MALTA, Mont. –-(Ammoland.com)- Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks’ mountain lion work group will meet this week in Missoula to proceed toward a consensus recommendation for harvest quotas and permit levels to manage mountain lions in west-central Montana’s Region 2.
The group will meet May 7-8, from 8am-5pm, in the Working for Wildlife Conference Room at the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation Headquarters (5705 Grant Creek Road). The public is invited to observe the group deliberations.
The mountain lion work group is a 12-person panel of citizen volunteers, comprised of houndsmen, outfitters and hunters, with combined experience covering most of west-central Montana. The group’s conversations are facilitated by Dr. Mike Mitchell, Leader of the Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit at the University of Montana, using a structured decision-making process designed to foster collaboration.
At their first two-day meeting in April, the group developed an issues statement, fundamental objectives, and a first draft of alternatives. During the intercession, members have been tasked with predicting the consequences of the alternatives that they drafted and ranking the fundamental objectives by importance.
This is the last meeting of the work group, and FWP plans to release the group’s recommendations to the public on May 12. Tentative mountain lion quotas for the 2014-15 seasons are out for review and public comment now, and the Fish and Wildlife Commission will consider work group inputs, along with all public comment, before making a final decision at its June 12 meeting in Helena.
To find and comment on FWP’s proposals for mountain lion harvest quotas and permit levels for the 2014-15 season now, along with the Lion Work Group recommendations (after May 12), visit fwp.mt.gov.