WDFW: Lethal Removal Will Not Be Needed For Columbia Pack

Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife in response to recurrent livestock depredations impacting multiple producers.  In last week’s announcement, Susewind noted:

“The primary objective of lethal removal is to change a wolf pack’s depredating behavior when proactive and responsive deterrence measures best suited to the landscape and situation fail to do so. While considering the option to use lethal removal in this pack territory, it was determined that proactive and responsive deterrent measures were not fully employed.”

Late last month, WDFW announced they had investigated four confirmed and one probable depredation events connected to the Columbia County pack, resulting in one dead and five injured livestock impacting three different livestock producers within a period of 10 months.  The Department added Director Susewind's decision is consistent with the guidance of the State's Wolf Conservation and Management Plan and the lethal removal provisions of the Department's 2020 wolf livestock interaction protocol.

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