SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — Gov. Inslee wants to change the way the state deals with problem wolves in Ferry County in an effort to reduce the number of gray wolves that are being killed.
The Democrat sent a letter to the Department of Fish and Wildlife saying that the statewide wolf management plan does not appear to be working in the Kettle River Range area of Ferry County.
The state in recent years has killed some two dozen wolves in that area that were preying on livestock. That has outraged wolf advocates who contend the state is repeatedly destroying wolf packs living in prime habitat.
The governor says he wants to find new methods to support co-existence between Washington’s livestock industry and gray wolves, calling the status quo of annual lethal removal “unacceptable.”
Inslee asked the agency to devise a new management approach in the Kettle River Range and report back to him by Dec. 1.
Wolves were all but wiped out in Washington by the 1930s, mostly at the behest of ranching interests.
The state wolf population was estimated last year at about 126 animals.