SEQUIM — The frustrated and the fervent from Port Angeles, Port Townsend, Sequim, Forks and Chimacum drove here Thursday night to talk about one elusive creature.
The prospect of the gray wolves, which could be “translocated” to Western Washington some 10 years from now by the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, filled the Guy Cole Convention Center at Carrie Blake Park with hikers, farmers, scientists and at least one singer.
First came a presentation by Harriet Allen of Fish and Wildlife’s Endangered Species Section.
Olympic Peninsula in plan
The department’s draft environmental impact statement includes a preferred alternative for moving wolves into three recovery regions: Eastern Washington, Northern Cascades and Southern Cascades-Northwest Coast, which would include the Olympic Peninsula.
Wolf packs are already establishing themselves in Washington, Allen said; the state’s plan now is to build the population to a point at which the animals would be taken off the endangered species list. The Fish and Wildlife goal is to ensure 15 breeding pairs of wolves before delisting can happen.
Also part of its plan: financial compensation for farmers who lose livestock to these predators.
Thursday night’s meeting, the only one on the North Olympic Peninsula, was aimed at collecting public comment, and a diverse array of men and women came to the microphone.
The first 11 speakers want wolves here, lots of them, without waiting too many more years.
Bruce Moorhead, a retired Olympic National Park biologist, spoke for many in the pro-wolf faction when he said the park is the ideal place.
“Translocating them as soon as you can would be a very wise move,” Moorhead said. “We’ve got one of the best [wild] prey bases in the state . . . and livestock is not as big a thing here as it was.”
But only 15 pairs isn’t enough to sustain a viable population, Moorhead and others added.
Supporters of wolf translocation such as Sequim’s Tim McNulty, author of “Olympic National Park: A Natural History” and other books, also criticized Fish and Wildlife for creating a less than viable recovery zone that includes the Interstate 5 corridor.
Wolves won’t be able to cross that barrier and move onto the Olympic Peninsula, McNulty said. The state should instead make sure the breeding pairs are relocated directly to this northwest corner, where federal lands provide abundant habitat for them.
With some 3,000 elk in Olympic National Park, and more prey and habitat wrapped around the park, it “offers the best opportunity for wolf recovery in the Pacific Northwest,” he added.
Hikers such as Billy Reamer and John Bridge of Sequim and livestock owners such as Jeanne Ball of Chimacum also told the state officials they would have no problem with wolves coming back to this part of the world. They are a native species that would help restore the web of wildlife, the supporters said. Wolves have been gone from Washington for 70 years.
The wolves’ opponents, however, were as vocal in speaking about their livelihoods and what they fear could be the end of their own freedom to roam the wilderness.
“As a livestock owner, [I] work very hard to take care of those animals,” said Rick Nelson of Olympia. Be they horses, cattle or border collies, “I have a moral responsibility to protect them from predators,” he added as some in the crowd applauded.
Fred Hatfield, a sheep farmer who said he’s lost lambs to eagles and to a cougar, expressed his frustration with the state’s wolf plan.
“People say livestock’s not important anymore,” he said. “There’s not much money in it,” Hatfield has learned in his 20 years farming in Happy Valley south of Sequim.
“But all across the United States, there’s a movement for locally grown,” he added — though he doesn’t see how he can grow his flock if predators multiply.
Melvina Worman of Sequim also protested the idea of “hungry wolves” on the North Olympic Peninsula.
“How about the expensive dogs, the expensive cats and other animals?” she asked.
Worman added that if the state does bring wolves back into the local woods, she’ll be afraid to go hiking in them.
“There’s an old saying: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” she finished.
But others in the crowd believe the ecosystem is broken, and that wolves could help it heal.
Toni Meehan of Brinnon urged the state officials to seize what she sees as an opportunity to put back a piece of the Peninsula’s environmental puzzle.
We can leave a healthier planet for our children, Meehan said, by allowing native species to reintegrate, thus allowing nature to balance itself.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: Nov. 6, 2009
Due to an editing error, an article about the state’s proposed wolf management plan erroneously reported in the fourth paragraph that one of the recovery zones was Western Washington. It is Eastern Washington, not Western Washington.
Sequim-Dungeness Valley Reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
