Locals wonder whether a male wolf killed in Klickitat County could mean the end of the Big Muddy Pack
As of the end of 2023, Washington had 260 wolves in 42 packs. File photo: Gary Kramer/USFWS
By Chuck Thompson. October 30, 2024. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife announced this week that the agencies are seeking information connected to the illegal killing of two federally listed endangered gray wolves.
According to the USFWS, an adult male wolf was killed on Oct. 6 east of the Klickitat River near Highway 142 and Goldendale in Klickitat County.
An adult female wolf was found dead near Twisp in Okanogan County two weeks later.
The USFWS and WDFW are conducting joint investigations into each case.
As reported by Columbia Insight, in April 2023, Southwest Washington acquired its first gray wolf pack in a century when the two-member Big Muddy Pack formed in Klickitat County.
In November 2023, Klickitat County Sheriff Bob Songer stoked anti-wolf sentiment and said it would be unconstitutional to arrest someone for killing a wolf that’s attacking livestock or pets. “I don’t think they need to be protected,” Songer told Columbia Insight at the time.
By February 2024, the female member of the pack had mysteriously vanished, despite WDFW monitoring efforts. Some locals wondered at the time whether the wolf had been intentionally killed.
The USFWS did not say whether the wolf killed on Oct. 6 in Klickitat County was collared or not.
“The Service is offering up to a $10,000 reward for any information that leads to an arrest, a criminal conviction or civil penalty assessment per each case,” said the USFWS in a press release.
Anyone with information about either case can call the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service using the FWS TIPs line at 1-844-FWS-TIPS (1-844-397-8477), or https://www.fws.gov/wildlife-crime-tips, or call WDFW at 877-933-9847 or send an email to reportpoaching@dfw.wa.gov. Callers may remain anonymous.
Songer and his ilk are on a slippery slope which leads to killing people, perhaps even to another Civil War. Certainly to their own destruction.
On the Q.T., Songer and his supporters greatly expand the reasons beyond “Livestock or pets” for killing to anyone or any group that would threaten “their way of life.”
The real threat to “their (unsustainable) way of life” is Songer and his supporters. The Intermountain West can and will collapse into the same desertification that the “-stans” did 2000 years ago.
I’m sure they will have some patriotic excuse when the only crop they can raise is opium poppies.