Over a century ago, gray wolves wandered across the green of the Cascade Mountains and the desert hills of Eastern Washington. The presence of these dignified creatures played a crucial role in limiting the populations of their prey, and maintaining a healthy ecosystem. Now, the gray wolves are endangered, and a link in the ecosystem is missing.
Fast forward. Houses clutter land once the territory of roaming wolf packs. Hoofed animals overpopulate due to the small amounts of predation, and as a result, populations of beavers and small rodents are dwindling due to the lack of shrubbery available to them.
Although the number of wolves is still slim, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has proposed removing them from the endangered species list in the Rocky Mountain Range.
There are currently 1,200 wolves in the Rocky Mountain region, which includes all of Idaho, Montana and Wyoming and the eastern one-third of both Washington and Oregon, according to the USFWS. The wolves in the Rockies are on the endangered list, which protects the wolves from hunters. However, the USFWS decided that the population in this mountain range is large enough to remove the wolves from the endangered list, requiring each state to maintain only 15 breeding pairs, said Linda Saunders, the director of conservation at Wolf Haven, a wolf sanctuary.
The USFWS chose the region where wolves no longer need federal protection by measuring 250 miles from the Rocky Mountains. The line is arbitrary, since both Washington and Oregon measured where they believed the line should be and each state marked a different line than the USFWS, Saunders said.
In Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, the number of gray wolves is great enough for the USFWS to remove them from the endangered list, Saunders said. However, in both eastern Washington and Oregon there is no resident wolf population, and the source population would have to come from Idaho. Once the wolves are taken off the endangered list in Idaho, only 15 breeding pairs will be required. Hunters will have free range to shoot any wolves in excess of the 30 breeders, according to the USFWS. Idaho plans to allow hunters to shoot excess wolves, which will prevent Washington and Oregon from regaining their wolf population.
"It is premature to consider delisting gray wolves in any part of Washington State when there is no resident population," said Jasmine Minbashian, the communication director at Conservation Northwest, a non-profit environmental preservation organization. In Wyoming, debate increases about how best to protect wolves. Gray wolves will be considered trophy game animals if taken off the endangered list, and it may be difficult for the USFWS to control hunting enough to maintain the necessary population of 30 wolves.
States are concerned that allowing their wolf population to grow will reduce the elk population, Saunders said. What these states are not considering is that elk populations are already declining as a result of changing weather, shrinking habitat and different predators, Saunders said.
"I am wondering how much protection there will be in Idaho and Wyoming once they are taken off the endangered list," Saunders said. "How can we guarantee that we will not end up in the same spot we were in 10 years ago?"
Once the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) learned of the possible delisting of gray wolves in the eastern third of Washington, an 18-member citizen group formed to prepare a wolf protection plan. The members of this unnamed group include ranchers, biologists, and representatives from conservation organizations, Saunders said. This citizen group is expected to complete its plan for the USFWS by Dec. 2007.
"Even though this plan will be [completed] by December, it will probably be another year before the wolf is actually federally de-listed, as there are still disagreements going on between the different states and the Fish and Wildlife Service," said Rocky Beach, the WDFW Wildlife Diversity Division Director.
Paying people to protect these creatures will cost thousands of dollars, Ellis said. According to the Wyoming Game and Fish Department (WGFD), Congress currently allocates funds to each state for predator control, part of this devoted to wolf management. Once the wolf is de-listed, however, this funding will be dropped. According to the USFWS, when the gray wolf is de-listed, it will cost Idaho $837,325 per year, Montana $765,296 per year and Wyoming $615,900 per year in non-federal funds to address wolf related issues, conduct depredation investigations and control wolf actions.
"These wolves became endangered because of their competition with man," said Dave Ellis, the deputy director at Northwest Trek, a wildlife park for Northwest animals. "They were here first and we are the interlopers, but refuse to share our land with other creatures at the top of the food chain."
Wolves don’t recognize property or state lines, and have repeatedly targeted fenced livestock. A study conducted by the Wildlife Society in Wyoming, Montana, Idaho and Alberta, Canada from 1987 to 2003 showed that even while endangered, multiple livestock killings by wolves were reported. In Alberta, wolves killed a total of 1,021 domestic animals during this time period compared to 861 domestic animals killed in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho combined.
Wolves are generally successful nine out of ten times while hunting. Contrary to the image many people have from "Little Red Riding Hood," if a wolf makes a kill, it rarely includes a person, said Bill Liggett, Northwest Trek Animal Care Technician.
"There has never actually been a documented case of a healthy, well-fed gray wolf attacking a human being," Liggett said.
Approximately 10 years ago, 66 gray wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park according to Scholastic News. The pack of wolves grew to 834 and have considerably helped the park’s ecosystem. The presence of a large predator at the top of the food chain heavily impacted the creatures lower on the chain.
The gray wolf reduced the abundant elk herd considerably after it was reintroduced to the park, allowing willow, aspen and cottonwood trees to grow back. This increased the amount of songbirds in the forest and allowed beavers to make a comeback because of their reliance on willow trees for dams and food. Also, wolves often leave half-eaten carcasses behind, a feast for carnivores such as eagles, ravens, bears and coyotes.
"Man tends to view the wolf as being direct competition for the top of the food chain, but fails to realize that we all live in a big web and everything is interconnected," Ellis said. "We have to realize that we must keep things natural and give the wolf and other animals we do not like an opportunity to live."
In order for Washington to regain the wolf population it had during the early 1900s, it is crucial that Idaho and other states in the Rockies continue protecting the gray wolf once it is removed from the endangered list, Minbashian said. If state or national governments implement the plan to only maintain 15 breeding pairs in each state, endangered populations in other states will not be able to add to their wolf packs.