The gray wolf is an endangered species throughout Washington under state law and is endangered under federal law in the western two-thirds of the state. Wolves were once common throughout most of Washington, but declined rapidly from being aggressively killed during the expansion of ranching and farming between 1850 and 1900. Wolves were eliminated as a breeding species from the state by the 1930s, although infrequent reports of animals continued in the following decades, suggesting that small numbers of individuals continued to disperse into Washington from neighboring states and British Columbia.
Reliable reports of wolves began increasing in Washington in about 2005 due in part to the recent recovery of wolf populations in Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. Washington now has a small breeding population of wolves in the initial stages of recovery. Five packs are present in the state as of December 2011. The first of these was discovered in Okanogan County in 2008. Single additional packs were found in Pend Oreille County in 2009 and 2010 and in Kittitas and Stevens Counties in 2011.
On December 3, 2011, the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission approved a final wolf conservation and management plan for Washington. The plan has two major components: (1) recovery objectives and strategies for downlisting and delisting wolves at the state level, and (2) management strategies to reduce and address conflicts with livestock and big game herds. A copy of the final wolf plan will be available on this site in mid-January 2012.
http://wdfw.wa.gov/conservation/gray_wolf/
