Hunter Education

Our next HE class will be held during the 2026 school spring break.  The first day of class will be April 6.  The annual pheasant hunt for HE class graduates will be on Saturday, February 21, 2026 at Limits Game Farm.  Seven instructors from our HE instructor team received trauma treatment training from Dr. Robert Margulies on November 12.  Chief Instructor Ron Ruth is assembling a trauma safety kit that will be on site for HE class range days, the HE pheasant hunt, and at other RRGC events when requested.    

2026 KOE Fishing Events

Dates have been set for the 2026 Kids Outdoor Education (KOE) fishing events at Columbia Park Pond.  The Special Needs event will be on Friday April 17 and Kids Fishin’ Day will be on Saturday April 18.  Volunteers are needed for fishing rod assembly at the Grigg’s Department Store Hunter Education classroom in Pasco on Saturday March 28 and for the fishing events.  Please mark your calendar to assist with the events.  Any questions can be directed to Marilyn Steele, 509-392-2128 or momhoops46@gmail.com.

Wolf Update by Mike Estes

In a major policy reversal, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) announced in early November that a national recovery plan for gray wolves across vast swaths of the Lower 48 states is no longer necessary. The decision effectively ends a process launched under the Biden Administration and marks a significant win for advocates of science-based, state-led wildlife management.  The determination applies to two ESA-listed wolf entities: the 44-state population (covering most of the U.S., excluding the Northern Rockies) and the Minnesota population.  The reversal reaffirmed that gray wolf populations have met or exceeded ESA recovery goals and continue expanding via natural dispersal from core areas in the Northern Rockies and western Canada.  Federal officials pointed to existing state-level management frameworks, like exist in Washington and Oregon, as sufficient for ensuring long-term wolf viability.  The National Wolf Recovery plan is dead for now, but full federal protections remain in effect.

In an October letter from the USFWS Director, Colorado was directed to cease-and-desist from importing wolves from Canada.  The letter stated that the importation of Canadian wolves is in direct violation of federal rules favoring Rocky Mountain wolves over British Columbia wolves to supplement wolf numbers in Colorado.  A campaign by urban environmentalists to translocate 20 to 50 wolves to Colorado within 3 to 5 years was narrowly approved by voters in November 2020 and 10 wolves were relocated from Oregon in December 2023.  Fifteen more wolves were subsequently relocated from British Columbia.  Ten of the 25 wolves relocated to Colorado have died from a variety of causes including legal removal and illegal shootings.

Another door closed on Colorado’s attempted wolf reintroductions effort on November 13, when the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission voted against providing wolves to Colorado.  At least not this year.  Washington has approximately 250 wolves in 44 packs but the number of successful breeding pairs apparently dropped from 2023 to 2024 based on surveys by WDFW and the tribes.  Reasons given by Commissioners for denying Colorado’s request are that translocations are hard on animals and that Washingtonians do not favor translocation of wolves.  Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming have also declined to provide wolves to Colorado.

In late October, for the first time in more than a century, wildlife officials killed four wolves in California.  The pack in Plumas County was linked to more than 70 confirmed livestock depredations in just six months.  Wolves were eliminated from California by 1924 and the first documented return to the state was a lone wolf from Oregon in 2011.  Now there are an estimated 50 to 70 wolves in ten packs in California, most in the northeastern part of the state.

What does all of this recent activity by the feds and the states amount to?  It shows that reintroduction and management of wolves is a costly and contentious issue.  Most of the people who want wolves on the landscape will likely never see one in the wild because those people do not live or recreate where wolves abide.  Millions upon millions of dollars are being spent to monitor the wolves, to protect farm animals, and to reimburse ranchers for losses after those ranchers successfully demonstrate that they implemented a plan to minimize depredation by the wolves by hiring range riders and taking other actions.  If one wolf pack in California killed more than 70 cattle in six months, how many deer and elk does it take to feed 44 packs of wolves in Washington for a year?  How long will it be before the pendulum swings and hunters are allowed to harvest wolves, like we do coyotes, to control the extensive loss of wildlife to an increasing number of wolves? 

Photo of the Month

There were two contest entries this month.  Marilyn Steele is shown with a large smallmouth bass she caught near Irrigon, Oregon while fishing with Mike Estes on October 15, 2025.  The photo was taken by Mike.  Ron Moore is shown with a mule deer buck he harvested near Lewistown, Montana on November 11, 2025.  The photo was taken by Ron’s hunting partner, Clyde Allen. Marilyn’s photo was selected as this month’s winner.

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