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CapitalPress.com
December 11, 2015
People & Places
Biologist changing way wolves are tracked
Dave Ausband relies
less on collars and
more on cameras,
analysis of scat
Western Innovator
Dave Ausband
Established 1928
Board of directors
Mike Forrester ..........................President
Steve Forrester
Kathryn Brown
Sid Freeman .................. Outside director
Mike Omeg .................... Outside director
Age: 41
Corporate officer
John Perry
Chief operating officer
Hometown: Coeur d’Alene, Idaho
Position: Research wildlife biologist
specializing in carnivores
Education: Bachelor’s and master’s degrees and is completing a
Ph.D. in wildlife biology at the University of Montana
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
Family: Wife, Liz, and a 9-year-old son, Sam
COEUR D’ALENE, Ida-
ho — Dave Ausband has been
given the job of implementing
a new and more accurate ap-
proach to tracking and count-
ing wolves in Idaho.
The effort should produce
the best estimate of the state’s
wolf population ever. Biolo-
gists believe many wolves go
uncounted using traditional
means such as radio collars.
After this winter, the state
Department of Fish and Game
plans to move away from the
use of radio collars as its chief
tool for monitoring wolves.
Ausband said radio col-
lars may retain a limited role
in tracking wolves where
conflicts are reported with
livestock, but the broader pro-
gram will shift toward DNA
analysis of wolf scat and a
network of roughly 200 re-
mote trail cameras scattered
throughout Idaho. The cam-
eras will cover Eastern Idaho
and “big chunks” of the Frank
Church wilderness that have
been missed by collaring.
They should also help Aus-
band monitor cougars and
black bears.
Fish and Game hired Aus-
band, 41, in May as a research
wildlife biologist, giving his
position a new focus on large
Capital Press
Innovation: Developing a predictive model to locate wolf rendez-
vous sites throughout Idaho and helping the department move
away from radio collaring as its primary means of monitoring
wolves in favor of scat analysis and remote trail cameras.
Photo submitted
Dave Ausband, who joined the Idaho Department of Fish and
Game in May as a research biologist specializing in wolves and
other carnivores, poses with a tranquilized wolf. Ausband will help
the department shift from monitoring Idaho’s wolf population with
radio collars to using scat and remote cameras.
carnivores, and a special em-
phasis on wolves.
Ausband explained it’s
costly to capture and collar
wolves, and using collars has
become too labor-intensive
for tracking the Idaho wolf
population of at least 770 an-
imals.
There are currently 88 col-
lared wolves in Idaho.
“We don’t collar anywhere
near all of the packs in Idaho,
which means there are known
big holes in our map,” Aus-
band said.
The University of Idaho
will conduct the DNA analy-
sis of wolf scat, which should
provide Fish and Game biol-
ogists with “fingerprints” to
assess the numbers of breed-
ing females, litter sizes, sex,
population trends and other
elusive data.
Lisette Waits, head of
UI’s Department of Fish and
Wildlife Sciences, said DNA
from fecal samples will also
be matched against saliva on
livestock carcasses to deter-
mine which individual wolves
are responsible for depreda-
tions, and against DNA of
harvested wolves to estimate
harvest rates.
Waits, who has been work-
ing on DNA analysis of scat
and hair since 2007, said they
are “accurate and cost-effec-
tive approaches” for under-
standing wolf populations.
Ausband has created a
predictive model to narrow
possible locations of wolf ren-
dezvous sites, where wolves
gather in large concentrations
with their pups. The model
should reduce the search area
by 90 percent for the Fish and
Game interns and part-time
employees who will seek out
rendezvous sites and scat.
Ausband, originally from
Pennsylvania, has spent the
past nine years studying how
to better monitor wolves, in-
cluding Idaho packs, for the
University of Montana and
will soon complete his doctor-
al thesis analyzing the effects
of hunting on wolves.
Jim Hayden, a Fish and
Game regional wildlife
manager, said the state will
spend in excess of $400,000
this year on wolf manage-
ment, with federal dollars
and matching funds from
Idaho hunting licenses and
firearms and ammunition
taxes. He hopes Ausband’s
approach may prove to be
cheaper and more effective,
given that additional fed-
eral funding for managing
wolves as an endangered
species is no longer avail-
able to the state.
“I think it will be a fasci-
nating project — very useful
not just to Idaho, but to any-
body who manages wolves,”
Hayden said. “I think it will
help us refine our manage-
ment.”
Capital Press Managers
Mike O’Brien .............................Publisher
Joe Beach ..................................... Editor
Elizabeth Yutzie Sell .... Advertising Director
Carl Sampson ................Managing Editor
Barbara Nipp ......... Production Manager
Samantha McLaren .... Circulation Manager
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Artist paints, sculpts old saw blades to create nature scenes
Graphic artist
Alan Kenaga ..................... 800-882-6789
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Capital Press
MILLVILLE, Calif. — A
former fruit picker and heavy
equipment mechanic, Joseph
Harper was recovering from
a major spinal injury in 1984
and wanted something to do.
He started watching Bob
Ross’ “The Joy of Painting”
series on TV and thought
he’d try his hand at it. While
he started on canvas, he end-
ed up painting anything he
could find.
“I couldn’t walk at the
time, so the kids would bring
things in to me and set it up
in front of me,” said Harp-
er, 74, a longtime Northern
California resident who now
lives in Camas, Wash.
He ended up specializing
in painting and sculpting
old industrial saw blades,
including two-man ripsaws
and 25-inch circular blades
used in lumber mills. He has
worked with more than 300
such blades, turning the of-
ten rusted remnants of the
region’s once-dominant tim-
ber industry into three-di-
mensional pastoral or nature
An old industrial saw blade has
been painted and sculpted into
a natural scene with the help of
some Bondo putty.
Photos by Tim Hearden/Capital Press
Joseph Harper of Camas, Wash., holds one of his art pieces — an
old industrial saw blade painted and sculpted into a nature scene
with the help of some Bondo putty — outside his brother’s gallery
in Millville, Calif., on Nov. 21.
scenes.
He donates proceeds from
the sales of his works to a
church program that feeds
low-income children.
“It changes their lives,”
Harper said. “I see a lot of
good things happen to kids
when you do things for them.
... All the donations help the
work of the Lord.”
A native of Dairyville,
Calif., Harper was the sec-
ond of nine children, and
he recalls gaining a strong
Christian faith and appre-
ciation of hard work while
picking fruit with his parents
and siblings in the orchards
of Tehama County.
He married his high
school sweetheart, Mary, in
1960. They now have five
children, 11 grandchildren
and five great-grandchil-
dren, he said. After high
school, Harper became a
heavy-duty mechanic and
welder, working on heavy
cranes and other equipment
as well as diesel trucks.
After an accident that
crushed his spine, Harper
never returned to mechanic
work but “wanted to pick up
something to keep me busy,”
he said.
With saw blades, Harper
starts by welding closed the
hole in the middle, and he’s
long since switched from
oil to acrylic paints because
they dry faster, he said.
When a friend requested a
three-dimensional image, he
got the idea of using Bondo
— a putty used for auto body
repair — to craft rocks, birds
and other figures and attach
them to the blade, making
them part of the image.
Nowadays, he sells the
pieces for an average of $20
to $40 and gives the funds to
the needy children.
“When you work for God,
you just keep doing it,” he
said.
Harper said he never con-
sidered art as a profession,
however.
“I have a hard time keep-
ing up with the orders that I
get” through word of mouth,
he said during a Nov. 21
reception at his brother’s
Harper Gallery in Millville.
“It’s a hobby to me. When
it’s raining really hard in
Washington, I can look out
the window from a room like
this and see the deer, and I
paint.”
Some of his works will be
shown at the Harper Gallery
through Dec. 13. The gal-
lery at 23445 Patrick Lane
is open Fridays, Saturdays
and Sundays from 11 a.m. to
3 p.m.
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home page of our website at www.
capitalpress.com and click on “Submit
an Event.” Calendar items can also be
mailed to Capital Press, 1400 Broad-
way St. NE, Salem, OR 97301.
Dec. 12-16
Meridian FFA Produce Sale, Me-
ridian, Idaho, High School Professional
Technical Center, Meridian, 208-350-
4160. For the 2015 holiday season,
let the Meridian FFA Chapter provide
quality produce for you, your family
and friends.
Thursday, Jan. 7
Idaho Irrigation Equipment Show
& Conference, 8 a.m. Nampa Civic
Center, Nampa, Idaho.
Jan. 8-13
American Farm Bureau Annual
Convention, Orlando, Fla.
Index
Ag Finance ......................... 14-16
California ....................................9
Dairy ........................................13
Idaho ........................................10
Livestock .................................13
Opinion ......................................6
Oregon ....................................11
Washington ...............................8
Jan. 12-14
Potato Expo 2016, Mirage Ho-
tel and Casino, Las Vegas.
Jan. 12-14
Far West AgriBusiness Asso-
ciation annual winter conference,
College of Southern Idaho, Twin
Falls.
Jan. 14-15
Oregon Mint Growers 67th An-
nual Meeting, Salishan Lodge &
Golf Resort, Gleneden Beach, Ore.
Correction
The Dec. 4 story, “Scoular acquires
Legumex Walker pulse business,”
incorrectly stated that the special
crops division acquired by Scoular
Joyce Capital, Inc.
In agriculture, nothing is certain. Your interest rate should be.
We offer competitive interest rates for
your agricultural financing needs:
• Term agricultural loans
(purchases & refinances)
• FSA Preferred Lender
• Amortizations
up to 25 years
CONTACT: Kevin Arrien, or Joe Lodge
at Joyce Capital, Inc.
Agricultural Loan Agents
(208) 338-1560 • Boise, ID
joe@arrien.biz
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