NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
A2
Friday, February 21, 2020
ODFW confirms wolves killed rancher’s bull near Sparta
Numerous wolf
tracks found near
steer’s carcass
By JAYSON JACOBY
EO Media Group
BAKER CITY — A state
wildlife biologist concluded
that wolves killed a Baker
County rancher’s 2-year-old
bull and probably also killed a
yearling steer last week in the
snowbound Wallowa Moun-
tains northeast of Baker City.
Mib Dailey, who lives near
Sparta, about 25 miles north-
east of Baker City, said the
bull and steer, along with two
other bulls and one cow from
his herd, had been stranded in
the Eagle Creek area over the
winter.
The animals didn’t turn
up last fall when he was gath-
ering his herd from summer
pasture in the mountains,
where he runs 250 cow-calf
pairs.
Dailey said he has been
looking for the missing ani-
mals, and about a week ago he
found them on the west side
of Eagle Creek near Puzzle
Creek. That’s between Eagle
Forks and Martin Bridge,
about 2 miles north of Sparta.
Dailey said a friend had
been hauling hay to the cat-
tle using a side-by-side ATV,
as the 30 or so inches of snow
made it impossible to reach
Contributed photo
A state wildlife biologist concluded that wolves killed a Baker County rancher’s 2-year-old
bull and probably also killed a yearling steer last week in the snowbound Wallowa Mountains
northeast of Baker City.
the area in a truck and trailer.
Dailey said he also brought
in a bulldozer to plow some
of the snow from a road, with
the goal of leading the cattle
back to a main road where he
could load them in a trailer
and drive them back to his
ranch.
Dailey said his friend
delivered hay to the cattle
late in the afternoon of Feb.
12. All five animals were
together at that time, Dailey
said.
When his friend returned
with more hay on Saturday,
Feb. 15, he found the carcass
of the steer and the 2-year-old
bull with severe wounds.
Dailey went to the site
the next morning, Sunday,
Feb. 16. His son, Shondo, put
down the bull due to the ani-
mal’s severe wounds.
Dailey said the bull was
worth about $2,500.
He put the 600-pound
steer’s value at around $1,000.
Justin Primus, assistant
district biologist at ODFW’s
Baker City office, investi-
gated the case and examined
the bull’s carcass on Sunday.
In his report confirming
that wolves killed the bull,
Primus wrote that “fresh
wolf tracks were found at
Forecast for Pendleton Area
TODAY
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TUESDAY
the scene.”
He estimated that the
bull had been attacked three
to four days earlier, which
would put the attack one or
two days after Dailey’s friend
had last brought hay to the
cattle.
Primus, in examining the
bull’s carcass, found numer-
ous “bite scrapes” and mus-
cle tissue trauma up to 9 by 6
inches across and 3 inches in
depth. The number, location
and direction of the bites and
the associated depth of inju-
ries on the bull are consistent
with other confirmed wolf
attack injuries on cows.
Sunshine mixing
with some clouds
53° 31°
54° 38°
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PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
57° 35°
53° 30°
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HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
53° 29°
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53° 32°
OREGON FORECAST
ALMANAC
Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.
PENDLETON
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Seattle
Olympia
52/39
47/31
50/27
Longview
Kennewick Walla Walla
50/34
Lewiston
57/36
52/28
Astoria
51/36
Pullman
Yakima 48/28
55/35
53/33
Portland
Hermiston
56/36
The Dalles 53/29
Salem
Corvallis
56/32
Yesterday
Normals
Records
La Grande
45/28
Bend
56/33
58/28
53/29
Ontario
46/23
Caldwell
Burns
0.00"
0.12"
0.69"
0.36"
3.00"
1.97"
WINDS (in mph)
47/24
48/22
Today
64/34
Sat.
E 3-6
NNE 4-8
Boardman
Pendleton
Medford
WNW 3-6
WNW 6-12
SUN AND MOON
Klamath Falls
57/24
Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2020
Sunrise today
Sunset tonight
Moonrise today
Moonset today
6:49 a.m.
5:30 p.m.
6:13 a.m.
3:35 p.m.
New
First
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Mar 2
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Mar 16
NATIONAL EXTREMES
Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states)
High 90° in Immokalee, Fla. Low -38° in Cotton, Minn.
NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.
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E AST O REGONIAN
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Copyright © 2020, EO Media Group
PORTLAND — People
keep moving into Oregon
— and relatively few are
leaving.
Newly released census
data shows Oregon had the
nation’s 10th-fastest rate of
net migration from 2018 to
2019, growing at a rate of 6.9
per 1,000 residents. That’s
nearly four times faster than
the national rate.
Nearly all the new arriv-
als came from another part
of the U.S.; immigrants
accounted for less than 12%
of Oregon’s net migration.
The influx likely reflects
Oregon’s robust economy
and relatively low housing
costs, compared to Seattle
and the Bay Area.
The migration may also
reflect Oregon’s proxim-
ity to California, the larg-
est state by population in the
nation and also one of the
places people are leaving.
Oregon’s southern neighbor
had a net outmigration rate
of 3.3 last year.
Migrants have been
key to Oregon’s economic
growth, bringing educated
workers with skills the state
hasn’t developed on its own.
Population growth brings
challenges, too, of course,
chief among them more
competition for housing and
more vehicles on the state’s
roads.
Oregon’s
population
grew by just over 10% from
2010 through 2019, accord-
ing to census data, 11th-fast-
est in the nation during
that stretch. Migration
accounted for three-quar-
ters of that growth.
Still, Oregon economists
worry migration may actu-
ally be slowing, with poten-
tially serious consequences
for the state.
“Oregon’s stronger long-
run economic growth his-
torically is tied to migration
and faster working-age pop-
ulation gains,” state econo-
mists wrote in the quarterly
revenue forecast released
Wednesday. “The primary
risk to the local outlook is
the available labor supply,
particularly as recent pop-
ulation estimates indicate
migration is slowing more
than expected.”
PRECIPITATION
John Day
Eugene
50°
17°
50°
29°
67° (1982) 15° (2018)
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
Albany
56/31
0.00"
2.01"
0.82"
4.03"
3.79"
2.20"
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Pendleton 45/28
56/32
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
HERMISTON
Enterprise
53/31
54/32
51°
23°
48°
30°
69° (1982) 7° (1957)
PRECIPITATION
Moses
Lake
54/35
Aberdeen
46/27
44/30
Tacoma
Yesterday
Normals
Records
Spokane
Wenatchee
54/40
era images of wolves, tracks
found by biologists, as well as
reports from residents.
The Keating pack wolves
have roamed this winter over
an area from roughly Eagle
Forks north into the Eagle
Cap Wilderness and west to
near Medical Springs, Rat-
liff said.
Ratliff said the pack had at
least two pups last year.
None of the wolves has
been captured and fitted with
a tracking collar, however, so
ODFW can’t monitor the ani-
mals’ movements in detail.
One of the wolves appears
to have an injured left hind
leg.
Ratliff said biologists have
found wolf tracks this winter
that were likely made by an
animal with an injured leg.
Kylee Simonis of Baker
City, who said he had four
trail cams set up earlier this
winter about 6 to 8 miles
from where Dailey’s cat-
tle were attacked, captured a
video of two wolves, one of
which trots past the camera
with a gait clearly affected by
its left hind leg.
Simonis said he shared
that video and other images
of wolves in the area with
ODFW.
Dailey’s two other bulls
and the cow were not injured,
and he said Wednesday
morning he hoped to bring
that trio back to his ranch
later in the day.
Oregon growing at 4 times national rate
By MIKE ROGOWAY
The Oregonian
Sunny to partly
cloudy
Primus said he deemed
it “probable” rather than
“confirmed” that wolves
also attacked the steer only
because the steer’s carcass
had been mostly consumed,
with no muscle tissue remain-
ing to allow him to examine
wounds in the same detail as
with the bull.
“The steer was largely
consumed, and only a small
piece of the hide, skull and
pelvis remained,” Primus
wrote.
He did find numerous wolf
tracks near the steer’s carcass,
as well as tooth scrapes up to
1/4-inch in diameter and up
to 3 inches long on the steer’s
hide. Those marks “appeared
to be postmortem,” Primus
wrote in his report.
Given the bull and the steer
had been traveling together,
and that he confirmed wolves
had attacked the bull, Pri-
mus said even in the absence
of wounds to examine on
the steer he could conclude
it’s “probable” that wolves
attacked both animals.
“The steer died at the
same location and time as the
injuries to the bull occurred,”
he wrote in his report.
Specifically wolves from
the Keating pack, which
ODFW believes consists of
at least six wolves, said Brian
Ratliff, district biologist at the
agency’s Baker City office.
Ratliff said that tally is
based on ODFW trail cam-
70s
80s
90s
100s
warm front stationary front
110s
high
low
BRIEFLY
Oregon denies pipeline permit
before federal decision
PORTLAND — Oregon’s Department of
Land Conservation and Development says a
proposed liquefied natural gas export terminal
in Coos Bay would have significant adverse
effects on the state’s coastal scenic and aes-
thetic resources, endangered species and crit-
ical habitat.
The Oregonian/OregonLive reported that
in a letter Wednesday to backers of the Jor-
dan Cove Energy Project, agency director
Jim Rue said neither the Federal Energy Reg-
ulatory Commission nor the Army Corps of
Engineers “can grant a license or permit for
this project unless the U.S. Secretary of Com-
merce overrides this objection on appeal.”
The decision on one of the key state per-
mits for the project is a rebuke that comes just
before the Federal Energy Regulatory Com-
mission is scheduled to issue a final envi-
ronmental analysis on the project, approving
or denying its primary federal license. The
Trump administration is a supporter of energy
export projects in general, and Jordan Cove in
particular.
The proposed natural gas terminal and a
230-mile feeder pipeline would permit ship-
ment of natural gas from the United States and
Canada to Asia and would be the West Coast’s
first liquefied natural gas export terminal.
The Oregon Department of Environmen-
tal Quality has already denied a water qual-
ity certification for the Jordan Cove natural
gas export project proposed by Pembina, the
Canadian energy company. Pembina with-
drew its application for a different state per-
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mit and said that it awaits a final determination
by the federal commission. Its three current
members were all appointed by Trump.
Eight arrested in police
search of College Place home
COLLEGE PLACE, Wash. — Eight people
are in custody after police spotted a theft sus-
pect’s vehicle Wednesday afternoon at a home
in the 200 block of West Whitman Drive.
Walla Walla police were investigating a sus-
pect who stole from Sportsman’s Warehouse,
College Place Police Chief Troy Tomaras said.
A College Place officer saw the suspect’s
alleged vehicle at the 220 W. Whitman Drive
home just before 2:20 p.m. and notified Walla
Walla police and Walla Walla County Sher-
iff’s Office deputies, as they knew several
people were inside, Tomaras said.
One man came out after police surrounded
the home and was taken into custody after
resisting arrest, but two tried escaping out the
back. They were arrested, too, the chief said.
“We had to surround the home because
people wouldn’t come out,” Tomaras said.
Tomaras said police used a loudspeaker to
call the remaining occupants, who came out
after a time, he said, and were arrested with-
out incident.
Tomaras said arrests were for investigation
of various crimes, including warrants, but he
didn’t have details yet. He also didn’t know
yet who those arrested were, but would know
more when officers completed their search, as
the investigation was underway.
— Walla Walla Union-Bulletin
and wire services
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