Leadpoint Pack Wolf
Photo and audio taken by Hank B. Seipp.
Introducing the Hank Seipp Memorial Wolf Fund
Wolves are the common thread that brought together the founders of Washington Wildlife First. While our organization’s mission encompasses the protection and preservation of all Washington’s wild creatures and wild spaces, no single species better represents the challenges that we face in reforming state agency policy—or provides us with more inspiration to continue in the face of daunting obstacles.
We thus join wildlife advocates across the state in mourning the death of our state’s most fervent champion of wolves, Hank Seipp, who passed away on June 9, 2022.
Hank had a profound connection with wolves, sparked when he and a wolf first locked eyes in the wild many years ago. After that meeting, he vowed to spend the rest of his life fighting to protect these majestic spirits, and that is a promise that he kept to the end—standing watch over Washington’s wolves during their lives and keeping vigil at their deaths.
Hank monitored his wolves closely, but kept their secrets carefully, helping to safeguard them so they could live their lives in peace. He would drop everything at a moment’s notice for a chance to have a “conversation” with his wolves—listening to them howl into the night while he howled back. Whenever the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife announced a new effort to kill wolves, Hank would head out to the field to bear witness as the deadly helicopter took to the skies.
And Hank experienced pure anguish whenever his wolves were gunned down by those helicopters or poisoned or trapped poachers. He eloquently expressed this anguish in his poem, Today As I Run, a poem that is being turned into a short film, which he wrote following the Department’s destruction of the Profanity Peak Pack in 2016.
Hank was a big man with an even bigger heart, who devoted his full resources—his time, his money, and his passion—to protecting Washington’s wildlife. He was a stalwart supporter of our organization’s mission of reform, and an inspiring beacon of persistence, maintaining his fierce advocacy in the face of hateful rhetoric, death threats, and even his own declining health.
We know that Hank shared both our heartbreak and our fury at the news of the widespread poaching of wolves this winter—the full extent of which the Department has still failed to acknowledge. As we considered how to best pay tribute to our friend, we could think of no better way than by establishing a revolving fund in his name, dedicated to apprehending those responsible for harming “Hank’s wolves.”
Washington Wildlife First is thus proud to announce the establishment of the Hank B. Seipp Memorial Wolf Fund, which will continue as a revolving reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of anyone responsible for the illegal killing of a Washington wolf. In honor of Hank, the members of our board have seeded the fund with pledges for $10,000 but we will gladly increase that amount in accordance with additional donations to the fund in Hank’s name. If you are interested in contributing to the fund, please reach out to us at info@wawildlifefirst.org.