Minority Group Comments on WDFW Draft Wolf Plan

[woodswalker]

These comments are presented on behalf of the Minority Group. By definition the DRAFT Wolf Plan is supposed to be a Draft Conservation and Management Plan for Washington. It is written like a recovery document for an ESA species such as the Desert Tortoise not an apex predator like the Wolf. As most recovery plans do not consider long term management objectives this document does not either. However when dealing with an apex predator like the wolf it is essential to have the support of impacted stakeholders and the only way to achieve this is by discussing long term management plans. The WDFW could have attempted in the Wolf Working Group process to address concerns and effects of the Plan by both sides if they would have allowed a discussion on management objectives instead of focusing on the number of Breeding Pairs (BP’s) to delist. In order for the Wolf Working Group, WDFW Commission and the public to fully understand the effects of this plan long term they must consider the following:

See Attached .PDF

[denali]

Thanks for posting woodswalker,  just started reading and it is down right depressing   

this pretty much says it all

We don’t want to think that the discrepancies between the modeling work done by the WDFW and USFWS are due to the WDFW’s desire to justify a larger population of wolves than the state can support, but it appears this may be the case especially in view of the fact that the latest version of the WDFW Wolf Plan reads more as a justification for the recovery of wolves than a conservation and management plan.