We need more wolves in Washington

[catdog360]

Ok now that I got everyones blood boiling, I want to write a quick message about the commission meeting today.

Oct. 6th wolf commission meeting. The only hounds people at the meeting were my dad Chet O'Brien "Hound Council President" Bobby Thornly and George Zinglstrom spoke on behalf of the hounds people. My dad said their were a few cattle asso. members there speaking.

There were over 70 speakers at the meeting and almost all of them were for the wolves. My dad said that almost all the speakers wanted MORE WOLVES and thought they were such a beautiful animal.

And so everyone knows there are 5 breeding packs in Washington. I will try and get my dads notes or get him on here to tell everyone more.

Mic O'Brien

[inchtowntracking]

My cousin seen a wolf the other day, I cant wait for Washington to lets us start killing them.

[huntfish8]

HA HA... washington let u hunt wolves now that funnny... better step up before, well u now.

[Machias]

There were other houndsmen there. The report I heard is the Commision is possibly leaning towards possibly scraping the current wolf plan. You can get a very detailed and good description of what went on at the meeting here:

http://hunting-washington.com/smf/index ... 720.0.html

[catdog360]

My dad did say they are trying to get the wolf classified as a game animal right now. That way when we reach the 15 breeding pairs they want we can automatically start hunting. If there were other hounds people they didn't speak or didn't identify themselves.

[Machias]

Nope they weren't able to, standing room only when they got there. Have you had a chance to see some of the comments on the Hunt-WA site. Couple of guys got there a little late and couldn't see who was speaking. They assumed from the presentation they were the pro wolf group. They got a real SHOCK when they found out it was the WDFW giving their presentation. Lots of holes in their "FACTS" and "figures". This state cannot support 15 breeding pairs. Send this e-mail to the commission at:

commission@dfw.wa.gov

Comparing Washington to Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Wyoming

By averaging the data for the northern rocky mountain gray wolf recovery states and by comparing the number of Breeding Pairs (BP’s) required by the Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Wyoming wolf plans, we can make a comparison with the proposed Washington Wolf Plan.

• Washington has proposed 15 Breeding Pairs (BP’s). The wolf plans in 4 other Northern Rocky Mountain wolf recovery states is as follows: Idaho 15 BP’s, Montana 15 BP’s, Oregon 4 BP’s, and Wyoming 10 BP’s. That’s 44 breeding pairs or an average of 11 Breeding Pairs (BP’s) per state.

• According to the US Census Bureau with 44 million acres Washington is much smaller than Idaho, Montana, Oregon, or Wyoming. Idaho has 53.4 million acres, Montana 94.1 million acres, Oregon 62.2 million acres, and Wyoming 62.6 million acres. That’s over 272 million acres in the other 4 states which are managing for 44 Breeding Pairs. That’s an average of 6.2 million acres for each Breeding Pair in the other 4 states. Considering that Washington has only 44 million acres the Washington Wolf Plan should require 7 Breeding Pairs. So how can Washington sustain 15 BP’s? http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/ ... 2s0369.pdf

• Washington’s human population is 6,725,000 which is almost equal to the population of the other 4 states combined. Idaho has 1,568,000 people, Montana 989,000, Oregon 3,831,000 and Wyoming 564,000. How can Washington sustain 15 BP’s? http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/ ... 2s0016.pdf

• According to the Census Bureau statistics, Washington’s smaller size and higher human population results in 3 to 17 times more people per square mile as ID, MT, OR, WY. Washington has 101.2 people per square mile, Idaho 19.0, Montana 6.8, Oregon 39.9, and Wyoming 5.8. How can Washington sustain 15 BP’s? http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/ ... 2s0014.pdf

• Census Bureau statistics indicate Washington has 1,063,000 people living on rural private lands. That is 2 to 6 times the human population on rural private lands in the other 4 states. Idaho has only 434,000 rural residents, Montana 414,000, Oregon 727,000, and Wyoming 172,000. How can Washington’s private lands that have a much higher human population sustain more wolves than private lands in these other states? http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/ ... 2s0029.pdf

• One of the Most Important Comparisons! According to the National Wilderness Institute, Washington has 15.5 million acres of state and federal public lands for wolves to inhabit. This is less than half of Idaho’s 35.2 million acres, Montana’s 32.5 million acres, or Wyoming’s 34 million acres. Washington even has less public lands than Oregon’s 19.4 million acres and Oregon’s plan only calls for 4 BP’s. The other 4 states have a total of 121 million acres of public lands for 44 BP’s, that’s 2.75 million acres per Breeding Pair in the other states. Washington’s 15.5 million acres at that same rate can only support 6 Breeding pairs. Why does the WDFW think our much smaller amount of public land can support more than twice the wolves the other states can support? http://www.nrcm.org/documents/publiclandownership.pdf

• The Final Important Comparison! Washington’s elk herd at the WDFW inflated figure of 61,000, is still much smaller than the herds of Idaho at 103,000, Montana’s 150,000+, Oregon’s 130,000, and Wyoming’s 120,000. In fact the other 4 states herds total 503,000 to support 44 BP’s, that’s 11,430 elk per breeding pair of wolves in the other states. By those standards Washington’s 61,000 elk can support 5 breeding pairs. How can the WDFW think Washington’s elk herds can support 3 times as many wolves as the other 4 states? http://www.rmef.org/Hunting/Features/Articles/