Wolf foes outnumber friends at Fish and Wildlife hearing in Wenatchee

More than 50 ranchers, conservationists and hunters gave mixed reviews Tuesday of a plan to manage wolf re-establishment in Washington.

The speakers who opposed the plan outnumbered those who said they favored it two-to-one. People were most concerned about the loss and displacement of deer and elk, the economic impact on livestock owners and how the state will ensure funding the plan.

The Wenatchee meeting was the last of 12 public hearings regarding the state Department of Fish and Wildlife proposal. The agency and a 17-person advisory committee worked on the plan for two years. Of four management and conservation plans, the state chose the “middle of the road” option in terms of wolf protection and control. The goal is to establish 15 self-sustaining breeding pairs in order to delist the gray wolf as an endangered species.

But several people questioned whether the state has enough unpopulated land to support 15 wolf breeding pairs.

Jim Huckabay, a geography professor from Ellensburg, said those 15 pairs will produce at least 150 wolves. Washington has just 4,500 square miles of habitat and an average of 97 people per square mile, he said.

Idaho, Wyoming and Montana delisted the species at 300 wolves, he said. Those states now have more than 2,000 wolves over 29,000 to 40,000 square miles of habitat, with an average of 11 people per square mile.

Huckabay also cited Fish and Wildlife statistics, which estimated 200 wolves will consume about 2,600 elk and 4,200 deer per year — a third of the elk and 10 percent of the deer now harvested legally in the state.

A few people advocated for the restoration of more than 15 breeding pairs. Jay Kehne, a hunter, sheep-owner and a regional organizer for Conservation Northwest, said he can’t wait for his 10-year-old daughter to see or hear her first wolf.

“I didn’t come to this conclusion because I listened to one-sided statistics or another,” the Omak resident said. He said the science and research shows that “there’s something missing in our ecosystem. ... It’s more valuable to me as a naturalist, as a biologist that the system be right, not that I get an elk every year.”

Lorraine Kile, a cattle owner in Leavenworth, said that she pays $1,400 per cow for Black Angus. If that cow is killed, she doubted the state would pay for the cost of the animal or the price of its future calves.

“Every cow that I lose, you are causing me a loss of about $2,000,” Kile said. “If you pay me, that’d be really nice to see but I doubt it’s going to happen.”

Project Manager Harriet Allen said the plan’s development was paid for by state and federal grants. The agency plans to request more funding in grants and from the state legislature and will work with other agencies, such as the U.S. Forest Service, to implement the plan.

The comments in Wenatchee seemed to echo a similar meeting Monday in Okanogan County, where more than 150 people attended. The speakers in Okanogan also said they worry wolves will multiply too quickly, ruin deer and elk hunting and end up costing livestock owners dearly, despite the state’s offer to compensate them.

The public can still send written comments to Fish and Wildlife regarding the proposal until Jan. 8.