I like the dates. 1990 versus the first pack in 70 years as of last year. OH BOTHER...... THey can't even keep their own facts straight. What good would it be to expect proof of any being released. Its just a piece of paper (if there is any) that must get lost on someones desk like this information.
How bout these dates?
http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19921206&slug=1528536Sunday, December 6, 1992 - Page updated at 12:00 AM
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Wolves Coming Back To Cascades
By Patty Wren
Wenatchee World
TWISP, Okanogan County - We may not be dancing with wolves, but they're here, their numbers are growing and it is possible to coexist with them in relative peace.
That's the message a Montana wolf specialist and wildlife advocates are trying to get out. .
At a meeting here on grizzly bears in the North Cascades, about 140 residents seemed intrigued.
Particularly when Pat Tucker, a biologist with the National Wildlife Federation, led a full-grown wolf past the audience, sat with her back to it and allowed it to upstage her by chewing loudly on an empty plastic soda bottle.
The presentation was the Okanogan National Forest's way of telling residents that the gray wolf, once slaughtered by the tens of thousands, has been making a quiet comeback in Washington.
In the Okanogan, one or more wolves have been spotted in five separate areas since 1989.
The plan is to let the wolves - moving into old haunts south of Canada after hunting stopped there in the 1970s - reproduce themselves, said Jon Almak, a state Department of Wildlife biologist.
The crowd responded with an audible sigh of relief, then applause and cheers.
Biologists are trying to write a wolf-recovery plan for Washington.
Originally planned as part of a recovery program for the northern Rockies, where wolves were brought in, the effort could become unique to Washington because of the apparently burgeoning population.
For example, 100 sightings were reported in 1981, and last year there were 200, ranging as far south as Mount St. Helens, Almak said.
Federal agencies have spent $3.3 million on wolf research in the Rockies since 1987.
Efforts in Washington, such as howling to find members of the endangered species, began two years ago.
Almak, chairman of a biological research subcommittee, said guidelines are being written to ensure that management, habitat and prey-base goals are met and hunters and the general public are educated.
Enter Tucker, whose appearance at the general meeting and at three schools also was sponsored by the Methow Valley Citizens Council.
Through a slide show depicting wolves at play, over bloody carcasses, howling in chorus and standing watchfully, Tucker spoke of her love and respect for the charismatic animals.
She began with a tape recording of a lone wolf howling, telling people in the audience to imagine themselves - as she'd been when she taped it - alone in the wilderness at nightfall.
Suddenly a stereo-like chorus of howls erupted. You could almost see the hairs raise on the backs of 140 necks.
Tucker grinned at the reaction. "I enjoy being out there with other animals that are my equals," she said. "It's not that I want to sell wolves to everyone, but that you will go away from this program with at least respect for them."
Wolves feed on large game animals, pose somewhat of a threat to cattle, run in family packs of about eight, breed annually, can travel 500 miles and need about 200 square miles per pack to thrive, Tucker said.
"They don't eat humans," she said. "We have documentation of bears - even white-tailed deer - killing people, and that's more common than wolves killing people."
The predators are equally preyed on by the pitfalls of life in the wild. "It's an old wolf that's 8 years old," Tucker said.
"Those of us who want wolves back have got to realize the emotional trauma" to cattlemen of coming upon a bloody calf, she said.
"But most ranchers are never going to have to deal with it.
"Some believe they eat cattle. Some believe they eat only sick, weak mice," Tucker said. "The two sides will never agree. . . .
Ranchers in British Columbia and Alberta have had some problems with predation, but the losses are not significant to the industry, she said, adding that knapweed poses a worse problem.
If prey habitat can be protected, human attitudes changed and wolves freed from human persecution, she said, "We shouldn't have to put a lot of restrictions on human activities."
Copyright (c) 1992 Seattle Times Company, All Rights Reserved.
