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CapitalPress.com
August 31, 2018
ODFW re-issues wolf kill permit in Wallowa County
Meeting set for
Thursday to discuss
state Wolf Plan
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
A northeast Oregon cattle
rancher was reissued a permit
to shoot one wolf on a forested
grazing allotment near Joseph
Creek in Wallowa County
where four calves have been
killed or injured since June.
The latest attack was con-
firmed by the Oregon De-
partment of Fish & Wildlife
on Aug. 20. A range rider
found the dead 300-pound
calf earlier that morning, and
investigators later determined
wolves were to blame.
The pasture is within an
area of known wolf activity in
the Chesnimnus Unit, where
ODFW counted three wolves
at the end of 2017. Chesnim-
nus wolves also injured three
calves between June 12 and
June 14, all belonging to RL
Cattle Company of Enter-
prise.
ODFW granted the orig-
inal permit for RL Cattle to
shoot one Chesnimnus wolf
on June 21, but no wolves
were killed before the permit
expired July 10. The permit
has been re-issued for 30 days
and will expire Sept. 24.
Wildlife officials have
documented wolves in the
area over the past two months,
but do not know whether the
animals are remnants of the
Chesnimnus pack or newcom-
ers that moved into the terri-
tory. None are wearing GPS
tracking collars.
The incident underscores
the debate between ranchers
and conservationists about
how best to manage wolves
in Oregon. Groups were to
gather this week for a meet-
ing intended to find common
ground on lingering issues
in the state Wolf Plan, which
is three years past due for its
update. Deb Nudelman, a me-
diator with Kearns & West in
Portland was to moderate.
The plan was last revised
in 2010. Since then, the min-
imum known wolf population
has risen to 124 statewide,
and Eastern Oregon wolves
were removed from the state
endangered species list in
2015. The Oregon Fish and
Wildlife Commission was
supposed to vote on the plan
in January, but indefinitely
postponed its decision to try
and reach a broader consensus
among stakeholders.
Jerome Rosa, executive
director of the Oregon Cattle-
men’s Association, said ranch-
ers have three main concerns:
fitting more wolves with GPS
collars, creating management
zones with population targets,
and allowing local authorities
to investigate suspected live-
stock depredations in a more
timely manner.
GPS collars will help alert
ranchers when wolves are
approaching, Rosa said, and
make sure they are doing
non-lethal activities to haze
wolves such as hiring range
riders.
Known Oregon wolf packs (As of Dec. 2017)
Confirmed pack/individual range
Estimated pack/individual range
NOTE: Polygons represent estimated
ranges for known wolf packs with
radio-collared animals.
Portland
97
101
197
5
1
Salem
9 10
11 14 15
84
Pendleton
16
7
395
6
12
3
17
5
18
13
OREGON
2
19
82
4 8
26
22
84
26
20
126
20
97
58
5
21
101
N
22
25 miles
199
Medford
5
*At least one breeding pair
20
26
395
Wolf pack population
Bend
Eugene
John Day
Pack/area
Total
1. White River
2
2. Desolation
2
3. OR30
3
4. Meacham*
3
5. OR52
3
6. Mt. Emily*
5
7. Ruckel Ridge 7
8. N. Emily
2
9. Walla Walla* 7
10. Wenaha*
10
11. Noregaard* 9
12. Minam*
11
Source: Oregon Dept. of Fish and Wildlife
(cont.)
Total
13. Catherine*
4
14. Shamrock
3
15. Chesnimnus* 3
16. Snake River* 10
17. Harl Butte*
4
18. Middle Fork* 6
19. Pine Creek* 8
20. OR37
1
21. Silver Lake 1
22. Rogue*
7
Lone/misc.
13
Minimum total 124
Alan Kenaga/Capital Press
Forest Service worker describes wolf ordeal
Fish and Wildlife
interview details
July 12 incident
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
A Forest Service employ-
ee shot pepper spray and
screamed to hold a growl-
ing wolf at bay last month in
north-central Washington, ac-
cording to a taped interview
between the woman and a
state Fish and Wildlife officer.
The 25-year-old woman
distanced herself from the
wolf by climbing a tree. Be-
fore that, the wolf weaved
toward her and came within
about 15 meters, she said.
“He or she is kind of
growling and barking and
howling at me, and I’m kind
of giving it back in return,”
she said. “It starts coming
closer to me, and I’m backing
up, and it comes closer to me,
and I finally give it all I got
with a big scream, and it starts
to back off, and we just kind
of back off of each other, and I
put myself back up that tree.”
The tape, obtained by the
Capital Press in response to
a records request, provides a
first-hand description of the
July 12 incident in the Okano-
gan-Wenatchee National For-
est. Encounters with wolves
WDFW
A Ferry County, Wash., rancher says he took a shot at a wolf
after it threatened him as he checked on cattle.
Washington rancher
takes shot at wolf
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
A rancher in northeast
Washington reported Thurs-
day that he shot in self-de-
fense at a wolf matching the
description of the wolf that
state wildlife managers in-
tended to kill this week be-
fore a judge intervened.
The rancher told the De-
partment of Fish and Wild-
life that the wolf was black
and wearing a collar. The
department received infor-
mation this morning indicat-
ing that the collared wolf in
the Togo pack was alive.
The incident occurred
in the pack’s territory, and
Fish and Wildlife employees
spent more than two hours
investigating, but did not
find evidence that the wolf
had been shot, according to
the department. It does ap-
pear to have an injured leg.
The rancher said he was
responding to collar data that
indicated the wolf was near
his livestock, according to
the department. The rancher
are rare in Washington, and
ranchers and county commis-
sioners in northeast Wash-
ington have said the growing
number of wolves in their
corner of the state raises pub-
lic-safety concerns.
The Capital Press is not
naming the woman, in step with
a state law that shields the iden-
tities of ranchers who report
wolf attacks or enter into agree-
ments with the state to share
the cost of hiring range-riders.
An effort to obtain further com-
ment from the woman was un-
successful.
The woman was inter-
viewed by Fish and Wildlife
officer Justin Troutman short-
ly after she was picked up in
a meadow by a Department
of Natural Resources helicop-
ter crew and flown to Omak.
She said she had hiked into
the forest alone to mark where
a crew should take samples
from a stream for a Forest Ser-
vice survey of salmon habitat.
“I hear the wolf kind of
start barking and howl out. At
that point, I kind of back away
from the stream and get onto
higher ground, so I can have
a little better view of my sur-
roundings,” she said.
She called her supervisor
on a satellite phone, and he
told her to leave the area. A
wolf, however, appeared and
came toward her. “He’s, like,
you should get up a tree.”
The woman said she stayed
in the tree for 10 to 15 min-
Rancher says wolves are driving him off range
Cougars a problem,
too, cattleman says
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
A northeast Washington
cattleman says he will pare
down his herd and keep it off
a Forest Service grazing al-
lotment next year because of
wolves.
Ferry County rancher Ron
Eslick lost a calf to the Togo
wolfpack in May. The pack
has attacked at least three cat-
tle belonging to another pro-
ducer on a neighboring allot-
ment this month. Eslick said
Thursday he doesn’t know
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whether wolves have taken
more of his cattle still out on
the range, but the herd won’t
stay at higher elevations and
are skittish.
“The wolves do something
to those cows,” he said. “I’m
not even going to use the
range (in 2019). I’m not going
to pay to send cows out to be
eaten. I’m not going to feed
the wolves.”
Wolves, which have sur-
passed state recovery goals
in northeast Washington, are
affecting livestock operations,
according to ranchers. Wolves
have attacked cattle on public
lands and private pastures and
in different seasons.
Wolves will remain a state
protected species until at least
four packs have produced
pups in the South Cascades.
No wolf has been confirmed
in the South Cascades.
Eslick, 71, has a permit to
graze 40 cow-calf pairs in the
Colville National Forest. His
father had the permit in the
1950s, Eslick said.
He said he planned to re-
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Collar data shows
wolf still alive
said he saw pups and heard
barking and growling, and
shot at the adult wolf as it
barked and approached him.
The rancher reported the
incident to the Ferry County
Sheriff’s Office, which noti-
fied Fish and Wildlife.
The department has at-
tributed six attacks on cattle
to the Togo pack since Nov.
2. Three of the attacks oc-
curred between Aug. 8 and
Aug. 18.
The rancher has tried to
stop the attacks with non-le-
thal measures, according to
the department. Fish and
Wildlife determined that the
attacks were likely to con-
tinue and planned to seek
out and kill the pack’s male
adult beginning last Monday
evening.
A Thurston County judge
ordered the department to
stand down Monday after-
noon at the request of the
Center for Biological Diver-
sity and Cascadia Wildlands.
The temporary restraining
order will be in effect until
at least Aug. 31.
On that date, the court
was scheduled to hold a
hearing on whether to ex-
tend the restraining order.
John and Karen Hollingsworth/USFWS
A gray wolf forced a U.S. Forest Service researcher to retreat up a
tree — twice — in north-central Washington state, according to a
taped interview. She was rescued by a state Department of Natural
Resources helicopter crew.
utes and climbed down.
“Pretty much immediate-
ly, I maybe walk 100 meters
and get cut off by the same
wolf, and it starts coming to-
ward me, and at this point I
have my bear spray out, and
it’s more or less a screaming
match between me and the
wolf,” she told Troutman.
Another wolf was at the far
end of the meadow, she said.
“I could hear a few others in
different areas.”
“The other thing that was
stressing me out was that I
knew there was at least one
more around me,” she said.
“They like to strategize, so
I wasn’t sure where that one
was relative to where the in-
teraction was going down.”
She fired the pepper spray
at the wolf in front of her.
According to the can’s label,
the spray has a range of 10
meters. The wolf continued to
weave.
“It was doing a lot of zig-
zagging. It would come right
at me, and then pop off a little
bit, and come at me from the
other angle and pop off on the
other side,” she said.
“I was just basically
screaming at it the best that I
could, and I’d say the interac-
tion was probably fairly short.
Maybe like 30 seconds to a
minute. It wasn’t a long inter-
action, but it was long enough
to put me back up in that tree.”
WDFW
Wolves killed this calf May 20 in Ferry County, Wash. The rancher
who lost the calf says he won’t use a Forest Service grazing allot-
ment next year because of wolves.
and keep them closer to home.
“I haven’t got out of the
business yet, but I’m going to
cut back,” he said.
In addition to wolves, cou-
gars have become a problem,
too, he said. Eslick said he re-
cently sold his five sheep after
a cougar killed two others.
Eslick said he believes
predators are turning to live-
stock because other prey, such
as deer, are becoming scarce.
“It’s going to get worse.
It’s not going to get better. The
writing’s on the wall,” he said.
Wolves got additional pro-
tection this week when a Thur-
ston County judge blocked
the Department of Fish and
Wildlife from killing a Togo
pack wolf. The temporary re-
straining order, in effect until
at least Aug. 31 and maybe in-
definitely, shelves using lethal
removal as a last resort to stop
depredations.
The order applies to only
the Togo pack. The argu-
ments, however, against kill-
ing the pack’s male would
apply to any pack.
The Center for Biologi-
cal Diversity and Cascadia
Wildlands, which sought the
restraining order, are suing
Fish and Wildlife, contend-
ing its policy on culling wolf-
packs didn’t undergo prop-
er review and violates the
state’s Environmental Policy
Act and Administrative Pro-
cedure Act.
Fish and Wildlife consult-
ed with its Wolf Advisory
Group in writing the lethal-re-
moval protocol. Conservation
Northwest, an environmental
organization represented on
the advisory group, criticized
the lawsuit in a statement
Thursday.