news
Enviros Bare Their
Teeth at Wolf Plan
THEY SAY THE NEW ODFW PLAN OPENS THE DOOR TO HUNTING WOLVES
By Camilla Mortensen
C
ommissioners
for
the
Oregon
Department of Fish and Wildlife voted
June 7 on an updated wolf plan that
allows members of the public to be
granted permits to kill wolves.
The wolf plan was controversial long
before the vote. Back in January, four
environmental groups notified Gov. Kate Brown and
the state’s Fish and Wildlife Commission that they
were withdrawing from stakeholder meetings on the
management of Oregon’s wolf population.
Oregon Wild, Cascadia Wildlands, Center for
Biological Diversity and Defenders of Wildlife said in
a Jan. 4 letter that “it is clear the agency’s intention is
to find ways to kill wolves faster, not prioritize conflict
prevention through non-lethal measures.”
Arran Robertson, communications manager for
Oregon Wild, says of the new plan, “We are OK being
slant
tax in a work session June 10. Councilor Mike Clark proposed
the idea of putting the tax to a council vote in November, saying if
elected officials control the narratives, the public would support
it. If the tax gets challenged through a citizens’ referendum, voters
could shoot it down. Clark added that the council could find the
money to extend the bridge funding that public services currently
receives to increase its services. Councilor Emily Semple
disagreed with Clark, saying it means cutting other city services.
She added that councilors were elected to make tough decisions
like imposing the tax (a common phrase from councilors during
the time they’ve been considering the tax). Putting the tax on
the ballot was rejected 3-5 with Councilors Alan Zelenka, Betty
Taylor and Clark voting yes. The tax was approved by the City
Council, 6-2 with Taylor and Clark dissenting.
• We are proud to announce that former Eugene Weekly
intern (now Wall Street Journal intern) Michael Tobin won Best
Article of the Year in the national Hearst Journalism Awards —
that’s like the Pulitzer Prize of college news writing. Tobin won for
his story “Big Corporate Handouts with Little Oversight,” on local
enterprise zones, published in EW Sept. 20, 2018. EW published
the story through a partnership with the University of Oregon’s
Catalyst Journalism Project.
• Looks like Rep. Peter DeFazio could have a challenger in the
primary election. FEC candidate filings show that Doyle Canning
sent in a statement of candidacy May 22. The application shows
she has a campaign committee working out of Sacramento,
California. Canning is attending law school at the UO and is the co-
founder of the Center for Story-based Strategy, an organization
that trains social justice alliances to use stories for social change.
A Eugene Weekly article covering the 37th annual Public Annual
Interest Environmental Law Conference quoted her saying the
U.S. needs the Green New Deal because climate change “is a
death sentence for future generations.”
• Keep an eye on your paycheck and reconsider that Netflix
subscription: The Eugene City Council approved the payroll
• Here’s a chance to get you voice heard on local issues.
The Lane County Board of Commissioners will now hold
public comment periods in the evening, making the board
more accessible for working community members. The summer
schedule is: June 18, Willamalane’s Ken Long Room, 250 S.
32nd Street, Springfield; July 23, Harris Hall 25 E. 8th Avenue,
Eugene; and August 20, in Harris Hall. All sessions are 5:30 pm
on Tuesdays.
• Eugene’s 4J School Board will be choosing a
replacement for Evangelina Sundgrenz, who resigned. May
we humbly recommend that the board pick an applicant who
is trusted by the conservative folks in our community? The
quoted as calling it a pile of shit.”
Robertson and Danielle Moser, the group’s wildlife
coordinator, say that in addition to the concern that
conflict prevention was not given a priority, two other
big issues they say were “for the most part discarded”
in the plan are how low the threshold is for killing
wolves and the opening of the door for hunting wolves.
Congressman Peter DeFazio shares the latter
concern. He tweeted out on June 8: “Yesterday, ODFW
approved a plan to allow untrained hunters to assist
in predator control measures, giving Wildlife Services
even more unchecked authority than they already
have. This plan puts both animals and humans at risk,
and I stand firmly in opposition to it.”
Under the new plan, the state can kill wolves in
Oregon after two confirmed attacks during a nine-
month period. Previously, lethal measures could only
be taken on Oregon’s eastside and there was not a set
time period for the attacks.
Oregon’s first wolf plan was written in 2005, before
wolves had returned to the state, and updated in 2010.
There are now about 137 wolves in Oregon, most of
them in the eastern portion of the state. Wolves are
native to Oregon.
In a news release the Fish and Wildlife Commission,
referring to hunting as “controlled take,” says, “Use of
controlled take as a management tool requires commission
approval through a separate public rulemaking process”
and “the definition of controlled take was modified.”
ODFW also says “non-lethal measures to prevent
wolf-livestock conflict continue to be emphasized” and
are “required before any lethal control is considered.”
A spokeserson for Brown tells Eugene Weekly “As
she communicated to the director of ODFW last month,
the plan should give no member of the public the
opportunity to hunt wolves. But as approved, the wolf
plan opens the door to that possibility.”
Robertson says in response to the governor’s
misgivings, “If you don’t like it, what are you going to
do about it?”
He adds, “If she doesn’t do anything about it, then it
shows that she can just be rolled by her own agency.” ■
ODFW says the full plan will be posted at dfw.state.or.us/wolves.
quality of public education in Eugene has been strong because
all political persuasions have supported it and we don’t want to
lose that.
• All Republican state senators and four Democrats recently
voted down Senate Bill 2014 in Salem. Lee Beyers, labor
Democrat from Springfield, was one of the “no” votes. Shemia
Fagan, a gutsy new Dem senator from Portland, co-carried the
bill and closed with a passionate appeal for the Senate to restore
the constitutional right to a jury trial rather than a government-
imposed restriction on what juries can award to victims of
sexual abuse and catastrophic injury. Big pharma, big health
care and big insurance won this round, but the fight is not over.
• A preview and celebration of the Oregon Country Fair
brought a happy crowd to the courtyard of the Lane County
History Museum on Saturday afternoon, June 8. The museum is
showing an exhibit about the fair for its 50th birthday this year,
July 12, 13 and 14. Tall puppets, familiar fair music, wonderful
costumes were all there with Cynthia Wooten, one of the fair
founders, presiding over an opening ceremony. It was announced
that OCF has been designated an Oregon Heritage Tradition,
which “recognizes events more than 50 years old that represent
what it means to be an Oregonian.” Quite a cultural mix, these
events include the Portland Rose Festival, Pendleton Round-Up,
Oregon State Fair, Bohemia Mining Days in Cottage Grove and
the Scandinavian Festival in Junction City — about 20 events
total.
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