Matthew Weaver
Capital Press
Several ranchers will speak to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife’s wolf advisory group during a tour that’s closed to the public.
Two Eastern Washington ranchers say they hope to drive home the impact of wolves on their livelihoods when they speak with a state advisory group this week.
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife’s wolf advisory group is slated to meet with three area ranchers during a field trip May 22 in Stevens and Pend Orielle counties. The public is barred from the tour.
Rancher Dave Dashiell has been a member of the advisory group since its inception. He lost more than 300 sheep to the Huckleberry Pack last fall. Dashiell plans to move his flock to a completely different range this year where there are no known wolves.
“I know we’re not going back where we were,” he said.
Dashiell, of Hunters, Wash., planned to show the group the terrain where the losses occurred.
“The sheep deal isn’t some Little Bo-Peep outfit, and the cow (operation) is not three cows in a high-tensile, eight-wire electric fence,” he said. “We cover a lot of ground. When wolves start doing what wolves do, you’re not going to stop it. And it’s tough enough to keep them from starting. Maybe a picture is worth a thousand words. I guess we’ll see.”
“This might be the first opportunity for some of these members to get out in northeastern Washington and see some of the country we ranch in,” said Colville, Wash., rancher Ted Wishon, also slated to speak to the group.
Wishon hopes to convey the personal impacts producers feel when wolves enter the region. He feels the state needs to take action to manage wolves and wolfpack sizes, and it’s the department’s and advisory group’s responsibility to monitor the effects.
“Wolves have a protein demand, and they’ll go to whatever source they can to fill that demand,” Wishon said. “In my view, that’s probably the best non-lethal deterrent there is, for the department to provide the protein for their predators.”
One rancher who isn’t included on the tour is Laurier, Wash., rancher Len McIrvin.
McIrvin has been an outspoken critic of the department. His Diamond M Ranch lost an estimated 40 calves to the Wedge Pack in 2012, until the state stepped in and killed seven members of the pack.
“They’re trying to reinvent the wheel — we know wolves and cattle are not compatible,” McIrvin said. “We know what to expect — they act like if you get a range rider in, it’s going to change anything. Well, you might chase wolves away from my cattle, but you’ll just chase them into my neighbor’s cattle.”
McIrvin called the state’s current efforts “a pipe dream.”
“They act like if you spend enough money and get enough people signed up, the wolves will change their habits and stop killing cattle and sheep,” McIrvin said.