Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks officials have been working with the Montana Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit at the University of Montana for the last few years to develop a "patch occupancy modeling" for wolves, a method that relies heavily on an annual hunter survey.
This sounds more to favor hunting than it does for wolves.
I don't think asking Hunters to count is at all the "best available science"? Afterall, how many of them shoot a Wolf and say "I thought it was a coyote?"