Washington Gray Wolf Conservation and Management 2024 Annual Report

Overview

Each year, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) submits a report to the federal government for Endangered Species Act (ESA) Section 6 activities. This document details the results of its annual gray wolf (Canis lupus) population survey and summarizes wolf recovery and management activities from the previous year.

Washington’s wolf population was virtually eliminated in the 1930s but has rebounded following the enactment of federal and state protections and conservations efforts. A resident wolf pack was first documented in the state in 2008 in Okanogan County. Since then, the number of wolves has increased to a minimum of 230 wolves in 2024. Wolf pack territories overlap public and private lands throughout the Eastern Washington Recovery Region encompassing Ferry, Stevens, Spokane, Pend Oreille, and eastern Okanogan counties in the northeast corner of the state and Asotin, Garfield, Columbia, and Walla Walla counties in southeast Washington, while the population continues to expand in Okanogan, Chelan, and Kittitas counties in the Northern Cascades Recovery Region. Although multiple wolves have dispersed to the south of I-90 into the South Cascades and Northwest Coast Recovery Region, three out of the fourwolves documented in this region were killed unlawfully and no wolves were observed in this recovery region by year-end of 2024.

Gray Wolves’ Legal Status

Gray wolves in Washington received legal protection under the ESA in 1974. Wolves in the eastern third of the state were delisted as part of the Northern Rocky Mountain Distinct Population Segment (NRM - DPS) in 2011. In January 2020, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) published a final rule to delist gray wolves, where they are currently listed across the lower-48 United States due to recovery. Gray wolves in the entirety of Washington were managed under state authority until February 2022, when a court ruling vacated the 2020 final delisting rule, which reinstated ESA protections for wolves outside the NRM - DPS. The vacatur decision is currently being appealed. Gray wolves in the western two-thirds of Washington State remain classified as endangered under the ESA, where the USFWS has resumed the lead role for recovery actions in the corresponding federally listed area.

Under Washington state law, wolves were listed as endangered in 1980. Legal protections under state law currently apply to the entirety of the state. Washington’s wolf recovery activities are guided by the Wolf Conservation and Management Plan, adopted in 2011 by the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission (FWC). Under the plan, Washington state is divided into three recovery regions: Eastern Washington, the Northern Cascades, and the Southern Cascades and Northwest Coast. In addition, a WDFW-approved Wolf-Livestock Interaction Protocol (PDF) sets forth criteria for WDFW to collaborate with livestock producers to minimize conflicts with wolves. Wolves that inhabit tribal lands in the Eastern Washington recovery region are managed by those specific tribal entities.

Wolf Recovery and Management in 2024

Key developments in 2024 included:

• The state’s minimum year-end wolf population decreased for the first time in 16 years. As of Dec. 31, 2024, WDFW and Tribes counted 230 wolves (9% decrease) in 43 packs in Washington. Eighteen of these packs were successful breeding pairs. These numbers are comparable with the previous year’s count of 254 wolves in 42 packs and 24 breeding pairs. As in past years, survey results represent minimum counts of wolves plus 12.5% to account for lone wolves and dispersers in the state due to the difficulty of accounting for every animal – especially lone wolves unassociated with a pack.
   
• An error was made in the 2023 annual report, and the minimum count and breeding pair numbers have been corrected in the 2024 annual report. Specifically, in the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation (CTCR) Strawberry pack in 2023, there were five wolves harvested out of that pack during the year that were not subtracted from the CTCR minimum count of eight. The year-end count for that pack should have been reported as three rather than eight. The pack had also been noted as a breeding pair, but did not meet the criteria to be considered as a breeding pair after these harvests were included. Correcting the error in pack size also meant decreasing the number of breeding pairs by one, resulting in a total of 24 successful breeding pairs in 2023. Incorporating the 12.5% correction for lone and dispersing wolves decreased the total minimum count for the 2023 annual report to 254 wolves from 260 (minus five wolves, minus one lone/ disperser).
• Pack sizes (number of individuals in a pack) ranged from two to thirteen wolves. Most packs contained three to six individuals.
   
• Since the first WDFW survey in 2008, the state’s wolf population has grown by an average of 20% per year even with the decline seen this past year.
   
• State, federal, and tribal biologists captured 29 wolves from 22 different packs and monitored a total of 55 unique radio-collared wolves from 25 different packs in 2024.
   
• Three new packs formed or reestablished in 2024 including the Teanaway pack and Naneum pack in Kittitas County and the Reed pack in Okanogan County.
   
• Two cases of wolves being killed illegally were documented in Klickitat County. Investigation into the first case was opened in October 2024. A reward for information is currently offered, more information is available in this press release. Investigation into the second case was opened in December 2024. A reward for information is currently offered, more information is available in this press release.
   
  • USFWS is offering a $10,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest, a criminal conviction, or civil penalty assessment in this case. Non-profit organizations such as Conservation Northwest, Washington Wildlife First, and Center for Biological Diversity are offering an additional $ 30,000 ($ 10,000 from each of these three organizations) in reward money.
     
• One wolf was documented maintaining a territory in a new area that the CTCR called Hayden territory.
   
• Two packs dissolved to just one wolf maintaining a territory, including the former Vulcan pack territory and the former Salmo pack territory.
   
• Fifteen wolves were documented dispersing from their pack territories in 2024. This represents 28% of the collared wolves monitored during the calendar year. Seven collared wolves (13%) dispersed out of the Washington state to British Columbia, Canada, Oregon or Idaho.
   
• WDFW documented 37 wolf mortalities during 2024 (Table 1), including four removed by WDFW in response to wolf-livestock conflict, one killed while caught in the act of depredating on livestock, two of natural causes (one killed by a cougar, one killed by other wolves), two related to WDFW capture work, one died from ingesting a piece of plastic that perforated its small intestine, 18 legally harvested by CTCR tribal hunters and one by Spokane Tribal hunters, and seven mortalities from unlawful take still under investigation. One wolf was shot in a declared self-defense and likely died; however, the carcass was never located. This investigation was closed with no charges filed.
   
• Wolf populations are managed to ensure progress toward the recovery goals established in WDFW’s 2011 Wolf Conservation and Management Plan. Guidance from the plan states that WDFW will minimize the loss of cattle and other livestock without undermining the long-term prospects for the recovery of a self-sustaining wolf population.
   
• WDFW investigators documented 40 depredation events in 2024. Investigation determined that 17 cattle (primarily calves) and one dog were confirmed killed by wolves, two calves were probably killed by wolves, 26 cattle were confirmed injured by wolves and two adult cows, and eight calves were probably injured by wolves.
   
• Up to ten of the 43 (23%) known packs that existed in Washington at some point during 2024 were involved in at least one confirmed or probable livestock injury or mortality. However, four of the ten packs associated with livestock depredations were involved in two or less events each. Seventy-seven percent of known packs were not involved in any known livestock depredation (including probable depredations) even though many of the pack territories overlap livestock operations.
   
• During calendar year 2024, WDFW spent a total of $1,652,802 on wolf management activities, including $81,631 for Damage Prevention Cooperative Agreements – Livestock (DPCA-L) non-lethal conflict prevention expenses (range riding, specialized lighting and fencing, etc.), $49,019 for WDFW contracted range riders, $139,543 for claims for livestock losses caused by wolves, $110,660 for lethal removal operations in response to depredations on livestock, and $1,271,950 for wolf management and research activities.