Check dates on each article, as you go down the paper trail you might see why Washington is ready for delisting now. On top of the wolves that were recorded than, people here have seen wolves being released in the Methow Valley in the last five years, and as recent as this spring.
Washington's Wolves Are Back
Posted by Eric de Place
07/19/2008 08:00 AM
Wolf-less no longer as Washington's wildlife returns.
A state biologist said Monday that he believes one or more packs of gray wolves are living in the Methow Valley...
Packers have made numerous reports of wolves in the high country in the past couple of years, and there have been increasing reports by residents in lower elevations, he said.
Fitkin said there have been reliable wolf sightings in the Methow dating to the early 1990s, but only sporadic, unconfirmed reports of wolf packs.
"What's changed recently is that we've had repeated observations of multiple animals in the greater Twisp River/Chelan Sawtooth and Libby Creek areas," he said, adding, "My suspicion is, based on the sighting history, its development is very similar to how recolonization in the Rockies occurred. This is looking like we very well may have some wolves on the landscape."--------- (via"White shwans wolf delivery trucks")
http://daily.sightline.org/daily_score/ … s-are-back
Friday, November 1, 2002 - Page updated at 12:00 AM
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Conservation groups want U.S. to restore gray wolves in state
By Matthew Daly
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Two conservation groups are calling on the federal government to restore gray wolves to Washington state, saying it's time to "hear the call of the wild again" in Western Washington forests.
Defenders of Wildlife and the Northwest Ecosystem Alliance said yesterday they have sent a petition to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, requesting that the agency restore and protect gray wolves under the Endangered Species Act.
"Gray wolves have an important role to play in the ecological health and character of the Pacific Northwest, and the federal government should start getting serious about restoring the species here," said Rodger Schlickeisen, president of Defenders of Wildlife. "It's time to hear the call of the wild again in these beautiful forests."
The petition urges the service to establish a category known as a distinct population segment for gray wolves in Washington state.
http://community.seattletimes.nwsource. … ywolves01m
Wednesday, February 5, 1992 - Page updated at 12:00 AM
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Endangered Gray Wolf Trapped Near Mt. Baker
By Eric Pryne
For the first time in anyone's memory, wildlife biologists have captured an endangered gray wolf in Washington.
State Wildlife Department biologists said they trapped the animal, a healthy 56-pound female, near Mount Baker last Friday. The wolf was fitted with a radio collar and released the next day on national forest land a few miles away.
The capture is an exciting development, said John Pierce, manager of the department's non-game program. "If she's part of a pack, we should know it pretty soon," he said.
The gray wolf, listed as endangered in every state but Minnesota and Alaska, disappeared from Washington in the early 1900s. But reports of wolf sightings in the wild North Cascades have increased in recent years. In 1990 biologists discovered two dens - the first time wolves had been sighted in the state since 1975.
Pierce said the animals probably are migrating south from Canada, where wolves still are hunted.
"It appears we're in the early stages of re-colonization of the former range in Washington," he said. There's evidence the animals are breeding as far south as the Glacier Peak Wilderness Area just north of Stevens Pass, Pierce added.
According to a Wildlife Department statement, the captured wolf, nicknamed "Nooksack," had been seen several times in recent weeks near a winter-cabin community outside Glacier, Whatcom County. After trying for 10 days, biologists Jon Almack and Scott Fitkin succeeded in luring the animal into a fenced swimming-pool area, using a fish carcass as bait.
Once she was inside, the gate was closed. The wolf was tranquilized, and a local veterinarian took X-rays of her skull to verify her species.
Pierce said Almack and Fitkin are participating in a long-range study of the gray wolf's relationship with its environment in Washington, including diet, movement and range.
http://community.seattletimes.nwsource. … ug=1473981
Copyright (c) 1992 Seattle Times Company, All Rights Reserved.
Sunday, December 6, 1992 - Page updated at 12:00 AM
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Wolves Coming Back To Cascades
By Patty Wren
Wenatchee World
TWISP, Okanogan County - We may not be dancing with wolves, but they're here, their numbers are growing and it is possible to coexist with them in relative peace.
In the Okanogan, one or more wolves have been spotted in five separate areas since 1989.
The plan is to let the wolves - moving into old haunts south of Canada after hunting stopped there in the 1970s - reproduce themselves, said Jon Almak, a state Department of Wildlife biologist.
Biologists are trying to write a wolf-recovery plan for Washington.
Originally planned as part of a recovery program for the northern Rockies, where wolves were brought in, the effort could become unique to Washington because of the apparently burgeoning population.
For example, 100 sightings were reported in 1981, and last year there were 200, ranging as far south as Mount St. Helens, Almak said.
http://community.seattletimes.nwsource. … ug=1528536
Friday, April 17, 1992 - Page updated at 12:00 AM
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Gray Wolves' Return Subject Of Monday Meeting
Times Staff
State wildlife agents already have identified six packs of wolves in Washington's Cascades, and more are expected to migrate from Canada to the state's protected forests.
http://washingtonwolf.info/
