Washington Fish and Wildlife Department is firm that wolves remain protected under state law in all of the state-
Wolves are federally delisted in much of Eastern Washington now, but the state’s own endangered species act protects them all throughout the state. Officials recently reminded folks.
The state only has a half dozen to a dozen or so wolves. The original pack discovered now seems heavily chopped apart from illegal killing, but other wolves roam parts of the state, probably in at least one pack. The Lookout Pack, the original pack, was not a reintroduction or part of the Idaho wolves drifting westward. It came out of coastal Canada on its own.
Wolves remain on Washington state’s endangered list. AP in the Seattle Times.
Ralph Maughan
Dr. Ralph Maughan is professor emeritus of political science at Idaho State University. He was a Western Watersheds Project Board Member off and on for many years, and was also its President for several years. For a long time he produced Ralph Maughan's Wolf Report. He was a founder of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. He and Jackie Johnson Maughan wrote three editions of "Hiking Idaho." He also wrote "Beyond the Tetons" and "Backpacking Wyoming's Teton and Washakie Wilderness." He created and is the administrator of The Wildlife News.
This puts a little reversal on the states’ rights argument Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho like to hide behind all the time.
What has happened with the investigation into the killing of two wolves in north central Washington from whence the pelts were shipped to Canada for processing (tanning) by members of the family which killed the wolves? Has not the federal government had enough time to come to some conclusion?
Perhaps a new DPS for wolves of the Cascades and into CA and NV.
http://www.methowvalleynews.com/story.php?id=5719