Its sad, but the only thing that is going to turnaround the decline in our ungulate herds is the proper management of the wolf. I hunted unit 10 from the early 80's up through late 90's, and it has been devastated. Went from almost a sure thing that you were going to harvest your elk, deer and bear to lets go listen to the howls of the wolf packs. The bulls quit bugling, as they attracted the wolves. Unfortunately the State of Washington is now just reaping the disaster of the Rocky Mountain Wolf re-integration plan, we have went from 1 pack to 13 confirmed packs (which means there are probably 4-5 more easily) in just over 2 years. There have always been a few wolves, but it has exploded exponentially over the last 2 years and will continue as they are still protected in this "blue" state. We have seen cattle, dogs, and sheep depredation occurring way too often already. I came face to face with 2 in a prime deer area and listened while a pack (lookout pack) took down a doe. That right there will make your hair stand up and blood boil. I sit on the North Cascades Elk Management group along with the State's Game Management Advisory Council, and its amazing to me how the politicians refuse to learn from other States lessons learned. (Did not want to say mistakes). You would think after the massacre of the ungulate herds in Idaho, Wyoming and Montana, that they would have decided on a more conservative Wolf Management plan but they let the input from the Pro-Wolf lobby override common sense. The Fed's said we should have a minimum of 10 breeding pairs prior to invoking management (hunting), however the State decided on a 15 breeding pair threshold with the pairs being evenly dispersed around the State. We have 13 already, however the majority are in just one region (NE). Sorry for the rant but this is going to get very ugly here before eyes are opened in our State. Maybe the loss of income from hunting sales as the other states have seen might, but by then the great herds of elk we love will be decimated.
