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THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, APRIL 24, 2021
New report shows wolf population continues to grow
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
SALEM — Oregon’s gray wolf popula-
tion continued to climb in 2020, with at least
173 individuals documented by year’s end,
according to state wildlife offi cials.
The Oregon Department of Fish and
Wildlife released its annual Wolf Conser-
vation and Management report Wednesday,
which includes a minimum known count
based on verifi ed evidence such as tracks,
sightings and remote camera photographs.
The 2020 population showed a 9.5%
increase over the end of 2019, when the state
recorded at least 158 wolves.
Wolves started returning to Oregon in
1999 following campaigns decades earlier
to eradicate the species across the West. The
Wenaha Pack was the fi rst to become rees-
tablished in the far northeast corner of Ore-
gon in 2008, and the population has been
slowly but steadily rising every year over
the past decade.
“While Northeast Oregon continues to
host the majority of the state’s wolf popu-
lation, dispersal to other parts of Oregon
and adjacent states continues,” said Roblyn
Brown, the Department of Fish and Wild-
life’s wolf program coordinator.
A total of 22 packs were also documented
in 2020, the same number as in 2019. Of
those, 17 qualifi ed as breeding pairs, having
an adult male and adult female with at least
two pups that survived to Dec. 31.
Under the department’s wolf plan, man-
agement is divided into eastern and western
zones. In Eastern Oregon, wolves now fall
under p hase III of the plan, which means the
population has reached at least seven breed-
ing pairs for three consecutive years.
West of highways 395, 78 and 95, wolves
are still under p hase I of the plan, and will
not move into p hase II until there are four
breeding pairs for three consecutive years.
The diff erent phases determine how local
wildlife biologists and ranchers may respond
to wolves that habitually prey on livestock
— a standard known as chronic depredation.
Chronic depredation in p hase I is defi ned
as four confi rmed attacks on livestock in six
months, after which the Department of Fish
and Wildlife can consider killing problem
wolves. In p hases II and III, chronic depre-
dation changes to two confi rmed kills in nine
months.
All phases require ranchers to use non-
lethal deterrents to haze wolves away from
their herds, such as range riders, fl ashing
lights or alarm boxes.
ODFW confi rmed 31 livestock depreda-
tions in 2020, up 94% from 2019. However,
16 of those were attributed to the Rogue
Pack, whose range straddles Jackson and
Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife
Oregon’s gray wolf population continued to climb in 2020, with at least 173 individuals documented by year’s end, according to state wildlife offi cials.
‘WHILE NORTHEAST OREGON CONTINUES TO
HOST THE MAJORITY OF THE STATE’S WOLF
POPULATION, DISPERSAL TO OTHER PARTS OF
OREGON AND ADJACENT STATES CONTINUES.’
Roblyn Brown | state wolf program coordinator
Klamath counties in southwest Oregon.
While the Department of Fish and Wild-
life removed wolves from the state endan-
gered species list in 2015, gray wolves
remained federally protected in w estern
Oregon during all of 2020.
Over the course of 99 days between July
30 and Nov. 25, the department partnered
with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and
USDA Wildlife Services to limit depreda-
tions by the Rogue Pack, including coordi-
nated nighttime patrols to haze wolves out of
livestock pastures in the Wood River Valley.
“The personnel costs of this collaboration
were signifi cant during the four months,”
Brown said. “We appreciate the work of our
partners and all livestock producers for their
eff orts to co exist with wolves.”
Despite those eff orts, wolves continued to
prey on cattle in the area.
Ranchers may be compensated for
wolf-livestock losses from the Oregon
Department of Agriculture’s Wolf Depreda-
tion Compensation and Financial Assistance
Grant Program. The department awarded
$251,529 to 12 counties in 2020, up from
$178,319 awarded in 2019. The program
also helps pay for purchasing and imple-
menting non-lethal deterrents.
Gray wolves were offi cially removed
from the federal Endangered Species Act
across the Lower 48 states in January under
a rule fi nalized by the Trump administration.
Six environmental groups have since sued to
overturn the delisting.
Sristi Kamal, senior Oregon representa-
tive for the group Defenders of Wildlife, said
increasing wolf numbers are encouraging,
though long-term recovery is still depen-
dent on addressing multiple threats includ-
ing poaching and pushes for predator con-
trol measures.
“We have an opportunity in Oregon to
ensure habitat connectivity and establish a
landscape where wolves and people are both
able to fl ourish,” Kamal said in a statement.
“Defenders of Wildlife is committed to
working with agency staff , landowners and
ranchers to make this happen.”
There were seven human-caused wolf
mortalities in Oregon in 2020, according to
the Department of Fish and Wildlife . One
wolf was hit by a vehicle on Interstate 84,
and another was hit by a boat while swim-
ming across the Snake River.
Four wolves were illegally poached, and
three cases are still under investigation.
The breeding male of the Ruckel Ridge
Pack was shot in Umatilla County in May.
The breeding male of the Cornucopia Pack
was shot in September in Baker County. A
subadult wolf, believed to be from the Pine
Creek Pack, was shot in October in Baker
County.
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