Temporary restraining order in place until next court hearing on October 28
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REPUBLIC, WA – On Tuesday, October 14, King County Court Commissioner Mark Hillman granted a request for a temporary restraining order (TRO) to prevent the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) from taking any further action to kill members of the Sherman pack wolf family in the Colville National Forest. Hillman’s order came in response to the Petition and Motion for Temporary Restraining Order filed by Washington Wildlife First, Kettle Range Conservation Group, Predator Defense, and wildlife advocate Martha Hall. The petitioners sought to enjoin WDFW from executing the second kill order against the Sherman wolf pack, issued by WDFW Deputy Director Amy Windrope on October 9. The TRO will be in place through October 28, when the parties will appear before King County Superior Court Judge Suzanne Parisien to determine whether a preliminary injunction will remain in place until the underlying case is decided on the merits.
Windrope issued the order following wolf predations on cattle belonging to Diamond M Ranch in Ferry County. Roughly 70% of the 51 state-endangered wolves WDFW has killed since 2021 were executed on behalf of the family that operates Diamond M. The TRO came down as WDFW staff were already in the field attempting to kill one of the two remaining adult wolves in the Sherman pack. If they had been successful, the action would have left only a solitary adult female, almost certainly leading to the starvation of the pack’s 4-6 pups.
“We are gratified that the Commissioner stopped WDFW from executing this unethical, inhumane, and unscientific order in time to save what remains of the Sherman wolf family,” said Dr. Francisco J. Santiago-Ávila, Washington Wildlife First’s science and advocacy director and a foremost expert on wolf conservation and policy. He noted that WDFW has continued to kill wolves despite the substantial and growing body of science showing that it does not alleviate conflicts, and may even make them worse by weakening pack structure. “We look forward to showing Judge Parisien in two weeks that both this order and WDFW’s entire approach to wolf management is arbitrary, capricious, and illegal,” he said.
The Colville National Forest, which is wildlife habitat, is home to the Sherman Pack which had at least five adult wolves at the beginning of 2025, but has already suffered a devastating losses this year. On May 15, 2025, an unnamed livestock producer shot and killed an adult male wolf from the pack. On August 26, WDFW killed an adult female Sherman wolf following WDFW Director Kelly Susewind’s August 25, 2025 kill order. That same month, WDFW found another dead wolf, whose killing is under investigation. Papers filed today confirm the wolf was part of the Sherman pack. If WDFW had carried out Windrope’s order, it would mark the fifth wolf pack it has destroyed at the behest of Diamond M, including three packs that settled in the same region of the Kettle Range: the Profanity Peak Pack in 2016, the Sherman Pack in 2017, and the Old Profanity Territory (OPT) Pack.
The Kettle Range Conservation Group is dedicated to protecting this area of the Colville Forest. “The Kettle Range is rugged wilderness, dense forest, steep topography, that is wonderful wolf habitat. It is a terrible area to graze cattle,” said Tim Coleman, executive director of the group. “It is absurd that the U.S. Forest Service continues to allow cattle to graze unsupervised in this wild territory, and indefensible for WDFW to continue to destroy the wolf packs who belong there on behalf of the beef industry. The Colville National Forest plan lists 26% of the forest as suitable for cattle grazing, yet cattle allotments occupy 66% of the 1.1 million acre forest.”
More than 80% of the wolves WDFW has targeted were killed, at least in part, due to predations of cattle grazing on public lands, predominantly within the Colville National Forest. Beef producers pay just $1.35 a month per cow-calf pair to graze their cattle in the forest, where McIrvin has claimed it is impossible to protect his herds due to the rough, mountainous country and heavy timber. Diamond M’s record is well documented. Substantial evidence has accumulated over the years that Diamond M provides its cattle with little to no supervision, knowingly keeps them in close proximity to core wolf areas such as wolf dens, refuses to cooperate with WDFW in using non-lethal deterrents, and routinely leaves sick, injured, and deceased cattle on its grazing allotments, luring in wolves and fueling conflict. A 2017 film focused on WDFW’s destruction of the Profanity Peak pack in 2016, after Diamond M placed a salt block for its cattle 200 meters away from the Profanity Peak den site, causing the cattle to congregate right on the pack’s doorstep.
In fact, Diamond M proprietor Len McIrvin has repeatedly insisted that non-lethal approaches are useless and that the only compensation he wants for his losses is “a dead wolf for every dead calf.” He has been a vocal opponent of wolf recovery, declaring there “is no room for wolves in Washington state.” In past remarks, McIrvin has even hinted at taking matters into his own hands, saying: “[o]ur ancestors knew what had to happen — you get poison and you kill the wolves.”
“WDFW’s decision to kill another wolf from the Sherman pack demonstrates they’re nothing more than killers for ranchers who choose not to coexist with wolves,” said Brooks Fahy, executive director of Predator Defense, a wildlife advocacy nonprofit. “By doing the same thing over and over again they’ve made it clear that they’ve learned nothing.”
“It became clear long ago that the problem in the Kettle Range is not the wolves; it is the people,” said Santiago-Ávila. “But WDFW willfully turns a blind eye to this reality so it can serve Diamond M at taxpayer expense. It is hard to think of a clearer example of agency capture by special interests. Every wolf matters. For their own sake, and for the ecological resilience of our state.”
WDFW continues to kill wolves even as wolf mortalities have skyrocketed and the future of wolf recovery in Washington looks bleak. WDFW’s 2024 Wolf Report documented a 9% drop in the state wolf population and a 25% decline in breeding pairs, marking the first decrease since 2008.
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The case is Hall, et. al v. Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, et. al., No. 25-2-30119-2, in King County Superior Court. The petitioners are represented by the firm Animal & Earth Advocates.
