Federal poaching trial rescheduled

The federal trial for a Methow Valley ranch family accused of killing protected wolves and trying to smuggle pelts out of the country has been rescheduled to Jan. 30.

The trial was scheduled to begin next week in Spokane, but public defenders assigned to Twisp area rancher William D. White, his son Tom D. White and daughter-in-law Erin White asked for more time to prepare.

The White family all entered not guilty pleas June 30 in U.S. District Court.

Tom White faces charges of unlawfully taking an endangered species in the 2008 killings of two wolves. His father is charged with conspiring in the case. Erin White faces charges of false labeling of wildlife for export. All three face smuggling and unlawful export charges.

The three are accused of killing and seeking to ship the remains of two endangered gray wolves from the Methow Valley Lookout Pack, which in 2008 became the first breeding wolf pack documented in Washington since the 1930s.

Suspicion fell on the family after Erin White tried to ship a package to Canada in December 2008 containing dead animals parts, investigators said.