Wolf Recovery Program in WA

Lookout wolf pups, 2008. Captured on Conservation Northwest remote camera

Wolf plan brings balance

Wolves are returning on their own to Washington. Washington's wolf plan, approved in 2011, provides for common-sense wolf recovery and management. An outpouring of support for wolves in Washington bolstered this science-based, balanced plan. Thank you for speaking up for wolves!

A new documentary film on Washington's returning wolves

The approved plan is a pragmatic and broadly supported management plan for restoring wolves, minimizing livestock/wolf conflicts, maintaining healthy ungulate populations and hunting opportunities, and ensuring that wolves can eventually serve their keystone role in Washington’s ecosystems.

State wolf plan ~  Wolves help ecosystems ~ Frequent questions ~ Not fiction, but fact ~ Wolf news

"The next step is getting out on the ground to make sure that as wolves recover we’re minimizing the impact to livestock owners and to sportsmen. And making sure to keep wolves out of harm's way, for example, from poaching." - Jasmine Minbashian

At the heart of the Wolf Conservation and Management Plan is protection for Washington's wolves under state endangered species law until there are at least 15 breeding pairs are established, well distributed among three separate areas across the state. At that point, wolves would be considered recovered here and would be "delisted" from endangered species protection.

Washington wolf timeline:

• Washington Fish and Wildlife says there may be as many as 10 packs in Washington. Five are confirmed. Visit WDFW for an interactive map. March 2012
• Washington's wolf plan is approved by the Fish & Wildlife Commission. Dec 2011
• WDFW releases an environmental impact statement and preferred plan to address conservation, management, and recovery of Washington's gray wolves. Summer 2011
• The Teanaway pack was documented just north of I-90 in the central Washington Cascades and the Smackout pack near the Selkirks, bringing the wolf population to 5 confirmed packs and 30 to 50 animals. July 2011
• A grand jury released indictments against several Washington residents for the killings. June 2011
• Conservation Northwest contributes funding together with WDFW toward a $10,000 reward fund for information leading to the conviction poachers of Washington's wildlife. There has been no poaching of wolves since the increase in the reward fund. March 2011
• The plan and draft environmental impact statement (EIS) is presented at hearings throughout the state and goes on to receive 65,000 comments, the vast majority positive towards wolf recovery. 2009-2010
• Members of the Lookout wolf pack, including the alpha female, are poached. 2009
• Conservation Northwest cameras document the first wolf pack in Washington in 70 years: the Lookout pack in the upper Methow Valley. 2008
• WDFW starts drafting a wolf plan, together with a 17-member, Governor-designated, citizen-based Wolf Working Group, including conservationists, ranchers, and livestock producers. 2007  
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