Kretz: Lawmakers Clear Wolf Legislation Despite Efforts To “Muddy The Waters”

It took a while to get out of the Senate, but lawmakers in Olympia passed legislation this month addressing the growing gray wolf population in Washington.  House Bill 2097 requires the Department of Fish and Wildlife to review the wolf’s population status by February of next year, as well as consider the listing status of those wolves by August of 2020.  The Legislation also called on WDFW to develop conflict meditation guidelines for each wolf recovery rejoin across Washington.  The legislation also calls for “sufficient” staffing in Ferry and Stevens counties so WDFW can responds to conflicts.  While the legislation cleared the House 97-0, it took senators more convincing to clear the bill.

Sponsor Joel Kretz said the slowdown was due to wolf activists, many of whom don’t live where wolves live.  The NE Washington Republican says those opposed to an updated wolf plan are just trying to muddy up the waters.

“They’ve never lived that life, they have no connect to it.  They were actually questioning the number of livestock killed over there, and then they would say, ‘oh, we need the science’.  How about we just load them all in the back of a pick up truck and count noses.  Because I’ve been out to enough of these, there’s photographs of enough of them.  The Department of Fish and Wildlife documents everything.”

Kretz said the four NE Washington counties have 90% of the wolves in the state, and the impact has been huge.

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