October 14, 2016
CapitalPress.com
7
Wolves
Oficials pleased with wolf
depredation’s downward trend
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
Courtesy of Colville National Forest
Cows graze in the Colville National Forest in northeastern Wash-
ington. Some ranchers are cutting short the grazing season in the
national forest to avoid conlicts with wolves.
Profanity Peak pack
attacks another calf
as hunt continues
Washington rancher
says: ‘Everybody’s
having problems’
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
Washington wildlife man-
agers have conirmed that a
calf found this week on private
land was injured by the dimin-
ished Profanity Peak wolf-
pack, a sign depredations will
continue until the entire pack
is eliminated, according to the
state Department of Fish and
Wildlife.
The injured calf, found last
week, was at least the 10th bo-
vine attacked by the pack this
summer, according to WDFW.
The department concluded ive
other cattle were probably at-
tacked by the pack.
WDFW has shot seven
wolves in the pack since Aug.
5, leaving at least one adult fe-
male and three pups. The last
shooting was Sept. 29.
Citing continuing depre-
dations, WDFW wolf policy
coordinator Donny Martorello
reafirmed that the department
plans to eliminate the entire
pack.
“Given this pattern, we do
not believe recent lethal re-
movals are likely to achieve
the goal of stopping depreda-
tions in the near future,” he
said in an email.
Also Thursday, Martorello
reported that WDFW inves-
tigators determined Sunday
that the Dirty Shirt pack had
injured a cow on a state De-
partment of Natural Resources
grazing allotment.
Martorello said the ranch-
er turned out livestock June 5.
Because of the depredation, the
producer is moving the live-
stock off the allotment, he said.
The attack was the irst con-
irmed depredation this year by
the Dirty Shirt pack. WDFW
considers culling a pack after
four conirmed depredations.
Only the Profanity Peak has
reached that threshold this
year.
Although WDFW says it
intends to remove the pack
— an operation that has out-
raged some environmental
groups — frustration remains
high among some ranchers in
northeastern Washington, said
Stevens County rancher Scott
Nielsen, vice president of the
Cattle Producers of Washing-
ton.
Conlicts between livestock
and wolves are escalating, and
WDFW’s oficial depredation
tally relects only a fraction
of the losses in Stevens, Ferry
and Pend Oreille counties, he
said.
Losses may come into
sharper focus when the grazing
season on public land is over at
the end of October.
“There are a lot of people
worried about what they’re
going to get when they bring
(cattle) in,” Nielsen said. “I
wouldn’t be surprised that if
in this tri-county area there
were 200 livestock missing or
bitten.
“Last year, we hardly had
any problems,” he said. “Ev-
erybody is having problems up
here this year.”
Ferry County rancher Ar-
ron Scotten said Friday he
will move his cows from the
Colville National Forest over
the next week to avoid con-
licts with wolves. That’s two
weeks earlier than usual.
“We’re trying to get cattle
off the allotment, and what
we’re inding are the injured
calves that we weren’t neces-
sarily inding before,” he said.
He said he expects calves to
be thinner and fewer cows to
be pregnant because they have
been harassed by wolves.
“They became habituated
to beef, and everywhere we
moved cattle, they would fol-
low,” Scotten said.
National Forest spokes-
man Franklin Pemberton said
he knows of at least one other
rancher who plans to bring in
his cows early.
The Forest Service and
ranchers have tried all summer
to adjust grazing plans to cre-
ate space between cattle and
wolves, he said.
“It was a little more inten-
sive this year than last,” Pem-
berton said. “The number of
wolves goes up every year.”
Scotten said he’s concerned
that wolves will follow his cat-
tle out of the national forest.
“With this situation, the
way it is, when we bring them
home, we’ll be doing daily
checks,” Scotten said.
Ending the grazing season
early will lead to spending
more money on hay this win-
ter, he said.
Scotten said he plans to
feed his cows closer to his
house this winter and install
lights in calving pens.
“We’re trying our best to do
our part,” he said. “Everything
we do literally has to change.
We have to rethink every as-
pect of how we produce cat-
tle.”
BOISE — An oficial involved in
controlling problem wolves believes
livestock depredations have reached a
low point and should stay there, show-
ing that Idaho wolf programs are on the
right trajectory following the recent end
of federal involvement.
In Fiscal Year 2013, Todd Grimm,
director of Idaho Wildlife Services,
said his ofice killed 78 wolves, all due
to reports of livestock depredation. In
Fiscal Year 2016, which ended Oct. 1,
his ofice killed 70 wolves, 50 of which
were tied to livestock depredations. The
recent numbers were about the same as
during FY 2015.
Once numbers are tabulated on to-
tal depredations, Grimm expects to see
a slight drop from the previous year.
Grimm believes depredation cases have
now gotten about as low as they’re going
to get, and the state experienced no “re-
ally big kills anywhere and didn’t have
any super hot spots.”
“I think this is what we can expect
Courtesy of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Idaho wildlife managers say a reduction
in wolf depredations in that state shows
their wolf program is on the right track.
unless some other dynamic changes,”
Grimm said. “We seem to be getting to a
management level where there’s always
going to be losses, but we’re doing our
best to minimize those losses as much as
we can.”
Dustin Miller, administrator with the
Idaho Governor’s Ofice of Species Con-
servation, believes the state has greater
lexibility and should manage wolves
more effectively and eficiently, having
crossed a ive-year post-delisting manage-
ment threshold in May. Before achieving
that milestone, the federal government
Wolves, possibly from OR-7’s
pack, kill 2 calves in S. Oregon
By ERIC MORTENSON
Capital Press
Wolves killed and ate most
of two calves and badly in-
jured a third in an attack that
happened on private land fre-
quented by the pack formed
by Oregon’s best known wolf,
OR-7.
Whether the Rogue Pack
was involved is uncertain, be-
cause no pack members wear
tracking collars, but the Wood
River Valley in Southern Ore-
gon’s Klamath County is part
of the territory the pack uses,
according to Oregon Depart-
ment of Fish and Wildlife. A
federal biologist, John Ste-
phenson, added that other
wolves use that area as well.
If it turns out Rogue Pack
members were responsible,
it would be their irst known
attack on livestock, said Ste-
phenson, who works for U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service.
“They’ve had a good record,”
he said.
Two calves, one about 800
pounds and the other estimat-
ed at 600 pounds, were found
dead and mostly consumed
Oct. 5. An employee of the
livestock operation told inves-
tigators he saw three wolves
feeding on one of the calves.
A third calf, about 300
pounds, was found alive with
bite wounds on all four legs,
according to an ODFW report.
Stephenson said the cow
herd is scheduled to be moved
from the area in a couple
weeks, and wildlife oficials
hope to keep them safe until
then.
The Rogue Pack’s alpha
male, OR-7, became well
known when he dispersed
from northeast Oregon’s Im-
naha pack in September 2011.
He wandered across the state
and into California, becoming
the irst wolf known to have
entered that state since 1924.
After traveling more than
1,000 miles in zig-zag fashion,
he settled in the Southern Or-
egon Cascades and in 2014
found a mate, an unknown
female. They’ve since had
three litters of pups.
held the state to rigorous monitoring and
recovery requirements, he said.
“We’ve got the ability to act quick-
ly to depredations as they arise,” Miller
said. “We don’t have the federal govern-
ment calling the shots or looking over
our shoulder any more.”
In recent years, Miller’s ofice has
covered ranchers’ wolf depredations at
full market value, through a U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service program that div-
vies up $1 million among states where
wolf kills occur. Half of that funding goes
toward preventive programs, and Mill-
er said a couple of Idaho cattle ranchers
have used it to add range riders, with
good results.
Jim Hayden, staff biologist with the
Idaho Department of Fish and Game,
believes his agency is now free to pursue
more “biologically meaningful” work
following the end of federal oversight.
Hayden explained IDFG was required
to use “outdated” monitoring tech-
niques, such as collaring animals, and
had to make pack size estimates during
mid-winter, rather than at the start of wolf
breeding season.
ODFW Commission begins review
of wolf, cougar management plans
By ERIC MORTENSON
Capital Press
Oregon wildlife oficials
are beginning required re-
views of the way they manage
wolves and cougars, while
researchers are continuing to
study how the two predators
interact.
Information on the review
process was scheduled to be
presented to the Oregon De-
partment of Fish and Wildlife
Commission at its meeting
Oct. 6-7 in La Grande.
In the background is an
intriguing study, now in its
third year, on wolf-cougar
interaction in the Mount Em-
ily Wildlife Unit of the Blue
Mountains outside the city.
Cougars and wolves
compete for the same prey,
primarily deer and elk. Cou-
gars far outnumber wolves
in Oregon — the state has an
estimated 6,000 cougars and
a minimum of 110 wolves
— but are thought to be at a
disadvantage because they are
solitary animals while wolves
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hunt in packs.
From July 2014 through
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Oregon State University re-
searchers documented 16
cases of direct and indirect
wolf-cougar interaction in the
Mount Emily management
unit, according to research
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