BILLINGS — Montana Secretary of State Linda McCulloch has given backers of an initiative to ban trapping on public lands approval to gather the signatures needed to qualify for the November ballot.
A group calling itself Trap Free Montana Public Lands said Wednesday it will need 24,175 signatures for its proposal to make the ballot.
Spokeswoman K.C. York says the initiative would ban trapping on public lands that make up about 35 percent of the state.
Trapping still would be allowed on private land, and government workers on public land would be able to trap nuisance animals or those involved in conflicts.
A 2010 trapping initiative failed to qualify for the ballot. That was before the state allowed wolf trapping for the first time during the 2012-13 hunting season.