Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife biologists recommended May 18 removing wolves from the state’s endangered species list and reclassifying wolves as a state sensitive species.

Wolves are neither endangered nor threatened because their population is robust, growing and dispersing across the state, according to a status review that contained the recommendation.

Wolves in the western two-thirds of Washington are federally protected and would be unaffected by a change in state status.

As a state sensitive species, wolves in the eastern one-third of state would still be protected. The change would be minimal, Fish and Wildlife wolf policy coordinator Julia Smith said.

“It doesn’t change things very much. It simply means that words — ‘endangered,’ ‘sensitive’ — have meanings,” Smith said.

Fish and Wildlife routinely reviews the status of endangered and threatened species. The release of the wolf review May 18 started a public comment period that will end Aug. 16.

The department expects to present the recommendation to the Fish and Wildlife Commission in October.

The maximum penalty for illegally killing a sensitive species is 90 days in jail and a $1,000 fine, compared to a year in jail and $5,000 fine for poaching an endangered species.

Smith said the commission could set stiffer penalties for poaching wolves, even as a sensitive species. The department has special fines for killing species such as bald eagles, golden eagles and peregrine falcons.

Biologists stopped short of recommending wolves be taken off the protected species list entirely.

Wolves are established in Eastern Washington and north-central Washington, but have only a “novel presence” in south-central Washington and no presence in Western Washington, according to biologists.

Full recovery will depend on a robust wolf population in Eastern Washington moving west, they said.

The report does not recommend any changes to the department’s use of lethal control as a last resort to curb chronic attacks on livestock in areas under its control.

Stevens County rancher Scott Nielsen, who heads the Cattle Producers of Washington range-riding program, said reclassifying wolves would be a good step.

“Wolves and wolf recovery are doing very well in northeast Washington,” he said.

The Center for Biological Diversity criticized the recommendation.

“We’re going to do everything we can to ensure that Washington’s wolves receive the protections they deserve under state law and the wolf plan,” staff attorney Sophia Ressler said in a statement.

Fish and Wildlife biologists recommended sticking with the state’s wolf recovery objectives.

The objectives include having at least 15 packs reproducing pups each year. There were 26 packs with pups at the end of 2022, but they didn’t meet the second objective of being scattered throughout the state.

A recent study by Fish and Wildlife and the University of Washington projected the second objective will be met by 2030 when wolves finally colonize the North Cascade Range and the northwest coast.

Fish and Wildlife started counting wolves in 2008. The population has grown for 14 straight years by an average of 23% a year, according to the department.

Fish and Wildlife counted 216 wolves in 37 packs at the end of 2022.

Over the past 14 years, an average of 10% of the state’s wolves have died each year. Tribal hunters, who can legally harvest wolves, accounted for 36% of the wolves killed by humans between 2008 and 2022, according to the department.