Big hearing on Washington State wolf plan Nov. 3 in Spokane

Will either side win the hearing?

The Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission will discuss the proposed state wolf plan and hold a public hearing. The state plan calls for 15 breeding pairs of wolves in the state for 3 years running before a state delisting can happen. About 2/3 of the land area in Washington protects the wolf by the federal ESA. All are protected by the state law.

The Washington plan calls for more than 15 breeding pairs of wolves anywhere in the state. The wolves are not to be bunched into some particular region of the state such as in Wyoming. Instead there is a wolf distribution requirement. Five breeding pairs would be required in Eastern Washington, four in the North Cascades and six in the South Cascades or Northwest Coast. This is innovative and should reduce the claim by some that “our area has to bear the entire burden of having the wolves.”  If history is a guide, however, the plan details will make little difference to the anti-wolf groups.

There won’t be many people in the middle, so the hearing, held to accommodate Eastern Washington where most of the wolves where 60% of the wolves live, will probably be strident, but then wolf supporters can hardly afford to lose. Despite public confusion, some of it deliberately propagated, all Washington state wolves migrated into the state on their own from Idaho or British Columbia. No wolves were ever introduced by a government agency.

Here is an AP story on the origin of the meeting and the status of the wolf in the state.

The meeting begins Thursday morning at 9 a.m. in the Ramada Spokane Airport, 8909 W. Airport Dr.  Map to the meeting place.