Washington State Capitol

OLYMPIA — The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife stopped a bill to take wolves in northeast Washington off the state-protected species list by inflating its cost, state Rep. Joel Kretz charged Feb. 24.

Fish and Wildlife projected Kretz’s delisting proposal would cost $3.2 million over two years and require seven new positions related to co-managing wolves with counties.

The House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee endorsed the bill on an 11-0 vote. Fish and Wildlife’s cost estimate routed the bill to the Appropriations Committee instead of the House floor.

The legislation didn’t gain a place on the budget panel’s crowded agenda before the Feb. 24 deadline for the committee to pass House spending bills.

Kretz said he was caught off-guard, assuming the department wouldn’t have to seek approval from budget-writers for Fish and Wildlife officials to work with counties.

“I thought it was something we already were paying them to do,” he said.

“If agencies want a bill, it won’t cost much. If they don’t want it, it costs a lot. This is the way agencies do things in Olympia,” Kretz said. “It was death by fiscal note.”

Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman Samantha Montgomery said the department objectively analyzed the costs, which were approved by the Office of Financial Management.

“We know that wolf-planning efforts take an extensive amount of work, including allowing for rule making and State Environmental Policy Act analysis,” she said in an email.

“These efforts are time-consuming and costly,” Montgomery said. “The fiscal note reflects the cost of significant planning efforts including professionally facilitated meetings for multiple counties with a short turnaround time.”

According to Fish and Wildlife, the seven new positions would cost about $1.5 million in salaries and benefits over two years, or more than $100,000 per position per year.

Other projected expenses included $40,000 for travel, $137,000 for goods and services, and $720,000 for professional service contracts.

Fish and Wildlife officials acknowledge wolf packs saturate northeast Washington, particularly Stevens and Ferry counties. Wolves, however, are a state endangered species because they are rare in the southern Cascades.

Kretz’s bill would have required Fish and Wildlife to sit down with counties, sheriffs and tribes in northeast Washington to minimize livestock losses while maintaining the wolf population.

Fish and Wildlife assistant director Eric Gardner testified wolves would be hunted year-round under Kretz’s bill. Gov. Jay Inslee’s natural resources adviser Ruth Musgrave warned the bill could slow down wolves from dispersing across the state.

The testimony riled agriculture committee Chairman Mike Chapman, who co-sponsored the bill. The Sequim Democrat said nothing in the bill authorized killing wolves.

Stevens County Commissioner Wes McCart said Friday counties weren’t asking for money to write wolf plans.

“It’s just sad Fish and Wildlife doesn’t want to work with us,” McCart said. “They look you in the eye and say they want to work with you, but when it comes right down to it, they don’t.

“I wonder how many years they’re going to let our area suffer,” he said.

Northeast Washington legislators, county commissioners and sheriffs have been testifying for about a decade that while they accept wolves, they also have problems with wolves.

Four of the bill’s seven co-sponsors are Democrats. The bipartisan support may nudge Fish and Wildlife into working with counties, Kretz said.

“But it’s such an arrogant, out-of-control department, I don’t want to overstate the message they received,” he said.