Letter to the editor: Stop Montana’s 500 wolf cull — Science and public health are at risk

Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks is proposing a 500-wolf kill quota for the 2025–26 season — up to half the state’s estimated population. This isn’t wildlife management. It’s eradication.

Peer-reviewed studies show that killing wolves disrupts pack structure and increases livestock conflict, especially when juveniles or lone wolves fill the vacuum. Non-lethal tools, such as fladry, range riders, and guardian dogs, are over 90% effective at deterring predation (Treves et al., Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 2016).

Wolves are also one of our best natural defenses against Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD). By targeting sick or neurologically impaired deer and elk, they slow the spread of this always-fatal disease. CWD prions are environmentally persistent and have been transmitted to non-human primates in laboratory studies, raising serious public health concerns (Race et al., Emerging Infectious Diseases, 2018).

Meanwhile, elk populations have increased by 42% since 2005, indicating that wolves don’t threaten hunting opportunities. Wolf tourism contributes more than $80 million annually to local economies.

This proposed mass killing is not only unsupported by science — it undermines public trust, threatens ecological balance, and jeopardizes human and animal health.

Montanans deserve a better path forward: one rooted in science, coexistence, and ethical stewardship.

Oliver Starr, executive director,

Tahoe Wolf Center