Oregon Public Broadcasting

News reports surfaced this week of a wolf pack making its home in north-central Washington State.  But it's not true, says Madonna Luers, with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.

A Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife camera recently captured this image of a wolf in northeast Washington.

Madonna Luers: "If we discovered a wolf pack tomorrow you will hear about it. We will be putting that word out. But right now, we are just continuing to look."

Luers says it’s true that pictures of individual wolves have been captured by remote cameras stationed in southeast and south-central Washington. And wolves have been spotted in the Blue Mountains.

Luers says when a pair decides to call Washington home, they'll be pretty easy to find.

Packs consume large amounts of prey and may disturb ranchers’ livestock.

That’s why Washington is working on a wolf management plan that should be finished next year.

Oregon doesn’t have any breeding pairs of wolves.  But Idaho has nearly 90 packs.