Urban Wildlife Management Task Force

MINUTES ADLC URBAN WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT TASKFORCE HEARST FREE LIBRARY APRIL 29, 2025 MEMBERS PRESENT Chairman Kurt Wyant, Commissioner Ed Beaudette, Fred Boyer, CLE Bill Sather, Chuck Stokke (by telephone), Rick Morse, Chris Marchion, Chad Gochanour, Annette Smith ABSENT None MEMBERS OF THE PRESS James Rosien, Anaconda Leader MEMBER OF THE PUBLIC Per Sign In Sheet; Kirstie Yeager, FWP Biologist CALL TO ORDER Chairman Kurt Wyant called the meeting to order at 6:04 pm. APPROVAL OF MINUTES The members had the opportunity to review the minutes of the last meeting. Motion to approve minutes made by Annette Smith. Seconded by Rick Morse. Motion passed by acclamation. DISCUSSION Chairman Wyant opened the meeting by presenting a new ADLC Management Plan to be considered by the ADLC Commission. Chuck Stokke made the initial inquiry as to who had prepared the new proposed plan. Chairman Wyant stated that he had reviewed the plans of the other 11 Montan cities and towns that had adopted Wildlife plans and based on the Town of Phillipsburg’s’ plan created this new plan. This assertion was challenged by Commissioner Beaudette, who stated that a comparison of the two plans revealed that substantial portions of the “new” plan had been taken word for word from the previous plan he, Chuck Stokke and Kristie Yeager had collaborated in preparing. At this point, it is unknown who drafted the new proposed plan. Chuck Stokke then asked for clarification, in that the new plan as proposed was contradictory in that in one area it stated that no culling would be planned and yet, later in the TASKFORCE MINUTES 04-29-2025 1 document it referred to future culling being necessary based on deer counts. No response or explanation of this contradiction was put forth by Chairman Wyant. Kirstie Yeager was asked to provide background on the timing of deer counts. In response to that Ms. Yeager indicated that the proposed deer count in May would not be particularly helpful in that it would not take into consideration the annual fluctuation in deer population related to increased food sources related to spring and summer growth and the increase in deer numbers as a result of fawns being born in the spring and immediately changing the numbers. She stated that the most reliable and informative measurement would be counts at the end of summer and the end of winter. Upon questioning she stated that there were two distinct populations of deer in the study area related to the City of Anaconda. There are a number of deer in the range of 180 to 200 head, based on the previous deer counts conducted, that could not be characterized as free ranging wild deer passing through the area. The deer in Washoe Park and those roaming in town and on its fringes are habituated “town” deer. When asked about the physical condition of the town deer seen roaming the streets and those carcasses that she collected and examined showed that most of them were in poor condition, suffering from malnutrition, parasites, and injuries. She described deer with deteriorating hides and bones showing through. When asked her assessment of the rate of attrition of deer in the immediate area due to this year’s unusual late deep snow and cold temperatures, she indicted that the numbers were not out of the ordinary based on her professional training and experience in this area. Ms. Yeager did indicate that the deer population within the Anaconda portion of the study area was well beyond the carrying capacity of the food available, as reflected by the poor condition of the majority of the habituated “town” deer. Ms. Yeager stated that culling deer was the preferred method of decreasing the number of habituated “town” deer to get to a population of wild deer passing through the area in a more natural manner. The process of humane trapping and culling deer and providing untainted venison to people in need was preferable to the current death through injury, disease and malnutrition. She also stated that while culling the town deer should be considered to address the continuing conflicts, that she as a FWP representative, could not make a formal recommendation but that decision must be made by the ADLC Commission. An audience member asserted that the problem of residents feeding deer continued and that when he and his wife had made complaints to ADLC Law Enforcement, that they were told that it was FWP’s responsibility. This has been consistently been refuted by FWP, as this type of enforcement is the responsibility of local law enforcement forces. The audience member was directed to address his complaint to CLE Bill Sather who, inexplicably, stated that there had been 24 complaints of people feeding deer, so far in 2025. This was in direct contradiction to statements made at previous meetings. After considerable discussion about possible changes in deer population that could take place as a result of reclamation activities, none of which were based on any professional investigation and some of which was directly contradicted by Ms. Yeager in stating that she did not believe that any of the “town” deer would migrate to the uplands because they have never lived in the wild and were not capable of surviving in that environment. TASKFORCE MINUTES 04-29-2025 2 Another issue arose in that the “new” proposed plan created a new study area different from that established by the ADLC Commission in Ordinance #274. An audience member tried to assert that this change to an Ordinance could be done by an unnamed person creating a new document. This assertion was strongly refuted by Commissioner Beaudette as only the Commission has the authority to change the terms of an Ordinance by amendment and it cannot be done by the assertion of an unnamed author of a proposed plan. An attempt was made to discuss the possibility of merging the two proposed plan but that was circumvented by an audience member demanding that a vote take place. Chairman Wyant called for a vote and the result was 6-3 in favor of presenting the new plan to the Commission. None of the six members voting to proceed with the new plan reside within the Anaconda study area. ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at approximately 8:05 pm. TASKFORCE MINUTES 04-29-2025 3