Winter tracks

In Washington, annual wolf count sets policy for the coming year.

Section:Gallery

Sat., March 14, 2020

Ben Maletzke, the statewide wolf specialist for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, backs turns his snowmobile around on a narrow Forest Service road on March 3, 2020. Unusually warm weather and a low snowpack make the annual wolf survey more difficult, Maletzke said. ELI FRANCOVICH/THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW.

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Ben Maletzke, the statewide wolf specialist for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, examines wolf tracks on March 3, 2020, in the Wedge Pack’s territory. The information Maletzke and others gather will be used to put together the state’s annual wolf report, to be released in April.

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Ben Maletzke, the statewide wolf specialist for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, gestures toward a forest service road in the Wedge Pack territory in northeast Washington on March 3, 2020. ELI FRANCOVICH/THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW.

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Ben Maletzke, the statewide wolf specialist for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Grant Samsill, a conflict specialist for WDFW and Staci Lehman, a spokeswoman for the agency work to pull a snowmobile out of a snow bank on March 3, 2020 while conducting an annual survey of Washington's wolf packs. Eli Francovich/THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW.

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Ben Maletzke, the statewide wolf specialist for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, and Grant Samsill, a conflict specialist for WDFW, look at wolf urine marked with blood. That, Samsill said, could be an indication that a female wolf is in estrus. Eli Francovich/THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW.

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Ben Maletzke, the statewide wolf specialist for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, points to a barely visible wolf track on March 3, 2020. Little snow and unusually warm temperatures made tracking members of the Wedge Pack difficult on that particular day. ELI FRANCOVICH/THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW.

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Grant Samsill, a wildlife conflict specialist with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, clears a downed tree off a road while surveying wolves in the Wedge Pack on March 3, 2020. ELI FRANCOVICH/THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW.

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