Connelly: End all federal protection of wolves -- Rep. Newhouse

The Lamar Canyon wolf pack moves on a hillside in Yellowstone National Park, Wyo. As the progeny of wolves reintroduced to Yellowstone and central Idaho in 1995 and 1996 spread across the West, an accidental experiment has developed. A temporary court order has made Oregon a wolf-safe zone, where wildlife agents are barred from killing wolves that attack livestock. Over the past year, the numbers of wolves has risen to 46 in Oregon, but livestock attacks have remained static. In neighboring Idaho, the number livestock attacks rose dramatically as the numbers of wolves killed by hunters and wildlife agents also increased. less The Lamar Canyon wolf pack moves on a hillside in Yellowstone National Park, Wyo. As the progeny of wolves reintroduced to Yellowstone and central Idaho in 1995 and 1996 spread across the West, an accidental ... more Photo: AP Photo: AP Image 1 of / 6 Caption Close Connelly: End all federal protection of wolves -- Rep. Newhouse 1 / 6 Back to Gallery

All federal endangered species protection for the gray wolf would end under legislation announced Thursday by U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., and conservative cosponsor, Rep,. Sean Duffy, R-Wisconsin.

Newhouse, who represents Central Washington in Congress, is emerging as one of the West's leading critics of federal wildlife protection. He has become the state delegation's Dr. Dolittle-in-reverse.

He sponsored language in a House appropriations bill that would deny the U.S. Department of the Interior any money to bring back grizzly bears in the North Cascades. He has vociferously opposed spilling water from Columbia and Snake river dams, to speed migration of young salmon to the Pacific.

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Using Interior and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as reference, Newhouse claims "the gray wolf is not endangered and no longer warrants its federal endangered species protection."

Wolves were hunted and poisoned to extinction in Washington early in the last century. They started reappearing less than 20 years ago, with a den on Hozomeen Mtn. in the North Cascades National Park complex. A wolf was seen sauntering through a playground in British Columbia's Skagit Valley Park at the north end of Ross Lake.

The Evergreen State currently is home to about 120 wolves, with canis lupus having established about two dozen packs.

The wolves enjoy federal protection in Washington, every place west of U.S. 97, meaning the Cascade Range.

But a Methow Valley family was caught poaching animals from a newly established pack, when they tried to ship a bloody wolf carcass in a package to Canada. A breeding female wolf was recently shot in the Teanaway Valley north of Cle Elum.

The state manages wolves in Northeast Washington, and has been criticized as too eager to shoot wolves when claims are made that the animals are killing livestock. The state on Wednesday approved shooting members of the Profanity wolf pack in Ferry County, weeks after it OK'd shooting members of the Togo wolf pack.

Withdrawal of federal protection from wolves in Idaho has led to wholescale and often brutal slaughter of the animals.

Newhouse is allied with a caucus of Western Republican House members who have criticized national monument designations -- the Trump administration has cut the new Bears Ears National Monument in Utah by 80 percent -- and called for radical changes in the Endangered Species Act.

Curiously, he has been viewed as a moderate, having defeated Tea Party activist Clint Didier in both his successful races for Congress.

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He's no friend of grizzly bears, however. "I have heard my constituents loud and clear on their opposition to transporting grizzly bears to the North Cascades, and the rest of the federal government should take note of local community voices as well," he said in seeking to block grizzly recovery.

But the vast majority of public comments, received by the federal government's grizzly bear recovery project, has supported restoration of a small grizzly population to the North Cascades.

U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke recently visited Sedro Woolley to declare his support for grizzly recovery.