Contact:       
Nick Cady, Cascadia Wildlands, (541) 434-1463
Sophia Ressler, Center for Biological Diversity
Lizzy Pennock, WildEarth Guardians
Jocelyn Leroux, Western Watersheds
Tim Coleman, Kettle Range Conservation Group

Requirements for Nonlethal Measures Sought for State Endangered Species

OLYMPIA, Wash. — Five conservation groups filed a lawsuit today asking a state court to enforce Gov. Jay Inslee’s order directing state wildlife officials to enact wolf management rules. The rules should have outlined what steps must be taken before wolves can be killed for conflict with livestock.

Today’s filing notes that Gov. Inslee ordered the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife to undertake a formal wolf rulemaking process in 2020, following a petition from conservation organizations. The petition asked the state to require the use of nonlethal deterrence measures by livestock operators before authorizing the killing of wolves involved in livestock conflicts. While the department started this process, in July the state’s wildlife commission voted 5-4 not to enact the proposed rules.

“Gov. Inslee recognizes that Washington needs science-based nonlethal strategies to protect wolves and livestock, but some wildlife commissioners are ignoring his request,” said Sophia Ressler, a staff attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “We’re asking the court to recognize the governor’s authority and require commissioners to finally approve wolf rules they were supposed to finalize long ago. We need rules that put a check on the state’s trigger-happy approach to managing imperiled wolves.”

The groups filed their May 2020 petition in response to state officials’ repeated killing of wolves on behalf of one livestock owner in northeast Washington, where the lack of adequate conflict-deterrence measures has resulted in chronic conflicts. The petition also aimed to prevent chronic conflict areas from developing elsewhere in the state by standardizing accountable and enforceable measures statewide.

“Unfortunately, by failing to take action to promulgate science-based wolf management regulations despite Gov. Inslee’s clear direction, the WDFW Commission has aligned itself with anti-wolf minority interests,” said Nick Cady, legal director for Cascadia Wildlands. “We were only asking the agency to follow its own guidelines.”

“Washington’s wolves needed the commission to put enforceable rules in place requiring livestock producers to use effective nonlethal conflict mitigation measures,” said Lizzy Pennock, carnivore coexistence advocate at WildEarth Guardians. “Instead, five members of the nine-member commission wasted two years of work and voted for the status quo: irresponsible livestock grazing and government-sponsored wolf killing.”

“The Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission’s July decision to not enact a rule to better protect Washington’s wolves from agency killings was not only disappointing, but illegal,” said Jocelyn Leroux, Washington and Montana director with Western Watersheds Project. “The commission ignored Gov. Inslee’s direction to create a rule that would ensure improved livestock-wolf conflict management and save wolves now and into the future.”

“Rulemaking is an important process in the governance of public resources, in this case, gray wolf recovery in Washington,” said Timothy Coleman, executive director for Kettle Range Conservation Group. “An essential element of a rule is to establish a level playing field, that is, clearly defining standards and processes that government and the public must follow. The current wolf management strategy of the Department of Fish and Wildlife is more like a game of rugby, whatever comes out of the scrum of pro and con wolf interests is how the game is played. But that’s arbitrary and it’s really more about who has more mojo rather than a fair set of rules that everyone abides by – that’s what this petition is striving to achieve.”

Today’s lawsuit was filed in in Thurston County Superior Court on behalf of the Center for Biological Diversity, Cascadia Wildlands, Kettle Range Conservation Group, Western Watersheds Project and WildEarth Guardians.

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For Immediate Release
May 11, 2020

Contact
Nick Cady, Cascadia Wildlands Legal Director
(314) 482-3746, nick@cascwild.org

Legal Petition Seeks New Rules to Reduce Washington Wolf-killing

SEATTLE — Conservation groups petitioned the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission today for rules limiting when the state can kill endangered wolves for conflicts with livestock. The state has killed 31 wolves since 2012, relying on a protocol that skews heavily toward lethal and ineffective outcomes.

“Washington’s trigger-happy wolf program favors livestock owners and ignores sound science,” said Sophia Ressler, a Washington-based staff attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “It’s a broken system. Enforceable rules would make wildlife officials accountable and give us a clear understanding of how and why they decide to kill wolves.”

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife currently uses its “Wolf-Livestock Interaction Protocol” to decide when to kill wolves. These rules are a product of the department’s negotiations with the Wolf Advisory Group (WAG), whose members are hand-picked by the department.

Today’s petition urges the wildlife commission to amend its rules to require that livestock producers use appropriate non-lethal deterrence methods to prevent conflict between livestock and wolves. The new rules would ensure that the state kills wolves only as a last resort.

The petition also proposes additional safeguards in areas where there have been repeated conflicts, such as in the Kettle River Range. Of the 31 wolves killed by the state since 2012, 26 were shot in the Kettle River Range on behalf of the same livestock operator. “Wolf pack after wolf pack has been slaughtered in the Kettle River Range, but wolves keep coming back,” said Ressler. “It’s a horrendous example of the futility of Washington’s wolf policies.”

According to the state’s recently released annual wolf report, a new pack has already established itself in the same area where the department killed the entire Old Profanity Territory pack in August of 2019 and where it wiped out the Sherman pack in 2017 and the Profanity Peak pack in 2016.

The petitioning groups do not agree with, or condone, killing Washington’s endangered wolves to protect livestock. “We chose to propose rules to work within the department’s flawed framework, but we hope their amendments strengthen the current management and stop the senseless slaughter of this state-endangered species,” Ressler said.

The commission has 60 days to respond to the petition for rulemaking. If it’s denied conservationists may appeal the decision to Gov. Jay Inslee, who has told the department that repeated killing of wolves in the same area is “simply unacceptable.” If the petition is granted, the commission would open a comment period to seek public input on the new rules.

“Putting in place enforceable guidelines for when the state uses public funds to kill wolves is simply a no-brainer,” said Nick Cady, legal director of Cascadia Wildlands. “This rule creates a reliable and predictable response from the agency that will work to reduce conflict surrounding the issue and guarantees wolves are not being killed at a rate that stagnates ongoing wolf recovery.”

Both the commission and the WAG have continued to meet on a virtual platform throughout the COVID-19 outbreak. The commission adopted new cougar-hunting regulations at its April meeting, and the WAG continued its discussions on potential updates for the wolf-livestock interaction protocol at a meeting on April 30.

“Washington is better than this wolf management mess,” said Samantha Bruegger, wildlife coexistence campaigner, WildEarth Guardians. “The Wolf Advisory Group isn’t improving wolf-livestock protocols, the Forest Service isn’t improving wolf-livestock protocols, and the grazing season has already begun. Meanwhile, stock growers are knocking on the door demanding to collar more wolves. This has to stop. It is time to manage wolves in a way that is reflective of Washington’s values and the best available science.”

“Livestock grazing on public lands can’t be a death sentence for Washington’s native wolves,” said Jocelyn Leroux, Washington and Montana director, Western Watersheds Project. “If commercial livestock use on Washington’s public lands is not compatible with healthy, native ecosystems, the burden should not be on native wildlife to adapt.”

Today’s petition was filed by Cascadia Wildlands, the Center for Biological Diversity, Western Watersheds Project, and WildEarth Guardians.

Cascadia Wildlands defends and restores Cascadia’s wild ecosystems in the forests, in the courts, and in the streets. We envision vast old-growth forests, rivers full of wild salmon, wolves howling in the backcountry, a stable climate, and vibrant communities sustained by the unique landscapes of the Cascadia Bioregion.
Check us out at www.cascwild.org

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The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife released its annual wolf report today. The population posted meager overall growth resulting in a total count of 108 wolves up from 97 wolves last year. The number of packs decreased. Oregon posted large population gains this year, indicating that the stagnant growth in Washington was not a function of weather patterns but again a function of large amounts of lethal control of which Oregon had none.

20 wolves were killed in Washington last year by humans; 9 by WDFW, 6 by tribal hunters, and 5 by ranchers. The annual culling of wolves in Washington by the Department or as permitted by lax state regulations is having population level effects and the rules and regulations surrounding wolf conservation in Washington needs to be revisited.

The 2019 report can be found here.

The post 2019 Washington Annual Wolf Report Released! first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

Proposed Federal Wolf Delisting

Wolves are protected under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) in the western two-thirds of Oregon and Washington and throughout California, but the Trump administration, specifically the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, is proposing to remove these protections. The removal of federal protections will greatly hinder, if not altogether prevent, the successful spread of wolves across the West and will also certainly have affects at home. In Oregon for example, the removal of federal protections will likely mean the death of OR-7’s Rogue Pack near Crater Lake.

Cascadia Wildlands has been gathering voices from the public in opposition to the proposal and is preparing for another legal fight to uphold the scientific integrity of the ESA.

Comments are due on May 14 to oppose the removal of wolves from the federal Endangered Species Act. Take action today and tell the Fish and Wildlife Service to maintain protections!

Cascadia Wildlands is also partnering with numerous conservation organizations on a rally in Portland on May 6 at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service building. If you are able, please attend, you can see more details and sign up here!

Oregon Wolf Conservation and Management Plan Revisions

In the midst of collapsing federal protections, the state of Oregon is also currently trying to weaken its Wolf Conservation and Management Plan and dramatically expand the situations in which wolves can be killed. The state is proposing to deputize members of the public so those individuals can hunt and trap wolves and keep the pelts for themselves. This lethal control focus comes at the expense of the plan’s prior concentration on preventing conflict between wolves and livestock through proactive, non-lethal measures. Details of the plan can be found here.

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife will address these proposed changes to the Wolf Conservation and Management Plan on June 7 in Salem. There is an open public comment period, and we will show up in force to the hearing.

Make your voice heard here and let the Fish and Wildlife Commission know that you oppose weakening Oregon’s wolf protections!

Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission

You may have also seen that Governor Kate Brown has recently appointed 2 individuals, including a trophy hunter and a timber industry representative, to the Fish and Wildlife Commission that will certainly attempt to weaken protections for a host of native species at the state level. The last thing that our state needs is Commission members that will further unbalance our fish and wildlife policy in the state.

The Senate is set to vote on these candidates on May 8th, and we need Oregonians to contact their Senators as soon as possible and urge them to vote no on James Nash (a trophy hunter) and Mark Labhart (a timber industry representative). Please also voice your support for Mary Wahl and Jill Zarnowitz that will bring balanced, science-based perspectives to the Commission.

Oregonians take action now and urge your Senator to vote to restore balance to the Fish and Wildlife Commssion!

Cascadia Wildlands will continue to face these threats head on, and we just prevailed in a legal challenge in California, upholding protections for wolves there. As always your resolute support on this issue has been critical, thank you, and check into the website for regular updates on these efforts.

The post Wolves Under Assault on Multiple Fronts, Your Help Needed! first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

On November 7, 2018, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) authorized the killing of wolves in the Smackout pack in Stevens County and ordered the complete elimination of the Togo pack in Ferry County. Department staff are still actively trying to kill the last adult and pup in the Old Profanity Territory pack. This is the most intensive level of wolf-killing we have seen from the WDFW to date amidst a budding recovery program with approximately 150 wolves in the entire state.

Aside from the high levels of mortality being inflicted upon Washington’s low wolf population, most of these kill orders have been at the behest of a single rancher in Washington, one whom is a vehement and prominent anti-wolf voice. Since 2012, the state of Washington has spent hundreds of thousands of tax-payer dollars to kill 21 wolves, and 17 of these have been to support this single livestock operation.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife generally does a thorough job of encouraging the implementation of non-lethal techniques to prevent wolf-livestock conflicts before they begin. But the problematic producer that has requested the killing of these 17 wolves has adamantly refused to implement preventative techniques and has actively grazed cattle in known wolf territories and in close proximity to wolf dens.

We have been able to demonstrate in Washington and Oregon that a strong emphasis on non-lethal techniques designed to prevent wolf-livestock conflict works, and works really well. But if Washington continues to kill wolves at the behest of bad actors, there is no incentive for livestock producers to get on board with the prevention program. The livestock producer has wolves killed with tax-payer dollars and then is further compensated with public dollars for any cattle lost or injured. The system in Washington is fundamentally flawed.

The people of Washington overwhelming support the recovery of wolves, and the state’s current approach is hindering that recovery. Change is necessary now. That is why Cascadia Wildlands and the Center for Biological Diversity are challenging the legality of these kill orders in court. This has been an uphill battle, but one that needs to occur.

Help Cascadia Wildlands give wolves a fighting chance in Washington! Donate today.

The post Washington Targeting Three Wolf Packs for Killing first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 20, 2018

Court Grants Emergency Halt of Washington’s Kill Order for Wolf Pack

OLYMPIA, Wash.— Two conservation groups filed an emergency lawsuit today seeking a temporary restraining order to stop Washington wildlife officials from carrying out a kill order for the Togo wolf pack in Ferry County. The decision, issued today, orders the death of the collared, black-male adult from the pack and holds open the possibility for killing additional pack members. The Togo pack consists of only two confirmed adults plus an unknown number of pups. The kill order was halted by the court late this afternoon.

Today’s suit was filed on behalf of the Center for Biological Diversity and Cascadia Wildlands. It asserts that the agency’s order to kill wolves from the Togo pack in northeastern Washington relied upon a faulty protocol and failed to undergo required environmental analysis. The suit was filed in Superior Court of Washington for Thurston County.

“It’s outrageous that Washington wildlife officials want to kill more wolves from the state’s small and recovering wolf population,” said Amaroq Weiss, the Center’s West Coast wolf advocate. “Washingtonians overwhelmingly want wolves recovered, and current science says that killing wolves to prevent conflict is counterproductive. This isn’t the Old West anymore.”

Since 2012 the state has killed 18 state-endangered wolves, nearly 15 percent of the state’s current confirmed population of 122. Of those 15 were killed on behalf of the same livestock owner. Those kills have now led to the eradication of three entire wolf packs, including the Sherman pack last year, Profanity Peak pack in 2016 and Wedge pack in 2012.

“The state should not take actions against the public’s wildlife that are counter to best available science nor should it be violating state laws to craft protocols giving itself permission to take these ill-advised actions,” said Nick Cady, legal director at Cascadia Wildlands. “Wolves are part of Washington’s wildlife heritage, and agency management of these magnificent animals should be based on science, follow the law and allow for full public input.”

Background

In June 2017 state Fish and Wildlife officials adopted a revised “wolf-livestock interaction protocol” for determining when to kill wolves in response to livestock conflicts. The protocol allowed the state to kill wolves more quickly than in prior years. It was adopted without any public input or environmental review, in violation of the state’s Environmental Policy and Administrative Procedure acts. That summer and fall, the department issued kill orders on the Smackout and Sherman packs and killed wolves from both packs. The Center and Cascadia Wildlands sued the state in September over its kill operation on the Sherman pack.

A May 2018 court ruling held that the 2017 lawsuit was moot because the court had already destroyed the Sherman pack, so the court could not provide plaintiffs with a remedy. However, in its ruling, the court also noted that the plaintiffs’ issues were of significant public interest and required the department to provide eight hours’ public notice of the intention to start any new kill operation. This notice requirement was meant to allow plaintiffs or any other members of the public sufficient time to seek a temporary restraining order to prevent future kill operations.

Washington’s wolves were driven to extinction in the early 1900s by a government-sponsored eradication program on behalf of the livestock industry. The animals began to return from neighboring Idaho and British Columbia in the early 2000s, and their population had grown to 22 confirmed packs by the end of 2017.

But wolf recovery in Washington is still a work in progress. Wolves remain absent from large areas of the state, and although the population has been growing, it remains small and vulnerable.

Plaintiffs are represented in the case by attorneys from the law firm Lane Powell.

The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.6 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places. Recognizing the ecological importance of wolves, bears and other carnivores, the Center uses science-based advocacy to defend these magnificent animals from persecution, exploitation and extinction. Find out more about our Carnivore Conservation campaign.

Cascadia Wildlands educates, agitates, and inspires a movement to protect and restore Cascadia’s wild ecosystems. We envision vast old-growth forests, rivers full of wild salmon, wolves howling in the backcountry, and vibrant communities sustained by the unique landscapes of the Cascadia bioregion.

The post Lawsuit Halts Wolf Killing in Washington! first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

The post Official 2017 Washington Wolf Count Released first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

Contact:
Nick Cady, (314) 482-3746, nick@old.cascwild.org
Noah Greenwald, (503) 484-7495, ngreenwald@biologicaldiversity.org

Reward Boosted to $20,000 in Search for Killer of Two Washington Wolves

Groups Push for Increased Federal Law Enforcement

SEATTLE — The Center for Biological Diversity and Cascadia Wildlands today increased a reward to $20,000 for information leading to conviction in the killing of two wolves last month in northeast Washington.

The groups also called for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to step up its law enforcement efforts to investigate poaching incidents in both Washington and Oregon.

“Poaching wolves or other wildlife is a deplorable crime,” said Noah Greenwald, endangered species director at the Center. “We need people to come forward and help put a stop to the killing of these endangered animals.”

The two wolves killed were part of the Smackout and Dirty Shirt packs. Information on their loss and a $10,000 reward was issued by another conservation group, Conservation Northwest, on Saturday. These killings follow the poaching of three other Oregon wolves over the past several months. Wolf populations in both Washington and Oregon remain small and poaching could have a serious impact on their continued recovery.

“Poaching represents a real threat to the recovery of wolves in Washington and elsewhere on the West Coast,” said Nick Cady, legal director with Cascadia Wildlands. “It’s time for federal and state law enforcement to meaningfully act and catch and prosecute these lawless poachers.”

Following a government-sponsored campaign of poisoning, shooting and killing, wolves were wiped out from all lower 48 states except a small corner of northeast Minnesota. With protection under the Endangered Species Act, wolves have made a comeback in portions of their range. They began returning to Washington and Oregon in the past 10 years or so, now numbering between 100 and 150 animals in each state.

The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.5 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.

Cascadia Wildlands defends and restores Cascadia’s wild ecosystems in the forests, in the courts, and in the streets. We envision vast old-growth forests, rivers full of salmon, wolves howling in the backcountry, and vibrant communities sustained by the unique landscapes of the Cascadia bioregion. Join our movement today.

The post Reward Boosted to $20,000 in Search for Killer of Two Washington Wolves first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

Late last month, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife announced that it would shoot up to four wolves in the Harl Butte pack.  Again. In August, following conflicts between wolves and livestock in the same area, the Department killed another four wolves from the same pack.

The Harl Butte territory is no stranger to conflicts between wolves and livestock.  This is the same area formerly occupied by the Imnaha pack along the Imnaha River near Oregon’s border with Idaho.  The Imnaha pack was wiped out last year by the Department, after numerous other kill orders over several years.

It is important to keep in mind that the number of wolf/livestock conflicts remains incredibly low when compared to livestock animals lost to coyotes, cougars, and wild dogs. It shrinks to insignificance when compared to the number of animals that die from the weather, disease, traffic accidents, or good ole-fashioned cattle rustling.  Regardless, killing wolves remains the persistent agenda of numerous commercial lobbyist groups in the Pacific Northwest, and our Fish and Wildlife Departments all too often oblige.

It is also critical to remember that ranchers are getting compensated, at full market value, for any livestock they lose as long as they show they attempted to proactively reduce conflict between wolves and livestock.  That generous cash program is subject to ongoing investigations of questionable payments being made to some of these producers.

The State’s wolf killing is designed to prevent future depredations, but we are experiencing livestock losses repeatedly in the same areas.  The same story is playing out in Washington, where the State has killed wolves three separate times at the behest of the same livestock producer in the same region. The question remains: Why are we forced to kill wolves in the same areas, again and again?

The Cattlemen’s Associations contend it is because the wolves have developed a taste for beef and teach the ways of the burger to their pups.  But Oregon and Washington continue to wipe out entire packs. Depredations resume the next year when new wolves move into the vacated habitat.

It is not because beef is delicious that wolves are targeting cows. Pervasively across the West there are areas where wolves and livestock are in close proximity without conflicts. If wolves prefer beef, there would be conflicts any place where wolves and livestock interact. But this is not the case.

Instead, it appears to be a product of there being too many cattle on the landscape.  Rob Klavins, a close friend and employee for Oregon Wild, lives out in this Harl Butte/Imnaha area where he and is wife run the Barking Mad B&B (check it out if you’re ever near Enterprise). He maintains a series of wildlife cameras on public lands where Harl Butte and Imnaha wolves were regularly seen. When talking with him about this recent kill order, he shared that in reviewing his tapes, of all the different wildlife that pops up on his motion activated cameras, well-over 90% are cows.

Is it that wolves are eating cows because bovine are the only viable prey species left in that area?  When cattle are intensively grazed in the specific areas, they drive out the deer and elk that otherwise might comprise the majority of a wolf’s diet. This also drives the herds of deer and elk down into agricultural lowlands, where they munch on farmers’ fields. This can lead to frustrated farmers poaching loads of elk.  It seems likely there are simply too many cattle grazing in these particular areas during the grazing season, which is driving out other game.

Now I know you are saying to yourself, “wait, commercial agriculture overusing a resource? This would never happen.”  But just maybe this is what is occurring.

Regardless of why wolf-livestock conflict continues in these particular areas, shooting wolves in response to depredations simply is not a long-term solution. It is a money-pit and bad policy.  Every year our Fish and Wildlife Departments will continue to shoot wolves, spending tens and sometimes hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars each kill order, in response to a few dead cows, only to see it recur time and time again.  

And yet the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife is going broke, or is already broke.  They increasingly rely on general fund taxpayer dollars. The Department is coming to the conservation community with its hat in its hand.  The conservation community works with the Department to recover habitat and protect non-game species that include many of the imperiled species in the state on the verge of extinction.  The conservation community wants to work with the Department on these species.

However, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife spends 2% of its funding on non-game species, even though these comprise 88% of the species in the state. Only three of the agency’s 1,200-person staff work on non-game species. Their requests for money remind me of  National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, where cousin Eddie promises to get you something real nice with the Christmas gift money he borrows from you, but you know that gift is going to be a hastily dug trench filled with dead carnivores.

It is past time for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and its Commission to deal with this issue in a direct manner, instead of bending like a willow to interest groups.  But this will not happen on its own! Oregon’s wildlife needs strong leadership from Governor Kate Brown. She appoints the Fish and Wildlife Commission that makes the calls on these issues, and she needs to send a clear message to this floundering agency and its Commission.

Give Governor Brown a call: (503) 378-4582. If you like wolves, tell her to stop killing them.  If you decry government waste and hate to watch the Department endlessly dump public money into a problem of its own creation that it has no intention of solving, give her a ring.  If you enjoy the film Christmas Vacation, let her know.  Governor Brown was just awarded the Environmental Champion of the Year Award by the Oregon League of Conservation Voters. Let’s see if she will put her money where her mouth is.

The post The Deja Vu of Killing Wolves first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

Lawsuit Challenges Washington Wolf-killing Protocol

Injunction Sought Against Further Killings After State Nearly Wipes Out Three Packs for One Livestock Owner

OLYMPIA, Wash.— Two conservation groups filed a lawsuit today seeking to stop the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and its director, James Unsworth, from killing any more state-endangered wolves.

Today’s suit, filed on behalf of the Center for Biological Diversity and Cascadia Wildlands, asserts that the agency’s killing of wolves from the Smackout and Sherman packs in northeastern Washington relied upon a faulty protocol and failed to undergo required environmental analysis. The suit was filed in Superior Court of Washington for Thurston County.

“We can’t sit by and watch Washington wildlife officials kill more wolves from the state’s small and recovering wolf population,” said Amaroq Weiss, the Center’s West Coast wolf advocate. “Washingtonians overwhelmingly want wolves recovered, not killed. The Department of Fish and Wildlife needs to listen to public opinion and consider the dire environmental costs of killing more wolves.”

In June of this year, Fish and Wildlife officials adopted a revised “wolf-livestock interaction protocol” for determining when to kill wolves in response to livestock conflicts. The protocol provided for the state to kill wolves more quickly than in prior years. As the lawsuit notes, the protocol was adopted without any public input or environmental review, in violation of the state’s Environmental Policy and Administrative Procedure Acts.

“Reasonable minds can differ on when we should and should not be killing wolves, and whether the killing of the wolves in these two packs was justified,” said Nick Cady, legal director for Cascadia Wildlands. “But there is no question that we should be fully analyzing the efficacy of these actions, welcoming public and scientific input, and be able to hold the state accountable. This is a state agency spending taxpayer dollars.”

The department has since relied on the protocol to order killing of wolves from two packs, with two wolves from the Smackout pack and one wolf from the Sherman pack killed to date. At the time of the Sherman pack kill order, only two wolves could be confirmed as comprising the pack, one of which the department has now killed. The department has temporarily paused killing wolves from both packs, but will resume if there are more livestock losses.

Overall, since 2012, the state has killed 18 state-endangered wolves, nearly 16 percent of the state’s current confirmed population of 115 wolves. Fifteen of the wolves killed since 2012 were killed on behalf of the same livestock owner; those kills have now led to the near eradication of three entire wolf packs, including the Profanity Peak pack last year, and the Wedge pack in 2012. The rancher in question has been a vocal opponent of wolf recovery and has historically refused to implement meaningful nonlethal measures designed to protect his livestock from wolves.

Washington’s wolves were driven to extinction in the early 1900s by a government-sponsored eradication program on behalf of the livestock industry. The animals began to return from neighboring Idaho and British Columbia in the early 2000s, and their population has grown to 20 confirmed packs as of the end of 2016.

But wolf recovery in Washington is still a work in progress. Wolves remain absent from large areas of the state and although the population has been growing, it remains small and vulnerable. Given the continued endangered status of wolves, the state and livestock operators should stick to nonlethal methods as the sole means for reducing loss of livestock to wolves.

“We appreciate that many livestock owners already are using nonlethal methods, said Weiss, “since the science shows such methods are more effective anyway.”

Plaintiffs are represented in the case by attorneys from the law firm Lane Powell.

The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.5 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places. Recognizing the ecological importance of wolves, bears and other carnivores, the Center uses science-based advocacy to defend these magnificent animals from persecution, exploitation and extinction. Find out more about our Carnivore Conservation campaign here.

Cascadia Wildlands educates, agitates, and inspires a movement to protect and restore Cascadia’s wild ecosystems. We envision vast old-growth forests, rivers full of wild salmon, wolves howling in the backcountry, and vibrant communities sustained by the unique landscapes of the Cascadia bioregion.

The post Cascadia Lawsuit Challenges Wolf Killing in Washington! first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.