A highlight of Cascadia Wildlands' wolf conservation work includes a
lawsuit that culminated in the successful negotiation of wolf/livestock
conflict rules in Oregon between conservation groups, the Department of
Fish and Wildlife, and livestock producers. Those rules provided
concrete guidelines as to when the state could kill wolves in response
to livestock depredations and helped eliminate the hysteria generated
every time there was a potential conflict.
In 2012, following the creation of the Oregon rule, Cascadia
Wildlands then turned its eyes to Washington state. Washington at the
time had approximately the same number of wolves as Oregon (60), but had
yet to experience the wolf/livestock conflicts that had caused so much
polarization in Oregon. Conflict between wolves and livestock in
Wallowa County ultimately led to the livestock industry introducing wolf kill legislation, threats of poaching, and threats of secession.
Similar to Oregon, Washington had a wolf conservation and
management plan that provided general standards for addressing conflicts
between wolves and livestock, but the state lacked any specific rules
or guidance on procedures that would be taken when livestock were
killed. We have found in Oregon that concrete rules provided
predictability in agency response to these conflicts, which helped
reduce nerves in both the conservation and livestock communities.
Additionally, these rules provided a clear path for Department staff to
follow, which is critical because when there are dead livestock, the
situation on the ground can become very heated and intense. However,
things had been relatively quiet in Washington because there had yet to
be a depredation event in the state, and the Washington Department of
Fish and Wildlife staff had been dutifully working to sign up large
ranching operations with cooperative agreements to implement measures to
prevent wolf/livestock conflict before it occurred.
Just as Cascadia staff began exploring the regulatory framework of
the state, Washington experienced its first major depredation event in
Stevens County, in the northeastern portion of the state where the Wedge
Pack was denning. Despite clear requirements in the wolf plan that the
Department focus on non-lethal measures and that the wolves were and
are still in the first stage of recovery, the Department panicked and
before even confirming wolves were responsible for the depredations and
not just scavenging, ordered the aerial gunning of the entire pack.
What made the situation worse was that the producer clamoring for the
killing was a loud and well-known anti-wolf voice in the state and had
openly rejected Departmental and conservation community assistance to
prevent the depredations. The Department ended up spending over $77,000
in taxpayer money to kill the entire pack and appease the rancher.
The Department's actions appropriately caused massive public
outcry, and resulted in an official legislative investigation into the
event. Cascadia began organizing conservation allies, and filed an
official rule-making petition with the Department to create lethal
control rules similar to the rules developed in Oregon, so that the
Department would not be pressured into a similar response in the
future. After initial conversations, the Department agreed that rules
were needed, and in exchange for us dismissing the petition, the
Department agreed to begin negotiating rules through the Washington Wolf
Advisory Group, which contained conservation, state, and agricultural
representatives. After a year of too many meetings and very little
progress made, the Department suspended the rule-making process, and
Cascadia and our conservation allies refiled our petition with the aim
of getting the attention of and enlisting the help of Washington's
Governor Jay Inslee.
While this process was ongoing, Cascadia staff began catching
whiffs of unrest in Stevens County again concerning a pack of wolves on
tribal land, the Huckleberry pack. The pack had been hunted previously
by the tribe, and was being suspected of being responsible for some
missing sheep on lands bordering the reservation.
Cascadia has continually argued to the Department that research on
the predator/livestock conflicts has shown that killing individual
wolves does nothing to decrease depredations, but in some cases has been
shown to increase depredation levels, because of a destabilized pack
structure. Taking an entire pack may end depredations for a period, but
it opens the area up to quick recolonization by other packs as has
happened where the Wedge Pack was killed and replaced by the Profanity
Peak Pack.
But with the Huckleberry pack, Cascadia staff received a call from
the Department and we were informed that there had been some confirmed,
weeks-old depredations, but the sheep had been moved out of the area,
non-lethal preventative measures were beginning to be implemented, and a
reassurance of "don't worry this will not be another Wedge pack
situation." That weekend, we got a message that the Department had
hired Wildlife Services (see more
on this reckless agency) who was aerial gunning the pack. We managed
to get ahold of agency staff, and we were told that they could not tell
us what was going on.
We were able to generate a massive amount of public comment (thanks
to our dutiful members) and got ahold of friendly legislators that were
able to get the Department to suspend the aerial gunning and pull the
trap line they had set for the wolves. The Department notified us that a
wolf had been killed, and eventually discovered that it was the alpha
female of the pack, which they apparently were instructed not to kill.
We also discovered that the sheep had not be removed from the area, and
the Department was not telling the whole story regarding the
implementation of preventative measures.
Again, hysteria and public outcry ensued. The agency secrecy,
lies, and the accidental killing of the alpha female outraged the
conservation community. The killing of only one wolf and not the entire
pack led to mass craziness in Stevens County, and a resolution by the
County was issued, demanding citizens shoot wolves on site in violation
of Washington laws (see more on Cascadia's response to this resolution here).
It became patently clear that things just were not working within
the Department. The Governor became involved and called for a meeting
between conservation interests and Department staff. Cascadia staff
journeyed north, and big changes have resulted. First, the Department
is going to completely restructure the Wolf Advisory Group, with an
entirely new membership and oversight by an impartial mediator. Second,
revision of the Department's lethal control guidelines occurred, which
describe when the Department can and will move to lethal control.
Third, the Department is looking to develop rules that would require
livestock producers to have taken non-lethal, preventative measures
prior to requesting lethal control. Finally, both Director Phil Anderson
and Game Division Manager Dave Ware are stepping down, both who have
been largely running the Department's wolf program.
Cascadia is cautiously optimistic about these pending changes, and
believe this is an excellent opportunity to systematically reform wolf
management in Washington, which is admittedly and obviously broken. Stay
tuned for big changes in Washington, and Cascadia will be weighing in
at every step. When the hiring process begins for new leadership in
Washington, we will ask you to weigh in on this and other opportunities
to shape wolf conservation in Washington. It has been a long haul thus
far, and things are improving for gray wolf recovery in Washington
state.
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