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Critters
Tuesday, February 26, 2002
Wolf Haven turns 20 Gray wolves find advocate in Tenino organization N.S. NOKKENTVED, THE OLYMPIAN Originally published Tuesday, February 26, 2002
TENINO -- The greenish-yellow fire of wildness still burns in their eyes.
Some of them shy from their human keepers. Some of them catch the thrown chunks of raw meat in the air. But they all seem to recognize the sound of the pickup truck that brings their food.
"They know feeding day," said Jack Laufer, general curator at Wolf Haven International near Tenino. "They've got a pretty good idea what time it is."
They may be caged, but they are still wolves, and they still draw a crowd.
Wolf Haven is celebrating its 20th anniversary with an open house Saturday. But all the tours during the day are booked. For most of the year, the facility provides daily guided walking tours -- except in February.
Wolf Haven gets about 25,000 to 30,000 visitors annually. But the wolves and the tours are only part of the function of Wolf Haven.
The organization is an advocate for wolves -- not a research facility. It conducts education and public outreach about wild wolves, and it operates a captive breeding program of Mexican gray wolves with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said Julie Palmquist, communications director for the nonprofit organization.
"I think they serve a very useful purpose," said Carter Niemeyer, head of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's wolf recovery program in Idaho.
Educational and outreach programs are aimed at kindergarten through 12th-grade students, with presentations from Portland to Bellingham -- mostly on the west side of the Cascades.
"The biggest role is the education factor," Palmquist said.
"Can't do enough of it," said Niemeyer, who has been intimately involved with the efforts to return wolves to the Northern Rockies.
Laufer has worked here 19 years. What has kept him?
He paused, the smile faded from his lips.
"Them," he said, pointing at several of the wolves.
After touring the facility shortly after it opened in 1982, he realized it needed help. Laufer has a graduate degree in wildlife biology. But after coming to work at the facility, he realized it needed help in the business end of things as well -- so it could afford to keep a wildlife biologist on staff.
He earned a business management degree at The Evergreen State College. He never looked back.
The wolf rescue facility was started by Steve and Linda Kuntz. The couple got into the wolf-rescue business in 1979 in Colorado with Ed Andrews. When Andrews and his wolves moved to Washington state in 1980 and operated a facility known as Wolf Country, the Kuntzes followed.
Andrews left the operation in 1982. Along with 22 wolves, the Kuntzes also assumed the debt of Wolf County. They set up a nonprofit organization with a few friends and renamed it Wolf Haven.
The Kuntzes left the operation two years ago as a result of a disagreement over management of the operation.
Today the 85-acre facility is home to 33 gray wolves, also known as timber wolves, kept in 18 chain-link enclosures that average 6,500 to 7,000 square feet; a few are larger. And one is kept empty for contingencies. When the facility was started, wolves were kept in 10-by-20-foot cages.
The facility takes cast-off wolves from across the country -- captive-born wolves from zoos or private rescue attempts or people who tried to keep wolves as pets with the illusion of taming the wild.
"We end up with the animals that can't be pets, yet they have been socialized with people so then can't go back into the wild," Palmquist said.
Over the past 20 years the facility has been home to about 75 wolves, a few coyotes and foxes and several wolf-dog hybrids.
"Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be any shortage of wayward animals," Palmquist said.
Five Mexican gray wolves are kept isolated from humans and other wolves in the captive breeding program for reintroduction in the Southwest.
Other wolves are given tubal ligations or vasectomies when they arrive at Wolf Haven. That way they still can go through the hormonal cycle of reproduction without producing pups. Laufer's goal is to give them a quality life, some dignity and let them die of old age.
The facility has four goals:
- Protect remaining wild wolves and their habitat.
- Promote wolf restoration of wolves in historic habitat.
- Provide a sanctuary for captive-born wolves.
- Provide education about the value of all wildlife.
"It's a pretty big mission, but I think we do pretty well at it," Palmquist said.
Wolf Haven has 10 full-time and one part-time paid staff, and about 30 trained volunteers. It is funded by membership, private donations, wolf adoptions program, tour admissions, and gift shop and catalog sales. The nonprofit organization has about 3,800 members.
"I see that the work I do is making a difference," said Palmquist, who has a background in journalism and an abiding interest in wildlife.
N.S. Nokkentved covers the outdoors for The Olympian. He can be reached at 360-754-5445 and at nnokkent@olympia.gannett.com.
Wolf Haven hours
- March, November, December and January: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday only, last tour at 3 p.m.
- April and October: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Guided walking tours every hour, last tour at 3 p.m. Closed on Tuesdays.
- May through September: 10-5 p.m. Guided walking tours every hour, last tour at 4 p.m. Closed on Tuesdays.
- February: Closed.
Admission
- Daytime tours: Adults, $6; youths 12 and under, $4; seniors, $5.
- Howl-Ins: Adults, $10; youths, $8. Children under 3 get in free.
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