Washington Wolves

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife is asking for the public’s help to find who poisoned six wolves in northeastern Washington.

Wolf poachers go mostly undiscovered — but that hasn’t stopped nonprofit organizations from putting up significant cash rewards for information about these incidents. While rewards generally don’t lead to convictions, Defenders of Wildlife’s Gwen Dobbs says reward offers in cases of wildlife poaching can help raise public awareness, “hopefully serving as a deterrent against potential future incidents, even if a reward does not directly lead to a conviction.”

A group of scientists urged the Biden administration Thursday to restore legal protections for gray wolves, saying their removal earlier this year was premature and that states are allowing too many of the animals to be killed.

Idaho Gov. Brad Little has signed into law a measure that could lead to killing 90% of the state’s 1,500 wolves in a move that was backed by hunters and the state’s powerful ranching sector but heavily criticized by environmental advocates.

The number of wolves in Washington state rose strongly last year, according to an annual report from the state Department of Fish and Wildlife released Friday. The rate of increase was more than double what Oregon reported earlier in the week for its wolf population in 2020.

The federal government says it will remove endangered species protections for gray wolves in the Lower 48. The move will reduce protections for the predators in the western two-thirds of Washington and Oregon.

Washington state has killed the last two known wolves in the so-called Wedge pack in Stevens County, which had been preying on livestock, the Department of Fish and Wildlife said Monday.

A petition that called for new rules to limit when the state can kill endangered wolves that prey on livestock was rejected by the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission.

In a letter to Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Director Kelly Susewind, Inslee asked that the state increase efforts to change guidelines that dictate when a wolf can be lethally removed.

Threats of violence have caused Washington officials to cancel a series of in-person informational wolf management meetings. In a news release, state Fish and Wildlife director Kelly Susewind said the tensions this summer were “on both sides of the issue.”