Hi Friend, Washington Wolves Need Your Help! | |
Comment Now on Washington's Efforts to Streamline Wolf Hunting | |
 Washington's Department of Fish and Wildlife is beginning to develop a post-delisting plan for the state's wolves and is currently accepting early public comments. While Washington's wolf population initially grew exponentially, but over the last few years, sustained killing of entire wolf packs in response to cattle conflicts has stagnated growth. There are only 126 confirmed wolves in the state, it is simply premature for the state to begin post-delisting planning and the corresponding inevitable discussions of hunting. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee recently directed the state’s fish and wildlife agency to dramatically rein in its wolf killing. “The status quo of annual lethal removal is simply unacceptable,” Gov. Inslee wrote in a letter instructing the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife to focus on finding nonlethal solutions for conflicts between livestock and wolves. But instead of addressing these concerns, and reevaluating its controversial lethal protocol, the Department has instead now focused on post-delisting management and expediting the hunting of wolves. Please take a moment to weigh in with the Department and let them know that it's completely premature to discuss post-delisting wolf management. The Department should heed the Governor's advice and focus on fixing its broken lethal protocol to effectively resolve wolf-livestock conflicts without annually killing a large portion of the state's wolf population at the behest of the commercial livestock industry. You can fill out a short survey with the Department here. And you can submit scoping comments on the Department's post-delisting efforts here. | |
