By Scott Sandsberry, Yakima Herald-Republic, Wash.
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services
Aug. 19–YAKIMA, Wash. — Two years ago the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife lethally removed a wolf pack blamed for killing cattle in the northeast corner of the state, triggering “it’s about time” responses in some livestock-industry circles and a public relations nightmare just about everywhere else.
Now it’s taking steps to keep itself from facing a similar dilemma.
Nine days ago, a Stevens County livestock producer notified the WDFW that nine of his sheep, out of a flock of about 1,800 sheep grazing on private property just north of the Spokane Indian Reservation, had been killed by a cougar, or perhaps more than one.
A hound hunter contracted by the WDFW reached the site intending to remove the cougar, and instead found 14 more dead sheep — but no cougar tracks, sign or scent anywhere near these newer carcasses.
Instead, the hound hunter found what appeared to be wolf tracks.
Jay Shepherd, a WDFW wildlife conflict specialist based in Colville, returned with the hound hunter to investigate the scene and confirmed that the tracks had indeed been made by wolves and that the 14 sheep found last Monday and Tuesday by the hound hunter had been killed by wolves.
The investigation also confirmed that a male wolf in the Huckleberry Pack — one of 10 confirmed packs in the northeast quarter of the state — was almost certainly involved in the kills. The wolf had been radio-collared in 2012 by tribal wildlife biologists on the Spokane Indian Reservation, and data from the collar pinpointed its proximity to the kill site.
According to the Stevens County Cattlemen’s Association, the estimated financial damage to the livestock owner, Dave Dashiell, is already over $5,000. Should Dashiell have to pen the herd and feed hay until fall pasture is available, the association said in a news release issued on Monday, that would mean another $35,000 in feed alone.
WDFW officials, though, say they’re much more prepared to deal with wolf predation than they were in 2012, when it removed the wolf pack in the “wedge” between the Columbia and Kettle rivers in Stevens County. Nor, those officials say, does this month’s predation mirror that of 2012.
The Wedge Pack was blamed in six separate documented attack on cattle from a single ranch. This month’s attacks on the Dashiell sheep marked the first confirmed predation by wolves in Washington this year. (The nine earlier sheep reported earlier had decomposed to such a degree that they couldn’t be confirmed as wolf kills.)
In 2012, prior to the removal of the Wedge Pack, Shepherd was the WDFW’s only wildlife conflict specialist working in that part of the state. Now he’s one of a staff of four specialists working under a conflict supervisor in the Eastern Region.
“We have so much more staff on the ground dealing proactively with these issues,” said WDFW spokeswoman Madonna Luers. “This isn’t considered a repeated depredation, and so we’re not taking steps toward lethal removal of wolves, but we’re taking lots of steps.
“No. 1 is doing everything we can to see that there isn’t repeated depredation, separating those sheep from the wolves. Now (the sheep) are on a different grazing allotment, and there’s a range rider watching them. There are all kinds of steps being taken by the producer and by us to insure there’s no more livestock losses.”
In its news release, Stevens County Cattlemen’s Association president Scott Nielsen said the incident “would not have happened if the department wasn’t keeping critical information (from radio-collared wolves) secret and was working with producers who needed that data for their range management.”
WDFW carnivore specialist Donny Martorello, though, said the department isn’t at liberty to divulge the data because of the Spokane Tribe’s jurisdictional authority.
The wolf involved in the recent predation was one of two captured and collared in May 2013 by Spokane tribal biologists.
The Huckleberry Pack “spends a significant chunk of its time on the Spokane Indian REservation,” Martorello said. “In this case, the Spokane Tribe requested the data from these collared wolves be treated as sensitive data and not be shared.
“That said, with the Huckleberry Pack spending more time north of the reservation boundary and in light of the recent depredations, we’re working with the tribe to see if we can strike up an agreement on whether we can share data on this particular animal with producers like the one involved here.
“We’re certainly in favor of doing that kind of thing. It’s just a matter of working with the tribe to develop that agreement.”