June 16, 2017
CapitalPress.com
5
Ranchers say wolf attacks resume in Washington state
No confirmation
from WDFW
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
Two Washington cattle-
men said Tuesday that wolves
have resumed attacking cattle
grazing in the northeast cor-
ner of the state, where depre-
dations last summer led state
wildlife managers to cull a
wolfpack.
Ferry County, Wash.,
rancher Arron Scotten said he
found the remains of a calf
Monday evening that had ap-
parently been killed by wolves.
He said he found bones nearby
of a second calf, but too little
of it may remain for a state De-
partment of Fish and Wildlife
investigator to attribute the at-
tack to wolves.
The calves belonged to the
Diamond M Ranch and were
grazing near the boundary be-
tween private and Bureau of
Courtesy of WDFW
A wolf leaves after being captured and collared by the Washington
Department of Fish and Wildlife in northeast Washington. A range
rider found two dead calves Monday in an area that is known for
wolf attacks.
Land Management lands.
They are also near the lo-
cation where WDFW last year
shot seven wolves from the
Profanity Peak pack to stop
depredations. Four pack mem-
bers survived.
Efforts to reach WDFW
officials were not immediately
successful Tuesday.
WDFW has said it will is-
sue monthly reports on wolf
activities and provide other
updates on depredations, but
has not committed to reporting
depredations within a certain
time frame.
The attack, if confirmed
by WDFW, would be the first
official depredation this year,
though Diamond M co-owner
Justin Hedrick said he believes
wolves already have killed
four of his cattle, including
two on private land a couple of
weeks ago.
Hedrick said the depreda-
tions continue a pattern of at-
tacks that began several years
ago, though the attacks are be-
ginning earlier than in previous
grazing seasons.
“I honestly thought we were
going to have a little bit of a re-
prieve this year,” Hedrick said.
“As soon as the cattle came
back, boom, they were hit.”
Hedrick said he believes
the wolves have become too
numerous and too habituated
to eating cattle and have too
little prey to be deterred by
non-lethal measures.
Scotten, who is also a range
rider, said he was checking
Monday evening on cattle graz-
ing in the Lambert Creek area
of Ferry County because ra-
dio-collar data showed a male
wolf was near the livestock.
WSDA traps and fits wolves
with tracking collars and shares
the information with ranchers.
“The cattle were acting re-
ally strange. They were pretty
fidgety,” Scotten said.
Scotten said he found the
calf bones, walked the area and
found the carcass of the second
calf nearby. “There was actual-
ly quite a bit left that showed
lacerations and punctures,” he
said.
Scotten said he camped
out overnight to keep scaven-
gers from eating the evidence.
WDFW investigators place
high importance on finding
flesh damage to confirm that an
animal was killed by wolves.
A WDFW investigator ar-
rived early in the morning.
According to WDFW poli-
cy, investigators will deter-
mine whether the calves were
killed by wolves. Scotten and
Hedrick said the department
should allow investigators
to tell ranchers at the scene
about their conclusions to
bolster confidence in the in-
vestigations.
It’s unclear which pack
may have attacked the calves
found dead Monday. Scotten
said he was checking on radio
collar data from a male wolf
in the Sherman pack.
The pack’s territory, how-
ever, adjoins the Profanity
Peak pack’s territory.
The Sherman pack was
formed last year when a fe-
male from the Profanity Peak
pack began traveling with
a male wolf, according to
WDFW.
According to WDFW, the
state shoots wolves to stop
pack behavior. WDFW will
consider lethal control after
three depredations within 30
days or four within 10 months
by a wolfpack.
Farmers, foresters seek urban allies in Oregon’s Lane County
Group hosts events,
tours aimed at
bridging urban-
rural divide
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
With roughly 60 percent
of its population living on 1
percent of its land base, Lane
County typifies the discon-
nect between Oregon’s urban
and rural areas.
However, residents of the
Eugene-Springfield metro-
politan area can hardly be
blamed for misconceptions
they may have about agricul-
ture and forestry, said farmer
Marie Bowers.
“We can’t expect people
to learn if we’re not willing
to share,” she said.
Bowers and others hope
to demystify the county’s
natural resources industry
through Lane Families for
Farms and Forests, a non-
profit aimed at creating allies
across the urban-rural divide.
The group organizes
events where farmers and
foresters can share a meal
with members of community
organizations and other Lane
Mateusz Perkowski/Capital Press
Forestland manager Gordon Culbertson speaks about logging operations with farmer Marie Bowers.
The two are leaders of Lane Families for Farms and Forests, a nonprofit group aimed at building
connections with urban allies.
County residents, with the
objective of building good-
will over the long term.
To add some entertain-
ment value to education, par-
ticipants compete in a natural
resource-related trivia con-
test.
“I was skeptical about
how many people would en-
joy it, but it was a hit,” said
Bowers, the group’s chair-
woman.
By establishing trust, or-
ganizers believe Lane Fam-
ilies for Farms and Forests
can be more effective in
dispelling misapprehensions
than by simply reacting to
controversies and emergen-
cies.
“Our goal is to be a re-
source for people,” Bowers
said.
“A go-to group where if
people have a question about
an issue, they know to call
us,” added Gordon Culbert-
son, a forestland manager
and the group’s vice chair-
man.
The group plans to host
tours of farming and timber
operations to explain com-
Idaho rivers declining, but flood concerns persist
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
BOISE — Idaho water
managers say low- and mid-el-
evation mountain snowpack
has melted throughout the
state and many rivers are re-
ceding from their peak levels,
but flooding concerns still re-
main.
For irrigators, this sum-
mer’s outlook promises pro-
longed availability of natu-
ral-flow water, which officials
say should also lead to strong
reservoir carryover into the
next season.
May was only the second
month of the water year — in
addition to November — to
bring below-normal precipita-
tion, ranging from 45 percent
of normal in the Upper Snake
to 90 percent of normal in the
Big Wood.
The dry May — coupled
with cool spells that followed
any periods of hot weather
— eased pressure from high
flows in communities coping
with flooding, according to
USDA’s Natural Resources
Conservation Service.
Nonetheless, flood-control
releases damaged property
along the Boise River, and re-
cent storms have water levels
temporarily on the rise again.
Gina Baltrusch, a spokes-
woman for the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers district
based in Walla Walla, Wash.,
said releases from Lucky
Peak Reservoir were reduced
by 1,250 cubic feet per second
over a 48-hour period through
the morning of June 13.
She explained a recent shift
toward cooler weather slowed
the snowmelt enough to ac-
commodate reservoir inflows,
and with heavy rains arriving
on June 12-13, the Corps was
concerned about further flood-
ing in downstream communi-
ties. Even with the reduction
mon practices and outline
the regulations, such as the
Oregon Forest Practices Act,
they must follow.
The fear of pesticides is
common among urbanites,
who often don’t understand
that farmers and foresters
want to save money by re-
ducing chemical usage, Bow-
ers said.
“Immediately they think
‘poison,’” she said. “It’s the
dose that makes the poison.”
Likewise, major timber
companies are often viewed
less sympathetically than
small woodland owners, but
in reality, the larger outfits
own sawmills and other nec-
essary infrastructure, said
Culbertson.
“Those big companies are
tremendously important to
small woodland owners,” he
said.
While it was once com-
mon for Oregon residents to
have friends and family in-
volved in natural resource in-
dustries, they’re now remote
for many people, said Scott
Dahlman, policy director for
the Oregonians for Food and
Shelter agribusiness group.
“We’ve gotten to a sit-
uation where more Oregon
citizens don’t have that con-
nection to agriculture and for-
estry,” he said.
Lane Families for Farms
and Forests will help rekindle
those relationships, Dahlman
said.
Those connections may
turn out to be significant in
looming political battles, such
as a proposed ballot initiative
to ban aerial herbicide spray-
ing in Lane County. Support-
ers are currently gathering
signatures to get the measure
before voters in 2018.
Such proposals tend to stir
up negative emotions over
natural resource industries,
said Bowers. “Hopefully, we
can change the narrative of
what’s happening.”
People should realize that
violations are rare and most
farmers and foresters support
Oregon’s regulatory oversight
of spray applications, said
Culbertson.
“We live out in the country
where we use these things,”
said Bowers.
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John O’Connell/Capital Press
The Big Wood River spills over its banks near Hailey, Idaho, on
June 7. Officials say the Big Wood’s peak flows have passed,
though there’s been considerable flood damage to property.
in flows, the Boise River was
still at 8,250 cfs, compared to
a flood-stage level of 7,000
cfs. The three reservoirs in the
Boise system were 96 percent
full on June 13.
Baltrusch said emergency
managers will soon send let-
ters to levee owners inform-
ing them of a July 31 deadline
to apply with the Corps for
assistance toward repairs. The
levees must be enrolled in the
Corps’ levee safety manage-
ment program to be eligible.
Extreme flooding also
damaged basements and canal
infrastructure and forced road
closures along the Big Wood
River near Hailey. According
to the National Weather Ser-
vice, the Big Wood recently
dropped slightly below flood
stage but was predicted to rise
again to slightly above flood
stage by June 15, due to the
rainfall.
The National Weather Ser-
vice also predicted the Payette
River near Emmett would rise
just above flood stage follow-
ing the rains.
Ron Abramovich, Idaho’s
NRCS water supply special-
ist, said snowpacks are still
well above average in the
high country, with the Snake
River Basin snowpack above
Palisades Reservoir at 285
percent of normal.
Abramovich said sever-
al streams are setting daily
records for high flows, with
streamflows ranging from
average to 125 percent of av-
erage in Northern Idaho and
150 to 300 percent of average
elsewhere in the state.
In the Upper Snake, flows
into Palisades Reservoir
peaked at 43,600 cfs on June
6 and have begun diminish-
ing, dropping to 31,500 cfs by
June 13.
Tony Olenichak, program
manager for the Upper Snake
water district, said flood-con-
trol releases from Palisades
were increased by 2,000 cfs to
24,000 cfs on June 13 because
of the storms.
With the Upper Snake res-
ervoir system at 92.4 percent
full, he said water managers
should be able to top off the
system without any flooding
risk.
Olenichak added that wa-
ter has been spilling past Mil-
ner Dam, where it can’t be put
to beneficial use, since June
8, bringing a water right for
Upper Snake aquifer recharge
back into priority.
Adrian Harguess
Joseph, OR
M ollie Hulse
La Grande, OR
Cliff Schoeningh
Baker City, OR
541-432-9050
541-963-3434
541-524-7667
Christ ina Sm it h
Pendleton, OR
John Ngo
Hermiston, OR
Todd Wood
College Place, WA
541-278-9000
541-289-4480
509-525-9860
Tyler Fenn
College Place, WA
Darrin Eberhardt
Clarkston, WA
John Gass
The Dalles, OR
509-525-9860
509-758-6878
541-296-0779
www.communityb ankne t.com
1-800-472-4292
M ember FDIC
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