Footloose Montana

11/06/2026

“We can do a lot more to manage livestock than we can to manage predators,” Matt Barnes told The Guardian.

what can we change in our own practices to prevent conflict before an animal is harmed?

Here in Montana, the Tom Miner Basin Association promotes keeping cattle together and moving herds thoughtfully across the landscape. Its coexistence resources include electric fencing and fladry, tools that can help keep wildlife and livestock apart.

we want prevention to receive the funding, training, and commitment it deserves. Supporting range riders, helping landowners install and maintain deterrents, and making coexistence resources accessible are meaningful investments in that future.

Read the article in The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/26/modern-cowboy-new-west-predators?fbclid=IwY2xjawVYrQxleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBwZG9mAXNydGMGYXBwX2lkEDIyMjAzOTE3ODgyMDA4OTIAAR_F1hha-IoOhfAh0GdP6tSoOCuNj2HOnca2-22uouv3IBZm4I_7eKZ49CuPfw_aem_LQQ-hlQxREaRJwVCe5aLaw

11/06/2026

11/05/2026

Colorado voters have spoken! On November 3, Coloradans rejected Amendment 83, a proposal that would have established a constitutional right to hunt and fish and designated those activities as the preferred methods of managing wildlife populations.

While hunting and fishing were already legal, the amendment carried broader implications for wildlife protection, particularly the future regulation of trapping.

In 1996, Colorado voters approved a constitutional amendment banning certain cruel trapping methods, including leghold traps and snares. Amendment 83 would not have automatically overturned those protections, but opponents raised concerns that its vague language protecting "traditional methods" could invite legal challenges to trapping restrictions and complicate future efforts to strengthen wildlife protections.

This was about more than hunting and fishing. It was about whether particular methods of killing wildlife should receive constitutional preference, potentially limiting the public's ability to influence wildlife management for generations.

The significance of this vote extends well beyond Colorado.

Here in Montana, where trapping and snaring remain legal under state regulations, these questions are especially important. Montanans have long debated the use of traps on public lands, the risks to pets and unintended wildlife victims, and the need for more humane, accountable wildlife management.

Colorado's outcome demonstrates the power of public participation. What began with 14 nonprofit organizations and dozens of advocates grew into a coalition of 155 endorsers, including conservation organizations, scientists, legal scholars, and elected officials.

Wildlife belongs to all of us. Decisions about its future should remain open to scientific evidence, humane alternatives, and the voices of every citizen, whether they hunt, trap, or simply value wildlife alive and wild.

Congratulations to the Colorado coalition and everyone who helped make this outcome possible. Your voices matter, and this victory deserves to be celebrated!

11/05/2026

We are thrilled to see Colorado residents speak up against Amendment 83. Trapping has no place in modern society!

11/03/2026

“Why Do We Need to Listen to the Biologists?”

Montana Fish and Wildlife Commissioner Ian Wargo asked that question. The report identifies a broader pattern of Commission bias against wolves, mountain lions, and bears.

Consider the August wolf decision: FWP biologists recommended a statewide quota of 250. The Commission approved 300, allowing 50 more wolves to be killed than the department recommended.

Commissioners can question scientific recommendations. But departing from them should require a clear explanation supported by evidence.

For Footloose Montana, the expectation is straightforward: examine the research, acknowledge uncertainty, and explain how decisions protect wildlife over the long term.

Dismissing expertise is a failure of responsibility.

11/02/2026

Join Us for a Special Book Reading: The Hunt by Ryan Devereaux
When: Friday, November 13 | 7:00 PM
Where: Shakespeare & Co. Bookstore | Missoula, Montana

Footloose Montana is proud to sponsor an evening with award-winning investigative journalist Ryan Devereaux.

THE HUNT tells the extraordinary inside story of the deadliest wolf hunt in the history of Yellowstone National Park, in which a fifth of the park’s wolf population was decimated in the winter of 2021–2022, a drama of conservation, corruption, and centuries-old battles to decide the future of wild creatures and wild spaces in the American West.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ryan Devereaux is an award-winning journalist and Type Media Center fellow based in Tucson, Arizona, where he covers the intersections of politics, power, and justice in the American West. From 2013 to 2024, he was a senior investigative reporter at The Intercept, where he covered a range of topics from conservation and the environment to immigration and the border, to the War on Terror and the drug war in Mexico.

Join us for an evening of investigative journalism, important conversations, and a powerful reminder of why we must stand up for wolves.
See you there!

Voices of Praise:

“Ryan Devereaux has written a magnificently disturbing page-turner about the West's most political animal and he draws an inescapable conclusion: no wild creature in America exposes the cold depths of human nature like the wolf.” —Dan Flores, New York Times bestselling author of Coyote America and Wild New World

“To decode the politics of the modern American West, read Ryan Devereaux’s exquisitely reported The Hunt, in which the story of a single season in Yellowstone becomes a story about us all.” —Michelle Nijhuis, author of Beloved Beasts: Fighting for Life in an Age of Extinction

11/02/2026

Who Is the Commission Really Serving?

You should not have to hunt, trap, or profit from wildlife to have a meaningful voice in its future.

Whether you watch birds, photograph bears, hunt elk, or simply want wild animals to flourish, your concerns deserve fair consideration.

Yet an analysis prepared for Footloose Montana and partner organizations identifies recurring problems with public notice, participation, and Commission decision-making. These findings raise a fundamental question: whose interests carry weight when Montana’s wildlife policies are decided?

Public service requires more than opening a microphone. It requires listening, explaining decisions, addressing evidence, and remaining willing to change course.

Footloose Montana is calling for a Commission that serves the full public and takes its responsibility to wildlife seriously.

Caring about wildlife should be enough to earn a seat in the conversation.

10/30/2026

Montana’s wildlife deserves a voice—and so do the people who care about its future.

As Mark Heinz reports in Cowboy State Daily, GWA and Footloose Montana are raising concerns about the Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission’s treatment of predators and public input.

The commission rejected a petition requiring 24-hour trap checks and set a wolf hunting and trapping quota of 300—above Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks’ recommendation of 250.

GWA President Clinton Nagel is calling for wildlife management that serves the public as a whole. We’re advocating for decisions grounded in science, meaningful public participation, and a fair hearing for all Montanans.

Read the reporting by Mark Heinz:
https://cowboystatedaily.com/.../critics-blast-wyoming.../

Photo: NPS/Jim Peaco