Washington State 2025 Wolf Count Increases, Depredations Decrease

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife today released the state’s 2025 minimum count for gray wolves at 270 individuals, a 17% increase from 2024. While wolves have continued to expand in the state in recent years, they have yet to achieve the recovery goals outlined in Washington’s 2011 Wolf Conservation and Management Plan. Illegal killing remains a significant factor hindering their progress. The state also documented a decrease in wolf-livestock depredation reports, down from 54 in 2024 to 17 in 2025.

“In Washington, the year-after-year gray wolf population increase demonstrates that we are on our way to full recovery,” said Kristin Botzet, Northwest program representative at Defenders of Wildlife. “As wolves continue to expand throughout their historical range across our landscape, it’s critical that we continue to invest in programs that reduce conflict. For decades, Defenders of Wildlife has worked alongside government agencies in wolf-livestock conflict reduction, and it’s because of these programs that we can foster better tolerance of wolves on the landscape and ensure long-term recovery.”   

The Washington Wolf Plan established targeted population numbers and distribution criteria for downlisting and delisting wolves in the state, divided into three designated recovery regions. Currently, wolves have not yet met the recovery objectives required for reclassification in the Southern Cascades and Northwest Coast recovery region. Meanwhile, the other two recovery regions, Eastern Washington and the North Cascades, have both met their recovery objectives. 

In the Southern Cascades and Northwest Coast recovery region, WDFW confirmed the presence of the first documented wolf pack in the area, the Big Muddy Pack, in 2022. Unfortunately, poaching has hindered the region’s recovery goals. In late 2023, the female of the pack went missing and in October 2024, WDFW staff investigated the illegal killing of an adult male gray wolf near the Klickitat River. In 2025, GPS data from WDFW confirmed a brief dispersal event of a wolf from the Northern Cascades down into the Southern Cascades and Northwest Coast region. 

“The observed dispersal event of a wolf to the Southern Cascades region is promising,” said Botzet. “Although it didn’t establish a territory, it demonstrates that wolves are capable of naturally dispersing to the region on their own, but poaching remains problematic and a barrier to recovery. If we can’t get the poaching in check, it will continue to hamper recovery efforts, making it challenging to meet recovery goals and subsequent delisting.” 

Gray wolves were extirpated from Washington in the 1930s due to hunting and government-sponsored predator control programs. They were then listed as endangered under state law in 1980. In the 2000s, wolves naturally recolonized the state, dispersing from neighboring states and British Columbia. Today, their population remains largely concentrated in eastern Washington. 

To achieve statewide recovery, the Southern Cascades and Northwest Coast must sustain a minimum of four successful breeding pairs for three consecutive years, while the other two recovery regions must each maintain at least four successful breeding pairs and an additional six successful breeding pairs located anywhere in the state.  

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