"Juvenile wolves in mid‐summer and fall can mirror coyotes closely in size and coloration, but maintain the facial characteristics of wolves," according to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.
The appeal filed Nov. 27 requests the governor to overturn the decision made by the commission and order rulemaking to begin. The decision ruled against changing the current standards conservation groups believe resulted in the killing of nearly 45 gray wolves in the past decade.
In the appeal, petitioners told Inslee he has granted past appeals, and pleaded he considers seriously the importance of addressing the current issue regarding wolf-livestock conflicts and wolf killings in Washington state. Two letters of support from both the Center for Biological Diversity and Washington Wildlife First were filed with the appeal, which was signed by 11 conservation organizations.
“Nearly 18 months after your September 4, 2020 letter ordering the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife to engage in rulemaking to regulate state wolf management, the Department proposed a rule that lacked meaningful or enforceable standards,” the appeal to Inslee states. “In response, on July 8, 2022, the (Washington Fish and Wildlife) Commission voted 5-4 to take ‘no action’ on a potential wolf rule, without any substantive discussion about your direction to ‘institute practices that will avoid the repeated loss of wolves and livestock in our state.’ Since then, the Commission has failed to fulfill its promises to revisit the issue.”
"Juvenile wolves in mid‐summer and fall can mirror coyotes closely in size and coloration, but maintain the facial characteristics of wolves," according to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Wikimedia Commons/WDFW
According to a Nov. 28 press release by the Center for Biological Diversity, the original appeal requested the existing rules that govern wolf management be amended to:
“Require livestock operators to use appropriate nonlethal methods to prevent conflict between livestock and wolves before the agency could consider killing wolves.
“Require the agency to develop mitigation plans for areas of chronic conflict.
“Establish standards for what constitutes effective range riding to best protect livestock.
“Prohibit killing of wolves on public lands or for conflicts that occur on public lands.
“Set basic limits on the number of wolves that could be killed and length of time a kill order could remain open.”
If Inslee decides to grant the appeal, the commission would not be required to adopt any of the proposed rule changes brought forward by petitioners. Starting the rulemaking process simply means that the commission would need to begin discussions over what changes (if any) should be made.
“The governor supports wolves as an important part of our state’s natural ecosystem and has previously asked the Commission to write rules regarding lethal control,” said Mike Faulk, press secretary. “They (the Commission) did not take action when he wrote to them in 2019 and 2020, but he has remained engaged with the commission about the responsible use of this practice. Gov. Inslee intends to have a thorough discussion with staff about this latest petition before commenting or taking further action on it.”
Inslee has 45 days from the date of filing to decide whether to accept or deny the appeal, according to the press release from the Center for Biological Diversity. If an appeal is granted, the commission will begin the rulemaking process, at which time the case will be open to public input.
“Petitioners brought this rulemaking petition in the hopes it would facilitate the serious discussion the Commission should have had three years ago about how to reduce wolf mortality and facilitate wolf recovery,” the appeal stated.
World news editor Emily Thornton contributed to this report.
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