Upcoming vote could give gray wolves less protection

Gray wolves are making a recovery in Washington, according to the state Department of Fish & Wildlife (WDFW), and a vote slated for Friday could see members of the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission downlisting wolves from an "endangered" to a "sensitive" species.

Why it matters: Such a change would lower penalties for wolf poaching and make it easier for livestock owners to access permits to kill wolves that threaten herds as there is renewed scrutiny of the population and its impacts on the ecosystem.

State of play: Washington's wolf population increased every year for the last 15 years and rose 20% in 2023 over 2022, according to a WDFW report released this year, with a count of 260 wolves in 42 packs.

• 25 of these packs were successful breeding pairs. These numbers compare with the previous year's count of 216 wolves in 37 packs and 26 breeding pairs, per the report.

Yes, but: Some conservationists are skeptical of those numbers, the Washington State Standard reported, saying they are implausibly high and population recovery is nowhere near assured.

Catch up quick: Wolves were formerly common throughout most of the state, but were essentially eradicated by 1930 due to trapping, poisoning, and hunting as ranching and farming expanded, according to WDFW .

• Gray wolves were listed as endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) in 1974 and added to the state's endangered list in 1980, according to WDFW .
• Wolves began repopulating Washington in 2008, crossing first from the Canadian border into the state and later from Idaho, according to University of Washington research published last month.

The intrigue: The big takeaway from the UW study is that wolves are not returning to empty landscapes, but are instead returning to places with humans and other carnivores, like cougars, which will affect the impact that wolves can have, said lead author Taylor Ganz , who conducted this research for her doctoral degree as part of the Washington Predator-Prey Project .

• The study primarily showed that wolves had little impact on the white tailed deer population but also showed the "strong effects humans can have on interactions between predators and prey, which is important to understand considering that we increasingly overlap with wildlife," Ganz told Axios.

Debate over the management of wolves has spanned more than two decades of legislation, litigation and rulemaking, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

• Gray wolves are currently listed under the ESA as endangered in 44 states, threatened in Minnesota, and under state jurisdiction in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, portions of eastern Oregon and Washington, and north-central Utah.