The Endangered Species Coalition once again helped lead the defeat of anti-wolf bills introduced in the year’s Washington Legislature. In what has become an annual occurrence, bills were introduced to allow the baiting and killing of wolves, allow counties to manage wolves, and to strip protections that wolves have under the state’s Endangered Species Act.
Wolves first started to recolonize the state in 2008 when the first successful breeding pair produced a litter. During the past seventeen years while we have seen an overall increase in numbers their rate of growth has slowed, poaching has increased, and the number of breeding pairs declined from 2022 to 2023.
We still don’t have any packs or breeding pairs in the Southern Cascades and Northwest Coast recovery zone the largest of the state’s three recovery zone.
During 2023 and 2024 the Endangered Species Coalition and our allies successfully helped defeat a proposal from the Department of Fish and Wildlife that would have down listed protections of wolves from endangered to sensitive under the state Endangered Species Act. This was especially important as the wolves in the eastern third of the state are not protected under the federal Endangered Species Act.
Last year the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission voted to deny the department’s request as it did not meet the State’s Wolf Conservation and Management Plan, was based on a scientifically disputed modeling study, and didn’t focus on the recovery of wolves throughout the state.
This year’s Washington House Bill 1311 would have overturned the commission’s decision. Our staff lobbied and testified against the bill and our Washington State members inundated the legislature with comments against the bill which helped kill it.
