Wash. offers payments for wolf kills of livestock

Hoping to ease Washington ranchers' concern about gray wolves, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife is proposing what may be the most generous compensation in the West for livestock losses to the newly returned predators.

Under the preferred plan out of five alternatives in a 249-page draft environmental impact statement released last week, a livestock producer would be entitled to the full value of livestock considered likely prey that are killed by wolves on grazing sites of at least 100 acres and half the full value on smaller sites.

For animals considered less likely prey, compensation would be double the full value of the animal on larger grazing sites and the full value on smaller sites.

The proposal defines livestock as cattle, pigs, horses, mules, sheep, llamas, goats, guarding animals and herding dogs. The plan, which is subject to approval and funding by the Legislature, could cost an estimated $4,000 in 2010, rising to $25,000 in 2015 as the wolf population grows.

"Wolves need two things," state agency spokeswoman Madonna Luers told The Wenatchee World. "They don't need land-use restrictions. They just need a healthy prey base and human tolerance, so to build that, we need to reach out to the industry that is most directly impacted by this, and that is the livestock industry."

Two other alternatives would place more emphasis on protecting livestock from wolves. One plan would allow more wolves to be shot to prevent predation on domestic animals, deer and elk, and the fourth alternative would be for the state to do nothing.

Public meetings are planned early next month in Wenatchee and Okanogan in early November, and public comment period ends on Jan. 8.

Two wolf packs have made their home in Eastern Washington and appear to be healthy, one with at least seven members southwest of Twisp and a second with five wolves in Pend Oreille County in the northeast corner of the state. Each is believed to have a breeding pair and the larger group is thought to include an adult that may have been a pup born last year.

The preferred plan and two others are based on establishment of 15 successful breeding pairs of wolves across the state before they are removed from the endangered species list in Washington- two pairs in the North Cascades, two pairs in Eastern Washington, five pairs in the southern Cascades or northwest coast and six pairs anywhere in the state.

Based on the experience with reintroduction of wolves in Idaho and Montana, the study estimates says that if Washington's wolf population reaches 200 animals, they will likely kill as many as 2,520 elk and 4,180 deer a year, compared with an average of average of 7,390 elk and 38,100 deer killed annually by hunters.

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Information from: The Wenatchee World, http://www.wenatcheeworld.com