Cowboys Getting Closer & Wolf Recovery Concerns

Cowboys Getting Closer & Wolf Recovery Concerns. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report.

We are getting closer to seeing a National Day of the Cowboy as more and more states continue to sign on. Fans of the cowboy in both Idaho and Washington State are urged to contact their state legislators as bill are coming up. Bethany Braley, Executive Director for the National Day of the Cowboy explains.

BRALEY: Cowboys and cowgirls played a very significant role in helping us establish the American West - you know the work that they did, the ethics that they had, the kind of lifestyles that they lived. Out of that came all the other things, you know its part of the reason that they are so acknowledged the world over is because of their ethics and the contribution that they made.

Residents in the northwest states have been seeing more significant numbers of wolf encounters with people, livestock and pets. The impacts of the recovering wolf populations are beginning to concern lawmakers including Washington's Representative Shelly Short. Her bill, House Bill 1676 directs the University of Washington's Predator Ecology Lab to conduct a peer-reviewed study in certain Game Management Units to assess the state's wild ungulate population and how they have changed due to the wolf recovery plan. A similar study is currently underway by the university on land owned by the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation.  The new study would be carried out over the next four years. The bill has passed the House and goes to the Senate for debate.

That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network of the West.