Commissioners discuss plans for Large Predator Resolution

At the special meeting of the Mineral County Commissioner in St. Regis on April 23, the commissioners discussed their Large Predator Resolution with the thirty plus attendees.

Commissioner Laurie Johnston began by stating the resolution came about when the commissioners attended a state-wide conference in February for the Montana County Commissioners and she attended a work group on large predators.

“Dan Happel of Madison County is kind of spearheading it and what he is asking is for all the counties in the state to adopt a large predator policy because he felt that just this county here and this county here can’t do it alone,” Commissioner Johnston said.

According to Commissioner Johnston, the group of resolutions state that the federal government cannot go into a county and introduce large predators without first approaching county officials.

“Instead of little Mineral County trying to do it ourselves we have the support of the whole state,” Commissioner Johnston said.

In the fall there will be another meeting of county commissioners and Commissioner Johnston said at that meeting they will determine how many counties have adopted large predator resolutions and then approach the Montana Association of Counties with the group of resolutions.

“It’s basically the county being left out of the loop and that can have unintended consequences,” Commissioner Roman Zylawy said. “Things like the grizzly bear could have consequences. We have the wolf here that after it was introduced - well our hunting economy has gone down. We would like to be involved and while there may not be a whole lot of teeth in our resolution, like Laurie said if it goes into the Montana Association of Counties, which is the hub, and all of the counties do the same – maybe that can be used as a leveraging tool someday at a state level.”

Commissioner Johnston added that it isn’t just Montana interested in adopting similar resolutions but Commissioner Happel of Madison has been approached by several other states as well.

The resolution was composed and adopted last month with help from the Mineral County Resource Plan Committee and details the counties policy on dealing with both large game animals and large predators.

The introduction of the resolution states that according to the Montana Code Annotated “the Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks shall ensure that county commissioners…in areas that have identifiable populations of large predators have the opportunity for consultation with state and federal agencies prior to state and federal policy decisions involving large predators and large game animals.”

Resolution 3.29.13 further states according to MCA “in managing large predators, the primary goal of the department, in order of listed priority are to: protect humans, livestock and pets, preserve and enhance the safety of the public during outdoor recreational and livelihood activities and preserve citizens’ opportunities to hunt large game species.”

Commissioner Zylawy added that Mineral County is in a “unique” situation when it comes to the policy due largely to two facts. One being the 1913 purchase and transplant of elk into the Sloway area for “future hunting and economic opportunities” and the second being the adoption of the Mineral County Resource Use Plan in 2004, which according to the resolution the Federal government is in direct violation of due to their introduction of large predators.

“Mineral County opposes any government, private or other entity’s attempt to introduce predators or increase the predator population through introduction of animals from elsewhere,” pages 29 and 30 of the Resource Use Plan state. “The reintroduction of individual animals from outside the area serves to upset the existing balance.”

The resolution portion details seven points of policy adopted by the Mineral County Commissioners including a requirement that the commissioners be involved and aware of any new “policy, discourse, rules or regulations” involving either large predators or large game animals.

“We recognize that large predators are part of our natural landscape and are willing to coexist with them as long as they do not have an adverse impact on the health and safety of our citizens, domestic livestock producers, large game populations, natural resource production and our county base,” the resolution states.

The last point in the resolution states that the county will have “direct” involvement in decision making that “will impact our way of life, custom and culture.”

“We expect that any future decisions will consider and respect all who reside here.”