A few months ago a new wolf pack was discovered in the Mt. Hood National Forest. This is Western Oregon's first wolf pack since wolves were extirpated across the state six decades ago. Meanwhile wolf celebrity OR7 has fathered his fifth litter in SW Oregon. But across the region wolf news is not so encouraging. In Washington State wildlife officials have carried out 21 wolf executions in the past six years and threaten to kill even more wolves, mainly at the bidding of a single rancher.
On this episode of Locus Focus we talk with Amaroq Weiss, West Coast wolf advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity, about the current state of wolf recovery in the Northwest, what is driving this current spate of wolf executions and what can be done to give wolves the protection they need and deserve.
Amaroq Weiss is the West Coast Wolf Advocate for the Center for Biological Diversity. She handles wolf issues in California, Oregon and Washington as well as in the northern Rockies and on the federal front. She has worked in wolf conservation for more than 20 years and was a stakeholder representative in the two separate state processes to draft wolf conservation and management plans in Oregon and California. Her background as a biologist, former lawyer and rural resident gives her a complex and nuanced perspective on wolves.
- KBOO