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East Oregonian
Friday, November 10, 2017
‘I screamed, pulled my rifle up and I shot’
By ERIC MORTENSON
EO Media Group
The Oregon elk hunter who shot
a protected gray wolf believes he
would have been mauled or killed
if he hadn’t fired when it ran at him.
Brian Scott is being roasted on
social media and criticized by biol-
ogists and activists who question
his story. They’ve keyed in on the
bullet’s trajectory, which passed
through the wolf’s shoulders,
perhaps indicating it was standing
broadside to Scott instead of
running directly at him.
Scott said he can’t explain it and
doesn’t know if the wolf perhaps
veered sideways as he fired. Scott
said he has replayed the moment in
his mind countless times and always
concludes he did what he had to do.
“I’ve got to live with what I did
for the rest of my life,” Scott said in
an hour-long phone interview with
EO Media Group. “I killed a wolf.
It makes me almost nauseous to
think about that moment.
“I take no pride in this at all,”
he said. “The only thing I’m happy
about is I made it home to my wife
and children.”
Scott, 38, lives in Clackamas, a
suburb of Portland. He and his wife
have two elementary school-age
children and he owns a small busi-
ness. He said he has hunted since he
was a boy in Texas and described
himself as a “meat hunter,”
someone who eats what they kill.
On Oct. 27 he was on his third day
of hunting elk in ODFW’s Starkey
Wildlife Management Unit west of
La Grande, in Northeast Oregon.
Scott said he was in fog-shrouded
timber and intermittently saw
animals moving around him, but
wasn’t sure if he was seeing a
cougar, coyotes or something else.
He made his way out of the fog to
a ridge top and sat for perhaps 25
minutes, then walked out into a
meadow. Two wolves emerged from
the fog to his left, looked at him,
then headed in what he described as
a flanking move behind him. A third
wolf came running directly at him.
“I screamed, got it in my (scope)
crosshairs, saw fur and pulled the
trigger,” Scott said. He said he
whirled around, fearing the other
two would attack, but saw them
running away. He heard a fourth
wolf howl nearby, and believes a
pack was around him. ODFW has
not officially designated a pack in
that area; instead referring to it as
territory of a collared wolf known
as OR-30 and his mate. The wolf
Scott shot, an 83-pound female,
might be their offspring.
Badly shaken, Scott returned
to his hunting camp about a mile
away and told companions what
had happened. They went to the
site, confirmed it was a wolf and
Scott called Oregon State Police
and ODFW.
A casing from Scott’s 30.06
rifle was found 27 yards from the
carcass. The Union County district
attorney’s office in La Grande
reviewed the case and decided not
to press charges. An Oregon State
Police spokesman said evidence at
the scene backed Scott’s story and
said the fact that he self-reported
killing the wolf was “compelling.”
Scott, who was hunting alone at
the time, said he could have hidden
the wolf’s carcass and told his
companions back at camp that the
gunshot they heard was him firing
at an elk and missing.
“I feel like I did the right thing,”
he said. “I reported it immediately
and was ready to face public scru-
tiny.”
That has surely been the case.
On social media and in comments
to on-line news articles, posters
have called Scott a liar, coward and
an irresponsible hunter.
Carter Niemeyer, a retired U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service biologist
who is considered one of the
nation’s top wolf experts, said he
didn’t believe Scott’s story because
of the bullet’s path. “That’s a
broadside shot,” he told EO Media
Courtesy of ODFW
A 72-pound female wolf of the Minam Pack, after being radio-
collared on June 3.
Group.
He and others said wolves are
afraid of humans. People in such
situations should make their pres-
ence known, shout, throw things or,
if armed, fire a shot into the ground.
Niemeyer said people venturing
into the forest should carry bear
repellent spray, which would work
on wolves, cougars or coyotes.
Activists point out that wolves
have not harmed anyone since they
re-entered Oregon and the state
established a management plan. At
the end of 2016, ODFW confirmed
112 wolves in Oregon; the actual
number is presumed to be higher.
Rob Klavins, Northeast Oregon
representative for the conservation
group Oregon Wild, said he’s
encountered wolves several times
in Wallowa County without harm to
Steelhead super spawners
Applications sought for
John Day-Snake River RAC
East Oregonian
About 100 repeat spawners
released on Snake River
By ERIC BARKER
of the (Lewiston) Tribune
ILLIA — Wild B-run steelhead are
getting a needed boost from a program
that seeks to capitalize on the species’
ability to spawn more than once.
About 100 repeat spawners were
released below Lower Granite Dam on
the Snake River Monday, after spending
six to 18 months at the Nez Perce Tribal
Hatchery.
“The really important part of it
is these are wild fish,” said Doug
Hatch, a senior research scientist with
the Columbia River Inter-tribal Fish
Commission at Portland.
Steelhead are unique among
Columbia River anadromous fish in that
they don’t necessarily die after repro-
ducing. Females of the species have the
ability to make their way back to the
ocean to feed, regain strength and even-
tually repeat their spawning odyssey.
Those that do it are bigger and produce
as many as 50 percent more eggs than
first-time spawners.
About 50 percent of wild Snake
River steelhead become kelts — those
that attempt the post-spawn downstream
journey as adults. But almost none of
them make it. Hatch said only about
0.4 percent of any given Snake River
steelhead run is comprised of repeat
spawners.
The commission, along with the Nez
Perce Tribe and the University of Idaho,
operates a program that seeks to boost
wild steelhead numbers by helping
kelts become repeat spawners. Instead
of letting the fish fend for themselves
while trying to reach the ocean, they are
intercepted and taken to the hatchery at
Cherrylane to be reconditioned.
The fish released Tuesday were in
beautiful shape, but when biologists
plucked them from a fish trap at Lower
Granite Dam in the spring of 2016 they
were skinny and haggard. They’d just
spent about half a year in fresh water.
To reach their spawning grounds, they
escaped sea lions on the lower Columbia
River, climbed concrete ladders at eight
his hiking party or his dogs, which
he keeps on leash in wolf territory.
“This person may have felt
fear, but since wolves returned to
Oregon no one has so much as been
licked by a wolf, and that’s still true
today,” he said.
Derek Broman, an ODFW
carnivore biologist, said wolves
often travel in pairs or packs, and
seeing several together does not
necessarily mean they were in a
hunting formation.
He said wolves are “coursing”
hunters, meaning they take down
prey by chasing, repeatedly biting
and wearing down elk, deer or
cattle. They will approach stealthily
and charge, seeking to attack in
habitat that allows them to move
easily, Broman said.
Broman said animals in the wild
usually avoid people, and wolf
attacks on humans are extremely
rare. People faced with a wolf
should not run, he said, because
that would trigger an innate, evolu-
tionary chase response.
Animals have evolved to recog-
nize certain prey, and humans are
“something completely different”
to predators, he said.
“On a minute-by-minute basis,
wildlife is trying to survive,”
Broman said. “If they don’t have
a 90 percent chance of success,
they’re not going to give it a go.
Cougars are so powerful they could
do anything, but they don’t.
“For a wolf to come near is
not totally unheard of, and it’s not
necessarily concerning,” he said.
“We don’t know what the animal
was keying in on, or if it was keying
in on anything at all.”
Scott said critics should put
themselves in his shoes.
“I felt I had run out of time,” he
said. “I’m a dog owner, I grew up
on a ranch, I know how fast dogs
are. Twenty-seven yards gave me
seconds to react.”
Scott said he doesn’t demonize
wolves; he considers them majestic
animals. He said hunters and
others going into the wild should
be aware they are more likely now
to encounter wolves. He thinks
ODFW should do more to educate
the public, an effort that could
include posting warning signs at the
approaches to known pack territory.
In the meantime, he’s enduring
ridicule and doubt about his
account.
“This isn’t me sitting there
watching a wolf, taking a pot shot,
then panicking, calling up Oregon
State Police and making up an
absurd story,” he said.
“I was being charged by a wolf,”
he said. “The wolf is now dead
and I got to come home. Whether
people want to buy that or not, I
don’t care.”
Photo courtesy Eric Barker
Lewiston High School senior Sean Schumacher lifts one of about 100 wild
B-run steelhead released into the Snake River below Lower Granite Dam
Tuesday. The effort is part of Nez Perce Tribe, Columbia River Inter-tribal
Fish Commission and University of Idaho project to recondition female
steelhead so they can spawn a second time.
“The really
important part of it is
these are wild fish.”
— Doug Hatch,
Columbia River Inter-tribal Fish
Commission
dams and managed to avoid being
caught by thousands of anglers. They
battled each other for the best spawning
habitat, used their bodies to dig egg nests
in gravel and did it all without eating.
At the hatchery they were fed a diet
high in fat. Biologists monitored their
blood to determine when they were
ready to spawn again. The program
is one of the many steps the federal
government is taking to try to prevent
steelhead from going extinct.
Other actions include spilling water
at the dams to help juvenile steelhead
survive their trip to the ocean, improving
spawning habitat to make it more
productive and taking care to reduce
competition between fish that spawn
naturally and those raised in hatcheries.
Despite those steps, wild steelhead
remain in trouble. Predictions vary, but
according to some estimates as few as
800 wild B-run steelhead may return
to the Clearwater and Salmon rivers
this fall. Hatch said about 500 of those
may be female. So releasing the 100
reconditioned repeat spawners has the
ability to boost wild B-run spawners by
20 percent.
“Certainly in these down years
for steelhead, it’s a super safety net
program,” he said.
The program, which is limited by a
lack of available space at the hatchery, is
poised to get a boost. The captured kelts
are kept in two small circular tanks at
the hatchery. Plans are in the works to
construct a new building with six large
tanks, which will help meet program
target of releasing about 180 repeat
spawners annually.
“In the next year, we should have the
facility built and we can really attack the
project goals,” Hatch said.
———
Barker may be contacted at
ebarker@lmtribune.com or at (208)
848-2273. Follow him on Twitter @
ezebarker.
The Bureau of Land
Management is seeking
nominations for up to
nine positions on the John
Day-Snake River Resource
Advisory
Council,
a
citizen-based group that
provides guidance on
managing public lands for
multiple uses in the area.
The RAC boundaries
cover a wide swath of
central and Eastern Oregon,
including all public lands
within the BLM’s Prineville
and Vale district offices
as well as the Umatilla,
Wa l l o w a - W h i t m a n ,
Malheur, Ochoco and
Deschutes national forests.
Members of the RAC
meet three to four times
a year at different sites
around the region, working
to familiarize themselves
with issues such as wildfire
recovery, sage grouse
habitat, wild horse manage-
ment, land use designations
and other topics.
The RAC also provides
recommendations
on
new fee proposals for
recreational facilities on
Forest Service and BLM
land. Currently, the group
is working on proposals
for fee changes on both the
lower Deschutes River and
Hells Canyon Recreation
Area.
Open positions on the
RAC span three general
categories, including:
• Category 1 — public
land ranchers, energy and
mineral developers, timber
industry and commercial
recreation representatives.
• Category 2 — envi-
ronmental groups, archae-
ological and historical
organizations,
dispersed
recreation and wild horse
and burro advocates.
• Category 3 — state,
county or local elected
offices, state agencies, local
American Indian tribes,
academic institutions or the
public at large.
Individuals may nomi-
nate themselves or others to
serve on the RAC, though
representatives must be resi-
dents of Oregon or Wash-
ington, where the group has
jurisdiction. Applications
will be accepted through
Dec. 1.
For more information,
contact Lisa Clark at
541-416-6864 or email
lmclark@blm.gov.
Cougar alert in coastal tourist town
SEASIDE — When
neighbors
reported
a
possible cougar in Seaside
last week, Seaside Heights
Elementary
School
responded by moving
all
student
activities
inside. Pet owners at the
nearby Creekside Village
Apartments were advised
to keep their pets safe and
on leashes after several cats
were reported missing.
This week, the district is
back to normal activities,
based on advice from the
Oregon Department of Fish
and Wildlife.
“I also have not heard of
any sightings since our last
report.” said the principal.
The risk of danger to
students at school was
very low, Seaside School
District
Superintendent
Sheila
Roley
said.
“Cougars move through
areas in a few days as they
roam their territory,” she
said.