Wolves in the Methow are once again protected under federal law.
Judge reverses Trump admin rule
Gray wolves, including those living in and around the Methow Valley, are once again protected as an endangered species under federal law after a federal judge last week reversed a Trump administration rule that removed protections for the wolves in the lower 48 states.
A U.S. District Court judge, in a Feb. 10 ruling, ordered the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to resume recovery efforts for gray wolves and restored their designation as a species threatened with extinction under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA).
The judge said the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service had not adequately considered threats to the survival of the gray wolf species in western states and other parts of the country when the agency decided to remove protections in the fall of 2020.
The federal ruling does not apply to wolves categorized as the Northern Rocky Mountains distinct population segment, which were removed from federal protection under legislation passed by Congress in 2011. That includes gray wolves in the eastern one-third of Washington and Oregon, a small part of north-central Utah, and all of Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming. Those wolves are listed and protected as an endangered species under Washington state law, however.
In Washington, gray wolves are listed as endangered throughout the state under state law. Wolves in the western two-thirds of the state, which includes the Methow Valley, were protected under the ESA as an endangered species before the protections were eliminated by Fish and Wildlife near the end of the Trump administration.
Following the U.S. District Court decision, federal protections are now reinstated for wolves in the western two-thirds of Washington, placing management of wolves in the Methow Valley under federal jurisdiction.
“The wolves in the eastern third of the state will continue to be managed at the state level by Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW), while U.S. Fish & Wildlife will manage wolves in the rest of the state,” said Staci Lehman, a spokesperson for WDFW. “The two agencies do coordinate on wolf management decisions and issues, of course.”
Under the state’s Wolf Management and Conservation Plan, protections can be lifted when wolves are considered to be recovered, which is determined by population, distribution and reproduction.
“Of the 29 known wolf packs in Washington, 23 reside in the eastern third of the state where wolves have not been federally listed under the U.S. Endangered Species Act since 2011,” said Julia Smith, wolf policy lead at WDFW. “WDFW is committed to the recovery of wolves in Washington, and they remain listed as endangered by WDFW throughout the state. … We will continue to work closely with partners, stakeholders, and communities, just as we have over the past decade, on the recovery, conservation, and management of wolves in Washington, with a focus on achieving the state’s recovery objectives and mitigating conflict between wolves and livestock. The state of Washington has facilitated wolf recovery for more than a decade and remains prepared to be the management authority for wolves statewide.”
The Methow Valley has three known wolf packs that occupy territory in and around the valley, and is home to the longest existing wolf pack in the state – the Lookout Pack – which was discovered in 2008 and was the first known resident pack in Washington since wolves were essentially eliminated throughout the state by the early 1900s.
Delisting impacts
In deciding to remove protections from gray wolves around the country in 2020, the Fish & Wildlife Service had reasoned that because wolf populations have recovered in the Great Lakes states, wolves in other parts of the country could be removed from protections.
In his decision, U.S. District Court Judge Jeffrey S. White found “the Service did not adequately consider threats to wolves outside of these core populations” and “avoided assessing the impact of delisting on those wolves.”
The federal ruling was applauded by conservation and wildlife groups that filed suit in January 2021 in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, challenging the removal of federal protections for gray wolves.
The most recent data from federal and state wildlife agencies show an estimated 132 wolves in Washington, 173 in Oregon, and fewer than 20 in California, according to a news release from Cascadia Wildlands, one of several organizations participating in the lawsuit.
Nevada, Utah and Colorado have had a few wolf sightings over the past three years, but wolves remain largely absent from their historical habitat in these states. In 2020, Colorado voters directed the state to reintroduce wolves by 2023, the release said.
“Wolves are an integral part in the health and resilience of western ecosystems,” said Adam Gebauer of The Lands Council. “Local land managers, state wildlife offices and the federal government must work together and rely on science and not politics to ensure their recovery. Wolves are our allies in the conservation of wildlands.”
Because the ruling does not restore protection to wolves in the Northern Rockies population, wildlife advocates are urging the Biden administration to issue emergency protections for those wolves, the Cascadia Wildlands release said.
“The politically driven delisting of wolves in the Northern Rockies by Congress incorrectly included all of eastern Washington, east of U.S. Highway 97. It was an arbitrary decision then and it still is today,” said Timothy Coleman of Republic, director of Kettle Range Conservation Group.
Coleman, a former member of Washington’s Wolf Advisory Group, said 85% of wolves killed in Washington, often as a result of livestock depredations, are from the Kettle Range.
“Though Washington has kept state endangered species protections for wolves, that clearly provides little protection,” he said.
During the past year, Montana and Idaho have expanded wolf hunting and established wolf bounties. In the past few months, at least 23 wolves from packs that live in Yellowstone National Park – more than 20% of the park’s wolf population, have been killed outside the park.
Hunters in Montana and Idaho can lure wolves out of Yellowstone with bait, strangle them with snares, and shoot them at night on private land, according to Cascadia Wildlands. The killing of Yellowstone wolves has caused an outcry among wolf researchers and wildlife advocates the park supervisor, as well as tourists who come to observe the wolves and wildlife-guiding businesses.
The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service announced last September, in response to an emergency petition from wildlife organizations, that it would begin a status review of wolves in the West to determine whether to include wolves in those states under federal protections.
The coalition of western wildlife organizations involved in the legal challenge that resulted in this month’s federal court decision includes WildEarth Guardians, Western Watersheds Project, Cascadia Wildlands, Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center, Environmental Protection Information Center, The Lands Council, Wildlands Network, Klamath Forest Alliance, and Kettle Range Conservation Group. The coalition was represented by the Western Environmental Law Center.
