit will depend on wolf distribution, hunter effort, and conditions on the ground across Montana’s vast hunting districts.

The commission’s middle-ground approach reflects a recurring challenge in Montana wildlife policy: balancing statutory management obligations, federal oversight risk, livestock industry concerns, and conservation pressures — all against a backdrop of population data that, by the commission’s own acknowledgment, carries meaningful uncertainty. That tension is unlikely to ease heading into the 2027 legislative session, where wolf management has historically drawn significant attention from both ranching and wildlife constituencies.