Controversial wolf plan approved

The Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission was united last Saturday in its approval of a controversial management and recovery plan for wolves in Washington.

The citizen commission approved the Gray Wolf Conservation and Management Plan at a public meeting in Olympia.

The plan, which one commission member called the most controversial and complex issue the commission has ever dealt with, is sure to ignite criticism from both hunting and livestock groups that have complained that it calls for too many of the predators.

Members of the commission, like Gary Douvia of Kettle Falls, called the plan a solid compromise and a “work in progress” that will keep wolf management in the hands of state officials instead of the feds.

Douvia pointed out that the plan gives cattlemen some latitude and options if they have up close and personal issues with wolves.

“We now have some protections in place,” Douvia said. “Once we get confirmation that there is a wolf incident…if a cattleman see’s a wolf attacking livestock, he can protect himself…there are some significant wins here for cattlemen.”

But like other commissioners, Douvia added that “this is only the beginning.”

In closing remarks last Saturday, Douvia said he’s concerned about the potential economic impacts to his region of eastern Washington, which is among the state’s most verdant hunting ground.

State wildlife officials had been working since 2007 to determine how best to recover wolves in their historic territory and ultimately delist them from protection as endangered species, while at the same time working to reduce and manage wolf conflicts with humans and livestock.

The plan establishes recovery objectives for gray wolves in three regions in Washington, along with establishing protocols for addressing predation on livestock and impacts on ungulates like elk, deer and caribou.

Before the commission cast its final, unanimous vote, they approved several changes to the draft plan. Among the changes is one that modifies the distribution of breeding wolf pairs needed to remove wolves from the state’s endangered species list.

Wolves migrated to Washington state from Oregon, Idaho and British Columbia. They are listed as endangered in Washington under state law and as endangered in the western two-thirds of the state under federal law.

Since 2007, a 17-member citizen Wolf Working Group has been the focus of 23 public meetings around the state, over 65,000 written comments and a blind scientific peer review.

Key elements of the plan include establishing a recovery objective of 15 breeding pairs of wolves that are present in the state for at least three years. Before gray wolves can be removed from the state’s endangered species list, at least four of these breeding pairs must be verified in Eastern Washington, four in the northern Cascades, four in the southern Cascades/Northwest coastal region and three others anywhere in the state.

The commission also allows WDFW to initiate action to delist gray wolves if 18 breeding pairs are documented during the period of one year.

The plan also provides a variety of management measures for cattlemen—from technical assistance for landowners to lethal removal and the control of wolves that prey on livestock.

The plan also establishes conditions for compensation to ranchers who lose livestock to wolf predation.

The plan also allows WDFW to use lethal and non-lethal measures to manage wolf predation on at risk deer, elk and caribou populations if wolf numbers reach or exceed the recovery objective in the region where that predation occurs.

All aspects of the newly adopted plan take effect immediately east of State Highways 97, 17 and 395, where gray wolves were removed from protection last spring.

At present, WDFW says there are five packs of from 25 to 30 adult gray wolves and yearlings. That number is likely to increase when end-of-the-year counts are completed.