OREGON
THURSDAY, AUGUST 5, 2021
THE OBSERVER — A7
BAKER COUNTY
ODFW employees kill 2 wolf pups
Two 3.5-month-old
pups shot from
helicopter
BY JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN
The Oregonian
Todd McKinley/Contributed photo
Lightning in 2019 caused four fi res on the Malheur National Forest. An environmental lawsuit fi led Mon-
day, July 12, 2021, seeks to halt the Camp Lick Project, a 40,000-acre forest treatment project in Oregon’s
Malheur National Forest, for allegedly evading federal limits on harvesting large trees.
Lawsuit targets 40,000-acre
Oregon forest project
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
SALEM — An environ-
mental lawsuit seeks to halt
a 40,000-acre forest treat-
ment project in Oregon’s
Malheur National Forest for
allegedly evading federal
limits on harvesting large
trees.
The complaint, fi led
Monday, July 12, by the
Blue Mountains Biodi-
versity Project, claims the
Camp Lick Project violates
the National Forest Man-
agement Act by permitting
the removal of trees more
than 21 inches in diameter
contrary to the “Eastside
Screens” limit.
“The logging of large
trees in projects such as
Camp Lick is primarily
driven by economic inter-
ests rather than true forest
restoration,” the complaint
the Forest Service vio-
side Screens even though
claimed.
Within the project’s
lated the National Envi-
site-specifi c conditions did
boundaries, the U.S. Forest
ronmental Policy Act in
not justify the changes.
Service plans to commer-
approving the project
The broader changes
cially harvest about 12,000
without conducting an “in
to the Eastside Screens
acres, largely using tractor
depth analysis” of alterna-
provide “compelling evi-
yarding “where toppled
tives to the project or suffi -
dence” that exceptions to
trees are dragged
ciently evaluating its
through the forest
cumulative impacts,
by heavy equipment,
such as potential
causing soil compac-
harms to steelhead
tion and erosion,” the
and redband trout.
The agency didn’t
plaintiff said.
The Eastside
properly take into
Screens standard,
account “on any con-
which prohibited
sistent geographical
logging trees more
scale” the eff ect that
than 21 inches in
several other nearby
diameter in several
projects will have on
Oregon national for-
stream temperature,
From a complaint fi led by the Blue
ests, was replaced by
sediments and other
Mountains Biodiversity Project
new guidelines ear-
factors, especially in
lier this year but was
light of future timber
still eff ective when
sales, the complaint
the project was approved in the size standard within the said.
Camp Lick Project weren’t
2020.
“The cumulative eff ects
The environmental
warranted, the complaint
analysis of this section
plaintiff argues the East-
said. “If the alleged need
relies on assumption of
side Screens were estab-
to remove large trees was
good outcomes from past,
lished to rectify the dearth
site specifi c, a region-wide
present and future projects,
of large trees east of the
amendment would not be
rather than actual analysis
Cascade Mountains but
necessary.”
of their eff ects,” according
The complaint claimed
“this shortage has not been
to the plaintiff .
resolved and continues to
this day.”
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The lawsuit alleges
• Plans up to 100 Mbps.
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the Forest Service unlaw-
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with Parental Controls.
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/mo. • The
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to circumvent the East-
“The logging of large
trees in projects such as
Camp Lick is primarily
driven by economic
interests rather than
true forest restoration.”
BAKER CITY — Offi -
cials from the Oregon
Department of Fish and
Wildlife shot and killed
two wolf pups Sunday,
Aug. 1, days after
approving a permit for
ranchers to kill up to four
wolves in Baker County.
The agency confi rmed
that offi cials in a heli-
copter shot and killed two
3.5-month-old pups from
the Lookout Mountain
Pack.
Just one day earlier,
the state agency said it
had approved a rancher’s
permit to kill up to four
uncollared wolves in Baker
County, where offi cials
said the Lookout Moun-
tain Pack had attacked
four cows over the last two
weeks of July.
Agency spokesperson
Michelle Dennehy said
Aug. 2 that the killing of
the pups was “reducing the
pack’s food needs and dis-
rupting the pack’s behavior
so they don’t associate
livestock with an easy
meal.”
She said while the pups
are not a threat to live-
stock, they could be as
they grow and learn to
hunt.
“Killing pups is not
something we want to be
doing,” Dennehy said. “But
in this case, despite non-
lethal measures, chronic
depredation continues,
which we have a responsi-
bility to address.”
The killing of the two
pups has caused serious
concern among advocacy
and conservation groups.
Steve Pedery, the con-
servation director for
Oregon Wild, said con-
servation organizations
have been concerned that
without the right training
in managing endangered
species, handing over
supervision of wolf popu-
lations to the state agency
could have some tragic
outcomes.
“It’s hard to see any
justifi cation other than
ODFW wanted to kill
some wolves, and all
they could fi nd was some
three-month-old puppies,”
Pedery said.
The adult wolves in the
Lookout Mountain Pack
— a breeding male and
female — have radio col-
lars for state tracking, and
were not eligible to be
killed by livestock pro-
ducers. The breeding pair
had two pups last year,
Dennehy said, and the
state documented another
seven pups in May.
Dennehy said the
remaining pups would
still have two experienced
hunters to feed them.
Dennehy said in an
email to The Oregonian/
OregonLive that both
ODFW and the rancher
tried to fi nd uncollared
wolves on July 30, but
only saw the breeding
adults, which are collared.
She said ODFW does not
have plans to pursue other
wolves, but the rancher has
the permit until Aug. 21.
Dennehy said they also
saw at least fi ve pups, but
did not see the yearling
wolves they were looking
for.
As of April, Oregon had
173 wolves in 22 identifi ed
packs.
Oregon rules allow
ranchers to kill wolves if
they repeatedly attack and
present a signifi cant risk
to livestock, and when
nonlethal methods such as
electric fences or hazing
don’t stop the attacks. Kill
permits allow livestock
producers or ranchers
to shoot a wolf from the
ground, and Fish and
Wildlife staff are autho-
rized to shoot wolves
from the air.
Sristi Kamal, a repre-
sentative for the North-
west branch of Defenders
of Wildlife, said the
group was “enraged” by
the state’s actions and
called on the state agency
to facilitate coexistence
between livestock pro-
ducers and wolves.
“The use of lethal mea-
sures is never a long-term
solution to depredations
and killing pups is simply
unacceptable,” Kamal said
in a written statement.
“Defenders will continue
to work with livestock pro-
ducers to help implement
proactive nonlethal prac-
tices and strategic grazing
practices.”
Pedery disputed the
agency’s assertion that
killing the pups would
signifi cantly reduce the
caloric needs for the
pack, noting that 3-month
wolf pups weigh 20 to 30
pounds.
“ODFW has just joined
the ranks of Idaho, Wyo-
ming and Wisconsin
in demonstrating why
they are unfi t to manage
endangered wildlife in an
ethical manner,” Pedery
wrote in an email to The
Oregonian/OregonLive.
“If Gov. Brown refuses
to rein in her agency, it is
clear that President Biden
and (U.S. Secretary of
the Interior) Deb Haaland
need to step in and rein-
state federal Endangered
Species Act protections.”
Gray wolves were
removed from the federal
Endangered Species list in
January, allowing Fish and
Wildlife to take over the
management of their pop-
ulation. But just last week,
a coalition of 70 groups
fi led a formal petition to
relist the gray wolf as an
endangered species in the
western United States.
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