In total, 21 wolves have been taken in WMUs 313 and 316, according to data compiled by Montana FWP. Hunters and trappers had killed 223 wolves statewide as of Thursday afternoon.

Greg Lemon, a spokesperson for FWP, said wolf harvests across Montana remain on par with past seasons. As Montana Fish and Wildlife commissioners go through the regular season-setting process for wolves — likely in late spring or early summer — they’ll have an opportunity to adjust regulations if they’d like.

While the number wolves killed statewide this winter are about average, the removal of harvest quotas in the districts outside of Yellowstone National Park have caused a disproportionate number of the park’s wolves to be taken.

Nineteen wolves from packs that mostly reside within Yellowstone were killed in Montana’s WMUs 313 and 316, according to reports from the park. In Wyoming and Idaho, a total of five park wolves have been killed.

This winter, Yellowstone has lost about 20% of its total wolf population amid hunts in outside states, according to the park. Officials have said that at least one pack— the Phantom Lake pack— has been eliminated.

Marc Cooke, president of Wolves of the Rockies, said the damage that has been done to tourism in the park and the research conducted through the Yellowstone Wolf Project can’t be measured.

“If we go back in time to the reintroduction of wolves— we were righting a wrong that never should have been there to begin with,” he said. “Now we will be righting another wrong with the loss of quotas in (units) 313 and 316.”

In past winters, quotas have prevented hunters and trappers from taking more than one wolf in WMUs 313 and 316 per season, but the limits were dropped last August as the state liberalized wolf hunting and trapping regulations.

A series of bills proposed during the Legislative session directed the commission to permit snaring, extend the wolf hunting and trapping season and reduce the state’s overall wolf population. The bills were signed by Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte.

Montana’s wolf season opened in the fall, and as it progressed through December, Yellowstone Superintendent Cam Sholly sent a letter to Gianforte urging a suspension of wolf hunting and trapping in units 313 and 316.

Sholly wrote that the rate at which park wolves were being killed was “extraordinary,” and the “positive economic impacts of visitors viewing wolves in Yellowstone is estimated to be well over $30 million annually.”

Gianforte responded in early January that he would direct Sholly’s request to the commission. Meanwhile, dozens of Gardiner-area businesses and national and regional conservation organizations called for the wolf season to end in WMUs 313 and 316.

More than 100 businesses from around the park banded together in support of reinstating quotas. They formed the Wild Livelihoods Business Coalition.

Some conservation groups called on U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland to enact an emergency re-listing of Northern Rockies gray wolves under the Endangered Species Act.

In late January, following the outcry, the commission agreed to shut down the wolf season in Region 3 at the 82-wolf threshold. After the vote, one more wolf was killed in WMU 313 outside of Gardiner before the season ended, according to FWP data.

Now that wolf hunting in Region 3 is over for the season, Cooke said he and others want to meet with individual commissioners and members of “the ethical hunting community” to try and reinstate quotas in districts bordering Yellowstone.

A week ago, a federal judge reversed a Trump-era decision to remove gray wolves in the Lower 48 states from the Endangered Species Act. The decision didn’t apply to the Northern Rockies population.

“We’re reaching out to our supporters to lean on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to not appeal that ruling,” Cooke said. “We feel that if that ruling is appealed, it’s not sending a good message to the states with the wolves that are being killed right now.”

Cara McGary, owner of In Our Nature Guiding Services in Gardiner and a Wild Livelihoods steering committee member, said she’s really glad to be at the end of this challenging season, and she hopes there will never be another one like it in the area.

She said the time is yesterday to start working on getting quotas reinstated in WMUs 313 and 316 for the state’s next wolf hunting and trapping season.

“I’m grateful that the commission decided to close Region 3 at the threshold. I’m grateful for the hard work of everyone at FWP to keep the dashboard updated through the season,” McGary said.

In a written statement, Defenders of Wildlife Rockies and Plains program director Jonathan Proctor said the killing of at least 19 Yellowstone wolves in Montana “marks a dark chapter in wolf recovery.”

“This could have been avoided had the Wildlife Commission and Governor Gianforte listened to public outcry over the loss of these culturally, scientifically, and economically significant wolves,” Proctor said.