Mike Blankenship Needs to get reined in WDFW!!!!! THIS NEEDS TO BE EXPOSED!! MIKE BLANKENSHIP IS NOT AUTHORIZED TO MAKE THESE DECISIONS!!!!! Donny Martorello needs to respond to this!!!
Ferry County commissioners unanimously passed a resolution Friday authorizing the sheriff’s office to kill the remaining nine members of a wolf pack in the northeastern Washington county, if state wildlife officials don’t resume shooting wolves.
“That pack of wolves needs to be gone,” Commissioner Mike Blankenship said. “I feel the sheriff has that power and that obligation as much as he would with a wild dog out there.”
The Department of Fish and Wildlife halted the search Thursday for the Profanity Peak pack 13 days after shooting two adult female wolves from a helicopter. Four adults and five pups survive.
WDFW initiated lethal removal Aug. 3 after the pack killed at least four calves and one cow in less than a month. The pack probably was responsible for at least three other depredations, according to WDFW.
Blankenship said WDFW ended the culling of the pack prematurely. County officials have pressed the department to eliminate the entire pack since 2014, citing concerns for humans, pets and livestock.
County commissioners held a special meeting Friday afternoon at which they approved giving Sheriff Ray Maycumber the resources to lethally remove the pack.
It may not be necessary. WDFW says it will resume hunting for the Profanity Peak pack if more depredations occur, which is a strong possibility, Blankenship said.
“An operator has been losing an animal a day since their animals were put on the range,” he said. “Should Fish and Wildlife fail to, we’re prepared to step up and finish that job.”
If the county targets wolves, it would test WDFW’s jurisdiction over the state’s wildlife.
“Maybe that would get challenged and maybe we need to have conversation. I’m sure it would be a fairly mind-blowing case,” Blankenship said.
The two wolves that were shot included the breeding female. WDFW officials say they can’t identify different pack members from a helicopter. After the shootings, the pack withdrew to heavy timber in the Kettle River Range Mountains and became increasingly difficult to track, even though two wolves wore GPS radio collars, according to WDFW.
WDFW also suggested in a press release that shooting the two wolves had been effective in stopping depredations.
“The goal of removing some wolves from the pack was to stop wolf attacks on area cattle herds,” WDFW wolf policy coordinator Donny Martorello said in a written statement. “The last confirmed depredation by the pack was two weeks ago, but we are prepared to resume operations to remove wolves if monitoring efforts confirm new attacks.”
Efforts to reach the ranch suffering the most losses were unsuccessful. But others in contact with the producer said livestock remains continue to be found. In some cases, too little remains of the carcass to identify whether the animal was killed by a wolf.
“As long as the wolf eats the whole calf, they’re home free,” said state Rep. Joel Kretz, who represents Ferry County.
Kretz credited WDFW’s on-the-ground staff with doing the best they could, but criticized the department’s leadership for ending the operation.
“Why do you just stop?” he asked. “It seems like they’re giving themselves an ‘A’ for participation, but flunked the test.”
Kretz said he was ready to back up county officials if they decided to initiate lethal removal.
“I’m willing to go along on that trip,” he said. “If there’s a confrontation on this, so be it.”
Amaroq Weiss of the Center for Biological Diversity said Ferry County ranchers and officials should be celebrating that WDFW hasn’t confirmed a wolf attack since Aug. 3, instead of contemplating shooting more wolves.
“Thumbing your nose at state law doesn’t engender a lot of respect from the rest of the public about your attitudes of living with wildlife,” she said. “This isn’t the 1850s.”
WDFW announced Aug. 3 it would “partially remove” the pack to stop attacks on livestock. Before starting the operation, WDFW said it had a specific number of wolves it planned to shoot, but has declined to release the number.
“They are the only ones who knows what success is,” said Stevens County rancher Scott Nielsen, vice president of the Cattle Producers of Washington.
Nielsen said the state has shirked its responsibility and county officials have a duty to step in.
“I’m sure they’ll get portrayed as a bunch of rednecks on the westside (of Washington) if they act, but they’ve been forced into it,” he said.
Stevens County rancher Dave Dashiell, who estimates he lost up to 300 sheep to the Huckleberry pack in 2014, said he wasn’t surprised WDFW stopped searching for wolves. WDFW announced it planned to shoot up to four wolves in the Huckleberry pack and ended operations after shooting one.
“It’s the same old, same old,” said Dashiell, who has reduced his sheep flock by about two-thirds to better protect it.
“They never did say how many wolves (in the Profanity Peak pack) they were going to kill,” he said. “They always leave themselves an out.”
It’s unclear whether WDFW would wait for another depredation to be confirmed before restarting lethal removal. Efforts to obtain comment from WDFW were unsuccessful.
A conservationist on WDFW’s wolf advisory group, Paula Swedeen of Conservation Northwest, said WDFW would be within state policy to resume lethal removal, even if further depredations were only classified as probable.
“I think ‘probables’ would probably indicate a continuation of the pattern,” she said. “I don’t think it’s accurate to call it (lethal removal) done. I think it’s more of a pause.”
Comments
“Efforts to obtain comment from WDFW were unsuccessful.” Then go to the governor! Does WDFW think they don’t have to answer to the public? I know that’s how they act, but they are public officials and DO have to answer to us.
Those county officials often state their annoyance with being considered dumb rednecks, but they continue to act like it. They are Washington’s own Cliven Bundys, grazing on public lands, ranching negligently, and demanding the state do their bidding even if it destroys wildlife and wild lands. County officials are just as corrupt and ignorant.
Somebody needs to stand up to this. Some news source should report the whole sorry history of WDFW killing entire wolf packs in catering and capitulating to greedy, entitled, unreasonable, uncompromising, inept ranchers.
Hi Mandy,
We are doing Both, as well as posting and messaging ALL Tv Stations 😉
Roger
Why are we allowing livestock grazing on public land at all.
I paid for my animals food all year. The only one who benefit for this practice in large scale factories farming.
The small farmer with a few head has to buy hay.
I think maybe we should ban grazing on public land period.
At least time for the discussion.
Sign Our Petition for banning grazing:
So on one hand we have the greed of individuals who only look tot their profit (and grazing on public land to boot) versus the science of species interaction. The Yellowstone experience has demonstrated the benefits of having a full functioning ecosystem, yet individuals seem to always want to avoid regulation (paltry it maybe.) Wiping out any breeding pairs is short sighted and ranchers who benefit from the use of public land need to recognize that it is not theirs. There are competing priorities, theirs is not the only one.
We are advocating to stop the problem, the livestock need to be banned from Grazing Allotments
Sign Our Petition for banning grazing:
It’s overdue time to go public about the fact that these Ranchers are putting their cattle on Public Lands that belong to the people and the Wolves, instead of their dammed cattle! If they want to make a stink about the wolves depredations on cattle, let it be known where their cattle were in the first place!
This makes my blood boil.
Wolves have for the past century been made out to be the ‘bad guy’s’ and now it’s time for the truth to be exposed about these redneck Ranchers once and for all! So let’s get this out in the open including names of those ranchers!