NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
A2
Saturday, September 4, 2021
Wolves kill calf
north of Durkee
Biologists said the
calf was killed late
Aug. 29 or early
the following day
Baker City Herald
BA K ER CI T Y —
Wolves from the Lookout
Mountain Pack have killed
another calf in eastern
Baker County, the Oregon
Department of Fish and
Wildlife reported on Tues-
day, Aug. 31.
Wolves from that pack
have killed four head of live-
stock and injured two others
since mid July, according to
ODFW depredation inves-
tigations.
Those attacks prompted
ODFW Director Cur t
Melcher to issue a permit
on July 31 allowing the live-
stock owners, their desig-
nated agents or ODFW
employees to kill up to
four subadult wolves from
the pack, not including its
breeding pair.
On Aug. 1, Fish and
Wildlife employees shot and
killed two wolf pups, part of
the litter of seven pups that
the breeding pair produced
this spring.
The permit, the first
ODFW had issued since
2018, was set to expire Aug.
21. But after Fish and Wild-
found the carcass of a
600-pound calf in a 2,800-
acre pasture that includes
a mixture of public and
private land. The site is in
the Lawrence Creek area
northeast of Durkee. All of
the wolf depredations have
been in that general vicinity.
The carcass was partially
consumed but most of the
hide was intact, according
to an ODFW report.
Biologists found a strug-
gle scene with broken vege-
tation and a blood trail
leading about 25 yards to
the carcass, along with wolf
tracks.
Biologists examined the
calf and found numerous
premorten tooth scrapes
on both rear legs above the
hock, and on the left front
leg near the elbow, with
tissue damage up to 1-1/2
inches deep.
The location and size of
the wounds are consistent
with wolf attacks on cattle,
according to the ODFW
report.
Biologists estimated the
calf was killed late Aug. 29
or early the following day.
life biologists confirmed
that Lookout Mountain
wolves killed a calf on Aug.
19, the agency extended the
permit through Sept. 14. The
permit does not add to the
number of wolves that can
be killed. The limit remains
at four, meaning no more
than two additional subadult
wolves from the pack can
be killed, following the two
pups killed Aug. 1.
As of Sept. 1, no wolves
had been killed since the
two on Aug. 1, according to
ODFW.
Oregon Department of
Fish and Wildlife biologists
believe the pack consists of
the breeding pair, two year-
lings born in the spring of
2020, and the five remain-
ing pups from this spring’s
litter.
The most recent depre-
dation was reported the
morning of Aug. 30, when
a rancher checking cattle
Forecast for Pendleton Area
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TODAY
SUNDAY
MONDAY
TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY
Mostly sunny
Mostly sunny
Pleasant with
plenty of sunshine
Partly sunny
Mostly sunny and
pleasant
86° 59°
86° 61°
PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
86° 60°
91° 65°
84° 59°
HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
92° 61°
89° 60°
90° 54°
93° 65°
OREGON FORECAST
87° 60°
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
71/59
82/53
86/56
Longview
Kennewick Walla Walla
86/64
Lewiston
81/60
88/60
Astoria
70/57
Pullman
Yakima 85/56
77/58
89/59
Portland
Hermiston
84/61
The Dalles 89/60
Salem
Corvallis
79/57
Yesterday
Normals
Records
La Grande
86/51
PRECIPITATION
John Day
Eugene
Bend
87/56
88/50
90/50
Ontario
89/51
Caldwell
Burns
85°
44°
86°
52°
101° (1950) 36° (1932)
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
82/56
0.00"
0.00"
0.03"
1.93"
1.66"
5.34"
WINDS (in mph)
87/47
89/41
0.00"
0.00"
0.04"
4.37"
8.68"
8.69"
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Pendleton 84/48
87/58
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
86/59
89/62
82°
48°
84°
54°
104° (1930) 31° (1892)
PRECIPITATION
Moses
Lake
78/58
Aberdeen
82/57
84/62
Tacoma
Yesterday
Normals
Records
Spokane
Wenatchee
76/61
Today
Boardman
Pendleton
Medford
94/57
Sun.
SW 4-8
WNW 4-8
WSW 7-14
W 6-12
SUN AND MOON
Klamath Falls
86/42
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Sunrise today
Sunset tonight
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Moonset today
6:20 a.m.
7:27 p.m.
3:15 a.m.
6:52 p.m.
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Sep 28
Jim Ward/Contributed Photo
A cow elk licks her calf in this undated photo. A study at the Starkey Project, about 28 miles
from La Grande, is helping to determine if climate change is hurting Rocky Mountain elk repro-
duction by leaving less time in the spring and early summer to build up fat reserves, which are
critical for having successful pregnancies and producing the milk needed to raise their calves.
Biologists research how climate
change may be impacting elk
By DICK MASON
The Observer
STARKEY — Rocky
Mountain elk in Northeast-
ern Oregon may fall prey to
climate change.
U.S. Forest Ser vice
research biologist Mike
Wisdom and Casey Brown,
a research biologist with the
Oregon Department of Fish
and Wildlife, are among a
growing number of people
who are concerned about the
role climate change is play-
ing in nature. Wisdom and
Brown are helping conduct a
Starkey Project study aimed at
determining if climate change
will hurt Rocky Mountain elk
reproduction.
The study is not complete
and intensive data analysis
remains to be done, but its
preliminary findings indi-
cate that climate change
could cause elk populations
to decline in Northeastern
Oregon and other areas.
“We are def i n itely
concerned,” Wisdom said.
The reason for the worry
is that rising temperatures
resulting from climate change
are reducing the amount of
time quality vegetation is
available to elk.
“The nutrition window for
elk is shifting,” Wisdom said.
“It is more compressed.”
Climate change’s
impact
Wisdom said cow elk now
have less time in the spring
and early summer to build up
fat reserves, which are crit-
ical for having successful
pregnancies and producing
the milk needed to raise their
calves.
“Lactating females have
higher energy demands and
thus are more sensitive to
climate change,” he said.
Brown said in the past the
most nutritious vegetation
available to elk, grasses and
forbs flush with new growth,
Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states)
NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
reserves needed for successful
pregnancies and lactation.
Groundbreaking work
Biologists understand how
changing weather patterns
impact the growth of grasses
and forbs because of exten-
sive studies conducted at the
Starkey Project site in the
1990s by Coe and research
biologist Bruce Johnson,
now both retired. The biolo-
gists measured plant growth
at plots there throughout the
year and determined how
changes in temperature and
precipitation in the region
impacted it.
The plant study conducted
in the 1990s by Coe and John-
son was followed by Brown
and Coe’s study from 2015
to 2019. Brown and Coe
measured plant growth at the
same plots used in the 1990s
study.
The Starkey Project, based
at a 25,000-acre fenced facil-
ity, is a joint wildlife research
project conducted by the
Oregon Department of Fish
and Wildlife and the U.S.
Forest Service at the Star-
key Experimental Forest and
Range, 28 miles southwest of
La Grande.
The project is designed
to measure the population
response of deer and elk to the
intensively managed forests
and rangelands of the future.
Research at the Starkey Proj-
ect began in 1989.
Research at the Starkey
Project is one reason scien-
tists understand how critical
it is for cow elk to develop fat
reserves needed for success-
ful pregnancies and to raise
their young. The Starkey
Project site is one of the
places that body fat levels
of cow elk were measured
during a study by John and
Rachel Cook, a husband and
wife team of biologists who
were working for the National
Council for Air and Stream
Improvement.
IN BRIEF
NATIONAL EXTREMES
High 107° in Palm Springs, Calif. Low 24° in Stanley, Idaho
were available in Northeast-
ern Oregon from early spring
to early summer. This vegeta-
tion now is available on a less
nutritious — but still valuable
level — from early summer
to mid-summer, followed by
a brown period when there
is little precipitation, from
mid-July through the fall, a
time when most of the vegeta-
tion available is dried out and
offers little nutritional value.
Today, the best forage for
elk is available for about two
fewer weeks than before, and
the “brown” periods runs
three to four weeks longer.
“There is now a more
pronounced period of low
precipitation during the
summer and fall,” said
Wisdom, co-project leader
of the Starkey Project with
Darren Clark of the Oregon
Department of Fish and Wild-
life.
Brown anticipated, when
she and research biologist
Priscilla Coe started their
plant study at Starkey in 2015,
they would find less forage
was available to elk than
three decades ago. But she
was surprised by how much
it had decreased.
“It was greater than I
thought it would be,” she said.
Rising temperatures are
impacting vegetation growth
for a number of reasons,
Brown said. Snowpacks in
mountains are melting earlier
and faster each winter and
early spring. Previously,
snowpacks would melt slowly,
allowing rivers and streams to
maintain strong flows longer.
“Wi nter snow pack s
before provided a steady,
slow delivery of water to the
region during the spring and
summer,” Wisdom said.
Slow melts of winter snow
meant moisture needed for
the growth of grasses and
forbs was available longer,
giving cow elk more time to
consume them and develop fat
Workers ‘take cover’ near
Hanford nuclear reservation
HANFORD — Workers in the 200 West
Area at the center of the Hanford nuclear
reservation were ordered to take cover for
almost four hours Wednesday, Sept. 1.
Access to the site was restricted and the
Rattlesnake Barricade secure entrance to the
site was closed as a precaution. No action
was necessary for the public, according to
the Department of Energy.
The take cover order was issued after two
work crews at the REDOX facility in the
200 West Area noticed an unusual odor, said
Hanford officials.
During a take cover alert, workers are
told to go inside the nearest facility and close
windows and doors.
No radiation or chemical contamina-
tion above background levels was detected
and about 11 a.m. some workers were being
allowed to leave the buildings.
The take cover order for workers closest
to the REDOX plant was lifted about noon.
No injuries were reported, and Hanford
workers who smelled the odors were encour-
aged to visit Hanford’s onsite medical
provider if they have concerns.
Some Hanford workers have reported seri-
ous respiratory and neurological illnesses
they suspect are linked to exposure to chem-
ical vapors after smelling odors where waste
from Hanford’s defunct reprocessing plants
is stored in underground tanks.
The two crews who reported the odors
were doing work outside the REDOX plant.
One was there with well drilling equip-
ment, and the other crew was using equipment
at ground level to scan for buried materials in
preparation for excavation work, according to
Hanford officials.
— Tri-City Herald
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