REGION
SATURDAY, MAY 28, 2022
THE OBSERVER — A3
Wolf died after being hit by car, not illegally shot
By KALE WILLIAMS
The Oregonian
ENTERPRISE — A wolf in
Eastern Oregon died after it was
hit by a car, not after being ille-
gally shot as authorities fi rst
thought, Oregon State Police said
Tuesday, May 25.
The wolf, a 2-year-old female
known as OR 106 who was pre-
viously part of the Chesnimnus
Pack, was found dead Jan. 8 on
Parsnip Creek Road about 6 miles
southeast of Wallowa.
State police originally said
wildlife biologists determined OR
106 had died of a gunshot wound.
Advocacy groups off ered a reward
of more than $16,000 for tips that
led to the person who killed the
wolf, which had been fi tted with a
tracking collar.
An analysis conducted at the
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
Forensics Laboratory in Ashland
showed the wolf actually died of
blunt force trauma to the chest
and pelvis, state police said.
The wolf’s injuries were consis-
tent with being hit by a car, state
police said, though OR 106 also
Oregon State Police/Contributed Photo
This 2-year-old wolf was found dead along Parsnip Creek Road about 6 miles southeast of Wallowa on Saturday, Jan. 8, 2022.
Authorities later determined the animal had been struck by a car.
had injuries that appeared to be
the result of a fi ght with another
wolf and a gunshot wound to her
left hind leg that was partially
healed when she died.
“(The gunshot wound) didn’t
appear to be debilitating and was
not associated with the cause
of death,” state police said in a
statement.
Oregon’s wolf population saw
only anemic growth in 2021,
according to the state’s annual
count of the animals, with the
minimum number of wolves in the
state at 172, up just two from the
previous count. The report also
showed a spike in deaths caused
by humans.
At least 26 wolves died in the
state last year, up from 10 the
previous year, according to the
report.
Humans caused 21 of the
deaths.
Vehicles struck four wolves
and a rancher shot another. State
police interviewed the rancher and
he faced no charges.
At least eight wolves, including
the entirety of the Catherine Pack,
were poisoned in Union County.
That case remains open and a
$50,000 reward has been off ered
for information that leads to an
arrest.
The Department of Fish &
Wildlife also killed eight wolves
associated with the Lookout
Mountain Pack, including two
pups, after repeated attacks on
livestock in Baker County.
The cause of death was unclear
for four of the animals, one was
killed by other wolves and another
died of what are believed to be
natural causes.
Wolf depredation confi rmed on Middle Fork of John Day River
Two calves killed in
Grant County
By STEVEN MITCHELL
Blue Mountain Eagle
JOHN DAY — A
rancher on the Middle Fork
of the John Day River has
become Grant County’s
second producer to lose
livestock to a confi rmed
wolf depredation.
The Oregon Depart-
ment of Fish and Wild-
life reported Monday, May
23, that wolves in an area
known to be used by the
Desolation Pack killed two
calves in the evening hours
of May 19.
Additionally, the ODFW
report noted that a GPS
collar placed wolves at the
kill site around the sus-
pected time of death of the
second calf.
The report noted that the
location of the bite marks
and injuries to the calves
was consistent with wolf
attacks on live calves. The
depredation, the report said,
has been attributed to the
Desolation Pack.
According to the report,
on Saturday, May 21, a live-
stock producer witnessed
a wolf feeding on the car-
cass of a 1,000-pound cow.
ODFW offi cials estimated
that the cow died the pre-
vious night and that, due to
the absence of pre-mortem
bite marks or hemor-
rhaging, the cow was found
not to have been attacked
while it was alive.
“The cause of death was
not wolf-related and so our
determination was ‘Other,’”
the report concluded.
The fi rst confi rmed
wolf depredation in Grant
County occurred in May
2021 on Roy Vardanega’s
Fox Valley Ranch. Var-
danega reported that fi ve of
his cattle were attacked and
killed, although only one of
the deaths was confi rmed
by ODFW as wolf-related.
According to the Oregon
Wolf Conservation and
Management 2021 Annual
Report, the Desolation Pack
increased from fi ve wolves
to nine this year.
A pack is defi ned as
more than four wolves trav-
eling together in the winter.
The Desolation Pack also
met the criterion of having
a breeding pair. A breeding
pair is an adult male and
adult female with at least
two pups that survived to
Dec. 31 in the year of their
birth.
Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife/Contributed Photo
The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife attributed the confi rmed
depredation of two calves on the Middle Fork of the John Day River to
the Desolation Pack.
Grant School Board members agree to sett lement in ethics probe
Panel finds board
members violated
legal scope of
executive session
By STEVEN MITCHELL
Blue Mountain Eagle
SALEM — Five mem-
bers of the Grant School
Board will be given let-
ters of education by the
Oregon Government
Ethics Commission, which
determined that the school
board held an improper
closed-door session last
summer.
The letters are part of
a negotiated settlement,
approved by the ethics
panel on Friday, May 20,
that ends a state investiga-
tion into the matter.
The issue was whether
the five school board
members who partici-
pated in the executive ses-
sion may have violated the
state law that governs how
meetings of public bodies
should be conducted.
Steven Mitchell/Blue Mountain Eagle, File
Grant School Board No. 3 listens to community feedback during an Aug. 3 school board meeting. From
left, Jake Taylor, Aaron Lieuallen, Haley Walker and Superintendent Bret Uptmor.
The ethics commis-
sion’s ruling, which came
in response to a complaint
filed by the Blue Moun-
tain Eagle, found that the
school board members
had broken the law by
exceeding the legal scope
of a legitimate executive
session on Aug. 19.
State law allows public
Man arrested in fatal
stabbing on reservation
East Oregonian
MISSION — Umatilla
Tribal Police on Wednesday,
May 25, arrested a man for the
stabbing death of another man
earlier that day.
Kawlija Nicoah Scott, 25,
is in custody in the Umatilla
County Jail, Pendleton, for crim-
inal homicide. Confederated
Tribes of the Umatilla Indian
Reservation in a press release
May 27 reported Scott is the sus-
pect in the stabbing and slaying
of Gabriel David Freeman at his
residence on the reservation.
Scott, a CTUIR member,
fl ed the scene, but tribal police
soon caught and arrested him
on a tribal charge of homicide.
Umatilla Tribal Police is inves-
tigating the case with assistance
from the FBI.
“Given the nature of the
allegations both the CTUIR,
pursuant to its inherent juris-
diction, and the United States,
pursuant to the Major Crimes
Act, have concurrent jurisdic-
tion over this case,” according
to the press release.
MEMORIAL DAY COMMEMORATION
SUMMERVILLE
CEMETERY
MONDAY, MAY 30
Military Colors Ceremony
starts at 8:00 am
Short Veterans speech
following ceremony
bodies — such as the
school board — to go
into executive session
— where the public is
barred and reporters are
instructed not to report on
the proceedings — only in
certain narrowly defined
circumstances.
The board had ini-
tially scheduled a public
meeting for that day to
discuss requirements for
returning to in-person
schooling, including Gov.
Kate Brown’s order that
all educators, school staff
and volunteers be vacci-
nated against COVID-19.
That meeting was can-
celed seven hours before
its scheduled start time
and replaced with an exec-
utive session “to discuss
confidential information.”
Based on a report-
er’s observation of the
proceedings, the Eagle
believed the school
board’s discussion during
the executive session far
exceeded the legal basis it
cited for the closed-door
meeting. When the news-
paper informed Grant
School Superintendent
Bret Uptmor and School
Board Chair Haley Walker
of this view, Uptmor
defended the board’s
actions and demanded
that the Eagle not print
any information from the
executive session.
The ethics commis-
sion found that during the
school board’s executive
session, the five members
present discussed some
matters that were exempt
from public disclosure.
However, the discussion
also included policy mat-
ters that were not exempt.
“The board also began
discussing district pol-
icies and how to imple-
ment them, as well as how
to communicate those
policies to staff and the
public. This part of the
discussion appears to have
exceeded the scope autho-
rized,” the ethics commis-
sion report on the matter
said.
The board members
agreed to written final
orders that stipulated they
had violated the open
meetings law by holding
an improper executive
session. Walker declined
to comment on the settle-
ment, saying she had not
had a chance to review the
final stipulated order.
In addition to Walker,
the school board mem-
bers covered by the agree-
ment are Aaron Lieuallen,
Colleen Robertson, Chris
Labhart and Jake Taylor.
All five will receive let-
ters of education from the
state. Board member Kelly
Stokes was not present at
the executive session and
was not disciplined by the
state.
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“I started volunteering in nursing homes at 8 years old and have kept a
hand in medicine ever since—I was even a certified Pharmacy technician.
I became a Registered Nurse in 2015 before earning my Master of Science
in Family Nurse Practitioner from Union University in Tennessee in 2019.
I owned my own wedding and event planning business for 6 years and
was the wedding planner for the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville for a
year. I also worked with the Tennessee Titans (NFL) when Covid first hit.
We have a son in Michigan at college, and a daughter who will attend
La Grande High School. She plays multiple musical instruments.
My husband and I fell in love with Oregon last year. So much so, we
eloped to Cannon Beach last October. We love the outdoors…kayaking,
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Please help us welcome Maureen and her Family to our Community!!
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