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4 CapitalPress.com May 8, 2015 Wolves Wolf killed in W. Wash. may have roamed from afar Adult female unlikely to have strayed from nearest pack By DON JENKINS Capital Press An adult female hit and killed on Interstate 90 in east- ern King County is likely the first wild gray wolf found west of the Washington Cas- cades in decades and may have been wandering across the state looking for food and a mate, state and federal wild- life officials said. The animal was struck, mostly likely by a large truck, according to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokesman Brent Lawrence, while cross- ing the highway April 27 at Milepost 41, near North Bend. State game officials had re- ceived a report of a wolf in the Photo courtesy of Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife In this 2011 file photo taken by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, a Teanaway pack wolf recovers after being tranquil- ized and collared. A wolf was killed earlier this week on Interstate 90 west of the Cascade Range. median, but by the time they arrived, the animal had been killed, Washington Depart- ment of Fish and Wildlife’s wolf policy lead, Dave Ware, said. The carcass was taken to the USFWS lab in Ashland, Ore., for DNA testing. The results may not be known for several weeks, Lawrence said. Ware said agents who saw the remains thought it was a wolf. The animal was approx- imately 2 years old, the prime age for a lone wolf to disperse, he said. WDFW doubts the animal strayed from the Teanaway Pack, which occupies territory about 50 miles away in Kitti- tas County. Teanaway wolves, the most western of the state’s 16 known wolf packs, are gray, while the animal killed on I-90 was black. Ware said it’s more likely the animal came from a pack in northeast Washington or from one even farther east in the Rockies. “Long, long movements are pretty com- mon for wolves,” he said. Although WDFW had not received any recent sightings of wolves in the area, Ware said he wasn’t surprised by the I-90 incident. The agency anticipates wolves will move west as the population grows in the northeast corner of the state, he said. Wolves were once com- mon throughout Washington, but were exterminated by the 1930s. In the past decade, wolves from Canada and the Rockies have crossed into the state. WDFW estimated that at the end of 2014 Washington had at least 68 wolves, with 56 in Eastern Washington and 12 in Central Washington. Under current state policy, wolves will remain a pro- tected species in Washington until reproducing populations are distributed in three zones. I-90 forms the boundary be- tween the North Cascades and South Cascades zones. No wolves has been con- firmed in the South Cascades, though WDFW has received several credible sightings of wolves there, Ware said. WDFW recently included a photo of a wolf in Klickitat County in a state report on wolves. Ranchers and public of- ficials in the northeast say they’re suffering economic losses while the rest of the state has sacrificed noth- ing to return gray wolves to Washington. Lawmakers are considering a bill to rework the wolf plan to address the concentration of wolves and livestock predation. A conservation group said the I-90 incident was an en- couraging sign that wolves are spreading out. “This wolf’s journey west is what wolf recovery and res- toration should look like in Washington state,” Defenders of Wildlife Northwest director Shawn Cantrell said in a writ- ten statement. “I look forward to seeing other wolves travel across the Cascades where there are vast stretches of un- occupied and excellent wolf habitat.” The animal was hit in an unpopulated stretch of I-90 about 15 miles from homes, said North Bend resident Jim Gildersleeve, secretary of the Upper Snolqualm- ie Valley Elk Management Group, a nonprofit organi- zation. Reps say wolf management should be turned over to states By ERIC MORTENSON Capital Press U.S. Reps. Dan Newhouse of Washington, Greg Walden of Oregon and Chris Stewart of Utah introduced legislation in April that would take gray wolves off the federal endan- gered species list in their states and turn management of wolves over to state agencies. In a separate letter to De- partment of Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, Newhouse and 36 other representatives, all but one Republicans, asked that gray wolves be delisted nationally, as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed in 2013. At that time, the wildlife service said gray wolves didn’t warrant listing because they are not a distinct species as defined in the Endangered Species Act. The ruling has not been implement- ed. The letter to Jewell said the “uncontrolled and unmanaged growth of wolf populations” has had a devastating effect on ranching and hunting. The failure of USFWS to follow through on its 2013 proposal has decreased the “social tolerance” for wolves and hurts states’ ability to manage wolves, New- house said in the letter. “We believe that state gov- ernments are fully qualified to responsibly manage gray wolf populations and are better able to meet the needs of local com- munities, ranchers, livestock and wildlife populations,” New- Courtesy of Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife OR 22, a male wolf that separated from the Umatilla River Pack in February, is pictured walking through a Northeast Oregon forest on Jan. 26. The lone wolf has recently been spotted by several farmers near Adrian in Malheur County. Wolf’s arrival in Malheur County concerns ranchers Courtesy of ODFW An Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist collars wolf OR33, a 2-year-old adult male from the Imnaha pack, Feb. 25, 2015 in Wallowa County. Larger wild animals are typically blindfolded while immobilized to protect their eyes and to help calm them. house said. The legislation and letter in- dicate the continuing political, social and economic strife that accompany government efforts to recover species on the brink. In the West, wolf populations have rebounded and spread rapidly since the mid-1990s, but ranchers believe they’ve unfairly shouldered the burden through attacks on livestock and the cost of non-lethal defensive measures. Gray wolves are already fed- erally delisted in Idaho and in the eastern thirds of Oregon and Washington. The Oregon De- partment of Fish and Wildlife is considering whether to remove gray wolves from the state en- dangered species list; the Wash- ington Department of Fish and Wildlife issued a letter backing Newhouse’s proposal. A spokeswoman for a con- servation group called New- house’s idea “appalling” and said Congress should not be de- ciding which animals get endan- gered species protection. Amaroq Weiss of the Cen- ter for Biological Diversity said Utah has no wolves beyond a few spotted over the years, and the populations in Oregon and Washington are “small and still in the early stages of recovery.” Weiss, the Center’s West Coast wolf organizer, said state management of wolves has not turned out well. No state has shown it can stand up to the “livestock industry and the sports-hunting industry who want to see wolf populations once again eradicated or re- duced to bare bones numbers,” she said in an email. Weiss said studies have shown non-lethal control of wolves has greater long-term effect than killing them, and that elk and deer populations remain stable in areas where wolf packs roam. She said livestock losses from wolves are a fraction of losses from other causes. “Put all of these pieces togeth- er and it is clear that states are not prepared or not inclined to be stewards of the public’s wolves at this point in time,” Weiss said. LEGAL CHERRY AVENUE STORAGE 2680 Cherry Ave. NE Salem, OR 97301 (503) 399-7454 Sat., May 16, 2015 • 10 a.m. • Unit 7 Cheryl Fries • Unit 41 Mike San Felipe • Unit 161 Tonya Newman • Unit 217 Tiffanee Valenzuela • Unit C-2 Pete Fitzpatrick Cherry Avenue Storage reserves the right to refuse any and all bids By SEAN ELLIS Capital Press ADRIAN, Ore. — The arrival of a lone wolf in Mal- heur County has ranchers in the state’s top cattle producing county concerned. “It’s plum serious,” said Malheur County Cattlemen’s Association President Chris Christensen. “There’s nothing positive from a cattleman’s standpoint in the fact that a wolf showed up.” The wolf, which separated from a Northeast Oregon pack in February, entered the coun- ty April 10 and has been living mostly in sagebrush country south of Vale and west of Adri- an. The adult male wolf, which has a tracking collar and is known as OR22, has been seen by several farmers during brief forays into farm country. “He’s started moving around a little bit more and has gone a few new places but he’s still in that same general area,” said Philip Milburn, a district wildlife biologist in the Ore- gon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Ontario office. Milburn said two cow car- casses were found in the area last week, which might be part of the reason he’s staying in that region. ODFW officials removed the cow carcasses, which are believed to have died before the wolf found them, Milburn said. “There’s no evidence the wolf was involved (in the cows’ deaths),” he said. “There’s still no evidence he’s killed anything since he’s been here.” Christensen said ranchers should ensure their dead an- imals are disposed of quickly and properly. “They don’t want to give him any easy meals,” he said. “That’s probably why it’s stay- ing around.” This is the first time a wolf has stayed in the coun- ty for more than a brief peri- od, ODFW officials said, but there have been multiple wolf sightings in the county and confirmed wolf tracks have been found in several places, including at the Oregon State University research station a few miles outside of Ontario. OSU livestock exten- sion agent Sergio Arispe said OR22’s arrival has caused some concern among the coun- ty’s 150 beef cattle producers, especially since the industry realizes it’s probably only a matter of time before wolves establish a permanent presence in the area. At today’s cattle prices, a producer can lose a lot of mon- ey from a single wolf kill, he said. “It’s not a matter of if they’re going to be here, but when,” Arispe said. “There is some big concern from cattle producers who are trying to make a living.” Milburn said the Northwest part of the county, in particular, contains what could potentially be some good wolf habitat. “(There is) a fairly high po- tential of wolves settling in that area eventually,” he said. Christensen said Malheur County ranchers need to start learning from their colleagues in Northeast Oregon on how to operate with wolves present in the area. Legal 18-2-2/#4 19-2/#4 LEGAL LEGAL LEGAL OREGON TECHNICAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING (OTAC) WHAT: OTAC Meeting WHEN: Thursday, May 28, 2015 @ 12:30pm-4:00pm WHERE: OSU North Willamette Research and Extension Center 15210 NE Miley Road, Aurora, OR 97002 503-678-1264 For more information, or to arrange special accommoda- tions for meeting attendees, please contact Laura Gay, Oregon NRCS State Office, 503-414-3200. 19-2/#4 The Oregon Orchardgrass Seed Producers Commission will hold a public hearing on the Commission’s proposed 2015-16 budget on June 3, 2015, 7:30 a.m. at the Elmer’s Restaurant, 2802 Santiam Highway SE, Albany, Oregon. Any person wishing to comment on the budget is welcome to do so either orally or in writing. A copy of the proposed budget is available for public inspection during normal business hours at the commission office located at 6745 SW Hampton Street, Suite 101, Portland, Oregon. The Budget hearing for the 2015-2016 fiscal year for the Oregon Sweet Cherry Com- mission will be held at the Columbia Gorge Community College, Room 1.162, Building 1 located at 400 E Scenic Dr. in The Dalles, OR. The budget hearing will open at 2:15 p.m. on Thursday, May 21, 2015. A copy of the proposed budget can be reviewed at the Hood River Extension Office office, 3005 Experiment Station Drive, Hood River, OR during normal business hours or by contacting the OSCC office at 541-386-5761. 19-2/#4 19-2/#4