SEQUIM – Hundreds of miles from Jefferson and Clallam counties, wolves are making regular forays into the forests of northeastern Washington.
State wildlife officials want to develop a plan to manage the predators.
“Public scoping meetings” are being held across the state this month to get a cross-section of opinion from residents.
The state is not – not – reintroducing wolves, but the animals are expected to become re-established in Washington on their own as their numbers increase in Idaho, Montana and Canada.
The North Olympic Peninsula’s meeting will be held in Sequim, at the Guy Cole Convention Center in Carrie Blake Park, 212 Blake Ave., from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Tuesday.
The Sequim meeting “is public comment opportunity is intended to ensure that we receive a full range of citizen views as we develop a conservation and management plan for the gray wolf,” said Rocky Beach, wildlife diversity manager for the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.
One of the wolf “scoping meetings” was held last week in Yakima. (See accompanying story.)
Gray wolves were largely eradicated on the Peninsula and in the rest of Washington state by the 1930s.
There was a plan in 1999 to bring gray wolves from Canada and put about 50 of them in Olympic National Park.
The plan, championed by the Peninsula’s congressman, Norm Dicks, was aborted because of negative reaction from residents in Clallam and Jefferson counties.
