May 20, 2016
CapitalPress.com
9
Oregon
Workshop focuses on wolf management in E. Oregon
By GEORGE PLAVEN
EO Media Group
Courtesy of U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service
Wolves killed a llama in north-
eastern Oregon, according to
the Oregon Department of Fish
and Wildlife.
–Wolves
kill llama in
northeastern
Oregon
By ERIC MORTENSON
Capital Press
A llama found dead
and partially eaten May 9
was killed by one or more
wolves, according to Ore-
gon Department of Fish and
Wildlife.
The attack occurred on pri-
vate land in the Buford Creek
drainage of Wallowa County
in northeast Oregon.
The stockowner found the
llama with muscle tissue from
the lank and abdominal area
consumed, and most of its
internal organs were on the
ground next to the carcass.
An ODFW report indi-
cated the attack probably oc-
curred several hours before
the carcass was discovered.
The location and size of
bite marks indicated wolves
were responsible, according
to ODFW. Investigators also
found fresh wolf tracks 200
yards and 10 yards away.
Tracking collar data
showed OR-23 was 1.5 miles
from the carcass site six days
earlier.
The attack was attributed
to the Shamrock Pack.
PENDLETON, Ore. —
Despite killing four wolves
from the Imnaha Pack earlier
this year for repeatedly at-
tacking livestock, the Oregon
Department of Fish and Wild-
life reiterated the value of
non-lethal deterrents during a
workshop here May 13.
Eastern Oregon ranchers
and county oficials gathered
at Blue Mountain Community
College to hear presentations
on the science and economics
of dealing with wolves. The
workshop featured speakers
from the U.S. Department
of Agriculture Wildlife Ser-
vices. ODFW also provided
an update on the state’s Wolf
Conservation and Manage-
ment Plan, which is now up
for review.
Roblyn Brown, the depart-
ment’s acting wolf program
coordinator, said the wolf
population is growing rapid-
ly in Oregon — there were
at least 110 wolves counted
by the end of last year, com-
pared to just 14 in 2009. Yet
the number of conirmed at-
tacks on livestock has stayed
relatively lat, which Brown
said is due in part to the use
and effectiveness of non-le-
thal tools.
“We’re iguring things
out,” Brown said. “Non-le-
thals can absolutely work in
certain situations.”
Key measures
The most important thing,
Brown said, is for ranchers to
make sure they clean up their
bone piles to avoid attracting
wolves onto their property
in the irst place. Things like
ladry fencing, range riders,
guard dogs and alarm boxes
can be effective deterrents, at
least temporarily, if they’re
used correctly.
Ranchers are doing a much
better job now than they were
when the plan was irst im-
plemented, Brown said. The
number of conirmed wolf
depredations was even down
slightly in 2015, compared to
2014.
But non-lethals don’t work
every time, which is why
Phase II of the wolf plan al-
lows wildlife oficials to se-
lectively kill problem wolves.
In the case of the four
Imnaha wolves, Brown said
there were a number of fac-
tors that prompted ODFW to
use lethal control.
First, the wolves had ap-
parently changed their behav-
ior and started moving outside
of their usual territory.
Second, the group’s alpha
female had a back leg injury,
which could have prompt-
ed the group to target easier
meals. Finally, non-lethal de-
terrents had proven ineffec-
tive in keeping wolves away
from sheep and cattle.
Comparing cases
Brown compared that to
another series of attacks last
year by the Mount Emily
Pack on sheep in the Umatil-
la National Forest. All ive of
those incidents came against a
single band of sheep, and by
the time the producer asked
for lethal control, Brown said
non-lethal tools had started to
work.
“ODFW will evaluate each
situation when they’re mak-
ing a determination about
when to go to lethal control,”
Brown said.
Non-lethal steps irst
The agency’s focus, how-
ever, continues to be on
non-lethals irst. With the ev-
idence suggesting deterrents
are effective, the workshop
shifted to community-wide
models for rural areas where
wolves are re-established.
Suzanne Asha Stone, se-
nior Northwest represen-
tative for the conservation
group Defenders of Wildlife,
pointed to a few successful
programs across the West —
most notably the Wood River
Wolf Project in central Idaho,
where there’s the largest con-
centration of domestic sheep
in the region.
Stone said the program
pulls together ideas and fund-
ing from ranchers, agencies
and wolf advocates alike to
implement non-lethal solu-
tions. More groups are start-
ing to take this approach, she
said, because it makes more
resources more broadly avail-
able.
“The challenge is that it
really requires a lot of good
communication,” Stone said.
Between 2008 and 2015,
Stone said they’ve had any-
where from 10,000 to 23,000
sheep on the land, yet they’ve
only lost 30 of the animals to
wolves over that period.
“Some of our best solu-
tions have come from that mix
of people that don’t usually
talk to each other,” she said.
Committees work
Stone said she was en-
couraged by how county wolf
compensation
committees
were working together to en-
sure ranchers are made whole
for dead or missing livestock
due to wolves.
Both Susan Roberts, of
Wallowa County, and Jerry
Baker, of Umatilla County,
were on hand to discuss how
their committees reach out to
producers and submit applica-
tions for state grants.
Environmental groups, tribe protest new BLM plan for W. Oregon
By ANDREW SELSKY
Associated Press
SALEM — Conservation
and ishing groups and an
Indian tribe announced Mon-
day they have iled protests
against a draft federal propos-
al to manage 2.5 million acres
in Western Oregon — a plan
that would allow logging to
increase by more than a third
and for trees to be felled clos-
er to streams.
Earthjustice and the
Western Environmental Law
Center, which filed a formal
protest on Monday on behalf
of 22 conservation and fish-
ing groups, charged that the
plan would increase clear-
cutting and harm streamside
forests.
Associated Press ile
This photo shows Bureau of Land Management timber outside
Ruch, Ore. The BLM has released its draft of a new Western Ore-
gon Management Plan, which has drawn protests from conserva-
tion groups.
In its four-volume, 2,010-
page proposal, the Bureau of
Land Management said a re-
vised plan is needed because of
changes in timber management.
Under the plan, timber
that can be harvested will be
increased by about 75 million
more board feet to 278 million
board feet, BLM spokesman
Jim Whittington told Jeffer-
son Public Radio, a station
based in the Southern Oregon
town of Ashland. Whittington
emphasized that the acreage
available for timber harvest
would not increase.
The protesting groups said
the 37 percent increase in log-
ging levels “will boost carbon
emissions and make the forest
less resilient to climate change
and other disturbances.”
Whittington said trees
could be cut closer to streams
under the plan, with the buf-
fer shortening from double
the height of an average tree
in the area to the height of a
single tree.
A ishermen’s group blast-
ed that aspect of the plan.
“The last, best salmon hab-
itat in Oregon is within these
BLM-managed forests,” Glen
Spain of the Paciic Coast
Federation of Fishermen’s
Associations, among the 22
groups, said in a statement.
“Productive salmon streams
are far more valuable for the
salmon-related jobs they cre-
ate than for the market value
of the lumber you could gen-
erate from logging them.”
The BLM said the new
plan will provide a sustained
yield of timber while protect-
ing threatened and endan-
gered species.
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