By Michael Howell
The county’s draft Predator Control Policy is undergoing some changes since the input given last week by members of the Ravalli County Fish and Wildlife Association, according to Commissioner Suzy Foss who is spearheading the process.
The group was scheduled to meet with the Board of Commissioners last week but that meeting was cancelled at the last minute. Instead, about ten RCFWA members met privately with Commissioners Foss and Greg Chilcott to express their views on the current draft policy.
RCFWA President Tony Jones said that back in October when the commissioners first started drafting a predator control policy a timeline was set for completion of the process and the commissioners stated then that they would solicit input from various groups with a special interest in the matter and several were named specifically.
“RCFWA was one of the groups mentioned,” said Jones, “but no information was ever solicited from us prior to the issuance of the first draft, so we thought we should come forward and be a part of the process.” Jones said it was a good meeting and that he felt like the group’s concerns had been heard.
Although in agreement with some of the policy, Jones said members had specific concerns about some aspects of the policy. He said since the policy is aimed at Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks it seemed inappropriate to include issues that could really only be changed by the legislature, such as setting license fees and prohibiting bear baiting.
“Those are things set by state law and are more appropriately worked out at the state legislature, not with FWP,” said Jones. He said it didn’t make sense to pressure FWP to change the law when that is not their job.
Jones said it was also important to have a science-based system for setting quotas and FWP was in the best position to do that locally.
“We’ve been at this a long time,” said Jones. “When you try and knock FWP and go outside the process, you are just spinning your wheels.” He said his group would be working closely with the commissioners on drafting a good policy and he felt that their voice was being heard.
Commissioner Foss agreed.
“It was a very positive meeting,” said Foss. She said that some of the concerns raised by the group made a lot of sense and she was busy making changes to the draft policy to reflect those concerns. She was uncertain when a revised draft would be ready for public review.