From a news article out of Washington State about managing wolves.
“….wolves will continue to be protected under the state Endangered Species law until there are 15 successful breeding pairs for three consecutive years, evenly distributed throughout three recovery regions in the state, or 18 successful breeding pairs evenly distributed for one year.”
And before this brilliant statement above was given, we have a member of the staff of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, saying: “…the estimated number of wolves and wolf packs has increased. Last year, the department estimated 51 to 101 wolves were in the state. This year, the minimum increased to 52, based on the number of wolves seen by department staff.
“I do believe the number is higher, but we don’t know exactly by how much,” Martorello said. “We had good production this last year in a number of packs.”
In Maine there is an expression that perhaps could have been used here: “Hard tellin’ not knowin'”
