Washington wildlife policy makers meeting in Colville to discuss spring bear hunting, caribou protections

Washington wildlife policy makers will discuss a smorgasbord of topics – including deciding whether to keep caribou listed as a state endangered species despite local extinction and a discussion of spring bear hunting – at an upcoming meeting in northeast Washington.

Meanwhile, persistent local concerns about predators – primarily wolves and cougars – may bring fireworks during the public comment portion of the three-day meeting. The meeting will be available live online as well (see sidebar).

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Commission, a nine-person governor -appointed regulatory body, will meet in Colville Thursday through Saturday. The commission sets overall policy for WDFW and is tasked with preserving, protecting and perpetuating fish, wildlife and ecosystems while providing sustainable fish and wildlife recreational and commercial harvest opportunities.

While no action will be taken on the controversial spring bear hunt, that agenda item will likely garner the most public attention. In 2021, the commission suspended the long-standing spring bear hunt despite agency biologists recommending the hunt continue.

The discussion is about how the process for creating policies, such as banning the hunt, should look, Eastern Washington Commissioner Kim Thorburn said.

The other notable topic for Eastern Washington is about whether mountain caribou should maintain their state endangered listing status. Although mountain caribou are extinct in Washington, Idaho and Montana after Canadian biologists captured the sole surviving member of a caribou herd that still occasionally wandered into Idaho in 2019, they’re still listed as an endangered species at the federal and state levels.

Those listings provide some protections and other restrictions on lands suitable for caribou. Maintaining the state listing is important to the Kalispel Tribe, which hopes to reintroduce caribou to the Idaho and Washington Selkirks in concert with Canadian officials.

“It’s a really important status review for our co-managers, the Kalispels,” Thorburn said.

Meanwhile, residents of northeast Washington plan to address the commission during its public comment section. Of particular concern for some is a perceived increase in cougars and, as a result, more cougar-human interactions and a decrease in ungulates. There are also concerns about wolves, the majority of which live in northeast Washington.

The region has a “runaway predator problem,” said Dale Magart, the secretary of the Colville-based Northeast Washington Wildlife Group, which has about 40 active members.

He plans to address the commission and ask them to “look at the whole picture” and manage predators more aggressively.