A3
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, MARCH 11, 2019
Federal plan to delist wolves draws mixed reactions
Some describe the
move as political
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
A proposal to lift endan-
gered species protections
for gray wolves across the
Lower 48 states is infl aming
old tensions between North-
west ranchers and wildlife
advocates.
Acting Secretary of the
Interior David Bernhardt
announced last week that
the U.S. Fish and Wild-
life Service will soon come
up with a plan for delisting
wolves, returning manage-
ment to states and tribes.
“Recovery of the gray
wolf under the Endan-
gered Species Act is one our
nation’s great conservation
successes, with the wolf
joining other cherished spe-
cies, such as the bald eagle,
that have been brought back
from the brink with the help
of the ESA,” said Fish and
Wildlife spokesman Gavin
Shire.
Jerome Rosa, execu-
tive director of the Ore-
gon Cattlemen’s Associa-
tion, said the announcement
confi rms that wolf recov-
ery is on track, and gives
ranchers in w estern Oregon
more ability to address con-
fl icts between wolves and
livestock.
“Hopefully this will add
more tools for our ranch-
ers in the rest of the state to
control this species that is
really growing at a success-
ful rate,” Rosa said.
The Oregon Depart-
ment of Fish and Wildlife
removed wolves from the
state Endangered Species
List in 2015, allowing for
wildlife managers in East-
ern Oregon to kill wolves
that repeatedly attack live-
stock under certain circum-
stances, as defi ned in the
state Wolf Conservation and
Management Plan.
Wolves remain feder-
ally protected, however,
west of highways 395, 78
and 95, limiting ranchers
to non lethal forms of deter-
rence such as range riders
and fl adry — lines of rope
mounted along fence lines
with colored fl ags that fl ap
in the wind, intended to
scare wolves from pastures.
Veril Nelson, a south-
west Oregon rancher, serves
as co-chairman on the cat-
tlemen’s association wolf
committee. He said local
producers need the abil-
ity to kill problem wolves
that repeatedly prey on
cows, citing the Rogue pack
near Crater Lake that has
notched multiple confi rmed
attacks on livestock over
the past year in Jackson and
Klamath counties.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
OR-7 trots past a trail camera carrying what a wildlife biologist said is an elk leg in the southern Oregon Cascades.
“With that wolf pack,
killing has become habit-
ual,” Nelson said. “They’re
going to keep doing that.”
Department of Fish and
Wildlife
spokeswoman
Michelle Dennehy said that,
if wolves are delisted, the
Oregon wolf plan would
apply statewide. Western
Oregon would begin in Phase
I of management rules, which
requires four confi rmed
attacks on livestock within
a six-month period before
the agency will even con-
sider killing wolves from an
offending pack.
Eastern Oregon is in
Phase III of the plan, which
requires just two confi rmed
attacks over any given
time period. And Dennehy
is quick to add that, just
because those qualifi ca-
tions are met, does not mean
lethal take is automatic.
“There are other consid-
erations,” Dennehy said.
“Non lethal (deterrents) must
be in effect, but not work-
ing, for any lethal control
authorization.”
At last count, Oregon had
a minimum of 124 wolves at
the end of 2017. The 2018
annual wolf report and pop-
ulation estimate will not be
available until April, Den-
nehy said.
east corner of the state. Scott
Nielsen, president of the
Stevens County Cattlemen’s
Association, said cattlemen
are pleased to see a potential
delisting at the federal level,
but issues still remain with
Fish and Wildlife Service’s
proposal to delist wolves,
describing it as premature.
“Given that gray wolves
in the Lower 48 states
occupy such a small per-
centage of their historical
‘HOPEFULLY THIS WILL ADD MORE TOOLS
FOR OUR RANCHERS IN THE REST OF THE
STATE TO CONTROL THIS SPECIES THAT IS
REALLY GROWING AT A SUCCESSFUL RATE.’
Jerome Rosa, executive director of the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association
The Department of Fish
and Wildlife is also in the
process of updating its wolf
plan, which is now four
years past due. A draft plan
will be released sometime
this month, Dennehy said,
though the Oregon Fish and
Wildlife Commission has
not yet scheduled a public
hearing and fi nal vote on the
changes.
In Washington, the state
has 22 wolf packs, mostly
concentrated in the north-
how the Washington Depart-
ment of Fish and Wildlife
handles wolf attacks and
investigations.
“This has been really
hard on the ranchers,” he
said. “I am highly critical
of WDFW. I’ve watched
what they’ve done and how
they’ve done it, and I feel
betrayed by them.”
Meanwhile,
environ-
mental groups slammed the
habitat, it is almost laugh-
able for the Fish and Wild-
life Service to determine
that they are successfully
recovered,” said John Mell-
gren, an attorney with the
Western
Environmental
Law Center.
“On its face, this appears
to be politically moti-
vated,” Mellgren said. “We
look forward to reviewing
the draft delisting rule, and
look forward to taking the
Fish and Wildlife Service to
court should its proposal not
be based on what the sci-
ence tells us.”
Collette Adkins, a senior
attorney at the Center for
Biological Diversity, said
delisting would essentially
be a death sentence for gray
wolves across the country.
“The Trump administra-
tion is dead set on appeasing
special interests that want to
kill wolves,” Adkins said.
“We’re working hard to stop
them.”
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IT’S
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