A coalition of environmental groups is urging the governor of Washington to overturn the state wildlife commission's rejection of a petition seeking strict rules that limit wolf killing.
The Center for Biological Diversity, Washington Wildlife First and nine other organizations filed an appeal to Gov. Jay Inslee late Monday asking him to direct the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission to write new rules that further limit the killing of wolves that attack livestock.
The appeal comes a month after the commission turned away the groups' petition proposing a set of rules, which include stronger requirements for livestock producers to use non lethal wolf deterrents, prohibiting wolf kills on public land and changing a rule allowing landowners to kill wolves "caught in the act" of attacking domestic animals.
Fifty-three wolves have been killed after conflicts with livestock since 2012, according to the groups. The appeal argues that's too many, and that most of them were killed because of conflicts with "the same livestock family, which refuses to adequately protect its livestock."
Amaroq Weiss, senior wolf advocate for the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement that Inslee has directed wildlife officials to limit wolf kills in the past, but that "stronger action is clearly needed."
"With no rules in place to make wolf-killing a last resort, we expect things will even get worse," Weiss said.
The governor's office has 45 days to respond. Mike Faulk, a spokesperson for the governor, said in an email that although the commission has not acted on the governor's previous requests for rules on lethal control, he has "remained engaged with the commission about the responsible use of this practice."
Faulk added the governor will "have a thorough discussion with staff about this latest petition before commenting or taking further action on it."
Washington's wolf population has been growing steadily over the past decade, particularly in the eastern part of the state. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife's most recent count estimated that there are at least 216 wolves across 37 packs.
The growth has led to conflicts with livestock as the wolves expand their territory. This year, WDFW has documented 22 incidents in which a wolf likely injured or killed an animal. Two wolves have been killed by wildlife officials this year.
Julia Smith, WDFW's endangered species recovery section manager, said Tuesday that it has been one of the lightest conflict years in recent memory.
WDFW has a protocol for how it deals with wolves that attack livestock, which lays out thresholds that have to be met before the agency considers killing the predators. Smith said Tuesday that the protocol was created with input from a variety of perspectives, including wolf advocates, landowners and hunters.
The document provides the agency with guidance on dealing with wolf-livestock conflicts, but also gives officials flexibility in dealing with individual incidents.
"While we follow it very, very closely, it does provide discretion for the agency to account for the individual circumstances," Smith said.
The environmental groups' petition, filed in September, sought to replace the protocols with a set of specific rules. The proposal included some items that are included in the protocols and others that are more restrictive — such as prohibiting the killing of wolves that attack livestock grazing on public land and barring removals that would orphan wolf pups.
The groups feel that having a set of enforceable rules would provide more transparency and accountability for the agency.
The Fish and Wildlife Commission considered the petition at its October meeting. WDFW, which is governed by the commission, recommended that the panel deny it.
At the meeting, Smith told commissioners that existing protocols were working, and that despite claims that the state was killing too many wolves, there hasn't been a substantial increase in removals and the population has continued to grow. She also pointed out that Washington had lower levels of livestock conflict and wolf removals than other states with similar populations.
She said she worried writing new rules could undermine the work the agency has done with landowners to encourage the use of nonlethal deterrents such as range riders, guardian dogs and special fencing.
Commissioners voted 6-3 to reject the petition.
In the appeal this week, the 11 environmental groups argue that the commission didn't provide enough time to consider the petition. The groups also wrote that the vote was based on "false and misleading information" from WDFW.
