REGION
SATURDAY, MAY 14, 2022
THE OBSERVER — A3
‘Chronic’ wolf
att acks concern
Baker Co. Sheriff
Recent attacks remind sheriff of previous
incidents in other parts of county
By JAYSON JACOBY
Baker City Herald
BAKER CITY — Baker
County Sheriff Travis Ash
sees a troubling trend with
wolves attacking cattle in
eastern Baker County.
And although Ash’s
duties don’t include man-
aging wolves or other wild-
life, he hopes the agency
that is responsible will work
with ranchers to curb the
recent series of attacks,
potentially including killing
some wolves or authorizing
ranchers to do so.
The agency in charge of
such matters is the Oregon
Department of Fish and
Wildlife.
Agency
biologists
have deter-
mined in the
past week
that wolves
from the
Ash
Cornucopia
Pack had killed one calf and
injured two others north of
Richland, and that wolves
from the Keating Pack
injured a calf in the Skinner
Road area of the Keating
Valley.
The calf that died
was likely attacked on
Wednesday, May 4,
according to an ODFW
report. The calf weighed
about 225 pounds. The two
calves in the Richland area
that survived were injured
about two weeks before
the May 5 investigation.
One calf weighs about 75
pounds, the other about 100
pounds.
The other injured calf, in
the Keating Valley about 15
miles west of Richland, was
found by its owner while
moving cattle in a 1,000-
acre public land grazing
allotment on the morning
of May 7. According to an
ODFW report that con-
fi rmed wolves were respon-
sible, the calf, which was
six weeks old and weighed
about 125 pounds, had been
injured about two weeks
earlier.
More recently, the
Baker County Sheriff ’s
Offi ce received a report at
9:45 a.m. May 9 of another
possible wolf depredation
north of Richland. Justin
Primus, a wildlife biologist
at the ODFW’s Baker City
offi ce, said he examined
three wounded calves on a
Bureau of Land Manage-
ment grazing allotment on
May 9. The site was about
half a mile from where the
carcass of a dead wolf was
found on May 5.
Ash, who also saw the
injured calves, said on May
10 that two calves likely
will survive but a third,
which had a larger wound,
probably would be eutha-
nized. He said that calf had
a hole in its hindquarters
about the size of a fi st. Ash
said the tooth scrapes he
saw on the injured calves
were similar to marks
on other cattle that were
confi rmed by ODFW as
having been attacked by
wolves.
Ash said he thinks
ODFW should allow biolo-
gists who examine injured
or dead livestock to deter-
mine offi cially on-site
whether wolves were
responsible. Instead, Primus
and other biologists forward
their reports, and prelimi-
nary fi ndings, to ODFW’s
state wolf coordinator,
Roblyn Brown, who works
at the agency’s La Grande
offi ce. Offi cial fi ndings typ-
ically are released, and pub-
lished on ODFW’s website,
within a few days.
Ash said the current sit-
uation in Baker County
— and in particular in the
area north of Richland —
reminds him of what hap-
pened in other parts of the
county in the past. During
the spring of 2018, for
instance, wolves from the
Pine Creek Pack (which
no longer exists) attacked
cattle repeatedly in the low
hills country southeast of
Halfway, killing four and
injuring at least seven.
“We see this typically in
the spring when ranchers
start turning out on pri-
vate pastures and BLM
allotments,” Ash said. “We
need ODFW to manage the
wolves by the (state wolf
management) plan. If they
start this chronic targeting
of cattle they need to work
with the ranchers and deal
with this problem.”
During the summer and
early fall of 2021, wolves
from the Lookout Moun-
tain Pack, north of Durkee
Valley, killed at least nine
head of cattle and injured
three others.
In response, ODFW
killed eight of the 11 wolves
from the pack, including its
breeding male.
“I really don’t want to see
a similar situation in Rich-
land or Keating,” Ash said.
“I am worried about it.”
Primus said he hasn’t
seen any evidence that any-
thing, besides the cattle
themselves, is attracting
wolves to the area north
of Richland, such as a pit
where ranchers are actively
leaving carcasses.
He said wolves from the
Cornucopia Pack, which
ODFW believes consists
of fi ve wolves, have been
staying in that area for the
past few months.
With their natural prey
base of deer and elk begin-
ning to move into higher
elevations as the snow
recedes, cattle, and calves in
particular, become the “eas-
iest thing on the landscape
to catch,” Primus said.
That could remain the
case until deer start having
fawns, and elk bear calves,
which will start in a couple
weeks, he said.
In the meantime, Ash
hopes ODFW will con-
sider either killing some
wolves or giving a rancher
a permit to do so. That hap-
pened earlier this month in
Wallowa County, where a
rancher was given a permit
and shot and killed one
wolf from the Chesnimnus
Pack. Wolves from that
pack attacked cattle at least
four times the last week of
April, according to ODFW.
Under Oregon’s wolf
plan, ODFW can give kill
permits to a rancher if
wolves from a specifi c pack
are implicated in at least
two attacks within a nine-
month period. The permit
in Wallowa County allows
the rancher to kill up to two
wolves before the permit
expires May 24.
Which wolves?
Both Ash and Primus
said at least a couple
ranchers in the Richland
area have reported recently
seeing three gray-colored
wolves that don’t have
tracking collars. Primus
said ODFW has not docu-
mented gray, uncollared
wolves as part of the Cor-
nucopia Pack.
Steven Mitchell/Blue Mountain Eagle
A rappeler descends from a helicopter on Thursday, May 5, 2022, during the U.S. Forest Service’s rappel certifi cation training for
wildland fi refi ghters at the Grant County Regional Airport, John Day.
Wildland firefighters get rappel training
at Grant County Regional Airport
By STEVEN MITCHELL
Blue Mountain Eagle
OHN DAY — Heli-
copters hovering over
the Malheur National
Forest are a telltale sign
that fi re season has arrived
in Grant County.
Last week, the Grant
County Regional Airport
was the jumping-off point
for essential training for
a select group of wildland
fi refi ghters as the U.S.
Forest Service hosted its
yearly rappel certifi cation
training course.
Roughly 60 fi refi ghters
from Oregon and Idaho
dangled from helicopters
hundreds of feet in the
air to practice rappeling,
a method of descending
rapidly using ropes and
climbing hardware.
They also participated in
mockups and reviewed
emergency procedures.
Adam Kahler, a
national rappel specialist
who started as a rap-
peler in Grant County in
the early 2000s, said the
training from May 2-7
was one of two annual
recertifi cation events the
U.S. Forest Service hosts
each year. There’s also a
rookie training in Salmon,
Idaho.
Rappel-trained fi re-
fi ghters are an elite
group. According to
Kahler, there are just 300
Forest Service rappelers
nationwide.
Last week’s training
was for veteran rappelers.
Some, Kahler said, were
J
Steven Mitchell/Blue Mountain Eagle
A wildland fi refi ghter dangles above the ground on Thursday, May 5, 2022, during rappel training at
John Day’s Grant County Regional Airport.
Steven Mitchell/Blue Mountain Eagle
Wildland fi refi ghter rappel crews participate in Forest Service
recertifi cation training at the Grant County Regional Airport on
Thursday, May 5, 2022, in John Day.
coming back for their 15th
year, while others were
coming back for their
second or third season.
The training session,
he said, is a chance not
only to do crew training
but also provides an
opportunity for multiple
crews — rappelers, heli-
copter spotters and pilots
— to work together again.
Kahler said a rappel
crew’s specialty is roping
into small, remote,
quick-response fi res.
All of the training is
standardized. So, when
a crew is called out,
depending on the loca-
tion, they can be on a fi re
in as little as an hour.
That’s why the training is
so important between the
multiple crews, Kahler
said.
“(Rappelling) is just
a very quick, effi cient
way to get people on the
ground where they need
to be,” he said.
Kahler said the rappel
crews do not bring on new
fi refi ghters. Instead, they
look for experienced fi re-
fi ghters who bring a solid
skill set with them.
When the Forest Ser-
vice dispatches a crew to
a remote area, they have
limited supervision.
Typically, he said, each
crew is between two and
four people, and they
go out in the woods and
make decisions on their
own.
“We’re looking for
very experienced, very fi t
people,” Kahler said.
Two tornadoes rip through Blue Mountains
Walla Walla Union-Bulletin
PENDLETON — A roof
was ripped off and carried
300 feet when two torna-
does hit the Blue Moun-
tains in Oregon southeast of
Walla Walla on Friday, May
6, according to the National
Weather Service.
Both tornadoes, one
that touched down for six
minutes at 1:44 p.m. and
the other three minutes at
1:52 p.m., were rated F1 on
Mobile
Mobile Service
Service
Outstanding
the Fujita Scale of tornado
damage intensity.
F1 tornadoes can cause
moderate damage and have
3 second gusts of 86 to 110
mph.
The fi rst one was about
8 miles east of Weston and
traveled up to 1-1/2 miles.
The second from the
same storm was a mile or
two to the east and traveled
less than a mile.
A large farm building
collapsed and the roof was
lifted off a cabin and car-
ried away, according to the
weather service.
Fallen trees also blocked
roads.
Weston is about 20 miles
northeast of Pendleton and
about 20 miles west of
Tollgate.
2022
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