I-160 Commentary

John Hughes

MWGA Annual Meeting Information Session

Saturday, December 5, 2009

John Hughes spoke to attendees of the Montana Wool Growers Association annual meeting on behalf of Montanans for Effective Wildlife Management (MEWM). MEWM is an organization formed to defeat Initiative 160, better known as the "Trap Ban."

Hughes emphasized the importance of allowing trapping to remain legal in Montana as a "wildlife management tool." The initiative, he explained, is poorly written and would ban all trapping on public lands. "Public lands" go beyond the obvious to include "parks, hospitals, universities, municipal golf courses, and state, city and county owned land and buildings." Such strict regulations would prohibit even the simple act of trapping mice on public property by anyone but Fish Wildlife and Parks (FWP) personnel.

Hughes pointed out that I-160 would place a tremendous burden on the FWP by requiring FWP employees to receive training and devote more time to trapping--a financial drain on the already burdened environmental entity--when licensed trappers could continue their current work with no additional cost to taxpayers.

Listeners were left with this premonition: the trap ban is only the beginning of what could become a long line of restrictive regulation. First, the focus will be prohibiting trapping on public lands. Next, the attention will turn to hunting. Then, if the movement gains momentum, livestock grazing will be eliminated until everyone has been pushed off public lands. Hughes warned not to take the trap ban lightly and to stop this line of thinking before it gains any more headway.