(The Center Square) – Washington is inching closer to delisting gray wolves as an endangered species.
Once the wolves establish a presence in the Southern Cascades, they’ll meet all of Washington state’s criteria to be delisted as an endangered species under state law. They were nearly eliminated from the state altogether in the 1930s before Washington listed wolves as endangered under state law in 1980.
The gray wolf was federally delisted from the Endangered Species Act for about a year in 2021, before a judge reclassified them as endangered again for the western two-thirds of Washington state in 2022.
Last year, the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife recorded 270 wolves, the most on record, and a more than 17% jump from 2024. There are now 23 breeding pairs and 49 packs statewide. WDFW’s Wolf Advisory Group met Monday to discuss what’s next, referring to post-delisting as a “blank book.”
“It’s unclear to me what materially will be different in a delisted population,” said WDFW Wolf Biologist Trent Roussin. “It’s like a blank book right now, post-delisting is blank for us; it could mean anything.”
He cautioned WAG members against bringing in preconceived ideas about what delisting could mean.
WDFW’s recovery plan provides two options with similar criteria for delisting wolves: either record 15 breeding pairs for three consecutive years, with four pairs in each of the state’s recovery regions and another three pairs anywhere else in the state; or record 18 breeding pairs across state, with at least four in eastern Washington, four in the Southern Cascades and another six anywhere else in the state.
The state tracked at least two wolves traveling through the Southern Cascades in 2025, but didn’t find any packs or breeding pairs in the recovery region. Once WDFW records at least four breeding pairs in the area, it’ll trigger an agency review, public comment period and an environmental review before a separate Fish & Wildlife Commission votes on whether to delist the wolves and reclassify them under state law.
The commission considered reclassifying wolves as sensitive in 2024, but voted to retain their status.
One of the things it would need to consider is whether to allow residents to hunt wolves once delisted.
“It’s going to have to get addressed at some point, so we can talk about it, we can dance around it, we can do whatever,” Lisa Stone, a WAG member representing the hunting community, said Monday, “but at some point the department or the commission are going to have to make a decision on that.”
Once delisted, the commission must decide whether to classify wolves as a huntable game species or protected wildlife. However, that decision would only hold weight in eastern Washington, where wolves are no longer federally listed as endangered until the government delists them from the ESA entirely.
If wolves remained protected under state law after delisting, it wouldn’t be open season, but WDFW could have greater discretion to implement damage-control and depredation policies. Washington currently allows eastern Washington farmers to kill one wolf each year if it’s attacking their domestic livestock.
The farmer must grant or assist WDFW in accessing the area of the property to investigate the death, and if it finds that the wolf was killed in a manner inconsistent with the rules, they could face charges.
WDFW recorded 17 events last year in which wolves killed nine cattle and injured eight others. Some WAG members said Monday that the depredation figures understate what’s actually happening on the ground because livestock owners have lost trust in WDFW. Many are now calling their county sheriff instead.
“This producer reached out to me in February wanting to buy bulls, and when I called him back two weeks later, he had sold his house, like all 400 cows,” said Samee Charriere, a livestock owner from Clarkston. “He sold out like that … because of extreme losses, and those don’t seem represented.”
WDFW spent nearly $2 million on wolf management last year, with only $90,419 going toward claims for livestock losses, and another $92,410 to “lethal removal operations in response to depredations.”
Roussin said that as the population continues growing, it’ll be harder for WDFW to monitor the wolves.
Some WAG members expressed concerns that the state might reduce funding for monitoring when the commission eventually delists wolves, leaving livestock owners to deal with an increasing population.
“Monitoring is going to be a lot more challenging,” Roussin said. “Maintaining the level of precision that we’re maintaining today is just going to get harder and harder as that population increases.”
