OK, it’s confirmed — we now have proof that wolves are again repopulating Washington after being absent since the 1930s. Experts thought so, based on wolf howls, but now it’s for sure.
New photos show the wolves and their pups in upper central Washington’s Okanogan County. The pictures were caught by a remote, automatic camera operated by Conservation Northwest, an enviro group that has fought to preserve habitat in Okanogan and elsewhere.
The pictures were snapped a day after a team from Washington’s Department of Fish and Wildlife captured and radio-collared two adult wolves. Preliminary genetic tests suggest they came from wolf packs in the Canadian provinces of British Columbia and Alberta.
Said Jasmine Minbashian, Conservation Northwest’s special projects director:
We’re so exicted. I’ve always wondered whether I’d ever see the day that wolves would return to the Cascades. I hope they’ll stick around awhile.
They probably will if the experience in other states is repeated. Minbashian notes that ecosystems have been shown to be affected when the apex predator returns. For instance, I’d heard before how they kept deer and other ungulates at bay in Yellowstone National Park, where they were originally reintroduced to the Lower 48, so that riparian vegetation could regrow. Minbashian says they’ve also been linked to benefits to songbird populations and beavers:
It just goes on and on. Wolves really are a keystone species in that way. They have profound effects on ecosytems.
Not everyone’s so crazy about wolves, of course. Although they basically never attack people, they are known to move in on livestock from time to time. When the idea of bringing them back to the Olympic Peninsula was in play a few years ago, authorities had enough resistance that they put the idea into deep freeze.