Jay Kehne joins The Conversation
Jay Kehne, newly appointed commissioner to Washington's Fish & Wildlife Commission and Okanogan County outreach associate for Conservation Northwest, discusses Washington's wolves and more with KUOW's Ross Reynolds.
Ross Reynolds: There are a lot of ranchers, as you know, concerned about wolves repopulating Washington state and killing their livestock and their dogs. What do you say to them?
Jay Kehne: Well I can respect those concerns. You know, wolves as they come back into our state, they're a predator and they're going to be eating elk and deer and that's going to affect some populations but hopefully not drastically. That's been the history in other states where they've come back in: there are some small areas where elk and deer numbers go down but not the norm. Same with cattle - the statistics if, you look at them, show yes, there are going to be losses but they're not huge losses. The trick is to make sure that we do everything we can to make sure that [ranchers are] fairly compensated and that includes figuring out ways to actually make sure we know how many cattle are being lost and also to prevent that where possible. So there are legitimate concerns and i think the whole commission realizes that in its passing this wolf plan. They know that the work now is just beginning.
Listen to the full conversation with Jay at KUOW's website.
