Today a helicopter in Washington went out to kill at least one perhaps more wolves of the Huckleberry Pack. (written last weekend) I fully expect the entire pack to be exterminated shortly. They've been depredating on a flock of sheep and it's probably impossible for them to resume hunting wild prey.
In a way this should be considered a success of wolf reintroduction. Herders use large dogs and range riders to try to ward off predation but dogs get bit and herders can't do much at night. It has always been known that there will be sheep and cattle and wolves killed. Just part and parcel of having wolves. The alternative is no wolves.
Above wolf packs as of March 8 2013. Given that there have been two years of puppies since this map there could well be twice as many packs today.
Washington hired a very good polling firm back in 08 and again in this past year to ask thorough questions from a large group of people throughout the state about their thoughts on hunting and wolves. The opinions of the general public in the state of Washington have shifted, and in a predictable way.
If there's been one generalization that has held true in all states that have had increasing wolf populations it is that the more wolves there are, the less people seem to like them. Don't get me wrong, the overwhelming majority of people in all states like wolves, they just seem to like them a little less once they have them. 70% of Washingtonians support having wolves in the state, 15% don't.
In the six years between the surveys strong to moderate support for wolves in general has dropped from 75 to 64 percent. Wildlife managers don't do elections or ballot measures, they try to figure out what they can get away with and encounter little to no opposition. Managers like when 75 or 80 percent of the public support something.
At the same time strong to moderate opposition to wolves has increased from 17 to 27 percent.
Familiarity informs opinions. Western Washington has no wolves and the people there like them just fine, Eastern Washington where all the wolves live is where the problems have arisen.
What to do with wolf populations when they reach population objectives is a matter of framing. 69% of the public support hunting to maintain population objectives. Only 38% of the public supports wolf hunting for recreation. Regulated hunting does not regulate thoughts, there is no box to check on a hunting license for motivation.
One statistic from the study I found interesting was the joining of and contributing to conservation/environmental orgs. The org with the largest number of members was the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation more than the Sierra Club, Audobon Society, and Natural Resources Defence Council combined, and remember this survey is of the general public, not hunting orgs, in a decidedly blue state.
Right now the only people in Washington really to feel the bite of the wolf population are sheepherders in the north east. (Commence sheep romance jokes now) The Colville Tribe has had a wolf season for a couple years. When wolves start to kill elk on the Yakama Reservation lands things might get more complicated. The Yakama is a large herd, maybe the largest in the state, people eat elk for food. There's also a newly established pronghorn herd, plus cows, and sheep, and the neither the state or federal government can tell the Yakama what and how to manage their wildlife.
Washington has a hunting success rate on elk by humans of around ten percent with seven thousand elk harvested. Currently wolves are delisted in Eastern Washington and the state division of Wildlife supports the federal move to delist in the entire US. Delist doesn't mean unregulated, Washington has it's own wolf plan beyond that of the federal government.
So far, in an effort to avoid the contentious litigation of the other Rocky Mountain states, Washington has agreed to "liberal" amounts of wolves in return for a lack of litigation from advocacy groups. I found this truncated description online of Washington's plan. Not official, just something off a web page.
“Three recovery regions were delineated for the state: (1) Eastern Washington, (2) Northern Cascades, and (3) Southern Cascades and Northwest Coast. Target numbers and distribution for downlisting and delisting within the three recovery regions are:
To reclassify from state endangered to state threatened status: 6 successful breeding pairs present for 3 consecutive years, with 2 successful breeding pairs in each of the three recovery regions.
To reclassify from state threatened to state sensitive status: 12 successful breeding pairs present for 3 consecutive years, with 4 successful breeding pairs in each of the three recovery regions.
To delist from state sensitive status: 15 successful breeding pairs present for 3 consecutive years, with 4 successful breeding pairs in each of the three recovery regions and 3 successful breeding pairs anywhere in the state.
In addition to the delisting objective of 15 successful breeding pairs distributed in the three geographic regions for 3 consecutive years, an alternative delisting objective is also established whereby the gray wolf will be considered for delisting when 18 successful breeding pairs are present, with 4 successful breeding pairs in the Eastern Washington region, 4 successful breeding pairs in the Northern Cascades region, 4 successful breeding pairs distributed in the Southern Cascades and Northwest Coast region, and 6 anywhere in the state.”
Fifteen or eighteen breeding pair (packs) translates into maybe a hundred wolves if they are counted carefully, a lot more if not. Fifteen hundred to a couple thousand elk a year, or a lot more.
Summary of 190 page survey and link to entire report
Similar Survey in 08
http://nwsportsmanmag.com/...
Thursday's update on Huckleberry Hounds
A note on comments: Wolf diaries pull in some, ahem, unusual types, product of our modern world I guess, too far removed from nature maybe. I've heard all the unscientific wishful thinking stuff before. Three years ago "serious" people were repeating the bunkum, now no more. Below is the most recent peer reviewed summation of the state of wolf research. There have been no rebuttals at all since publication, it's written by the world's most senior and most highly regarded wolf researcher. Please read it before posting all that trophic cascade/re watering/willows and butterflies, wishful thinking. Thanks,
http://www.scribd.com/...