Justice for Lookout wolves

The Methow Valley News broke the news yesterday that three Twisp area residents have been indicted by a federal grand jury with charges or killing several endangered Washington gray wolves.

Wolf recovery in Washington has been slow and difficult since they were killed off to extinction over 70 years ago. Washington’s small but recovering population of wolves is considered highly endangered, and the wolves at the center of the poaching case in the Cascade Mountains surrounding the Methow Valley are federally protected under the Endangered Species Act.

“Senseless acts of poaching like this are a blow to us all,” said Conservation Northwest Executive Director Mitch Friedman in a press release. “Poachers like this who deliberately try to wipe out a population of endangered wildlife need to be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.”

Conservation Northwest has partnered with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife to expand an enforcement reward fund to help catch poachers who illegally kill rare wildlife, like gray wolves or grizzly bears, or who take part in "spree killing" of big game and other wildlife.

The Oregon Cattlemen’s Association has spoken out strongly against illegal wolf killing.  Many hunting groups have also come out denouncing illegal killing, stating that illegal killing is wrong, self-defeating, and exactly opposite of how sportsmen created conservation and the privilege of ethical hunting in the first place.

"We are learning just how important they are to maintaining a healthy, functioning balance of predator and prey in the wild,” added Friedman.  “We have the responsibility to restore wolves and find ways to live with them in their native lands here in Washington.”

Listen to the story.

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