Gray wolf management is at the center of two more bills introduced this legislative session. Washington state is home to at least 216 gray wolves in 37 recognized packs – most of which call Northeast Washington home.

House Bill 2423 – relating to gray wolf management – and House Bill 2424 – relating to updating cooperative agreements between the state and federally recognized tribes for the successful collaborative management of Washington’s wildlife resources – emphasize the need for new approaches to gray wolf management. Locals dealing with the gray wolf population say the current management approaches are not working and leave the people most effected by the presence of the predators with little recourse to care for their children and livestock.

HB 2423 proposes creating a working group of stakeholders to address increased cooperation between various agencies, minimizing livestock loss and lethal wolf removals, improving wolf deterrence programs, faster response times for lethal removal of wolves, ungulate habitat improvement, and maintaining a stable wolf population and recovery objectives. HB 2424 proposes to adopt gray wolf management practices similar to those employed by the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation. The practices would be implemented on the “North Half,” a portion of the Colville Reservation ceded to the state in 1892. By testing new management methods in an area where gray wolves are thriving, implementation of new strategies should have little effect on the overall stability of the state’s gray wolf population.

Coupled with Senate Bill 5939, the focus on gray wolf management this legislative session is refreshing. In the most recent Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife report about the predators in our state, the department confirmed 17 head of livestock were killed by gray wolves (15 cows and two sheep) in 2022 alone, though the real number is likely higher. The report also notes the state spent $1.6 million on gray wolf management in the same year. The cost of management coupled with an ever-growing gray wolf population suggests the need for revisions to how gray wolves are currently handled statewide.

Both HB 2423 and HB 2424 offer reasonable approaches to changing management practices for the better. With HB 2423 emphasizing the need to find balance in management and better cooperative strategies, everyone with an investment in gray wolves has the opportunity to be heard. Under HB 2424, the state has an opportunity to learn from the Colville tribal community about what strategies have worked on the reservation and adapt those strategies to work within the framework of state regulations in a similar habitat. Moreover, HB 2424 recognizes that strategies on the Colville Reservation have worked. The Colville Tribe ended annual population counts in 2019.

Proactive approaches to gray wolf management will help to create a balance between the needs and desires of livestock raisers, hunters, hikers, and gray wolf conservationists. More specifically, it shifts the balance of control back to the people who need it most: Washingtonians with gray wolves in their back yards.