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pappiwheelie t1_irwaj09 wrote

Gray wolf populations have grown an average of 25 percent each year in WA! That’s amazing! That’s including mortalities. I couldn’t find total population count, but that’s pretty amazing. It looks like they were pulled from federal endangered classification in the eastern portion of WA n 2011.

Edit WDFW has a great information about the wolf population in the state. I did see below they count 206 wolfs n 33 packs. It seams tricky to count them. There’s a good video on this. I am curious what the goal population is. Their range rather large.

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[deleted] t1_irxonru wrote

From the article:

"Gray wolves are listed by the state as endangered, and they're federally endangered in the western two-thirds of the state."

"Fish and Wildlife officials said there were 206 known wolves in 33 packs in Washington at the end of 2021."

It's true that wolf populations are recovering but they are still not nearly recovered.

It is not okay to kill a wolf and this is illegal, wrong, and harmful to our state.

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pappiwheelie t1_irxy1mo wrote

Yes

Recovery goals – The plan establishes a delisting objective of 15 breeding pairs of wolves present in the state for at least three years, with at least four in eastern Washington, four in the northern Cascades, four in the southern Cascades / northwest coastal area, and three others anywhere in the state. The plan also provides for WDFW to consider initiating the delisting process if 18 breeding pairs are documented during a single year and the distribution objectives are met.

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sleeknub t1_irz76g8 wrote

Wouldn’t 33 packs mean well over 15 or 18 breeding pairs?

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pappiwheelie t1_irzdabh wrote

Yes, population total isn’t an issue in recovery anymore. There just aren’t any breeding pairs in the southern cascades.

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sleeknub t1_irzh3ej wrote

Seems like that might be the hardest place to achieve that and avoid conflicts with humans. But the way you listed it above it sounds like they could be in the southern cascades OR the NW coast (which I take to mean Olympic peninsula/national park).

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Enchanting_Smith t1_irxdl1h wrote

Wish people read up on it before responding/reposting

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[deleted] t1_irxoiyu wrote

I'm familiar with this. The person above you is minimizing the issue.

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