Wolves May Return To Olympic Peninsula Rep. Norm Dicks Willing To Conduct Public Forum

Rep. Norm Dicks said Monday he wants to study the possibility of reintroducing wolves to Olympic National Park in Washington state and is willing to help conduct a public forum on the topic.

“Based upon what I have learned thus far, I find the Olympics proposal intriguing and I am prepared to examine it further,” said Dicks, D-Wash.

“Such a forum can help examine the biological implications as well as the potential benefits that may come from increased public interest and tourism employment on the (Olympic) peninsula,” he said.

Rodger Schlickeisen, president of Defenders of Wildlife, has proposed such a reintroduction on the peninsula, where he says the wolves once thrived.

The group played an active role in bringing wolves back to Yellowstone National Park. It also is pressing for similar reintroductions in the Southwest and Southeast United States as well as the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York.

Dicks said he has supported those efforts, using his position as a senior member of the House Appropriations subcommittee on the interior to help secure federal financing.

In a letter to Schlickeisen Monday, Dicks said they should work together to sponsor a panel of experts to examine the idea for the Olympic Peninsula.

“If we have an opportunity to help prevent any species from going extinct, then we owe it to future generations to at least pursue the possibility,” Dicks wrote.

“Whether or not the Olympics provide a suitable ecosystem needs to be examined both from a scientific perspective and a public interest perspective,” he said.

Dicks said he would like to hold a forum in April and may ask the National Park Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to help with a study.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokeswoman Meg Durham said Monday the agency had not yet heard from Dicks.

“It is not a Fish and Wildlife Service proposal. This is something that apparently has arisen between Mr. Dicks and Defenders of Wildlife,” she said.

The only reintroduction currently under formal review by the Fish and Wildlife Service is a proposal to place Mexican wolves in the Southwest United States, she said.

National Park Service officials did not immediately return telephone calls seeking comment.