2 Wolf Bills Heard In Olympia As Colville Tribes, WDFW Also Detail Management, Game Numbers

Washington wolves were the subject of a two-hour committee meeting in Olympia this morning as WDFW and tribal managers outlined the recovery of the species and lawmakers held public hearings on a pair of bills, one of which would require that packs be downlisted across the state.

That legislation, House Bill 1311, follows on the Fish and Wildlife Commission’s decision last July that left wolves as state endangered despite agency experts’ recommendation to reclassify them as sensitive after an exhaustive periodic status review.

The bill would also block the commission from relisting wolves as endangered until the next review and they could only re-uplist them if the population was either deemed to be vulnerable or their numbers dipped below this year’s annual count, which will be published in April. The 2023 year-end count found a minimum of 260 wolves in 42 known packs.

There were plenty of comments both for and against the proposal before the House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee, with tribal officials, current and former Northeast Washington county commissioners and sheriffs, as well as farming and livestock organizations speaking in favor. Conservation Northwest gave it measured support too.

Prime sponsor Representative Andrew Engell (R-Colville) said that wolf recovery had been “wildly successful,” with the population increasing at an average annual rate of 20 percent, and there were more than enough wolves in his legislative district – Washington’s largest – to delist the species across the state.

“This bill would simply implement the recommendations of the Fish and Wildlife staff reported last year to the commission to change the status from endangered to sensitive, which would provide more management options for the department,” Engell said.

He said that leaving the species as endangered in Northeast Washington undermines public support for state ESA listings and could also impair efforts in the future to conserve troubled species.

In response to a question/statement from Representative Adam Bernbaum (D-Port Angeles) that downlisting would not change the public’s ability to hunt wolves, Engell confirmed that was correct and that the bill would provide WDFW with more management flexibility.

“It could result in the department authorizing takings to address conflict, but it does not give the public any more ability to do so,” he said.

Both Brad Manke, the Stevens County Sheriff, and Ray Maycumber, the Ferry County Sheriff, supported the bill, with Manke arguing that it showed the state wolf management plan was working, and Maycumber calling it “the next logical step.”

Also testifying in support were Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation Business Council Chairman Jarred-Michael Erickson, Mark Streuli of the Washington Cattlemen’s Association, Caleb Gwerder and Jay Holzmiller of the Washington Farm Bureau, and third-generation Northeast Washington rancher Asa Timm.

Paula Swedeen of Conservation Northwest said her organization was supportive “with concerns” that are centered around wolf poaching and said they were working with Engell to strengthen penalties around that. She termed WDFW’s gray wolf PSR “technically proficient” and that wolves shouldn’t be kept on state ESA lists “artificially.”

On the flip side, hardcore wolf advocates opposed the bill.

Ronald Reed of Spokane asked lawmakers not to perpetuate wolf killings and removals, saying they disrupt pack structure and harm the ecosystem.

John Roskelly, also of Spokane, pointed to Cody Roberts, the Wyoming man who paraded a wolf at a bar after he’d run it over with his snowmobile before finally dispatching it out back, and said there are similar people in every state and county. Downlist wolves and they would “come out of the woodwork,” he warned.

David Linn, representing himself, called HB 1311’s proposed downlisting “a grave error.”

“The bill notes that the wolves are making an appearance in the South Cascades. While they’re making an appearance, they do not appear for very long before they’re killed by malevolent forces. Four wolves have been killed in Klickitat County and is unlikely that any other wolves will pass that way,” he said, sharing grisly details of the death of one last September.

Also against it were Dr. Francisco Santiago-Ávila of Washington Wildlife First, Rachel Bjork of Speak For Wolves and John Rosapepe of the Endangered Species Coalition.

Overall, some 911 people signed in against HB 1311, 534 were pro and eight were other.

Along with Engell, the bill is sponsored by five other Republicans and Democrat Larry Springer (Kirkland).

The House committee also held a hearing on HB 1442, which would require WDFW to manage gray wolves in federally delisted Eastern Washington counties with certain pack numbers as if they were removed from state ESA listings, as well as form a workgroup to come up management plans within six months. It has a companion bill in the Senate, SB 5354.

The list of 1442 supporters and opponents was fairly similar to HB 1311, except that WDFW Game Division Manager Mick Cope publicly said his agency was “other” because of concerns about using a county-by-county approach rather than a more consistent wider one and that coming up with an anticipated eight county management plans within half a year would be next to impossible because WDFW isn’t currently staffed to do that and they would need to hire a facilitator, both tall asks in a tight budget year.

WHAT I FOUND TO BE PRETTY INTERESTING this morning was the glimpse into the Colville Tribes’ wolf monitoring and management activities during a work session at the start of today’s committee meeting.

CCT Executive Director Cody Disautel indicated that both ungulates and wolf packs were booming on the 1.4-million-acre reservation, with “record” elk counts and “very good” mule deer populations, all while wolf numbers are continuing to increase despite tribal hunting and with the predators expanding across the landscape as well.

That will challenge conventional wisdom about wolves’ impact on huntable game, but Disautel pointed out that wolves have changed prey behavior, with elk “more likely” to frequent lower-elevation areas, mule deer moving onto steeper slopes where it’s more difficult for wolves to pursue them and moose were hiding more.

Disautel said that because wolves like to travel roads, their prey have moved further afield from them, which leads hunters to perceive that there’s less game in the woods.

“But in actuality, we think it’s a combination of some predation, but also recognizing the movement patterns of the wolves – that they’re just avoiding areas that wolves consistently go,” he stated.

He outlined the tribes’ holistic approach to wildlife management that includes forestry and controlled burns. Alongside massive though generally low intensity wildfires in recent years, it’s all been a boon for reservation critters, both the tasty and the toothsome.

Disautel compared that to the North Half, the mix of public and private lands north of the reservation where as a hunter he has himself observed less game. He acknowledged that bluetongue outbreaks, more severe winters and different forest policies there may also be playing roles, but said that with less game, wolves are also more likely to depredate livestock.

“So although we’ve got an increasing wolf population, we’ve also got increasing populations of deer, elk and moose,” he told state lawmakers in response to questions. “And as I mentioned previously in my presentation, I think that’s largely due to the habitat work that we do. So again, if you’ve got very strong, very healthy habitats, including good winter range, you can support large populations of both.”

Disautel also shared annual wolf counts showing numbers rising from 1 wolf in 2010 to 70 in 2023. That latter figure caused quite a stir last year among wolf fans and in the press and he acknowledged that it had included 20 pups because tribal biologists performed their annual aerial survey a little later in the year that usual. Counts are traditionally done in late winter at the low ebb of the wolf population before pups are born and to maintain long-term consistency in censuses.

Still, the 50 known older wolves in 2023 represented a “pretty significant increase” over 2022’s 35, Disautel said.

He said that nine packs probably shouldn’t be packed onto the reservation, but they are and “we think it’s because of our management approach.”

The Colvilles have been hunting wolves since 2012, and tribal hunters have taken a total of 59 through 2023. Disautel said that with 12 different tribes represented on the reservation and different cultural perspectives on wolves, the CCT “try to just give our tribal membership the flexibility to practice their culture however they see fit, regardless of where they’re from.”

He wanted to show a video illustrating another example of wolf mortality but because of technical issues ended up talking about how a pack’s “nanny” wolf was attacked by two other wolves while babysitting pups, leading to a broken leg.

“We didn’t see this wolf again after that,” Disautel said.

Elsewhere in Washington, cougars have also proved to be rather unfriendly towards their new neighbors.

WDFW also gave a presentation on state management of wolves. Dr. Subhadeep “Shubh” Bhattacharjee, the agency’s wolf and grizzly bear lead, expressed high confidence that wolves are here to stay, given population modeling performed by the University of Washington.

“It is really most likely it will never happen that the Washington wolves will ever become extinct,” he said. “They will grow and they will grow more.”

Asked by Representative Bernbaum what percentage poaching accounts for in terms of annual wolf mortalities, Bhattacharjee said he believed it was in the range of 5 to 10 animals.

As for annual mortality rates of wolves, documented losses have ranged from 0 percent to 18 percent from 2008’s confirmation of the first pack to 2022 and averages 10 percent of the known population, Julia Smith, WDFW Endangered Species Recovery Section manager stated in an email clarifying her comments today to lawmakers. The figure includes pups that make it to year-end, but pup survival from den to recruitment isn’t tracked.

She told legislators that that rate is “quite low when you consider the statewide population” but was higher in Northeast Washington as you would expect given wolf numbers there. She said that mortality rates below 29 percent allow for stable to slightly increasing populations. Rates above there would likely lead to a decline.

WDFW’s Dr. Donny Martorello was asked by Representative Springer whether adopting the bill to downlist or even delist wolves would have an impact on growth rates. Martorello didn’t want to comment on policy but did speak to recent research showing wolf numbers increase in all scenarios under a 2020 baseline except with wolf harvest or increased removals for livestock depredations, and there’s a 60 percent chance of reaching management plan recovery goals with translocation.

That last bit might have perked up CCT Chair Erickson’s ears.

“If you guys would like, we would gladly give you some of our wolves and transplant them into the Southwest region. I’m being serious about that,” he said, drawing a wry smile from WDFW’s Cope seated next to him.

Last year, the Colvilles offered Colorado wolves but rescinded it after learning about that state’s conflict with the Southern Ute Tribe.

“We have that many wolves that we are willing to give some of the state and other areas to help them with the recovery if they would like to experience some of the things that we experienced in our areas,” Erickson stated.

While there might not be state budget for translocation anytime soon (and the Olympia Outsider™ remains firmly against it), it allowed Erickson to segue into CCT’s stance on wolves.

“I look at them as like us as natives. I never want to see them off the landscape again. They tried to extirpate us and I don’t want that to happen to the wolves,” Erickson said.

It might not be easy for some to square the hunting of wolves with keeping them around for good, but it also looks like it just might be possible, as the CCT are showing. I also really kinda wished that one of the state lawmakers had asked if wolf poaching was a problem on the reservation.