The digest is a roundup of news concerning fish and wildlife management in Washington and beyond.
Washington Fish & Wildlife News
Index
Washington Fish & Wildlife News
Washington Fish & Wildlife News
Top News
Washington Fish and Wildlife Agency Corrects All Safety Violations After Wind River Incident. Aaron Washington, Hoodline. May 11, 2024.
- After a “stinging report” on WDFW’s safety practices that led to the drowning death of technician Mary Valentine, WDFW has “ticked all the boxes required by” Labor and Industries to correct its safety manual and procedures, including issuing each technician with an emergency device. Read WDFW’s statement here.
Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission votes 5-3-1 to advance cougar rulemaking. The Commission’s vote to advance a rule to protect cougars from overhunting, including by counting law enforcement killings and killings of subadults toward quotas, has attention from the press.
- According to Don Jenkins at The Capital Press, retiring state Representative Joel Kretz (R-7th) claims the Commission’s decision “will cost Fish and Wildlife the cooperation of people who have contact with cougars.” Jenkins also quotes WDFW Director Kelly Susewind’s harangue during the discussion preceding the vote: “You’re trying to go your direction despite where the agency wants to go. And if we don’t say what you want to hear, you don’t want to hear from us. This is a problem.”
UPDATE: Southwest Wash. no longer has a wolf pack Chuck Thompsson, Columbia Insight. April 25, 2024.
- In its Washington Gray Wolf Conservation and Management 2023 Annual Report, WDFW has confirmed that southwest Washington no longer has a pack or a breeding pair. Despite this finding, WDFW has changed the goalposts on recovery and proposed to downlist wolves from endangered to sensitive, defying its original recovery objectives to have two breeding packs in the Southern Cascades and Northwest Coast region.
Washington should think carefully before downlisting wolves (opinion). Susan Kane-Ronning, The Spokesman-Review. May 21, 2024.
- Kane-Ronning points out the flaws in the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW)’s argument that wolves should be downlisted, including the fact that wolves have not met WDFW’s own recovery objectives and that Washington’s wolf mortality rates “continue to skyrocket.”
Strange ‘tar balls’ wash up on American beaches – and are linked to spate of deaths in animals. Nikki Main, The Daily Mail. May 27, 2024.
- Oil-covered birds have been washing up on Washington and Oregon shores due to a probably oil spill. So far, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has confirmed 10 oil-covered birds, of which at least three have died.
Western Gray Squirrel now endangered (opinion). Pat Arnold, Columbia Gorge News. May 21, 2024.
- According to Arnold of Friends of the White Salmon River, the endangered status of the western gray squirrel exemplifies the way we are “blindly affecting our environment in a way that will make it uninhabitable not just for squirrels, but for humans too” – particularly with the timber industry’s refusal to take measures to protect forest species.
An A to Z of Hungry Killer Whales. Catherine Denardo, Nautilus. May 16, 2024.
- This article explores the starvation crisis threatening Southern Resident killer whales (SRKWs) because of the decline of wild Chinook salmon. Denardo stresses the effect of fish “harvest,” with no extra Chinook allocated to the SRKWs, and quotes Orca Conservancy Chief Scientist David Bain: “When returns of Chinook are down in any one management area…other areas need to reduce fishing pressure.” Denardo also mentions Wild Fish Conservancy’s lawsuit against the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries for failing to protect the health of SRKWs when allowing Chinook fishing in Alaska. She quotes Washington Fish and Wildlife Commissioner Tim Ragen on hatcheries: “The idea that ‘a fish is a fish is a fish’ is simply not true…There is ample evidence that wild and hatchery fish differ in important ways.”
After Chronic Decline, Feds Agree Alaska Chinook May Require Protection under the Endangered Species Act. Emma Helverson, Wild Fish Conservancy. May 24, 2024.
- After reviewing Wild Fish Conservancy (WFC)’s petition to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries in January 2024, NOAA formally accepted the petition, confirming it indicates federal protections for Alaskan Chinook salmon may be warranted and triggering an in-depth one-year scientific review to be completed in early 2025. A 60-day public comment period has been initiated and will be open until July 23, 2024. WFC encourages the public to participate in this important review process.
Research shows curtailing Chinook salmon ocean fishing promotes Southern Resident Orcas and Wild Chinook recovery (op-ed). Wild Fish Conservancy, Journal of the San Juans. April 15, 2024.
- Status-quo management of Chinook ocean fisheries deprives Southern Resident killer whales of the marine prey they need to survive, according to a new study in The Journal of Communications Earth & Environment. The study finds that moving Pacific Salmon Treaty fisheries in Alaska and British Columbia away from Chinook rearing grounds and migration routes into terminal and estuarine locations would result in an immediate increase of Chinook salmon in critical habitat of up to 25%.
Cougars & Bears
Family has encounter with cougar in backyard of home. ABC News. May 16, 2024.
- There has been extensive alarmist coverage of an incident in which a cougar chased domestic cats through a yard while a family was outside.
- See also this article from the New York Post.
Further Reading
Cougar visit in Selah sparks search, leaves only a trace behind. Hunter Phipps, KIMA. May 15, 2024.
Officers capture black bear in tree in backyard of Pierce County home. Franque Thompson, Fox 13. May 15, 2024.
Fish & Marine Animals
Washington salmon fishing seasons tentatively set for 2024-2025 (press release). Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. April 11, 2024.
- WDFW and its co-managers have tentatively set fishing seasons, with managers “expected to limit some salmon fisheries in the upcoming season” for some Puget Sound rivers due to low Chinook returns. NOAA must now review the proposed seasons before they go to public comment and rulemaking.
Tribes redouble efforts to protect dwindling salmon populations. Guy Oron, Real Change. April 24, 2024.
- A local indigenous-led coalition, the Billy Frank Jr. Salmon Coalition, has launched a new publicity campaign to raise awareness about the importance of salmon conservation and restoration. The article cites physical barriers, losses of riparian and estuary habitats, climate change, predator resurgence (“they are so far out of control, it’s unimaginable,” asserts the co-chair of the coalition), and stormwater chemicals, but not hatcheries or harvest, as challenges impeding salmon recovery.
We’re going door to door to save our orcas this summer. Environment America. May 21, 2024.
- Environment America explains the crisis facing Southern Resident killer whales and announces plans to canvass in Washington to advocate for removing Snake River dams and other actions to support the species.
Statewide drought declared due to low snowpack and dry forecast. Washington Department of Ecology. April 16, 2024.
- The impacts of our state’s low snowpack raise serious concerns for fish and other species. With decreased snowpack and the potential for low flows and warmer water conditions this summer, it could be a difficult year for fish and other aquatic wildlife.
Further Reading
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Plans Removal of Talbot Dam to Restore Salmon Habitat. Emily Tran, Hoodline. May 15, 2024.
Gray whale washes ashore on Vashon. Alex Bruell, The Beachcomber. April 24, 2024.
Wolves
Washington’s increasing gray wolf population moving further west. Tim Clouser, The Center Square (via Columbia Basin Herald). May 7, 2024.
- Clouser reports that WDFW “anticipates the species will continue working its way along the Cascade mountain range and around the Olympic Peninsula.”
Olympic marmot conservation plan: Could reintroducing wolves save the species? Lauren Donovan, FOX 13. May 15, 2024.
- Noah Greenwald of the Center for Biological Diversity explains that climate change threatens the Olympic marmot. The extirpation of wolves left a void for coyotes to fill, leading to increased predation of marmots.
Red wolf raised at Washington state sanctuary joins wild pack, sires 8 pups. Stephen Howie, KUOW. May 7, 2024.
- An endangered red wolf raised at Wolf Haven International in Tenino, Washington has fathered nine pups in a wild wolf pack in North Carolina.
Other Washington Wildlife
Beaver Management and Conservation. The Journal of Wildlife Management. April 8, 2024.
- This site compiles over a decade of research articles on beavers.
‘Celebration time’ for Washington’s bald eagles. Scott Doggett, Port Townsend Leader. April 17, 2024.
- WDFW’s draft version of the 2024 periodic status review for bald eagles highlights the recovery of the species in the Lower 48. Existing law protecting bald eagles will remain in effect, but the state will no longer use limited resources to increase the birds’ numbers.
Further Reading
Service Partners Named “Recovery Champions” for Butterfly Conservation. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. May 17, 2024.
Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest visitors urged to help limit spread of fungus that can harm bats (press release). Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. May 19, 2024.
Wild flight of Washington hawk comes to an end (Medium post). Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. Jan 11, 2024.
Grizzly Bears
‘Incredible’ news for bears and wild horses as US shifts preservation plans. Richard Luscombe, The Guardian. April 30, 2024.
- The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) has greenlit the reintroduction of grizzly bears in the North Cascades. Kathleen Callaghy of Defenders of Wildlife hails this decision as “incredible news.”
- According to The Seattle Times, FWS’ goal is to rebuild a population of 200 bears in a century.
- According to National Public Radio, in a recent committee hearing on Capitol Hill, U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Washington) argued against bringing grizzly bears to the North Cascades. “Your agency [the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, or FWS] is bending to the extreme environmentalists, who continually abuse the ESA against the will of private landowners,” he said.
- The Cowboy State Daily highlights local residents’ fears and objections to grizzly reintroduction.
- The agricultural newspaper The Capital Press claims that ranchers are “bearing the brunt” of grizzly reintroduction (although they have not yet been reintroduced).
- The Washington Policy Center frames the reintroduction thus: “As if wolves and cougars weren’t enough predators for Washingtonians, grizzly bears will soon begin to dot our landscape again, too.”
- The Washington Post attempts to dispel age-old myths about grizzlies.
Federal Court in Idaho Says Wolf Trapping Likely to Harm Grizzlies. Idaho Conservation League. May 14, 2024.
- This blog post praises the ruling in response to the Center for Biological Diversity, The Humane Society of The United States, Nimiipuu Protecting the Environment, Sierra Club, Western Watersheds Project, and other nonprofits’ lawsuit to stop wolf trapping in grizzly bear habitat.
Grizzly hunting is trophy hunting (opinion). Mike Bader, The Missoula Current. May 23, 2024.
- The author draws attention to the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s upcoming decision this June or July whether to delist grizzly bears. He writes, “If you oppose the trophy hunting of grizzly bears then you must also oppose removing the grizzly bear from the protections of the Endangered Species Act because that would immediately enable unsustainable trophy hunting.”
State Agency Reform Issues
A starfish and a mountain lion walk into a bar: A look at the dark side. Don Molde, The Nevada Current. April 30, 2024.
- Molde explains why removing keystone species, including predators such as starfish and cougars, degrades biodiversity, and why Nevada is failing to protect cougars from overhunting.
“Authors declare no competing interests”—really? (uncorrected proof). Adrian Treves, The Ecological Society of America. June 2024.
- Treves asserts that affiliations with universities or government agencies are no longer a guarantee of scientific impartiality, if they ever were. Everyone has affiliations and other commitments that could potentially influence our assumptions, methods, and interpretations and that deserve airing.
Colbert Chosen By Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission As New ODFW Director. Andy Walgamott, Northwest Sportsman. May 10, 2024.
- The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission has appointed Debbie Colbert as director of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW). Colbert, who currently manages Fish, Wildlife and Habitat for ODFW, will be the first female director of the agency.
- The Columbia Insight reports that “conservationists… are hoping the new hire will steer the department toward a more holistic approach to managing the state’s biodiversity.”
Wild divide: A debate over wildlife management in Vermont runs deep. Emma Cotton, Valley News. May 11, 2024.
- Cotton describes the “polarized” debate over Vermont bill S.258, which would transfer rulemaking authority from the Fish and Wildlife Board to the state’s Fish and Wildlife Department, making the board advisory, and would add two members to the board while banning coyote hunting with hounds. The article quotes from Brenna Galdenzi of Protect Our Wildlife and Bob Galvin of Center for a Humane Economy. Read part I and part II.
- In a follow-up article, Cotton attempts to explain why the bill “died in the Vermont House”: election-year pressures and hesitation from rural groups and lawmakers.
FWP puts fisheries chief on administrative leave. Laura Lundquist, Missoula Current. May 20, 2024.
- Sources inside Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks say morale in the agency is low due to FWP leadership. They suspect that FWP leadership might be using the fisheries chief as a scapegoat even though poor morale extends beyond the fisheries division.
Further Reading
The Systematic Evisceration of Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. Various authors, guest column in the Daily Roundup. May 25, 2024.
Virginia weighs regulations on hound hunting, citing tensions with landowners. Katherine Hafner, WHRO. May 22, 2024.
General Wildlife Management
When humans pit the fate of one native species against another, things get violent. Warren Cornwall, Anthropocene. April 24, 2024.
- Cornwall questions the idea of killing one species to help another, such as British Columbia’s efforts to kill wolves for the sake of caribou recovery. He quotes University of British Columbia and Raincoast scientist Chris Darimont: “My concern is that more harm to ecosystems—and ultimately caribou — will continue when managers believe that these ‘solutions’ are in hand. It seems to be the case that status quo habitat destruction largely continues.”
- For more on wildlife management in British Columbia, see this older article from Raincoast on the need for ethical reform. Raincoast also has an article quoting University of British Columbia and University of Victoria scientists on “the human superpredator.”
Forest Service, BLM officials say they can’t ban ‘yote whacking’. Billy Arnold, Gillette News Record. May 8, 2024.
- In response to demands from wildlife advocates in the aftermath of Cody Roberts’ torture and killing of a wolf, the US Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management claim that they cannot ban killing coyotes and other wild animals with snowmobiles on federal land.
The Fescue Fighters. Robert Langellier, Grist. March 27, 2024.
- A toxic grass that threatens a quarter of U.S. cows is spreading. It was introduced to replenish land exhausted by decades of timber-cutting and overgrazing that left southern states barren of once nutrient-rich native grasses by the early 20th Warming temperatures from climate change are now expanding the northern limit of the fescue belt.
New Bill to Ban Wildlife Killing Contests on U.S. Public Lands Has Been Introduced by the House of Representatives. World Animal News. May 2, 2024.
- The Center for Biological Diversity, Animal Welfare Institute, The Humane Society of the United States, and Project Coyote are praising draft legislation to ban wildlife-killing contests on public land.
Grim Confessions Of A Former Government Trapper. Todd Wilkinson, The Yellowstonian. May 24, 2024.
- In this profile, Carter Niemeyer, a former agent for federal Wildlife Services, ties “politically-driven assertions made about carnivores in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho” to the carnage inflicted by state wildlife agencies, while the federal agency also kills many predators in the interests of livestock producers.
Further Reading
Ban on wildlife killing contests ‘unlikely’ to clear state Senate this session. Cole Longcor, Capitol News Illinois. May 22, 2024.
The Wild World of Wildlife Conservation Funding. Madeline Bruning, The Regulatory Review. May 16, 2024.
Cougars
A houndsman’s tale: How chasing lions shaped a hunter into a big-cat conservationist. Mike Koshmrl, WyoFile. May 14, 2024.
For the first time, Texas regulates mountain lion hunting and trapping. Angela Kocherga, Texas Standard. May 24, 2024.
Wolves
Wyoming Wolf Management
Outraged Citizens Demand Response To “Psychotic Behavior” Behind Wolf Torture. Mark Heinz, The Cowboy State Daily. May 14, 2024.
- The Wyoming legislature is responding to the wolf torture incident by drafting a bill for next legislative session, but it is unclear what the bill will aim to achieve. Many testified forcefully to Wyoming’s Joint Travel, Recreation, Wildlife & Cultural Resources Committee, demanding an end to predator “whacking” with snowmobiles.
- Hogs for Hope: A Ride for Wolves, a motorcycle rally, is raising money for Wolves of the Rockies and Wyoming Wildlife Advocates in reaction to Cody Roberts’ torture and killing of a wolf. The ride left Austin, Texas on May 23 and arrived in Daniel, Wyoming on May 26. Hogs for Hope has raised over $132,560, according to its GoFundMe page.
- According to Inside Climate News, conservationists are split over how to protect a keystone species in Wyoming. New science estimating the effects of wolves on carbon sequestration may provide a path forward.
- Wildlife advocate and psychologist Susan Kane-Ronning warns that animal torturers like Cody Roberts, who allegedly maimed a wolf with a snowmobile and tortured it for hours, can also evince lack of empathy towards other people. She urges hunters who deplore Roberts’ behavior to “support legislation to change cruel and inhumane practices towards wildlife.”
- Kitty Block of the Humane Society of the United States writes that the failure of Wyoming’s policies to prevent acts of cruelty like this one must be viewed against the backdrop of the escalating war on wolves in the Northern Rockies states, underscoring the urgent need to reinstate federal protections for wolves under the Endangered Species Act.
- A long, thoughtful article in Inside Climate News reports on Predator Defense, Western Watersheds Project, Western Environmental Law Center, International Wildlife Coexistence Network, WildEarth Guardians, Nimiipuu Protecting the Environment, and other nonprofits’ lawsuit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision not to relist wolves in the Northern Rockies under the Endangered Species Act. It cites Brooks Fahy of Predator Defense, who says that Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana are “destroying wolf families in the Northern Rockies and cruelly driving them to functional extinction via bounties, wanton shooting, trapping, snaring, even running over them with snowmobiles.” The article also quotes Erik Molvar of Western Watersheds Project: “Wolves can live anywhere in Wyoming as long as they’re not persecuted… Of course, if they get endangered species designation, they can’t be persecuted.”
- The president of the Wildlife Society, Bob Lanka, testified in front of the Wyoming Joint Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Committee in favor of “a very narrow, craft revision to statutory language so that it expressly forbids purposely running down and running over predatory animals with automotive vehicles, motorized wheeled or over-snow vehicles.”
More National Wolf News
Boebert’s bill to remove protections from gray wolf passes House. Eliza Dubose, The Durango Herald. May 7, 2024.
- Lauren Boebert’s so-called “Trust the Science” Act, which would remove the gray wolf from the Endangered Species Act list in the lower 48, has passed the U.S. House of Representatives.
ODFW says three wolves were killed in Wallowa County poisoning. Antonio Sierra, Oregon Public Broadcasting. May 19, 2024.
- Three Wallowa County wolves, a cougar, two golden eagles, other birds, and a coyote died from eating a poisoned cow carcass early this year. Domestic dogs have also recently died of poisoning in the area. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife says that there have been 19 poisoning incidents in the state since 2015.
- The Columbia Basin Bulletin has more on the rash of poisonings.
Further Reading
Idaho’s wolf killings decline as board advances private contracts. Rachel Cohen, Boise State Public Radio News. May 10, 2024.
One of Colorado’s Reintroduced Wolves Was Found Dead. It Was Probably Killed by a Mountain Lion. Dac Collins, Yahoo! News. May 15, 2024.
Fish
Willamette hatcheries may get the federal hook. Bill Monroe, Oregon Live. April 14, 2024.
- The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers doesn’t have nearly $1 million in last year’s budget to meet mitigation requirements for its Willamette system dams. The loss – which Congress can’t cover in a new budget – would mean elimination of the popular summer steelhead fishery in the upper Willamette, loss of a chunk of spring chinook salmon production, 172,000 smolts and, most significant, a reduction of 65% in trout stocking in the Willamette Valley.
Further Reading
Alaska fisherman pleads guilty to federal charges after ordering crew to shoot whale. James Brooks, Alaska Beacon. May 25, 2024.
Salmon hatcheries in BC do little to help struggling wild stocks, review shows. Grant Warkentin, MyCampbellRiverNow. May 9, 2024.
Other Wildlife News
‘No, It’s Not a Game-Farm Mallard. DNA Test Confirms First-Ever Documented Leucistic Black Duck. Natalie Krebs, Outdoor Life. May 21, 2024.
Hikers mob moose for selfies at Yellowstone National Park – it doesn’t go well. Cat Ellis, Yahoo! News. May 22, 2024.
On the Lighter Side
