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| A state trail camera captures a gray wolf roaming in Washington state. Photo courtesy state Department of Fish and Wildlife |
By state estimates, there are only about 216 state-endangered gray wolves left in Washington. Wolves hunt to survive, and they occasionally hunt and kill livestock. In cases where ranchers report wolves chronically harming livestock despite preventions, state officials have lethally removed 53 wolves since 2012.
Fortunately, the need for removal has fallen year after year thanks to protocol introduced by the state Wolf Advisory Group. Wolf-livestock conflicts have fallen, lethal removals have fallen, livestock losses have fallen, and wolf populations have improved.
But the determination to destroy a wolf is still a matter of protocol rather than a matter of rule, so last Friday Gov. Jay Inslee directed the state Department of Fish and Wildlife to begin a rulemaking process to create a more formal and consistent review process before a decision is made to destroy a wolf, and to maintain continuity of that process.
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Gray wolf (WDFW)
Gray wolf conservation and management (WDFW)
How about the rancher in North Eastern part of the state the said WSU wouldn't get a medical school if something wasn't done about the wolves that attacked some of his stock? (and later an article was published that "someone" had placed salt licks in areas known where wolves traversed from one area to another). Maybe he could pay a little higher fee to graze his cattle on "public" land? and then charge some humoungous fee to a hunter who gets to take out a wolf that has been identified to be "removed"?
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