Which is the real invasive species?

For the second time this year, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has announced that it will begin killing more endangered wolves in service of commercial ranching interests in Eastern Washington.

Last month it was the Smackout Pack, and now the Sherman Pack has been targeted by WDFW’s gunners. And again, it is the same rancher who carelessly grazes his cattle on our publicly owned Colville National Forest land. Len McIrvin, the owner of Diamond M Ranch, believes his financial interests are more important than the environmental interests of the majority of the people in this state.

McIrvin was the cause of WDFW’s killing of wolves in the Wedge Pack in 2014 and the Profanity Peak Pack in 2016.

We all know that wolves were prematurely delisted by USFW in eastern Washington for political reasons since there were very few wolves in Washington at that time. There was no logical reason to remove our wolves from the protections of the Endangered Species Act. Although the wolf population is still far from recovered, and there is not a large enough population to expand its range into western part of the state, efforts continue to expose this endangered species to unfettered killing.

Wolves are a critical part of an intact and healthy ecosystem and still need to be protected from human depredation. Our predecessors drove the wolf population to near extinction in the lower 48 states because a lack of knowledge about the important role that wolves played in keeping the environment in balance. We must not repeat that mistake.

There is a continuing effort by the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works to weaken protections for wolves and other endangered species. In addition to this, there are numerous other efforts to specifically to delist wolves throughout the country. This means our modest state protections will be more important than ever.

Even being listed as endangered by the state offers little protection for wolves as they are frequently killed by the state when it determines that there has been a certain level of livestock depredation. Also poachers are an ever-present risk. Several years ago, a resident of Whitman County chased down a wolf in his vehicle and shot and killed it. He admitted that it was not threatening anyone or anything — it just happened to be there. This person took it upon himself to make the decision that a wolf did not belong there and murdered it in cold blood. Instead of the prescribed penalty of a year in jail and $5,000 fine, this poacher settled with the local prosecutor for $100 fine!

Take a moment to contemplate and consider why the Creator placed wolves on this land. Was it to provide a creature for humans to torture and kill, or was it because the wolf has an important role in this world? Humans have made the rules that these animals must abide by even if they are unable to understand those rules. What we have said is that animals have no rights, but they are obligated to respect our rules even as we know that there is no basis for such an understanding. But as sentient beings, they do have rights and we need to respect those rights.

We are all a part of a web of life that we cannot fully understand. Remove one part of that web, and we are all harmed by that loss. We have a moral obligation to preserve and protect all of the life that we share this world with. Remember that we belong to the earth; the earth does not belong to us.

Invasive species are defined as a non-native species of the animal kingdom that are not naturally occurring in Washington State and that pose a risk of harming or threatening the state’s environmental, economic, or human resources. Now, consider wolves, grizzlies, cougars, elk and deer; and then consider sheep and cattle. Ask yourself which of these are native species and which of these are invasive.

The bottom line here is that the citizens of Washington state are paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to kill our wolves (an endangered species) to satisfy the wishes of a private business which profits by grazing cattle (an invasive species) on our public lands.

David Linn

Ocean Shores