Wolf forum turns political

Shoot the wolves. Vote Republican. Oust Molloy. That was the sentiment of a Montanans for Multiple Use “public information” forum on wolves held Monday night at Flathead valley Community College.

More than 100 people attended what became a rally not only against wolves but also the federal government in general. The overwhelming sentiment from the crowd and speakers was that there were simply too many wolves living in Montana. The crowd was angry that U.S. District Court Judge Donald Molloy’s recent court ruling placed wolves back on the Endangered Species List, even though more than 500 wolves now roam the state.

“Annoy Judge Molloy,” a large yellow sign proclaimed as people entered the meeting room. But many of the attendees wanted to more than to annoy Molloy — they wanted him out of office.

Americans have created a “federal monster,” said Derek Skees, the Republican candidate for House District 4. “We need to rein in out-of-control judges. Mr. Molloy should not be in office anymore.”

Skees also suggested that Montana follow Utah, which recently passed a law that would allow the state to condemn federal lands.

“How can they manage wolves on land they don’t own anymore?” he argued.

The meeting was intended to be a question-and-answer session with a panel composed of Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation representative Kirk Murphy, Larry Anderson, an aide to Congressman Denny Rehberg, and Republican State Sens. Greg Hinkle of Thompson Falls and Bruce Tutvedt of Kalispell.

A number of other state Republican lawmakers also attended the meeting, and all spoke out against wolves. Murphy said the Elk Foundation’s stance is that wolves should be managed as a game animal like black bears and mountain lions.

“By every standard, wolves are recovered,” he said, later adding that the Foundation “strongly supports the need to manage wolves (and) at pretty low numbers. Those quotas need to go up. They need to go way up.”

When asked if wolves in national parks should be managed, Murphy said, “I don’t know that we’ll get control inside the parks. That’s a tough one. I think we’re talking about wolves outside of parks.”

But there were plenty of speakers in the crowd that wanted wolves eradicated.

“We didn’t want the wolf originally, and we don’t want it now,” said Columbia Falls resident Clarence Taber.

Rehberg is co-sponsoring legislation that would remove wolves from ESA protection. But Tutvedt cautioned that what’s popular in Montana might not be popular in Atlanta — the turf of former Republican Sen. Newt Gingrich, who many political observers believe will run for president in 2012.

“It’s a big hill to climb,” Tutvedt said.