WDFW passes on culling Wedge wolf pack

[Loup Loup]

Your preaching to the choir here Bearpaw.
I remember when they first started mismanaging cougar. Before we outlawed hounds. They put cougar on a limited draw in Chelan county. The biological data to support the limit was based on the person that sealed cougar pelts didnt know cat anatomy and called all cougars they sealed here females for years.
It got so bad after we outlawed hounds that did away with the draw and allowed the harvest of two cougar per for a few seasons. In fact that first two cat season I feel I killed the last cougar of the old year and the first cougar of the new year. Six days apart Dec/Jan. They were thick. But they are thicker now. With way less deer.
One point I want to make, Bearpaw, then I will quit stealing this thread.
In 1980 we hound hunted Bobcat, bear, cougar. Plus we hunted them. We trapped, snared coyote, bobcat, plus we hunted them. We didnt have near the eagles, or Ravens we have now. We didnt have wolves around in 1980.
In 1980 a cougar could kill a deer and had a good chance of keeping it hid so it could feed on it for 3-4 days. Nowadays there are too many meat eaters in the woods for a cat to hide its kill long enough to come back for a snack later. Forceing this cougar to move and kill again, sooner than it would have in 1980. Plus these would be scavengers are killing their own deer in between stealing from the cougar.
We are in a multifaceted predator pit.

[buckfvr]

I also believe the big cats only get one meal per kill which puts them in a cycle of killing probably twice as many deer as they had to before things tipped over.

[CGDucksandDeer]

I completely agree that mule deer need help, especially in all of NE WA. Is your org willing to let a few more cats be taken to reduce the higher than ever predation factor on mule deer?

Yes I agree that mule deer in NE WA need releif from predators. But, that being said, NE WA, as a whole, has never been prime high production mule deer habitat.
What should be causing an uproar from hunters, and what few small business owners are left in small town Chelan and Okanogan counties is the low population of mule deer that are hanging on.
Chelan and Okanogan counties, historically has been the heartland of mule deer range in this state. To allow this once common specie to wink out is an Unbeleivably obvious example of head in the sand by Wildlife "managers" and sportsmen.
Mule deer have been mismanaged to the point where we now have a skelliton population hanging in in Chelan and Okanogan countys. I hear people say "Oh we had winter kill last winter". And leave it at that. Come on. We haven't had a winter in several years. Mule deer have been wintering and recovering for 40,000
Winters.
This problem has several moving parts. The most important is winter range degradation. Its been burned hard for three decades then allowed to come back in cheat grass and knap weed. We have unlimited summer range in Chelan and Okanogan counties, but very limited wintering areas left.
When the population has been beat down to a skelliton level there is no way they can come back through the Porrly managed, Unlimited Bobcats, bears, cougars, coyotes, dogs, golden eagles, ravens, poachers, and cars. And still allow a token harvest by hunters.
It seems NE Wa gets most of the attention when it comes to predators.
I think all of Eastern Washington should be concerned about the mismanagement of not only predators, but all of our game and habitat.

I logged on today to reply to you on this Bearpaw, but Loup Loup nailed just about all I would have said.

This is not an issue I take lightly. I personally saw the biggest muley I've seen in Washington deep in a Roadless Area off the Kettle Crest years ago, and have plenty enjoyed wandering that country for work and play. I had tagged out earlier that season, and was camped with a buddy who was unfortunatly down the ridge from me when the giant appeared out of a snow storm, only to disappear into the fog. That's not something someone who cares about mule deer easily forgets.

My anecdotal experiences in the Kettles and eastern Okanogan match up with those of other hunters: fewer mule deer than should be around, even in patches of quality habitat (which are patchy as others have said).

I don't dispute this is a topic CNW could be more active on, it's one we have sought to elevate through the WAG, as well as listening to feedback from other reps and Colville tribal staff. Our focus will always be on habitat more than predator control, especially wildlife crossings and connectivity in the Okanogan Valley, such as the Safe Passage 97 effort with MDF. But we're not blind to this issue, and it's one I don't hesitate to push among our team.

As you probably recal, we also worked with hound hunters to support the pilot project that passed in 2019. That's far from a solution, but it's a start, one opposed by more hardline groups. https://www.conservationnw.org/news-updates/perspectives-on-hound-training-bills/

[KFhunter]

I agree it's not Montana, but there's some really nice pockets of mule deer with fantastic hunting and giant racks,  some I'd put against any Montana mule deer

but that was years ago, there's still a few here and there but the big ones are being taken by cats and the pockets of mule deer and dwindling.   

I'd hate to see our mule deer in the 100 GMU's thrown out with the bathwater because: "not prime production mule deer habitat"

It could be

[nwwanderer]

Not just northeast, same in southeast.  Where there were hundreds, now dozens.  Lions and coyotes and bears oh my

[bearpaw]

back on topic....

https://wdfw.wa.gov/species-habitats/at-risk/species-recovery/gray-wolf/updates/fourth-confirmed-wolf-depredation-wedge

Do they think the wolves will simply quit eating beef?