The deaths of six gray wolves due to poaching shines a light on the lack of effectiveness the state has on both wolves and ranchers in Northeast Washington

The public’s recent discovery of the poisoning of six gray wolves in Stevens County, Washington, has caused an international outcry. Conservation groups throughout the Pacific Northwest have offered a reward of up to $51,000 for any leads on the perpetrators. Despite the compensation and considerable interest in the subject matter, the progress towards conservation regarding gray wolves in eastern Washington has been restricted for years by the Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW), the only state-issued investigator on the case. 

Once abundant throughout Washington, gray wolves experienced a decline in the mid-1850s. By the 1930s, they were on the verge of extinction. Slowly, they've made a comeback, and the state was last reported as having 33 wolf packs and 206 wolves as of 2021. Due to their limited numbers, gray wolves are federally listed as endangered in Western ⅔ Washington. They are currently delisted in the Eastern ⅓ due to most of their numbers being there. On a state level, they are still endangered and protected. Due to this setup, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) protects them in Western Washington while the WDFW, headed by Kelly Susewind, defends them in the east. 

This year alone, 20 gray wolves have died. Causes of death include poaching and lethal removals performed by the WDFW. Hannah Thompson-Garner, the Director of Advocacy and Mission at the National Animal Rights Network (NARN), argues the WDFW is not doing its job in enforcing stricter laws that could prevent some of these deaths. 

"The Smackout pack are being the most" problematic" pack right now in terms of conflict," Thompson-Garner said. "Five members of the Smackout pack have been killed by director Susewind to decrease these wolf and cow livestock events."

Despite being protected and endangered on a state level, the Wolf-livestock interaction protocol provides the means to perform lethal removals. Most recently amended in 2020, the protocol is meant to guide ranchers on how to look after their cattle and what preventative measures they can take to deter wolves from attacking. While the protocol encourages determinants, vague wording makes the requirements of ranchers unclear. According to Jocelyn Leroux, the Washington and Montana Director of Western Watersheds, it's because of the WDFW's relationship with the cattle industry in the region. 

"It's not enforced because the department doesn't want to enforce anything," Leroux said. "It's largely a social issue, and they don't want to be seen as the bad guys to the ranching community."

Simple measures such as mandating range riding (monitoring your cattle in a vehicle or horseback), encouraged by the protocol and highlighted for its effectiveness, could easily prevent many attacks on cattle. But because the protocol only gives a basic overview of how ranchers should conduct this, they could drive by their cattle once a day, look at them, and go home.

"Having spent a bit of time in the Colville National Forest myself, if people are just out there driving the roads in the day, they are not going to be doing what actual good range riding is there to prevent," Ledoux said. "{The forest out there} are rugged, there are thick trees, and turning cows out there every summer without a human presence is a recipe for disaster."

Because preventive measures are poorly enforced, gray wolves will continue to attack cattle and be put down. For a wolf to be lethally removed, the interaction protocol outlines that the WDFD needs to see that a rancher has used deterrence methods and has been unsuccessful. 

"However, that protocol doesn't have any steps for deciding how to remove a wolf. It basically says it's at the whims of director Susewind, and that's all we know," Thompson-Garner said.

Thompson-Garner believes that's why so many lethal removals have happened within the last year. 

"[Susewind] sort of analyzes everything on a case-by-case basis and flippantly decides whether to kill a wolf or not," Thompson-Garner said. "He's done that five times for the Smackout pack, which would indicate it's not working because he has to keep doing it."

Despite these lethal removals, cattle have experienced several attacks this year alone. 

"There's no science to support the lethal removal of wolves fixes depravations problems long term, but the department is still holding onto that," Jocelyn Leroux said. 

Even if lethal removals were successful, the wolves attacking would need to be the ones getting caught. 

"One of those kill orders didn't confirm that the wolf was from the Smackout pack, and they accidentally killed a wolf that was not praying on cattle," Thompson-Garner said. 

On Sept. 8 of this year, Susewind authorized the death of a "juvenile male wolf" in the "immediate proximity" of the Smackout pack. According to the WDFD, they are unsure if "the wolf was traveling with the Smackout pack or the Dirty Shirt pack." They have still not concluded what pack the wolf was a part of. 

One reason the protocol is lacking is that some ranchers don't feel a need to follow it. On Oct. 9, 2022, Susewind lethally removed a wolf from the Leadpoint pack in Stevens County. The unnamed rancher was found to be inappropriately disposing of cow carcasses and potentially attracted the gray wolves.

"The department is not allowed to issue a kill order for a wolf if they are attracted because of a bad disposal of a cow's body," Thompson-Garner said. "The department recently admitted that some of these depredation incidents that they have been killing wolves over are because this rancher has not properly been disposing of cow bodies. So, these killings may be a direct violation of this very watered-down protocol."

Then there are cases such as the Diamond M ranch.

"This particular rancher just hates wolves; we don't need to sugarcoat that," Thompson-Garner said. "It's just an extreme dislike of wolves and other wildlife around and what they perceive as an infringement of their right to raise and slaughter cows." 

The WDFW, since 2012, has killed 26 wolves at the behest of Diamond M Ranch. Several organizations and individuals are suing the ranch for not following any deterrents. 

With the current protocol left practically unfinished and lacking any actual rulemaking, WDFM's attempt to protect an endangered species is turning into, for better words, "a recipe for disaster."