Comment deadline on draft wolf plan this week
Washington Ag Today January 5, 2010 You only have a few more days to make a comment on Washington’s draft wolf management plan. The Department of Fish and Wildlife is accepting comments through 5 p.m. this Friday, January 8th. The department held 12 meetings around the state last fall at which public comment was taken. The draft plan is undergoing a blind academic peer review after which a final wolf conservation and management plan will be prepared for presentation to the Fish and Wildlife Commission late this year. The draft wolf plan does have a compensation program for livestock that are killed by wolves, however it will need to be funded. And as southeast Washington rancher Sam Ledgerwood told a recent legislative committee meeting, confirming a wolf kill isn’t easy and there are impacts beyond predation. Ledgerwood: “I run on 26-thousand acres of timber ground. I very rarely find a dead one. They are just gone. How am I going to get compensated for that? How am I going to get compensated for the loss of the cattle moving and not breeding and all that? “ The state suspects but hasn’t confirmed a wolf pack in southeastern Washington but Ledgerwood told lawmakers hunters in his area have seen and heard wolves and his cattle are already acting differently. Wolf packs have been confirmed in north central and northeastern Washington. The state’s preferred alternative draft plan calls for 15 breeding pairs in Washington before delisting wolves as endangered. Livestock organizations say that’s too many. I’m Bob Hoff and that’s Washington Ag Today on the Northwest Ag Information Network.
