March 18, 2016
CapitalPress.com
3
Washington mulls new
policy on shooting wolves
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
Dan Wheat/Capital Press
Fresh snow reached down to the 2,000-foot level behind pear and cherry trees off Red Apple Road
north of Wenatchee, Wash., the morning of March 10. Three days later snow fell in town. Storms
increased the statewide snowpack 8 percent.
Winter storms boost
Washington snowpack
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
WENATCHEE, Wash. —
Recent storms boosted Wash-
ington’s mountain snowpack
by 8 percent, but forecasters
say it won’t alter the arrival
of an early spring runoff.
“We would need four
more storms like this to
make any real impact,” Scott
Pattee, state water supply
specialist, said after the irst
storm March 9. The second
storm, March 12 and 13,
brought an inch of snow to
Wenatchee and some other
east slope towns and much
more in the mountains. The
statewide snowpack in-
creased from 100 to 108 per-
cent of normal.
It helps but doesn’t lessen
chances that warmer weath-
er will melt much of the re-
maining snowpack about a
month earlier than desired,
said Pattee in the Washing-
ton Snow Survey Ofice of
the USDA Natural Resourc-
es Conservation Service in
Mount Vernon.
That’s a worry for farm-
land irrigators, particularly
in the Yakima Basin.
The March 9 storm had
been forecast to drop heavy
valley rain and up to 2 feet of
snow in upper elevations of
the Cascade Range with the
possibility of lash loods in
the Wenatchee area, Okan-
ogan Valley and Waterville
Plateau.
But the storm ran its
course, leaving sunshine and
fresh snow above 2,000 feet.
Winds reaching 128 mph
on Mission Ridge south of
Wenatchee blew the storm
away faster than expected,
minimizing rain, snowfall
and looding, Pattee said.
Stevens Pass received 12
inches of new snow over-
night, ive measurement sites
north of Mount Rainier re-
ceived 12 inches or more and
6,000-foot-elevation Lyman
Lake above Lake Chelan re-
ceived 15 inches, Pattee said.
From 6,000 feet down to
3,500 feet, snowfall ranged
from 4 to 6 inches, he said.
Little snow and tempera-
tures 5 to 15 degrees high-
er than normal in February
have left the snowpack about
a month ahead of normal in
maturity, he said.
Cooler weather the irst
half of March slowed the
melt but a warm second half
of March will accelerate it,
he said.
The March 12-13 storm
dumped 22 inches on Mount
Crag in the eastern Olym-
pics, Pattee said.
“That’s almost an inch
an hour. It’s high avalanche
danger. It was the heaviest in
the state. But Stampede Pass
(in the central Cascades near
Snoqualmie Pass) received
no snow, so it was a hit-and-
miss storm,” he said.
The Olympics and Mount
St. Helens received the most
snow, he said.
June Lake at the 3,300-
foot level on the south side
of Mount St. Helens re-
ceived 11 inches Saturday
and 11 inches Sunday, he
said. Bumping Ridge above
Bumping Lake in the Yakima
Basin received 13 inches of
snow and Lyman Lake above
Lake Chelan received 7 inch-
es, he said.
March storms restore Oregon
snowpack, but that could change
By ERIC MORTENSON
Capital Press
PORTLAND — Heavy
rain and mountain snow
that socked Western Ore-
gon March 10-14 restored
the low- and middle-eleva-
tion snowpack that had been
lost during an earlier warm
stretch, but continued weath-
er luctuations make summer
water predictions a guessing
game, according to the US-
DA’s National Resources
Conservation Service.
Scott Oviatt, NRCS
snow survey supervisor in
Portland, said it’s becoming
more likely the region will
have suficient water this
summer, but an extended
warm spell and early snow-
pack melt could change the
outlook.
Irrigation districts and
reservoir operators might
want to hedge their bets, he
said. “If you have the ability
to store a little more (water)
now, that’s great,” he said.
Oregon river basins are
“right at the cusp” in terms of
having suficient water, Ovi-
att said. In most of them, the
amount of water contained
in the snowpack — called
the “snow-water equivalent
“ — is near normal or above
normal for this time of year.
Notable exceptions are
the Willamette River Basin,
which is at 83 percent of nor-
mal, the Hood-Sandy-Lower
Don Jenkins/Capital Press
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife consultant Francine
Madden writes down ideas from members of the department’s Wolf
Advisory Group March 14 in Tumwater. The group asked WDFW
staff members to rework the department’s policy on shooting
wolves to stop depredations on livestock.
dence in the department, espe-
cially since WDFW oficials
in Tumwater will involve ield
staff in Central and Eastern
Washington who work directly
with ranchers.
“I think we’re in a really
good place,” he said.
WDFW resorted to shoot-
ing wolves in 2012 and 2014 to
stop depredations on livestock
— high-proile actions that
outraged wolf advocates but
also fell short of some ranch-
ers’ expectations.
WDFW hired Madden and
enlarged the advisory group a
year ago to encourage collab-
oration. The advisory group’s
17-member roster represents
livestock producers, environ-
mentalists and hunters.
The group has yet to make
any speciic policy recommen-
dations. The discussions Mon-
day and Tuesday touched on
many subjects, but there was
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Deschutes areas, which are at
84 percent of normal, and the
Owyhee Basin, which sits at
82 percent. The comparisons
are based on averages com-
piled from 1981 to 2010.
The snowpack levels are
somewhat mixed, but heavy
rain this winter has put pre-
cipitation totals off the charts.
Every Oregon river basin
measured by NRCS has re-
corded precipitation more
than 100 percent of normal.
“That doesn’t mean the
drought’s over,” Oviatt said.
Many reservoirs were low,
and reilling them with rain
or melting snow takes time.
“It’s a building process,”
Oviatt said. “This is a step in
the right direction.”
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no consensus on any topic.
WDFW can only use lethal
removal in the eastern one-
third of Washington, where
77 of the 90 wolves counted
by the department in 2015
roamed. Wolves are federally
protected in the western two-
thirds of Washington, and the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
doesn’t use lethal removal to
manage wolves.
Producers are generally
asking for policies that ensure
repeated depredations will be
quickly and effectively con-
fronted. Environmentalists are
stressing exhausting preven-
tive measures irst.
The Cattle Producers of
Washington and the Stevens
County Cattlemen’s Asso-
ciation, two groups whose
members are most affected
by wolves, withdrew from the
panel last fall, questioning its
value.
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TUMWATER, Wash. —
Washington wildlife managers
will digest ideas from an advi-
sory group and propose a new
protocol for shooting wolves
to protect livestock.
New lethal-removal pro-
cedures may not differ much,
if any, from current practice,
which has been criticized by
ranchers and environmental-
ists.
But the state Department
of Fish and Wildlife hopes
that drawing on the advisory
group’s diverse viewpoints
will foster broader acceptance
of lethal-removal policies.
“It is the biggest issue for
the department,” WDFW wolf
policy lead Donny Martorel-
lo said Tuesday near the end
of a two-day meeting of the
department’s Wolf Advisory
Group.
WDFW’s general policy is
to consider lethal removal af-
ter four depredations. The de-
partment also must conclude
that preventive measures have
been tried and failed, and that
depredations are likely to con-
tinue.
Other considerations such
as pack history and the time
between depredations can fur-
ther complicate the decision.
The advisory group spent
most of two days in a mo-
tel conference room tossing
out and discussing variables
WDFW should consider.
By the end Tuesday, meet-
ing facilitator Francine Mad-
den had taped 125 pages of
handwritten notes on the walls.
Martorello said WDFW
staff members will take the
notes and develop lethal-pro-
tocol options for the advisory
group to consider in May.
“I don’t have a precon-
ceived idea of what the out-
come will be,” he said. “From
my perspective, I see more in-
put and themes than I’ve seen
before.”
Washington Cattlemen’s
Association Executive Vice
President Jack Field, a group
member, said he had coni-
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