On successful wolf recovery

To the Editor: In response to a recent article about wolves in our state, additional information is needed to understand wolf recovery and associated conflicts. Wolves were eradicated from our state because humans wanted to raise cattle and sheep on private and public lands where wolves lived. When wolves returned naturally to our state, Washington had about one million cattle and 40,000 sheep. By 2025, about 270 individual wolves lived here. Most Washingtonians understand the ecological importance of wolves. Many appreciate their intrinsic value. Our state invested public money in wolf recovery by helping with non-lethal methods to protect livestock, paying owners for wolf-caused direct and indirect losses and by killing wolves. The public supports the non-lethal deterrents and monetary payments. The USDA reports that fewer than .3% of cattle deaths were caused by wolves. In our state, in 2025, only five wolf packs injured or killed livestock. These attacks involved 19 cattle.

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