Don Jenkins
Capital Press
The Washington state House has passed a wolf bill, showing bipartisan support for reviewing a recovery plan that so far has only impacted the state’s northeast corner.
OLYMPIA, Wash. — With wolves massing in northeast Washington but not elsewhere, the Democratic-led House on Tuesday approved a bill directing wildlife managers to review the state’s wolf recovery plan.
House Bill 2107 passed 98-0 and will go to the GOP-led Senate, which has already passed a similar bill.
The measures differ in some details and will have to reconciled. But the House vote indicated bipartisan support for taking a look at the impacts reintroducing wolves have had on northeast Washington, particularly the livestock industry.
Neither bill would immediately change state policy. The Fish and Wildlife Commission would have until June 30, 2017, to amend the plan.
The state’s wolf recovery plan, adopted in 2011, carves the state into three zones. Under the plan, wolves will remain a state-protected species until each zone has at least four breeding pairs and the entire state has at least 15.
The Department of Fish and Wildlife reported Friday that the state has five breeding pairs, a number that’s remained unchanged since 2012. Four breeding pairs are in northeast Washington.
The total wolf population grew from 52 to 68 in 2014, with 55 wolves in northeast Washington. The number of wolf packs increased from 12 to 16.
HB 2107 and Senate Bill 5960 were introduced by lawmakers from northeast Washington’s sprawling 7th District.
The bills wouldn’t dictate changes, but they would instruct WDFW to consider measuring recovery by wolf packs rather than breeding pairs. WDFW also would have to consider changing recovery zone boundaries and clarify when the state will kill wolves to protect livestock.
“The way the wolf plan is set up now, we could have 20, 30, 40 packs in the 7th District before we would reach de-listing in the state of Washington,” said Okanogan County Rep. Joel Kretz, prime sponsor of HB 2107.
“Regardless of how you feel about wolves, you know, there is such a thing as too much of a good thing,” he said. “We’re seeing impacts that will get more intense as time goes on.”
The House bill instructs WDFW to consider whether penalties are high enough to deter wolf poaching. The provision is not in the Senate bill.
Also Tuesday evening, the House voted 98-0 to study how wolves in northeast Washington are impacting deer and elk herds. House Bill 1676, introduced by Rep. Shelly Short, R-Addy, will now go to the Senate.
House Agriculture and Natural Resources Chairman Brian Blake, an Aberdeen Democrat, supported the bills, paving the way for the Democratic caucus to get behind them.
On Wednesday, the Senate passed a bill directing WDFW to consider de-listing wolves in Eastern Washington. Senate Bill 5583 passed by a 27-22 vote. A similar bill was introduced in the House, but died in the agriculture committee, along with a proposal to relocate wolves closer to Western Washington.