Columbia Falls man harvests first wolf from Bob Marshall Wilderness

Northwest Montana News Network

A Columbia Falls man has harvested the first wolf from the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex.

Daniel Pettit reported Friday that he had shot a wolf on Soakem Mountain in the upper reaches of Schafer Creek, a tributary to the Middle Fork Flathead River, according to Caroline Sime, wolf management coordinator for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

It was the first wolf to be harvested in Wolf Management Unit 1, which encompasses the entire northern tier of the state. There is a 41-wolf quota for that management unit and a 75-wolf quota for the entire state.

"It's my understanding that [Pettit] has not come out of the woods yet," Sime said on Monday, noting that the average stay for hunters deep in the wilderness area is about seven days.

Pettit shot the wolf in the Great Bear Wilderness at the northern end of the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex.

The first organized wolf hunt to be held in Montana got under way Sept. 15, but only in the state's wilderness areas.

A hunter from Roberts harvested the first wolf in the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness. An out-of-state hunter got the second wolf from that same wilderness. Pettit's is the third wolf to be taken statewide.