Eastern Washington growers, ranchers not satisfied with gray wolf predation rules

Members of the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission met over three days last week in Spokane to discuss a number of topics, but concerns over gray wolf predation dominated comments from the public.

The commission recently voted against a Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife recommendation to downlist the gray wolf from endangered to threatened, or sensitive, status.

Downlisting the wolves would have meant lesser penalties for poaching, as well as somewhat easier access to permits to kill wolves that attack livestock. 

“We just went through an eight month process without the commission so much as dipping a toe into the eastern half of the state,” Ryan Garrett said during a public comment period.

Garrett blasted the commission for making its decision on the wolf without talking to people most impacted by the ruling.

“Your disdain for rural perspectives has been demonstrated countless times,” he said.

Rep. Joe Schmick, R-Colfax, told commission members growers and ranchers in his district are struggling because of the wolves.

“The cows are beat up," he said. "They’re scarred and have a lot of injuries."

In a follow-up interview with The Center Square, Schmick said he believes the overall wolf population is higher than what WDFW is reporting.

“I think the numbers are much higher than what the department is putting out, because they can only put out what they see visually,” he explained. “These are smart animals that are hard to see and hard to track and to count, so I believe we’ve got a lot more wolves out there than we think.”

He went on to say, “I’ve got one sheep grower who lost his whole herd of 300 sheep up in the northeast part of the state. At the end of that year he told me had less than 10 sheep left.”

Cattle are being targeted as well.

“Currently down in the southeast corner growers are having a number of attacks on cattle and they’re coming back beat up big with scars, scrapes and open wounds, and they’re losing calves and cattle and the numbers keep growing,” Schmick said.

Schmick told the commission the added stress on ranchers in dealing with the wolves needs to be taken seriously.  

“The suicide rate among growers and farmers is three times the rate it is among the general population, and do not think for a minute that this does not add stress to our growers,” he said.

More than 50,000 Americans took their own lives in 2023, the nation’s highest yearly rate of suicide on record. Farmers are 3.5 times more likely to die by suicide than the general population, according to the National Rural Health Association.

That report listed stressors including financial strain, inclement weather damaging crops, and disease and other threats to livestock.

Last month, WDFW approved the lethal removal of two wolves from the Onion Creek wolf pack in northeast Washington, in response to repeated attacks on cattle in Stevens and Pend Oreille counties.

During the meeting, Dr. Ben Maletzke, WDFW's statewide wolf specialist, explained the process of getting to a decision to take lethal action. 

“When we do consider lethal removal, at least two non-lethal deterrence measures need to have been tried,” he spelled out.

Ranchers and growers also have to have documented proof of depredation. 

“At least one of those needs to be a confirmed kill of livestock, they can’t all be injuries,” Maletzke said.

“We’re averaging two to nine lethal removals each year,” he added, noting there are times when ranchers and growers can shoot and kill a wolf.

Between 2013 and 2023, Maletzke said there were 12 reports into WDFW of wolves "caught in the act" of attacking a domesticated animal, and there were eight wolves killed in those 12 reported cases over that 10-year period.

Stevens County Commissioner Wes McCart also raised concerns about cougars.

“I mean no disrespect with my comments, but I’m going to be rather blunt,” said said.

“You changed the rules on cougars, essentially eliminating any hunting and because of the mismanagement and overpopulation of cougars, we have multiple sightings posted on the web, almost daily of cougars that are not sole creatures running around, but in packs of four, five or six,” McCart said.

The animals have been spotted in areas where people live.

“We see them in the neighborhoods now, and this is not where they belong,” he said. “For some reason this commission does not want to recognize that the cougar population in our area is overwhelming.”

The Center Square reached out to WDFW for response to Rep. Schmick’s comments about added stress on ranchers and growers due to wolves and high suicide rates among the agriculture community in general. 

Staci Lehman, communications manager for Eastern Washington Region 1, responded via email.

“WDFW does not have any information relative to suicide rates but we certainly understand the added impacts from adjusting ranching operations to avoid and minimize conflicts with wolves, including delaying turn-out of cow/calf pairs and additional human presence and monitoring of cow behavior, among other mitigation measures," she said. “Not to mention when depredations occur, the impacts that it can have to the family business financially and the toll it takes on a rancher seeing an animal in their care hurt.  WDFW offers a number of ways to support ranchers and we continually look to improve on how we deliver that support.”