Post by: winshooter88 on September 01, 2012, 02:24:16 AM
Subject: Gray Wolf Update: August 29, 2012
Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2012 15:56:43 -0700
WDFW WILDLIFE PROGRAM
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife
600 Capitol Way North, Olympia, WA 98501-1091
wildthing@dfw.wa.gov
Gray Wolf Update
Update, August 29, 2012 - State wildlife managers have temporarily suspended their on-site wolf management efforts in Northeast Washington and will re-evaluate next week the effort to remove more wolves from a pack that has persistently preyed on livestock in a remote area of Stevens County known as the Wedge.
Staff from the Department of Fish and Wildlife did not kill any wolves during a 12-day initiative that began August 18. WDFW staff went to the Wedge, an area bordered by the Columbia and Kettle rivers and the Canadian border, after wildlife managers confirmed that wolves from the Wedge pack were involved in the recent injury of one calf and the death of another in the grazing allotment area of the Diamond M ranch near the Canadian border. Those depredations, in mid-August, brought to eight the total number of injured or dead livestock from the Diamond M ranch since July.
WDFW staff killed a non-breeding member of the pack on August 7 in an effort to disrupt the pack's behavior, but that action did not change the wolves' pattern of attacking livestock.
Department Director Phil Anderson said today he ordered the latest effort suspended to give the team a break from field activities; to avoid conflicts with Labor Day recreationists; and to allow the department to evaluate what it has learned before deciding on next steps. Anderson said the department will continue to pursue management options to address repeated livestock depredation and may resume the effort to lethally remove wolves from the Wedge pack.
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The enviromental groups are saying that they got the hunt stopped and that the WDFW did not do enough non-leathal tries to stop the depredations, and that they didn't follow the methods set forth in the wolf management plan.
Post by: Elkaholic daWg on September 01, 2012, 06:16:17 AM