I am subscribed to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife email notification list. When I check my email and I see a message from WDFW Wildlife Program with the subject “New update on Washington wolves” my heart skips a beat. All too often it will say that there has been a confirmed wolf depredation or that wolves are going to be killed by the department. Our endangered wolves are caught between hostile states to our east, tribes with unlimited year-round killing, in-state poachers and state sanctioned killing.

Over the past several years, we have been told that wolf recovery in our state was a success story because the population was increasing 30% or so per year. But that was simply a reflection of the fact that the count started from a very low base. Over the past year…