SEQUIM — A meeting to hear details of a proposed wolf management plan, which could eventually result in gray wolves being moved to the North Olympic Peninsula, is scheduled in Sequim tonight.
The state Department of Fish and Wildlife will host a public meeting on its proposed Wolf Conservation and Management Plan and a draft environmental impact statement from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the Guy Cole Convention Center at Carrie Blake Park, 212 Blake Ave.
The meeting will focus on aspects of a draft plan, which is Fish and Wildlife’s preferred alternative of four options — one of which is to do nothing — included in the draft environmental impact statement.
The meeting is the only one scheduled in the Peninsula on the proposal.
None of the alternatives in the draft plan would reintroduce wolves into the state. Reintroduction is defined as bringing the animals from outside the state to within the state.
Instead, the plan would use a measure called “relocation,” which would entail moving wolves from one part of the state to another once sufficient breeding pairs have migrated into any portion of Washington state.
The department’s preferred alternative, and another alternative among four proposed in the plan, both include the Peninsula as part of a broader region that could host wolves, which have begun migrating into Eastern Washington from Idaho and Montana where they were reintroduced, using wolves from Canada.
The intent of the Washington state agency’s plan is to encourage the growth of the wolf population in Washington state to the point that wolves can be taken off state protection lists. Wolves now are listed as endangered in Washington state.
Gray wolves were removed from endangered species lists in both Idaho and Montana this spring. Both states recently held wolf hunts, and both closed early because quotas had been reached quickly.
The public comment period on the proposed plan for Washington state ends at 5 p.m. Jan. 8.
Comments can be e-mailed through a link on the same Web site where the documents are available for review: tinyurl.com/yhcxtrq.
For a print or CD version of the documents, phone 360-902-2515.
Comments also can be faxed to 360-902-2946 or mailed to Teresa A. Eturaspe, SEPA/NEPA coordinator, 600 Capitol Way North, Olympia, WA 98501-1091.
Comments should include the name of the proposal, “Wolf Conservation and Management Plan DEIS.”
The final environmental impact statement is expected to be released in 2010, with the proposed plan given to the state Department of Fish and Wildlife Commission for possible action later that year.
