PORT ANGELES – Over the past decade, ongoing conflicts in eastern Washington between wolves and livestock have created often intense hostility between environmentalists and ranchers. The fight this week drew statewide attention when the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) announced the cancellation of a series of public wolf management meetings because of online threats of violence.
The 14 open-house meetings, scheduled in October throughout Washington, were supposed to help WDFW develop a post-recovery plan, with the expectation that wolves will be removed from the endangered species list within the next few years.
Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman Staci Lehman says the hostilities left officials in her agency no other alternative.
“We have talked with law enforcement in local communities where we were going to do meetings and in several cases they said ‘hey, we don’t have the resources to back you up on this’. On the other side though also is, we want to have meetings that are productive. Even if nothing gets crazy, if people come in and want to say their piece and somebody else, you know shouts over them or it just doesn’t end up being a meeting where anything gets done…you know, we have 14 meetings of those and they take a lot of resources, which we’re totally willing to put into it, but where do we draw the line about, you know, we have to have community meetings that actually accomplished something.”
Right now, wolves are protected by the federal endangered species list in the western two-thirds of Washington. They are on the state endangered species list in the eastern one-third of Washington, where most of the conflicts involving livestock happen, and where an entire pack of wolves was recently killed by WDFW hunters for killing cattle. Wolf advocates are challenging the policy in Western Washington courts.
Lehman says that despite some people’s assumptions, the threats have been coming from both sides of the issue, and have now gotten the attention of the federal government.
“Yeah, we’re hearing from both sides on the case. And we understand that it is a hot topic on both sides, that people are really passionate about it. And you’re right, we do feel it’s probably just a handful of people, but you can’t risk people lives. And then also we had been contacted by the FBI, don’t know if there’s ongoing investigations, but we did have some people just saying it might not be the best time. It’s disappointing, definitely to us, because we want to meet people face-to-face too.”
In place of the cancelled meetings, the information will now be available online (click here), including three yet-to-be scheduled webinars.
Public comments will be accepted until Nov. 1.
WDFW photo: The male member of the Diobsud Creek pack in Skagit County.