Cowboy Summit on Wolves Pt 2

Cowboy Summit on Wolves Pt 2

Bob Larson
Bob Larson
I'm Bob Larson. It's no secret, and certainly no surprise, that livestock producers in northeast Washington are fed up with the reintroduction of wolves that have left them with a decade of frustration trying to protect their cattle and their livelihoods.

At the first-ever 'Cowboy Summit' held recently in

Ellensburg, ranching groups talked about finding answers ... one of which, according to the Washington Farm Bureau's Tom Davis, is finding a representative from northeast ranching community to be part of Fish and Wildlife's 'Wolf Advisory Group' ...

DAVIS ... "There are a lot of ranchers up there and I would put it on the department, they need to work with the ranchers up there and find someone who would be willing to participate. Understand that's a real challenge because those people up there are very frustrated. You know, having to live with wolves now for a decade and it's only getting worse as that wolf population continues to increase. There are, I think there's 17 packs up there in the northeast right now out of the 22 in the state."

I ask Davis if delisting the wolves in that area would be a partial solution ...

DAVIS ... "That's one of them. As you know, the state is split in two. You know, the eastern one-third of the state is delisted federally and then the remaining two-thirds westward is still listed under the ESA, the Endangered Species Act, and there is growing support for, in the state here, doing a regional delisting as well."

Davis says other proposed solutions would be allowing more local controls and better sharing of wolf collar locations by the Department of Fish and Wildlife.

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