Don Jenkins
Capital Press
Northeast Washington rancher Dave Dashiell may return his sheep to wolf country — with the help of environmentalists.
TUMWATER, Wash. — A rancher whose wolf-imperiled sheep were a flash point between environmentalists and livestock producers last year may get support from conservation groups to return his flock to northeast Washington, a possible partnership that a state wildlife official called “amazing.”
The loose-knit deal was struck Thursday among the state Department of Fish and Wildlife’s 18-member wolf advisory group, which includes environmentalists and the rancher, Dave Dashiell, who estimates he lost more than 300 sheep in 2014 to the Huckleberry wolf pack.
The department outraged wolf advocates by responding to Dashiell’s losses in 2014 by killing the pack’s breeding female. Still unable to find safe and suitable grazing land, Dashiell moved his flock this year to Central Washington, where he’s spending more than $10,000 a month on hay, an expense that he says may force him out of the sheep business.
The advisory group’s environmentalists tentatively agreed to publicly support Dashiell’s return to graze in wolf country. In return, Dashiell said he will welcome their involvement in putting together a plan to protect his sheep with non-lethal measures.
After the meeting, Dashiell said he and the environmentalists were risking being criticized by their colleagues for collaborating.
“That’s pretty gutsy of them. I don’t know what kind of blowback they’re going to get. I don’t know what kind of blowback I’m going to get,” he said.
Although other Washington ranchers have lost livestock to wolves, no rancher has reported more losses or received more attention than Dashiell.
While outraging environmentalists, WDFW also angered livestock producers by not following through on plans to shoot three more wolves from the Huckleberry pack. The same pack this summer seriously injured a dog guarding a small flock that Dashiell kept near his home, provoking a new round of debate about whether WDFW is too quick or too slow to shoot wolves that kill livestock.
The advisory group, led by conflict-resolution consultant Francine Madden, spent several hours Thursday talking in generalities about human conflicts.
In the late afternoon, group member Dave Duncan of Washingtonians for Wildlife Conservation, a hunters’ organization, urged the group to “get its hands dirty, trying to do something.” He said the group could start by considering how it can help Dashiell.
Dashiell said the group could back his return to northeast Washington, showing corporate landowners that environmental organizations won’t criticize them for leasing him grazing land. State grazing land is available, but it’s more expensive, Dashiell said.
Some of the group’s environmentalists seized on the idea as a chance to show they can work with ranchers.
“It’s a great step forward. It’s a signal of getting over the divisiveness,” said Paula Swedeen, a biologist who represents Conservation Northwest.
The collaboration could fail to come together. The diverse group, which includes the Humane Society of the United States and the Washington Cattlemen’s Association, agreed any statement supporting Dashiell would have to be unanimous. Some worried the partnership would be misinterpreted as a special favor to a panel member.
WDFW wolf policy coordinator Donny Martorello said the risks were worth taking to heal the rift between environmentalists and ranchers. He said he couldn’t have imagined talk of a collaboration a year ago. “It felt amazing,” he said.