They wernt hearings they were written and either sent via mail or email,read some of the comments in each section,you will find a plethera of common sense that will never surface in the managment plan.
http://fwp.mt.gov/wildthings/wolf/commentsummary.html#how
Comments from the work sessionsand from written and E-mail correspondence--were entered and summarized in their own individual data files, but with an identical file structure. The comments recorded on flip charts during the community work sessions were entered verbatim into an Access database, although spelling and grammar were corrected upon entry. Each comment was assigned a unique record number by the computer through Accesss autonumber function.
Upon receipt, each written comment or E-mail comment was assigned a unique number manually using a traditional stamp and ink pad system. All the emails were printed and filed with the other written comments."
Greg,we just blew it off as educated arrogance until we lost 2 steers in 2 weeks,then we tried to make contact with the higher ups in the Federal F&G dept,all we had to do was mention the word wolf and you would hit a stone wall,finally they sent a biologist out to look at what was now nothing but scattered bones,from these remnants the genius was able to determine that our steers had been killed by grizzly bears and then eaten by yotes,5 generations of my family have never seen a bear within 50 miles of that ranch let alone a grizz,and the pack of wolves my grandfather jumped off the first carcass were just big coyotes,again his education allows him to see through the ignorance of a man who grew up on the land and whos father was a wolf trapper/hunter for the US govt.Once we started hearing about thier new reintroduction program everything started to make sense,deny any reports of wolves so they could get support for the program.To date we have lost 10 and possibly 11 head of cattle,we dont even bother reporting them to the feds anymore,if you dont have video of them on the kill or making the kill you dont have a chance of getting restitution,i guess we are supposed to travel out there every day and keep track of thier pets for them.
