REGION
TUESDAY, MAY 17, 2022
THE OBSERVER — A3
ODFW confi rms another Baker County wolf att ack
By JAYSON JACOBY
Baker City Herald
BAKER CITY —
Wolves from the Cornu-
copia Pack injured two
calves north of Richland
recently, the third attack on
cattle in that area in the past
few weeks, according to the
Oregon Department of Fish
and Wildlife.
ODFW biologists inves-
tigated the latest incident
on Monday, May 9, in the
Summit Road area.
A rancher found two
injured calves while
checking cattle on a 5,400-
acre Bureau of Land Man-
agement grazing allotment.
Biologists estimated the
calves were injured one to
two weeks earlier.
Baker County Sheriff
Travis Ash, who also
responded to the incident,
said last week that he thinks
one calf, which had the
largest open wound, would
be euthanized.
Both calves had mul-
tiple bite scrapes up to
3/16th-inch wide on the
inside, rear and outside of
their hindquarters above
the hock, along with tissue
trauma, according to the
ODFW report.
One calf — the one Ash
mentioned — had a pair
of three-inch open wounds
on the inside and outside
of the right hind leg above
the hock, according to the
report.
The report reads: “These
two attacks appear to be
from the same event and
were attributed to the Cor-
nucopia Pack.”
Biologists also exam-
ined a third calf, which had
a few scrapes on the lower
portion of the left hind leg,
mostly below the hock.
Because there wasn’t
enough evidence on the
third calf to determine the
cause of the scrapes, the
incident was classifi ed as
“possible/unknown” rather
than a confi rmed wolf
attack, according to ODFW.
Also on May 9, biol-
ogists examined the car-
cass of a 125-pound calf
that a rancher found the
morning of May 8 in a pri-
vate, 40-acre pasture near
the rancher’s house in the
Houghton Creek area north
of Keating.
The carcass was mostly
intact and most of the hide
was present, but some
internal organs and some
muscle tissue on three
legs were missing. Biolo-
gists concluded the calf had
Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife/Contributed Photo, File
A wolf from the Desolation Pack in Grant County was photographed by a remote camera on June 7, 2021.
died the night before it was
found.
Biologists found
numerous premortem bite
marks on the calf’s back,
1/8th to 3/4 inches wide,
with two tears in the hide
and associated bruising and
muscle tissue trauma.
There were no bite
scrapes on the hindquar-
ters, fl anks or elbows, areas
“where wolves commonly
bite,” according to the
ODFW report.
Also, the “damage on
the back were smaller than
expected for wolf. Some
domestic dogs were causing
damage nearby, but since
the cause of death cannot
be confi rmed as coyote or
domestic dog, this deter-
mination is ‘possible/
unknown.’”
Ash has said he’s con-
cerned about the number of
recent attacks on cattle, and
he suggested that ODFW
consider either killing
some wolves or giving per-
mits to ranchers who have
had cattle attacked at least
twice, allowing them to
hunt wolves.
Under Oregon’s wolf
management plan, live-
stock owners don’t need a
permit to kill a wolf that is
biting, wounding, killing
or chasing the owner’s live-
stock or working dogs.
But ODFW can also
issue “lethal take” permits
to ranchers whose animals
have been attacked mul-
tiple times within a nine-
month period, and who
have shown they have tried
nonlethal tactics to deter
wolves.
Such permits allow live-
stock owners, or their desig-
nated agents, to kill wolves
under any circumstance,
even if the wolves aren’t
attacking livestock at the
time. Permits include the
number of wolves that can
be killed, and a time limit.
After a series of con-
fi rmed wolf attacks on
cattle in Wallowa County
in late April, ODFW issued
a permit to rancher Tom
Birkmaier. His agent killed
a yearling male wolf from
the Chesnimnus Pack on
May 3.
Earlier this month in
Baker County, ODFW
biologists concluded that
wolves from the Cornu-
copia 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 likely
was attacked on May 4,
and the two calves that sur-
vived were attacked about
two weeks before biolo-
gists examined them on
May 5, according to ODFW
reports.
The site where the calf
died, north of Richland, is
about half a mile from the
area where biologists exam-
ined the two injured calves
on May 9.
Hermiston comes together to renovate a home Blue Mountain Hospital
CEO is stepping down
By ERICK PETERSON
East Oregonian
is not entirely career-
driven.
“If this opportunity
JOHN DAY — Blue
were solely for profes-
sional reasons, I would not
Mountain Hospital Dis-
be making this transition,”
trict’s chief executive
he said. “It is the combina-
offi cer is stepping down
tion of professional oppor-
after nearly six years on
tunity and personal/
the job.
family need con-
According to
verging at the same
a press release
time that make this
from the hospital,
the right thing for
Derek Daly’s last
my family.”
day as CEO will be
In the press
Aug. 3.
Daly
release, the hos-
In the press
pital board noted
release, Daly said
that it will be looking for
he and his young family
an interim CEO to “sup-
will be moving out of the
area to be closer to family port a productive handoff ”
when Daly departs in the
in the Midwest, where he
will take a job heading up summer. Simultaneously,
according to the press
a larger hospital as CEO.
release, the board will
Daly said taking the
helm of the unnamed hos- begin looking for a per-
manent CEO.
pital comes at a time and
In addition to Blue
location that is a better fi t
Mountain Hospital, the
for him and his family.
Blue Mountain Hospital
“Major life changes,”
District operates Straw-
he said, “including the
berry Wilderness Com-
recent addition of a child
munity Clinic, Blue
to our family, have moti-
Mountain Care Center
vated us to relocate closer
to both of our families and and Blue Mountain Home
Health and Hospice
the support system they
Agency.
provide.”
The district has about
Daly added that his
250 employees.
motivation for moving on
By STEVEN MITCHELL
HERMISTON — As
Heather Spinden stepped
out onto her lawn and
looked at her Hermiston
home, she said she felt
overwhelmed.
“It’s just so beautiful,”
she said.
Spinden lives with her
youngest son. She said
she has multiple health
problems and her son, a
full-time Burger King
employee, has autism.
Built in 1907, her home
has four bedrooms, two
baths and 1,164 square feet
of space. It is a couple of
doors down from the Herm-
iston Public Library and is a
stone’s throw away from the
Hermiston City Hall, cur-
rently under construction.
The place did not look
quite so attractive until
recently, according to its
owner. Spinden said kind
and generous members of
her community stepped up
to make it into the place it
is today.
Holly Woods and Josh
Ross, an engaged couple,
residents of Hermiston, told
the rest of the story.
Ross explained he
attended school with
Heather Spinden’s son, Ben
Spinden, starting in elemen-
tary school and continuing
to high school graduation.
After graduation, Ross left
town.
He did not stay gone,
however. Ross returned,
and one winter he saw his
old classmate walking down
the street. He picked Ben
Spinden up, drove him to
his home and met his mom.
Ross said he recalls
looking around the home. It
needed repair, he said, and
he thought the family could
benefi t from a little assis-
tance. He passed this infor-
mation onto Woods.
“We needed to do some-
thing, and it kind of snow-
balled from there,” Ross
said.
Ross and Woods
explained they started
by giving the Spindens a
Christmas basket. But they
felt they wanted to do more.
That is when they had an
idea to paint the exterior of
the house.
They brought a con-
tractor to the home, though,
Blue Mountain Eagle
Kathy Aney/East Oregonian
Heather Spinden stands in front of her home in Hermiston on Wednesday, May 11, 2022. A group of
residents came together to make needed improvements to the house, businesses donated services and
more than $100,000 was raised for the project.
and learned the siding was
not good enough to paint.
And new siding was just
the start of a laundry list of
needs. The house needed
roofi ng, a new chimney,
fl ooring and more.
Fortunately, Ross and
Woods were in a position
to help. Woods brought the
project up to her workplace,
Academy Mortgage in
Hermiston. It has, she said,
helped people through ser-
vice programs, and her boss
thought Academy could
help improve the Spindens’
home.
This came at a good
time for the Spindens. Their
home had problems, and
their homeowner’s insur-
ance dropped them last
summer.
Suddenly, people wanted
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to help. Through contacts,
Ross and Woods, along
with Academy, started
attracting more help.
An employee of Ross-
Brandt Electric Inc., Ross
was able to get his family’s
company on board with this
eff ort.
More people and com-
panies followed, as they
posted this work on Face-
book, distributed fl yers and
made phone calls.
Cost Less Carpet
donated the fl ooring,
C & C Construction Ser-
vices Inc. provided much
of the roofi ng, and other
companies stepped up,
too. Ross-Brandt pro-
vided workers, as did some
other companies. Jimmy’s
Johns Portable Toilets Inc.
off ered its services, and
other people gave what
they could.
Over $100,000 was given
in donations, including
around $40,000 in cash,
Woods said. Enough money
was left from donations to
pay Heather Spinden’s med-
ical bills.
“We didn’t expect this,”
Woods said. She added
that the Spindens never
asked for this help, but
people gave it freely.
Heather Spinden said
she has a lot of good feel-
ings about her community
because of this work.
“We feel so humbled
and blessed,” she said.
“We’re so happy that
they’ve made it so we can
enjoy this home, and we’re
going to enjoy it, one day
at a time.”
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