Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) Director Kelly Susewind authorized lethal removal of up to two wolves from the Columbia wolf pack territory in southeast Washington including a producer permit for their private property in Columbia County, in response to repeated livestock depredations, in an effort to change the pack’s behavior.
Director Susewind’s decision is consistent with the guidance of the state’s Wolf Conservation and Management Plan (PDF) and the lethal removal provisions of the Department’s 2020 wolf-livestock interaction protocol (PDF). The rationale for authorizing lethal removal of Columbia pack wolves is as follows:
- WDFW has documented 12 depredation events including two dead calves and confirmed injuries on four other calves, along with probable injuries on another six calves within a 10-month rolling window of time.
- At least two (in this case, more than two) deterrence measures were implemented by affected livestock producers. They included delayed turnout of calves until they were around 200 pounds, removing sick and injured livestock from the range or pasture, livestock carcass sanitation, managing grazing livestock by placing mineral blocks away from known wolf high-use areas, range riding/human presence, calving away from wolf high-use areas, and deployment of fladry and fox lights.
The Department documented these deterrents in the agency’s “wolf-livestock mitigation measures” checklist, with date entries for deterrent tools and coordination with affected producers.
WDFW staff discussed the recent depredations by the Columbia wolf pack and associated effectiveness of the nonlethal deterrence tools. Staff determined that after all the above-mentioned pro-active and responsive deterrent measures, along with regular human presence, depredations will likely continue given recent pack behavior.