Inslee orders Fish and Wildlife to consider new wolf rules

Jan. 13—Gov. Jay Inslee has ordered the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission and the department it oversees to consider new rules that determine when wolves can be killed for repeatedly preying on livestock.

In doing so, Inslee is overruling a decision by the commission responsible for setting the state's fish and wildlife policy and it's not the first time he has done so.

Last October, the commission rejected a petition from environmental and animal rights groups asking for rules that would make it more difficult for the Department of Fish and Wildlife to kill problem wolves. On Friday, Inslee granted an appeal of that decision.

In a letter to one of the groups, Inslee said he can't prescribe specific policy but he advised the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife to craft proposed rules that mimic wolf removal protocols adopted by the state's Wolf Advisory Group. In addition, Inslee asked the agency to tighten "caught in the act" rules that allow ranches to kill wolves attacking livestock. Inslee said current caught-in-the-act rules are vague and prone to abuse.

Wolf advocate Amaroq Weiss of the Center for Biological Diversity said Inslee's order is a win for wolves. The animals are listed as endangered across Washington and those in the western two-thirds of the state are listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act.

"This victory holds so much promise for Washington's wolves and it should change the state's outdated focus on managing wolves instead of conserving them," she said in a news release. "The science tells us that killing wolves doesn't decrease conflict. Shooting wolves can actually increase conflict while making people more hostile to these awe-inspiring and ecologically important animals."

The agency issued a statement Friday saying it would carry out the governor's order and begin rulemaking. But it also emphasized its record in managing conflict between wolves and livestock producers.

"In 2019, WDFW lethally removed nine wolves. This was followed by three in 2020, two in 2021, six in 2022, and two in 2023 — a 64% average reduction over the four years following 2019.

"In the meantime, the number of wolf packs, successful breeding pairs, and individual wolves in Washington has continued to increase every year, while levels of livestock depredation and wolf removals have remained low even with wolf range expansion and population increase."

Since 2013, livestock owners have killed eight wolves under caught-in-the-act rules, including two in 2017, two in 2019, three in 2022 and one last year.

The fight over the rules surrounding lethal wolf removal picked up in 2019 when the Fish and Wildlife Department struggled with chronic attacks on livestock in Ferry County and attempted to reduce attacks by killing wolves, sometimes removing entire packs. The move outraged some members of the public and environmental groups petitioned the Fish and Wildlife Commission to adopt rules to codify the steps livestock producers must take to deter wolf attacks and to require that nonlethal deterrents be tried before wolves could be killed by the state.

The commission rejected the petition and the groups appealed to Inslee who ordered the commission and department to begin rulemaking.

They worked on the rules for two years. During that time, the department also evolved its protocols for addressing wolf-livestock conflict and reduced the frequency and number of lethal wolf removals.

In a split 5-4 vote two years ago, the commission rejected the proposed rules. Those on the prevailing side argued that since the protocols the rules would codify were already being used, they were not needed and would remove flexibility from the state's professional wildlife managers. Some on the losing side argued the rules were needed but did not go far enough.

The environmental groups repeated the process last year. They petitioned the commission to adopt rules that would make it tougher for the agency to kill wolves that repeatedly prey on livestock. Commissioners rejected that petition on a 6-3 vote. The groups then appealed that decision to Inslee, resulting in his order Friday.

Jay Holzmiller, a rancher at Anatone and former member of the Fish and Wildlife Commission, said the environmental and animal rights groups seem determined to perpetuate conflict instead of seeking common ground. If new rules handcuff the agency from taking actions to reduce attacks on livestock, Holzmiller said ranchers will do it themselves.

"The genie is out of the bottle, we are gonna to have wolves on the landscape. We were hoping we could all learn to coexist with give and take," he said. "With this rulemaking it's drawing a line on sand and the wolves are going to lose in the end if we can't get rid of the troublemakers."

Not all conservation groups want the new rules. Conservation Northwest advocated against them and believes Washington does a good job at managing the animals in a highly charged environment.

"I'm disappointed in Governor Inslee's action today, caving-in to pressure that could re-polarize Washington's successful wolf recovery," said Mitch Friedman, executive director of the group. "Washington has the nation's most successful wolf program, with much higher stakeholder effort leading to much lower wolf conflict and mortality."

He noted Oregon has killed wolves at a rate eight times that of its neighbor to the north.

Barker may be contacted at ebarker@lmtribune.com or at (208) 848-2273. Follow him on Twitter @ezebarker.