Washington Governor Jay Inslee has made science a hallmark of his administration and in the bills he's championed to protect Washington's environment.

So we must call on him to stand up for scientific integrity when it comes to gray wolves.

Washington state’s wildlife agency has sent a letter to the Trump administration backing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s plan to strip federal Endangered Species Act protection from wolves in almost all the lower 48 states.

The Trump administration’s assault on gray wolves would deal a devastating blow to their recovery, returning us to the days when wolves were shot on sight, killed in traps, and relentlessly persecuted.
A scientist peer review of the Trump proposal to take away wolves’ protection panned it: The plan, said scientists, is filled with errors and misrepresentations and is not based on the best available science. Oregon and California are both on record opposing the delisting, so Washington is an outlier, with its support for the proposal running counter to science and showing little humaneness toward wolves.

Washington has a long history of gunning down wolves within its borders in those parts of the state where the animals have already lost federal protection. Since 2012 the state has killed 22 wolves with state endangered status, 18 of which were killed for the same livestock owner. The state shattered the Togo pack and the OPT pack last year, after destroying the Profanity Peak pack in 2016 and Wedge pack in 2012.

If wolves lose federal protection in the rest of the state, Washington’s state wildlife agency will only ramp up the slaughter. But there's something we can do.

Urge Gov. Inslee to officially tell the Service he opposes removing federal wolf protection.