OLYMPIA – The public will have an opportunity to discuss wolf management with Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) leaders during a meeting Tuesday, Oct. 14, in Lynnwood.
The meeting will take place from 6 to 9 p.m. in Room 1EF of the Lynnwood Convention Center, 3711 196th St. SW, Lynnwood.
WDFW officials will provide information on recent wolf attacks on livestock in the state, and on the packs involved in those incidents – the Huckleberry pack in Stevens County and the Profanity Peak pack in Ferry County.
WDFW’s actions to protect sheep this summer from the Huckleberry pack are described in a question-and-answer document on the department’s website at http://wdfw.wa.gov/conservation/gray_wolf/huckleberry_faq.html .
WDFW officials also confirmed recently that wolves were responsible for killing a cow and calf at a cattle grazing site in Ferry County, within the range of the newly discovered Profanity Peak pack. WDFW wildlife conflict specialists continue to monitor that situation.
In 2011, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service removed gray wolves from the federal list of endangered species in the eastern third of the state, but the species is still protected under Washington state law. The state Wolf Conservation and Management Plan and state laws set the parameters for responding to wolf predation on livestock.
The department has also established a Wolf Advisory Group that provides input to the department on wolf plan implementation. More information on that group is available on WDFW’s website at http://wdfw.wa.gov/about/advisory/wag/
This message has been sent to the WDFW News Releases & Weekender mailing list.
Visit the WDFW News Release Archive at: http://wdfw.wa.gov/news/
Exposing the Big Game 
It is very commendable that the sheep rancher and WDFW (Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife), http://wp.me/p2nX5S-1Nk, have attempted nonlethal management of the Huckleberry pack and even entertained the idea of alternative grazing area and moving the sheep. However, the problem is still encroachment on (leased) national forest land and the temptation of sheep (1800) on this land. Maybe a tact could be continued nonlethal management efforts and sheep rancher reimbursement. In any case there is too much encroachment on national forest lands and BLM lands in the west, 23,000 leases in 16 western states. Unless we find some ways to reverse this encroachment and the ever increasing demand for pasture in this country and others, with 7 billion people headed to 10 billion by the middle to end of the century, we are not going to have wildlife. We are headed to meat extinction of wilderness and wildlife. In Montana alone there are 772 permits to graze on national forests lands and 3776 to graze on BLM land. Ranching/grazing is pushing wild horses off public lands and negatively impacting the whole ecology of wilderness, and this is not counting the oil and gas leases. No habitat no wild, no predator tolerance no wild, hunter-rancher policy making on public lands no wild. We need yo start retiring leases and/or conservation organizations need to start buying them up. Wildlife conservationists and wildlife agencies have to solve this encroachment problem or we are just blowing smoke and hot air until the inevitable end.
Encroachment Situations: Re: The Huckleberry Wolf Pack in WA and their management (WDFW), and 1800 sheep on rugged mountainous land, sheep depredation and decision for lethal management action on public land: This situation amounts to wolf baiting and gross encroachment. There is very low likelihood that these sheep, this many on rugged, mountainous public land can be managed without essentially baiting wolves by their very presence. We are not going to have balanced ecology with wolves or grizzlies if we do not halt this continuing encroachment. Ranchers, maybe the most entitled thinkers on earth continue eating up public land for a pittance and have the gall to complain about wildlife. Lethal management on public land should be prohibited. There is an unholy alliance of the traditional anti-wolf crowd of hunters and ranchers and state wildlife agencies, groups parochial and irrationally biased and actually ignorant, their heads full of folklore and myth and lies about ungulate predation and stock predation, and when it comes to balanced ecology, wolf and other predator management. There are 23,000 leases on public land in 16 western states for grazing on national forests lands and BLM land. Even when the public opinion is taken and it is overwhelmingly in the favor of wolf presence, nonlethal management, wildlife agencies and politicians let a minority crowd of ranchers-hunters-parochials have their anti-wolf way, which shows that they are of the same ilk and the need to do something about major reformation of state and federal wildlife agencies.
https://exposingthebiggame.wordpress.com/2014/10/08/as-wolves-return-so-do-tensions-with-ranchers/
http://billingsgazette.com/lifestyles/recreation/ranchers-urge-relocation-of-washington-wolf-packs/article_
http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2014/wolf-08-28-2014.html
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/hunter-hired-washington-state-kills-wolf-25118910
https://exposingthebiggame.wordpress.com/2014/08/26/the-washington-wolf-dilemna/
https://exposingthebiggame.wordpress.com/2014/08/26/aerial-hunter-killing-washington-wolves/
https://exposingthebiggame.wordpress.com/2014/09/04/view-from-the-other-side-rancher-left-high-and-dry-by-canceled-wolf-hunt/
The livestock industry has had enough subsidies handed to them. This intrinsically destructive industry has always been prejudiced against native wildlife, especially so-called “predators.” It has no redeeming qualities. I am not interested in the slightest in working with, or compromising with them. The industry, as a whole (despite a few ranchers here and there who may try so-called non-lethal predator control), is environmentally destructive, and opposes all wildlife re-introductions, and/or protections. They have had a free ride long enough. Wolves, coyotes, prairie dogs, mountain lions, bobcat–you name it–are considered their enemies, so they can continue grazing exotic domesticates on wilderness, National Forests, National Wildlife Refuges, BLM & state lands. This industry destroys watersheds, waterways, soils, forests, wildlife, and is a major contributor to Climate Change, and increases in methane.
Western public lands have been turned into a domesticated feed lot, “managed and manipulated” to the bone, at the expense of native animals. I care nothing about the ranchers. If they wish to continue ranching, let them do it on their private holdings. Let’s work to get these moochers off public lands, and give the land back to the native animals. There will be no viable re-introduction of wolves or any other large predators until the public lands are free from livestock grazing. The wildlife and wild lands do not have much time.
http://www.foranimals.org
Please note, Dave Dashiell, the rancher involved in the Huckleberry pack incident , is an alternate member of the Wolf Advisory Group. He is aware of the non lethal options available in depredation issues. In addition, the Profanity pack issue involves Len McIrvin, the rancher who demanded the elimination of the Wedge pack two years ago. These incidents smack of fraternization between ranchers and our WDFW. I am disgusted at the thought that my tax dollars are supporting this “good old boy network”. I truly am outraged by the use of our public lands to support these ranchers.