These numbers speak for themselves, about a 20 year trend were the herd was 14,000 to a high of 19,000 untill 2003. Winter didnt do this, yeah it fluctuates. We had the worst Winter on record in 96-97 this year basically winter didnt even hit untill mid Jan. Montana F@G are never going to admit the real truth. Notice in the article not one word mentioned of the wolf. I urge if you really wanna know what's going on go to the meetings and listen to what your officials are up to these days not what you can read about in articles that are often times slanted to to one side, I've heard it from the horses mouth so to say, and it's not good . Here in Region 1 our department is not for the hunter, trapper anymore and are scared to death of any litigation on the wolf or grizzly bear, I've heard that exact statement right from guy running region 1