WDFW Kills Wolf From Ferry County’s OPT Pack

On Saturday, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife killed an adult male member of the OPT wolf pack, a pack has preyed on cattle on federal grazing lands repeatedly in the Kettle River range of Ferry County.  WDFW Director Kelly Susewind authorized incremental removal of wolves from the OPT pack on Wednesday, July 10th after WDFW staff confirmed a livestock depredation by the pack days earlier.

In 2018, the OPT pack was involved in a total of 16 depredations in under two months (three killed and 13 injured livestock), which prompted the lethal removal of two wolves by the department in September.  In November, Susewind paused action seeking to lethally remove the two remaining wolves from the OPT pack, one of which was killed this weekend.

WDFW says the livestock producer involved took several proactive, nonlethal, conflict deterrence measures.  The producer is continuing to coordinate patrols of the grazing area with WDFW and county staff, removing or securing livestock carcasses to avoid attracting wolves to the rest of the herd, using Fox lights at salting and watering locations to deter wolves, and removing sick and injured livestock (when discovered) from the grazing area until they are healed.

WDFW’s approach to incremental removal consists of a period of active operations followed by an evaluation period to determine if those actions changed the pack’s behavior. The department has now entered an evaluation period.

If WDFW documents another livestock depredation and confirms that it likely occurred after today’s action, the department may initiate another lethal removal action following the guidelines of the Wolf Plan and 2017 wolf-livestock interaction protocol.

WDFW will keep the public informed about this activity through weekly updates. The next update will be provided on July 23. WDFW will provide a final report on any lethal removal operations in the Washington Gray Wolf Conservation and Management 2019 Annual Report.

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