Fish and Wildlife will try lethal-removal protocol another year; policy worked better than the old one, agency says.
Don Jenkins
Capital Press
ELLENSBURG, Wash. — The policy on culling wolfpacks to stop attacks on livestock will be the same as last grazing season, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife wolf policy coordinator Donny Martorello said Wednesday.
The department resolved a year ago to intervene sooner in hopes of killing fewer wolves to stem depredations. The department took three wolves compared to seven the year before.
Martorello said one year is not long enough to judge the policy, but added, “from the department’s perspective, it was an improvement from prior years.”
The lethal-control protocol was a major subject last year for the department’s Wolf Advisory Group. The 18-member panel, which has five new members, met for the first time this year on Wednesday.
The group began what will be a long and slow process of developing a plan to manage wolves once they have met the state’s recovery goal. The goal — wolves breeding over a large portion of the state — likely won’t be met for several more years. Wolves remain concentrated in northeast Washington and have made only slight progress in colonizing other parts.
The group touched only lightly on existing conditions and management policies.
Stevens County Commissioner Don Dashiell said the current lethal-removal policy gives wolfpacks with a history of depredations too much leeway.
“It still allows too many depredations to occur,” said Dashiell, during a break. “It’s set up to fail again.”
If a wolfpack attacks livestock three times within 30 days or four days within 10 months, the department will consider lethal removal. The old threshold was four “confirmed” depredations. The department now also counts “probable” depredations.
As a result, the department gets to lethal removal quicker, but with plans to shoot one or two wolves and pausing. In the past, the department waited longer and ended up targeting several wolves, or an entire pack.
Twice last year, the department used this incremental approach. Both times the depredations stopped long enough for the wolfpacks to have their records wiped clean, though the Smackout pack killed a cow in Stevens County a little more than a week after coming off probation.
The pack had six wolves survive to the end of the year, according to the department. The department’s policy allows the pack three more depredations over the coming six months.
“Does something have to die before we do something?” Dashiell asked.
Tim Coleman, director of the Kettle Range Conservation Group, said he also was concerned about the Smackout pack. He questioned, though, whether the department will do enough to keep wolves and cattle apart before depredations start.
Martorello said the department recognizes that some packs are particularly worrisome. “The department wants to work with the community to be as preventive as possible,” he said.
Dashiell said ranchers may be less reluctant this year to defend their livestock with lethal means.
Two wolves were shot by ranchers protecting cattle last year. The department ruled the shootings were lawful because the wolves were “caught-in-the-act.” It was the first time the department had cited the that law.
The cases showed ranchers that they can legally defend their cattle, Dashiell said.
“I think people are swinging to that mode of thinking, that they have the right to do that. I think before they were questioning themselves,” he said.
Martorello wolves are elusive. “I wouldn’t expect that caught-in-the act (shootings) is a new trend that is going to occur,” he said.