Commission To Consider Amending State Wildlife Interaction Rules

OLYMPIA - The Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission will consider amending state wildlife interaction rules during a public meeting Oct. 4 in Olympia.

Those rules include conditions that allow ranchers and farmers to take lethal action to protect livestock from predators, as well as for compensation for the loss of livestock killed by predators.

The commission, a citizen panel appointed by the governor to set policy for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW), will convene in Room 172 of the Natural Resources Building, 1111 Washington St. S.E. The meeting is scheduled to begin at 8:30 a.m.

An agenda for the meeting is available at http://wdfw.wa.gov/commission/ .

Prior to their regular meeting in Olympia, the fish and wildlife commissioners and WDFW staff will meet in Marysville with tribal representatives from Puget Sound and the Washington coast to discuss a variety of resource management issues. The discussions will take place at the Tulalip Casino on Oct. 2 at 5:30 p.m. and continue the following day at the same location beginning at 8:30 a.m.

During the commission's regular meeting Oct. 4 in Olympia, commissioners will consider proposed amendments to wildlife interaction rules that are more consistent with Washington's Wolf Conservation and Management plan and to implement 2013 legislation.

The amendments are available online at http://wdfw.wa.gov/about/regulations/development.html .

Those amendments include:

Making permanent an emergency rule that permits ranchers, farmers, and other pet and livestock owners in the eastern third of the state to kill a wolf that is attacking their animals.

Adding sheep, goats, swine, donkeys, mules, llamas and alpacas to the list of animals livestock owners could be compensated for if those animals are killed by wolves. The current list only includes cattle, sheep and horses.

Permitting state compensation regardless of whether livestock owners were raising the animals for commercial purposes.

Compensating livestock owners for their losses at market value.

In other business, the commission will consider two land transactions, and will receive briefings on wolf management activities this summer and updates to Hydraulic Code Rules, which regulate construction around state waterways to protect fish.