FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2016
Classifieds / Outdoor Rec
THE BAKER COUNTY PRESS — 7
PUBLIC NOTICE: BUDGET BOARD
MEETING
HELP WANTED
BAKER SCHOOL DISTRICT 5J is currently accepting
applications for a .5 FTE Culinary Arts position. For a
complete description of the position and the application
process go to www.baker.k12.or.us. You may also call
Norma Nemec at 541-524-2260.
The Baker City Public Works Department is seek-
ing qualified applicants for the position of Mechanic II.
Closes April 29, 2016 at 5:00 p.m. For more information
and how to apply go to www.bakercity.com. The City of
Baker City is an EEO employer.
BAKER SCHOOL DISTRICT 5J is currently accepting
applications for a Confidential Administrative Assistant
to the Superintendent and School Board. For a complete
description of the position and the application process go
to www.baker.k12.or.us. You may also call Norma Nemec
at 541-524-2260.
5.2
REPORTER WANTED
Reporter needed. Pay per article. Approximately two
articles per week anticipated. Baker City and Haines
areas. Interested in this opportunity? Please email
editor@thebakercountypress.com. Great supplemental
income! Must be professional and have a solid grasp of
the English language.
PUBLIC NOTICE: WEED SPRAY GIVEAWAY!
For 2016, Baker County Weed District will again be giving out herbicide on the following locations, dates, and times.
This fully mixed, ready-to-go herbicide will be targeting whitetop and scotch thistle. Folks need to bring chemical-resis-
tant containers, preferably gas or oil cans, and a pair of chemical-resistant gloves. Please, no food containers. There
will be a five gallon limit imposed for each residence.
Note!!! New location for Baker City Giveaways!
Where
Huntington Service Station
Richland/Halfway - Wildflower Corner
Baker City - Old ODOT Building
1050 S. Bridge
Baker City - Old ODOT Building
1050 S. Bridge Street
Hereford Hall /Unity Hall
Hereford - Unity
Date
April 22
May 6
May 21
Time
8:00 - 11 AM
7 - 12 Noon
7 - 12 Noon
May 28
7 -12 Noon
June 3
9 AM - 10:30 AM
Advertise your business with us here in the Service
Directory! Low monthly rates!
Buy 3 months, get the 4th free!
A public meeting of the Budget Committee of the Medi-
cal Springs Rural Fire, Baker/Union Counties, State of
Oregon,
to discuss the budget for the fiscal year July 1, 2016 to
June 30, 2017 will be held at Pondosa Station, 50393
Hwy 203 Baker City, OR. The meeting will take place on
May 09, 2016, at 6:30 PM.
The purpose of the meeting is to receive the budget
message and to receive comment from the public on the
budget.
This is a public meeting where deliberation of the Budget
Committee will take place. Any person may appear at
the meeting and discuss the proposed programs with the
Budget Committee.
A copy of the budget document may be inspected or
obtained on or after May 5, 2016, at 50378 Hwy 203,
Baker City, OR, between the hours of 9 AM and 6 PM.
150-504-073-1 (Rev 12/10)
PUBLIC NOTICE: 5J BUDGET BOARD
MEETING
A public meeting of the Budget Committee of the Baker
School District 5J, Baker County, State of Oregon, to dis-
cuss the budget for the fiscal year July 1, 20116 to June
30, 2017, will be held at the Baker School District office at
2090 4th Street, Baker City, OR 97814. The meeting will
take place on May 12, 2016, at 5:00 p.m.
The purpose of the meeting is to receive the budget
message and to receive comment from the public on the
budget.
This is a public meeting where deliberation of the Bud-
get Committee will take place. Any person may appear at
the meeting and discuss the proposed programs with the
Budget Committee.
A copy of the budget document may be inspected or
obtained on or after May 9, 2016, at Baker School District
5J between the hours of 7:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. This
notice and future notices will be posted on our website at
www.baker.k12.or.us.
The extended tale of Witty and the wolf
shot a wolf.”
The loca-
tion where
the wolf had
been shot
was Crane
Prairie, in
Grant Coun-
ty, about 38
driving miles
southeast of
John Day,
near the in-
tersection of
United States
THE OUTDOOR COLUMN Forest Service
By Todd Arriola
(USFS) Road
16, and USFS
Recent information has
Road 14.
shed some light on the sub- Curtis contacted Witty
ject of the Grant County
via telephone, and Witty
incident last October,
agreed to meet Curtis and
involving Brennon Witty,
McCosker at the intersec-
and the gray wolf, known
tion of Grant County Road
as OR-22.
62, and USFS Road 16.
The following is based
The three met at the
on information in the of-
location agreed upon, and
ficial Oregon State Police
Witty led Curtis and Mc-
(OSP) report, and from
Cosker to where OR-22
information provided by
had been shot, which was
the Harney County District at the end of the 1400-660
Attorney’s office.
Spur Road. McCosker in-
On October 6, 2015, at
formed Witty, after they all
about 8:50 a.m., reporting
exited their vehicles, that
officer and case lead OSP
McCosker started filming
Trooper Patrick McCo-
with his body camera, and
sker was dispatched by
that their conversation was
Southern Command Center being recorded.
(SCC), to a wildlife viola-
There were scattered Ju-
tion, making contact with
niper and Pine trees where
Sergeant Brown, of OSP
they parked, on the west-
Pendleton, at about 9:08
ern edge of an irrigated
a.m. Brown told McCo-
meadow, over 400 yards
sker that OR-22 had been
wide, which had scattered
killed shortly before that,
patches of sagebrush, and
and that Witty (unnamed
grass.
at the time), had reported
The grass had been
the incident to the Or-
grazed short by cattle,
egon Department of Fish
which were in a herd,
and Wildlife (ODFW) in
about 200 yards from
Canyon City. Brown then
where they were, but the
requested that McCosker
sagebrush was between
contact Wolf Coordinator
about eighteen inches, to
Russ Morgan, and to initi-
two feet tall.
ate an investigation.
A barbed wire fence
McCosker contacted
ran approximately north to
Morgan at about 9:20 a.m., south, adjacent to where
and Morgan told him that
they had parked, and a for-
OR-22 was in the area
ested hill, with Pine trees,
where Witty said he had
climbed above the eastern
shot the wolf.
side of the meadow.
Morgan asked McCosker
Witty indicated that the
to secure the wolf, and the
wolf was in the meadow,
collar, and to meet with
on the other side of the
John Day Watershed As-
fence, and Curtis deter-
sistant Biologist Angelique mined, with GPS, that
Curtis.
where the wolf had been
McCosker arrived at
killed was on private
the Canyon City ODFW
property, owned by Prairie
office, and Curtis informed Wood Products, and man-
him that Witty had shot
aged by Dan Bishop. Mc-
the wolf, and that Witty
Cosker spoke with Bishop
had called that office at
in a separate conversation
about 8:15 a.m., stating, “I
in the afternoon of October
6, and Bishop said that
Witty was neither an agent
for Prairie Wood Products,
nor did he have permis-
sion to be on the property,
however, Prairie Wood
Products did not wish to
pursue charges. McCosker
noted that the Weather Un-
derground website showed
sunrise at 6:59 a.m. on
October 6.
Witty said he parked
about 50 yards west of the
fence, and then he crossed
the fence, to set up to call
coyotes, about 50 yards
east of the fence, in a patch
of young Ponderosa Pines,
with an electronic caller,
with cottontail distress
sounds, to attract coyotes
to his location.
He was equipped with
a Savage bolt-action .223
caliber rifle, a bi-pod, a
3x9 Nikon scope, and
60-grain, lead-core bullets.
Witty sat between two
small Ponderosa Pines,
facing east, and activated
his caller, shortly before 7
a.m., with adequate light
to shoot, though, the sun
had not yet risen above the
hills in front of him.
After about seven or
eight minutes of using
the caller, he saw what he
believed to be a coy-
ote, coming through the
sagebrush, from the east,
and it continued to ap-
proach from that direction,
moving slightly, from left
to right, as viewed from
Witty’s perspective.
The animal then moved
behind a small patch of
trees, obscuring it from
Witty’s view, and he pre-
pared to shoot, because he
expected it to emerge from
the right side of the patch.
When it didn’t emerge
from that direction, Witty
looked to the left side, and
he noticed the animal, be-
lieved to still be a coyote,
at a distance of about 150
yards, on the edge of the
sagebrush, walking from
right to left, with a slight
limp.
Witty aimed and fired his
rifle, and the bullet struck
the animal in its hindquar-
ters, causing it to settle on
its haunches, after which,
the animal was reach-
ing around, and nipping
at where the bullet had
struck. Witty’s estimate of
the time was about 7 a.m.
He aimed and fired a
second shot, but he didn’t
see any indication that the
bullet had hit the animal.
He aimed and fired a
third time, and the animal
settled to the ground, hav-
ing apparently been hit.
Witty waited for about
five minutes, before he ap-
proached the animal.
He came to within about
ten yards of the downed
animal, and he noticed it
was still breathing, and for
the first time, that it ap-
peared to be too large to be
a coyote.
As he approached closer,
he noticed that the animal
had ear tags, at which
point, he realized he had
shot a wolf.
He fired a fourth time
into the back of its neck,
killing the wolf, because
he didn’t want it to suffer,
and he believed that death
was inevitable.
Witty approached the
wolf, and he noticed that
the length, and the thick-
ness of its hair made it
difficult to see that it had
a collar, which Witty con-
firmed, by using the barrel
of his rifle to make it more
visible.
He drove back to his
home in John Day, re-
searched briefly what the
possible consequences of
the incident might be, and
then he called the ODFW
office in John Day, at about
8:15 a.m.
The call was unan-
swered, so he called again
a short while later, this
time reaching Curtis,
whom Witty informed that
he had shot a wolf.
The cattle in the meadow
gathered around the wolf
carcass, as Witty was
concluding his description
of events to McCosker, and
McCosker placed plastic
over the wolf, to protect it.
McCosker took pictures of
the scene, and established
a GPS location, and then
he removed the carcass,
because the warm weather,
and direct sunlight threat-
ened potential accelerated
decomposition.
He could not locate the
.223 cartridge case from
the final gunshot, as the
cattle may have pressed it
into the soft, damp soil.
Before removing the car-
cass, McCosker noted that
it was lying in the middle
of several short sagebrush
bushes, with the head
aligned approximately to
the north, its legs facing to
the east, and its back to the
west.
One of the legs was in an
unnatural position, and it
appeared to be broken.
Curtis confirmed that the
animal was a wolf, and that
it was OR-22, in a location
that was 967 yards from
the last signal emitted by
the collar, at 6 a.m.
Witty showed McCosker
where he had shot from,
between two small Pon-
derosa Pines, about 150
yards west of the location
of the carcass, and where
he placed the caller, about
ten yards south of the
shooting position. McCo-
sker recovered three .223
caliber casings off of the
ground.
McCosker seized Witty’s
rifle, which was still in
Witty’s truck, as evidence,
and Witty also provided
McCosker with one round
of ammunition from the
same batch of ammunition
he had used earlier in the
morning.
Before leaving the scene,
McCosker told Witty that
he would be submitting a
report to the Grant County
District Attorney, for con-
sideration.
McCosker reviewed the
ODFW purchase history
for Witty, once McCosker
returned to the OSP of-
fice in John Day, and he
learned that Witty did not
have a valid deer tag for
the Beulah hunting unit, in
2015, but that he did have
a valid hunting license for
2015, which was pur-
chased on December 26,
2014.
McCosker noted that
Oregon Administrative
Rule (OAR) 635-065-
0740(1) prohibits the use
of a centerfire rifle to hunt
coyotes during the buck
(deer) season, if the hunter
does not have a buck tag.
He noted that the rifle
Witty had been using to
hunt coyotes is a centerfire
rifle.
McCosker also noted that
Witty’s knowledge of the
location, his statements,
and the physical evidence
corroborate his confession,
that he had shot the wolf,
while hunting coyotes.
McCosker noted that
Oregon Revised Statutes
(ORS) 498.026 prohibits
the take of any threatened
or endangered species, and
wolves (at the time) were
listed as an endangered
species in Oregon.
The case was ultimately
handled by the Harney
County District Attorney’s
office, because the Grant
County District Attorney’s
office cited a possible ap-
pearance of a conflict of
interest (staff are acquaint-
ed with the Witty family).
Witty was represented by
John Lamborn, of Burns.
Witty was charged ini-
tially with Taking a Threat-
ened or Endangered Spe-
cies, and Hunting with a
Centerfire Rifle Without a
Big Game Tag, he entered
a guilty plea of Taking a
Threatened or Endangered
Species, and was convicted
solely of that charge, on
February 23, 2016.
Part of his sentencing
included fines and fees, in
the amount of $2,150, and
the forfeiture of his rifle.
I’ve presented the facts,
as I know them.
Details seem to indicate
that Witty was no poacher,
as local and national media
first jumped on the case,
and led one to believe,
but a coyote hunter, who
accidentally shot a wolf,
believing it to be a coyote,
and who “did the right
thing,” with zero indication
of dishonesty, or evasive-
ness, when it came time
to inform the authorities,
something almost no one
in this 26-year-old’s posi-
tion would have done.
In my humble opinion,
the end result is a far cry
from being hailed as a
“victory,” considering
court time, the loss of
thousands of dollars, the
forfeiture of a rifle, and the
history of wolf manage-
ment in Oregon.
I wonder, if the situation
arises, whether anyone will
report accidentally shoot-
ing a wolf ever again.
My guess is that they’ll
get out the shovel instead.