Timothy Coleman: Wolves the victims of state, federal leadership failures in the Colville National Forest

The fact that Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Director Kelly Susewind has ordered the deaths of two wolves this summer – one an adult male from the Togo Pack and the other a female in the Sherman Pack – begs the question: Why are taxpayer dollars being repeatedly wasted for an irresponsible commercial cattle business on public lands with no reform in sight?

This ongoing saga in the Kettle River Range is a prime example of the contradiction between public values versus a private business interest with all the privileges of below-cost Forest Service grazing leases and state-funded predator control on your public lands. WDFW has spent millions of dollars to recover state-endangered gray wolves only to repeatedly kill them – 70% of which was for the Diamond M Ranch, which grazes cattle in the Colville National Forest.

This history goes back more than a decade. The home range of what is now the second Sherman Wolf Pack is north and east of Highway 20 at Sherman Pass, in the same area as the first Sherman Pack that was terminated by WDFW in 2017. Other wolf packs wiped out by WDFW for Diamond M in the Colville National Forest were the Wedge Pack (2012) Profanity Peak Pack (2016) and the Old Profanity Territory Pack (2018 and 2019).

WDFW apparently views its mission to “preserve, protect and perpetuate fish, wildlife and ecosystems,” merely as advisory when it comes to endangered wolves.

Culpability rests equally on the U.S. Forest Service, whose mission “Caring for the Land and Serving People” depends on its arbitrary definition of “caring,” and “serving” whom. Hammered vegetation and manure on busted trails not only impacts recreation, it also degrades wildlife habitat and mountain springs and creeks.

WDFW says it manages state fish and wildlife but does not manage its habitat on federal lands. The U.S. Forest Service says it manages habitat not wildlife – that’s the state’s job. So nobody is guilty of this travesty or they both are. Tag, you’re it!

Even though diligent ranchers and environmental allies have developed proven nonlethal deterrence measures to avoid both cow and wolf deaths, Susewind has yet to craft clearly enforceable standards regarding wolves and livestock that adopt such measures. Instead he promotes ill-defined, weak wolf/livestock protocols of “at least two proactive nonlethal deterrence measures.”

Why just two nonlethal deterrence measures, why not all six WDFW lists on its Aug. 25 public notice? And why do these measures lack specifics?

As a former member of state Wolf Advisory Group from April 2015 to August 2020, I helped craft the 2020 Wolf/Livestock Interaction Protocols. I have sat through many hours/days debating how to address weaknesses in these protocols, in particular, failure to address areas of “chronic conflict” in the Kettle Range. The WAG debated this ad nauseam without resolution because ranchers didn’t like it, and WDFW would not lead. This was frustrating and led me to agree to support a lawsuit challenging Susewind, who then kicked me off the advisory group.

Areas of chronic conflict reveal two important lessons: 1) WDFW’s protocol is weakly worded and works only where there is responsible ranching, and 2) many Colville forest grazing allotments are so terrestrially complex that livestock are put in harm’s way, but the Forest Service is wont to fix it. WDFW must establish enforceable standards that fix the obvious weaknesses in the protocol, including livestock GPS tracking devices and additional nonlethal measures that elsewhere are successfully preventing unnecessary wolf and livestock deaths.

The Kettle Range is mostly rugged wilderness with few meadows surrounded by forests, steep topography, rock cliffs and terrain traps including jack-straw downed trees. It is too easy for a cow or calf to get separated, stuck and die in these hazards. Most of the Kettles are not suitable to small groups of widely dispersed cow/calf pairs intentionally dropped off by truck in spring across many thousands of acres. The Colville National Forest plan lists 26% of the forest as suitable for cattle grazing, yet cattle allotments occupy 66% of the 1.1 million acre forest.

Susewind needs to step up and provide leadership rather than waste more resources killing wolves. His failure of leadership is the reason why the protocol has not changed since 2020 and why a few bad apples persistently create chronic conflict problems. Perhaps only the state Legislature can actually fix this mess and establish enforceable protocols, forcing WDFW into solutions beyond sending its helicopter gunships to kill more wolves.

Timothy Coleman, of Republic, Washington, is executive director of the Kettle Range Conservation Group.