Cattle Missing, possibility increasing for hunting wolves in Washington?

[bearpaw]

Possibilities for hunting wolves in Washington?  Maybe

I have not been around lately and did not know the wolf meeting was going to occur today in Stevens County so I was not in attendance. But I heard about it on the local radio this evening and local people are fired up. One thing for sure, there are no wolf lovers controlling ranchers voicing their opinions or the local radio in Colville.

The WA Wildlife Commission approved a flawed wolf plan to allow too many wolves, everyone knows the WDFW is incapable of confirming wolves, and too many cattle are missing. Local ranchers are seeing wolves near their cattle and when this has happened in every other wolf state, cattle come up dead or missing.

Guess what, local ranchers the McIrvins are missing numerous bulls, cows, calves, etc. They had 200 cow/calf pairs in another GMU all summer with no wolf activiy and they are only missing one calf there. The disgusting part is that WDFW had their (one) statewide wolf trapper in the area this year and he was unable to collar any wolves.
 
Last election our county elected a popular cattleman as county commissioner and I am told that the other commissioners are also worried about these wolves and their effect on local cattlemen and the economy. In the past NE counties have considered kicking WDFW management out of the county. If WDFW doesn't hire some capable people to "confirm" these wolves, I could see it happening.

Remember, eastern WA is already federallly delisted. The main thing holding back wolf management in NE Washington is a wolf loving management agency. If our citizens, county commissioners, and sherrif all want a wolf hunt to eliminate problem wolves, its going to be hard to prevent something from happening.

I will find out more about what occurred and report back. 

[JJB11B]

 

[christopheri]

There are a couple of things I dont understand. One, why does the WDFW only have one trapper for all of WA and Two, why in the hell if wolfs are delisted in E. Washington cant we hunt them? Can ranchers shoot them if they find them harrasing their livestock?

[rasbo]

are thet finding carcasses?Or Something to validate that it is in fact wolves..

[bearpaw]

There are a couple of things I dont understand. One, why does the WDFW only have one trapper for all of WA and Two, why in the hell if wolfs are delisted in E. Washington cant we hunt them? Can ranchers shoot them if they find them harrasing their livestock?

It's complicated and I don't have the rules sitting in front of me but I will try to elaborate:

WDFW appears to have no intention of confirming wolves. We have a local trapper the ranchers like that wants a job confirming wolves, the ranchers would readily let him know when and where they see wolves. We also have an indian tribe willing to helpo confirm wolves, but I have heard the WDFW will not accept their help either. Instead we have one trapper for the whole state and an assortment of wolf loving agency managers sitting in Olympia patting themselves on the back and recieving kudos from Defenders of Wildlife for getting a flawed wolf plan approved by the commission. I doubt WDFW will hire any proven trappers anytime soon that will get wolves confirmed quickly.

Washington itself has it's own endangered species list and still has wolves listed even though the feds delisted. Yes, we are preventing ourselves from doing any management. Federally speaking, once the state wolf plan is approved the state could allow wolf management. But in my opinion, the WDFW is so afraid of I-5 corridor wolf lovers, it's questionable if they will even try to get anymore wolves confirmed or work toward allowing management. I don't know what they actually think, I'm just calling that as it appears.

The Colville tribe told WDFW they are managing wolves as soon as they have their own plan. I know that county commissioners in Ferry county and I think Okanbogan County are supporting them. The Kalispell's want to conduct moose counts and want to do wolf monitoring, but WDFW seems to be resisting. It seems as if WDFW doesn't want data available, again just calling that the way it appears from the outside looking in.

[bearpaw]

are thet finding carcasses?Or Something to validate that it is in fact wolves..

This rancher had the first USFWS and WDFW confirmed wolf kill in Washington several years ago, wolves have been in GMU 105 (where their ranch is) for many years. But WDFW doesn't list them.   

Wolf pups were whelped in 2010, many people saw the pups in various areas. I have documented wolf sightings all over the unit including right where the ranchers cattle graze. I don't know if pups were raised in 2011, but there are so many sightings that many people think there is now 2 packs in GMU 105.

No actual kills found of cattle yet, but numerous deer kills found in same areas where cattle are missing. One deer lkill this week right along the Kettle river was completely eaten overnight, so that explains how tough to find actual kills in that area will be with the heavy cover. Full grown bulls don't just disappear, I think the radio said 4 bulls are missing.

[grundy53]

If bulls are missing then it's not cougars or coyotes. That leaves natural causes, grizzlies, or wolves. 4 bulls dead from natural causes seems like too much of a coincedence...

[HairTrigger]

I personally seen sign in yakima county in the tieton unit while helping my brother in law on his big horn sheep hunt. This picture is the size of my palm a lil bigger then my palm

[bearpaw]

If bulls are missing then it's not cougars or coyotes. That leaves natural causes, grizzlies, or wolves. 4 bulls dead from natural causes seems like too much of a coincedence...

I just barely caught it all, I will try to get more precise info but I believe it included 4 bulls, and numerous cows and calves. There are numerous wolf sightings in the same area, no I don't think it's co-incidence with bulls and adult cows missing besides calves. At one time before this went public I had heard it was 20 to 24 head missing, the radio will say the numbers again today. It's just a matter of time to find a wolf kill, then that will remove any doubt. Wolves have also been seen near the neighboring ranchers cattle, and I've had reports through the forum from members of wolves sighted in the area. One guy on a road building crew that was in there this summer and when his truck broke down he was on foot and was surrounded by howling wolves.

[huntnnw]

Id be interested in knowing the numbers of the Phillips family cattle outta northport...there are wolves there and living right on their property. 5 at last count

[bearpaw]

Id be interested in knowing the numbers of the Phillips family cattle outta northport...there are wolves there and living right on their property. 5 at last count

That's probably the pack I lost track of, if we could solidfy the timing that a pack has been on the west side of 105 near McIrvins and when this pack was on Phillips, then we would know if there are likely two packs in 105. We have been thinking there are two packs, but I lost track of this pack you are saying has been on Phillips. Are they missing cattle too?

[bearpaw]

RADIO UPDATE:

6 cows, 16 calves, 5 bulls, all 27 missing from McIrvins herd.
Numerous piles of Wolf nmanure found full of cattle hair.
Cattlemen want permits to kill wolves seen near cattle.

County commissioners were in attendance in support of cattlemen.

[Gringo31]

Thanks for the update Bearpaw.  If I were to try to summarize, I would say this.  It appears that our State has bought into the influence of DOW and the libs on the coast to believe that true management is no management at all.  No hunting, no harvest, no predator removal. 

What is it they do again? 

[bearpaw]

This is the big story on our local radio:

Just heard more, another neighboring rancher is missing a large number of cattle too, and cattle are coming in off range with bites on them, it's not good.

McIrvin says he can go 1/2 mile in any part of that area and show you wolf sign.

[bearpaw]

I personally seen sign in yakima county in the tieton unit while helping my brother in law on his big horn sheep hunt. This picture is the size of my palm a lil bigger then my palm

HairTrigger, I appreciate your input, but this looks like a cougar track. Did you get any other photos of possible wolf tracks?

This link can help with wolf and cougar track identification:  http://washingtonwolf.info/identification.html