So far, the state said it’s killed about half the Profanity Peak pack.
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“Washington State University subscribes to the highest standards of research integrity”, according to the statement, “and will not and can not condone statements that have the effect of compromising that integrity”. These statements are disavowed by our institutions.
Wielgus said last week the conflict with wolves was inevitable because one of the ranchers involved had turned out his cattle on top of a known wolf den.
“The department is committed to wolf recovery, but we also have a shared responsibility to protect livestock from repeated depredation by wolves”.
Wielgus spoke with The Daily Evergreen earlier this week and then declined further comment on Tuesday, explaining that his comments had created a “firestorm”. “Washington State University subscribes to the highest standards of research integrity and will not and can not condone statements that have the effect of compromising that integrity”, the WSU statement said.
Wielgus is director of the Large Carnivore Conservation Lab at WSU.
The WSU news release said the rancher wasn’t working with Wielgus, but was working with other state researchers. There is at least one permittee who is participating in the study who has incurred livestock depredations.
Martorello did not return phone calls, and neither did the rancher, who grazes cattle on public land in the Colville National Forest.
The agency says they understand that its controversial practice but they say the wolf pack has become too unsafe. He praised the ranchers’ cooperation.
Many producers, he noted, are successfully operating in what is once again wolf country, after the carnivores’ more than century-long absence. In fact, with all depredation kills-July 12, July 15, July 21, July 23 and August 3-the owner was compensated as per WDFW’s Gray Wolf Conservation and Management Plan for Washington.
In fact, the rancher identified in the article did not intentionally place livestock at or near the den site of the Profanity Peak wolf pack, and Dr. Wielgus subsequently acknowledged that he had no basis in fact for making such a statement. But the population has grown steadily since 2008, when the first pack documented in Washington in many decades was confirmed, and they now number about 90 animals statewide, Bartlett said.
Wolves in Wyoming are federally protected under the Endangered Species Act, but when wolves were reintroduced to northwestern Wyoming in the mid-1990s, the Service gave itself the authority to permit the lethal removal of wolves that pose a threat to livestock or property.
A total of 10 wolves were killed in 2012 and 2014, although some members of those packs were spared, Reuters reports.
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Officials announced Thursday they would stop looking for the two remaining wolves.
