Washington range-rider gets $200,000; Fish and Wildlife wonders how

Washington range-rider gets $200,000; Fish and Wildlife wonders how

Published 11:21 am Friday, November 14, 2025

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife was surprised to learn that $200,000 in its budget was reserved for a range-riding entrepreneur known as “The Wolf Ranger.”

The Legislature allocated the money last spring for managing wolves in southeast Washington, more specifically for “projects guarding the respective interests of predators and humans.”

Fish and Wildlife didn’t request the money and spent months figuring out how to use it. In October, the department learned from the governor’s budget office that it was for Daniel Curry, founder of Project GRIPH.

GRIPH stands for Guarding the Respective Interests of Predators and Humans — the same words as in the budget.

“They didn’t capitalize the letters of his organization,” Fish and Wildlife North-Central Regional Director Brock Hoenes said. “We didn’t read it as that organization.”

It’s unclear who advocated for Curry. “God knows how it got there,” Fish and Wildlife wolf policy lead Subhadeep Bhattacharjee said.

Gov. Jay Inslee included funding for Curry in the last budget he submitted to the Legislature before leaving office. It stayed in the budget as lawmakers’ negotiated a final 1,366-page spending plan.

Curry has been favorably profiled in the media and documentaries. He recently told Cascade PBS he moved to northeast Washington after hearing wolves were shot in 2012 because a ranch “lost a bunch of cattle, supposedly.”

“And nothing was really being done to prevent any of that conflict,” he said.

Efforts to reach Curry were unsuccessful. Curry also told Cascade PBS he has been range-riding by himself, but hopes to open a school to train range-riders to patrol in California, Oregon, Washington and Colorado.

GRIPH offers “active conservation tours.” For $625, a client can be a range-rider for a day. It’s $1,000 for an overnight trip, according to GRIPH’s website.

State Sen. Shelly Short, who represents northeast Washington, said Curry, a constituent, contacted her office, saying he heard he had been awarded money.

Short’s office confirmed with the governor’s budget office that it was true. “I never advocated for that,” Short said. “It has caught everybody by surprise.

“It’s been super bizarre,” she said. “I think (Curry) is caught in the middle, but I don’t know who got him caught in the middle.

“I know there are folks in the environmental community who really like his work,” Short said.

Fish and Wildlife officials told the department’s Wolf Advisory Group on Nov. 13 they don’t know what Curry will do.

“Maybe one thing to talk about … is how to make sure it doesn’t turn into a (shoddy) show,” Conservation Northwest policy director Paula Swedeen said. “That’s a lot of money.

“It’s an odd outcome,” she said. “I’m very involved in that kind of stuff, and I have no idea on how that got in there (the budget).”

The Legislature allocated Fish and Wildlife $780,000 in the two-year budget to manage wolf-livestock conflicts. Project GRIPH will receive more than one-fifth of the total.

Curry has range-riding experience in northeast Washington, but will receive money for projects in southeast Washington.

“Sending any range-rider into an area where they have absolutely zero knowledge has ‘zero success’ written all over it,” said Asotin County rancher Samee Charriere.