STEVENS COUNTY, WA
The Wedge wolf pack of Northern Stevens County, ranging between the Kettle and Upper Columbia rivers, was involved in four events of depredations on cattle earlier this month that resulted in seven injuries.
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife investigated and confirmed the attacks according to Eastern Washington media contact Staci Lehman, but at the time of publishing a report was not available. Lehman said that the wolf management team would be meeting on Monday to finish the report and decide on a action to be taken with the pack.
The decision for a lethal action recommendation may come, as the Wedge pack has been involved in 11 cattle injuries or killings since a May 11, calf injury. That depredation was followed by an injury and kill of two calves on May 19, and an injury of a calf on June 17.
The most recent attacks earlier this month were all on the same property according to Lehman, but at the time of printing it is not known whether that land is private or public, or if it is tied to the previous incidents.
The June 17, incident effected a different livestock producer than the one involved in the May depredations. Both had nonlethal deterrents in place.
The Wedge pack was first confirmed in 2012, according to its 2019 population survey there is at least three members without a successful breeding pair. Before the most recent string of depredations, the Wedge pack was only involved in one other confirmed depredation of an adult cow on June 17, 2019.
The Wedge pack’s territory is east of the Togo pack territory, which currently has a lethal action authorization in Ferry County for seven depredations within a year’s span that was last documented on June 6. As of July 9, no wolves have been removed from the Togo pack and the lethal action remains in place.