Stevens County rancher Ted Wishon has spent more than three decades protecting and caring for cattle, so he is finding it more and more difficult to turn the herd out to graze in wolf territory, even on his private lands.
“It feels bad to say, ‘Well, I don’t know what waits for you out there, but good luck,’” he told The Center Square.
On Friday, WDFW announced another hunt for one Smackout Pack wolf due to attacks on Wishon’s herd and those of two other ranchers. The agency has documented three new attacks in the last two weeks. Since mid-August, the pack has killed six cows and calves and injured three others.
In early September, WDFW reported that a wolf pup instead of an adult had been killed in an authorized hunt of a Smackout pack member. The euthanized pup was also from the wrong pack.
“It did absolutely no good to have that hunt at tremendous taxpayer cost,” said Scott Nielsen, a Kettle Falls rancher and president of the Stevens County Cattlemen’s Association.
Rep. Joel Kretz, R-Wauconda, said wolf aggression this summer shows the need to change the state’s wolf management plan. He plans to push in the 2023 legislative session for state delisting of the apex predators as an endangered species in Northeastern Washington. He said that will give ranchers the same leeway to protect cattle that they have with cougars. As it is, only a state agent can lethally remove a wolf.
“A management plan can’t be static, it needs to be adjusted as time goes by,” said Kretz.
On the west side of the state, wolves are federally protected as endangered, which gives them “no kill” status.
Kretz and other east side legislators will also push next session to finally get a wolf czar hired as the point of contact for ranchers when there are depredations. Kretz got the position approved and funded several years ago, but it has never been filled.
“We would all be comfortable with that,” said Nielsen.
As it is, Wishon said his family can no longer exercise a deeded right to graze cattle on U.S Forest Service lands despite paying an administrative fee to do so. He said that spending extra money on hay to supplement available forage in his private pastures hasn’t stopped depredations.
Wishon said WDFW often seems hesitant to confirm depredations that can trigger the lethal removal of wolves. State policy allows a hunt of pack members that kill or injure livestock three times within 30 days or four times within 10 months. The rancher must demonstrate that non-lethal measures failed to work before a wolf can be euthanized.
The agency authorized a hunt on Sept. 22 for two members of the Leadpoint pack following repeat depredations on Wishon cattle. His family lost two calves and a cow and had two injured in that spate of attacks.
Although WDFW determined the hunt to be successful, Wishon has since lost a calf and had a cow injured, all attributed to Leadpoint wolves.
Nielsen said language in WDFW postings about the new attacks claim a lag in depredations after September’s hunts, but he and Wishon insist there has been no interruption in aggression.
“It just takes a while to find some of the remains because cattle are out in such remote areas,” said Nielsen.
He and Kretz believe that a “wolf czar” would take some of the politics out of decisions regarding lethal removal. With Gov. Jay Inslee and many top Democratic leaders opposed to killing wolves, the incentive is there, said Nielsen, for WDFW to stall decisions.
A hunt that takes place weeks after depredations have occurred has no chance of changing wolf behavior, he said.
He cites a 2015 report by the Journal of Wildlife Management outlining that the longer an agency takes to lethally remove offending wolves, the less effective the action is in stopping attacks. Partial pack removal was most effective at changing behavior if conducted within the first week of depredation, after which there was little difference between removal and inaction.
Nielsen said delisting of the species would give counties local control over the removal of problem wolves, which would make decisions timelier.
“Something’s got to change,” he said. “These ranchers are trying to grow food for the nation, for god’s sake, and they need to be supported.”
