NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
A2
Thursday, September 16, 2021
Sheriff: Kill all wolves in Lookout Mountain Pack
were killed Aug. 1.
In a letter sent Monday,
Sept. 13, to ODFW Director
Curt Melcher, Ash wrote the
nonlethal measures several
ranchers have taken, includ-
ing firing guns to try to
By JAYSON JACOBY
frighten wolves away from
Baker City Herald
cattle, are failing.
“The financial burden,
BAKER CITY — Wolves
from the Lookout Mountain physical strain and exhaus-
Pack in eastern Baker County tion they are going through
killed a calf in the Lawrence in what has become a fruit-
Creek area north of Durkee less effort to keep the Look-
out Mountain Pack
last week, accord-
from killing their
ing to the Oregon
animals is extreme,”
Department of Fish
Ash wrote. “I believe
and Wildlife.
the most humane way
Baker Count y
of dealing with this
Sheriff Travis Ash is
problem wolf pack is
calling on the state
to remove the adult
agency to kill all
Ash
breeding pair that are
the wolves from that
teaching the negative
pack, citing an “unaccept- learned behavior of targeting
able” level of depredation on cattle to their offspring.”
livestock.
The most recent
Wolves from the pack conf ir med wolf attack
have killed five cattle and happened last week, when
injured two others since mid Fish and Wildlife employ-
July.
ees found a dead 600-pound
ODFW employees shot calf the morning of Sept. 9
and killed two wolf pups on a 2,800-acre pasture that
from the pack on Aug. 1, but includes private and public
the permit that authorized land.
that also prohibits the killing
Biologists who examined
of the pack’s breeding pair.
the carcass estimated the
Fish and Wildlife biolo- calf died the night of Sept.
gists believe the pack consists 7. The carcass was partially
of the breeding pair, two consumed but most of the
yearlings born in the spring hide was intact, according
of 2020, and the five remain- to an ODFW investigation
ing pups from this spring’s report.
Biologists skinned the
litter of seven, two of which
Lookout Mountain
Pack killed another
calf last week in
Baker County
Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife/Contributed Photo
A trail cam photo from May 30, 2021, of one of the two yearling wolves in the Lookout Moun-
tain Pack. Wolves from the pack in eastern Baker County killed a calf in the Lawrence Creek
area north of Durkee last week
carcass and found numerous
tooth scrapes on the calf’s
rear right leg and on both
front legs, along with tissue
damage up to 2inches deep,
from when the animal was
alive.
The location, size and
Forecast for Pendleton Area
TODAY
FRIDAY
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SATURDAY
SUNDAY
MONDAY
number of tooth scrapes,
and the severity of the tissue
damage, are both consistent
with wolf attacks on calves,
according to the report.
Melcher issued a permit
on July 31 that allows ranch-
ers who have lost cattle to kill
Grant Co. Farm Bureau urges ODFW
to expand general elk damage season
By STEVEN MITCHELL
Blue Mountain Eagle
Plenty of sun
Mostly cloudy
68° 47°
75° 55°
A couple of
showers
Mostly cloudy, a
shower; cool
An a.m. shower;
clouds and sun
PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
59° 51°
65° 45°
60° 47°
HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
72° 45°
76° 56°
62° 52°
70° 45°
66° 50°
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
69/52
64/42
68/43
Longview
Kennewick Walla Walla
69/49
Lewiston
73/53
72/49
Astoria
67/50
Pullman
Yakima 69/48
69/47
71/46
Portland
Hermiston
76/54
The Dalles 72/45
Salem
Corvallis
70/45
Yesterday
Normals
Records
La Grande
68/39
PRECIPITATION
John Day
Eugene
Bend
76/45
66/43
70/45
Ontario
76/39
Caldwell
Burns
81°
65°
82°
48°
97° (2013) 32° (1934)
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
72/48
0.00"
0.04"
0.15"
1.97"
1.66"
5.46"
WINDS (in mph)
72/37
71/35
0.00"
0.09"
0.25"
4.46"
8.68"
8.90"
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Pendleton 66/38
76/51
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
68/47
75/47
78°
59°
80°
51°
99° (2013) 32° (1921)
PRECIPITATION
Moses
Lake
68/48
Aberdeen
65/45
68/49
Tacoma
Yesterday
Normals
Records
Spokane
Wenatchee
68/53
Today
Boardman
Pendleton
Medford
83/49
Fri.
N 3-6
NNW 4-8
WSW 4-8
W 4-8
SUN AND MOON
Klamath Falls
77/38
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Sunrise today
Sunset tonight
Moonrise today
Moonset today
6:35 a.m.
7:04 p.m.
5:30 p.m.
1:13 a.m.
Full
Last
New
First
Sep 20
Sep 28
Oct 6
Oct 12
up to four subadult wolves
from the pack. The permit
also allows the ranchers to
designate someone else to kill
wolves, and ODFW employ-
ees also can kill wolves under
the permit.
Fish and Wildlife employ-
ees shot and killed two wolf
pups from the pack on Aug.
1. No other wolves have been
killed since, according to the
department.
The permit was set to
expire Aug. 21, but Melcher
extended the permit through
Sept. 14 after wolves killed a
calf on Aug. 19. It’s not clear
whether Melcher will extend
the permit again or change
the parameters to allow
the killing of adult wolves,
including the breeding pair.
Ash included with his
letter a list of the wolf attacks
on livestock this summer.
The two most recent, a
calf killed in late August
and the calf killed last week,
both belonged to the Phillips
Ranch, according to Ash’s
letter.
Wolves have also killed
one calf belonging to the
Bloomer Ranch, and two
calves owned by Deward and
Kathy Thompson.
In his letter to Melcher,
Ash wrote that in his esti-
mation the balance between
grazing and predation is
skewed toward the latter in
the Lookout Mountain area.
“Wolves are pursuing
cattle as a food source rather
than hunting their natural
prey — elk and deer, which
are plentiful in the area,”
Ash wrote. “Wolves can
spend much less energy kill-
ing a cow than chasing an
elk or deer.”
JOHN DAY — The
Grant County Farm Bureau
called on the Oregon Depart-
ment of Fish and Wildlife to
expand the boundaries of a
pilot program allowing for
elk damage hunts on private
land to encompass all Grant
County private lands.
In a Sept. 1. press release,
the Grant County Farm
Bureau noted ODFW estab-
lished its elk damage season
in 2020. The program aims to
control the number of elk that
move onto the private prop-
erty of cattle producers, eat
grass, damage equipment and
tear down fences, taking a big
bite out of their profits.
Because the state governs
elk populations, landowners
must abide by hunting laws
and wildlife management
objectives.
Ryan Torland, a district
biologist with ODFW, told
the Eagle in a Sept. 2 email
that elk distribution on private
and public lands is a “priority
concern” and one the depart-
ment is working with federal
and landowner partners to
address.
According to ODFW’s
website, the program allows
landowners and hunters to
work together to address
damage occurring during
the open season directly.
With permission from the
private landowner, hunters
can purchase a cow elk tag
to hunt on a specific property
within the Murderers Creek
and Northside units.
The agency notes the tag
replaces 19 controlled hunts
and will replace the need for
landowner damage program
tags in the areas and during
the periods of the hunts. This
is the hunter’s only elk-hunt-
ing opportunity, and they
cannot hunt in a different hunt-
ing unit.
Torland said when the
Oregon Fish and Wildlife
Commission approved the
pilot program for a three-year
window, it also developed
monitoring and reporting
criteria to assess the new
“tool” and make changes that
could include a larger swath
of private lands within the
county.
More than 130 hunters
participated in the program,
and more than 40 of them
harvested a cow elk. He said
landowners still were learn-
ing about the program and
expect it to be more popular
this season.
Grant County Far m
Bureau President Shaun
Robertson said the damage
from elk populations feast-
ing in pastures intended for
livestock has been an ongoing
problem on private lands since
the federal government began
reducing timber harvests in
the 1990s.
“Unfortunately, the failure
of the federal landowners to
address the lack of high-qual-
ity forage on their own lands
has directly resulted in large
numbers of elk translocat-
ing to private lands seek-
ing replacement feed,” said
Robertson, a cattle producer
and biologist.
Far m Bureau board
member and local rancher Pat
Holliday noted in the press
release that this year’s drought
— hottest and driest in over a
century — has brought the
problem on earlier and made
it worse.
“Pastures that were already
short of feed from poor grow-
ing conditions won’t have any
fall feed for either cattle or
wildlife,” Holliday said.
NATIONAL EXTREMES
Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states)
High 107° in Needles, Calif. Low 23° in Yellowstone N.P., Wyo.
NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
IN BRIEF
Hunter with broken leg
carried out of Percival Creek
JOHN DAY — The Grant County Sher-
iff’s Office Search and Rescue teamed up with
local ranchers and ambulance crews from
John Day and Seneca on Saturday, Sept. 11, to
carry a Bear Valley hunter out of the Percival
Creek area to an Airlink helicopter.
Sheriff Todd McKinley said crews packed
the victim out and flew him out successfully.
McKinley said the search and rescue team
has had “quite a few” rescues this year.
Man killed in motorcycle
crash in Baker County
BAKER CITY — A 78-year-old man
from Ashland died Monday, Sept. 13, when
he failed to negotiate a curve while riding his
motorcycle on Highway 7 south of Sumpter.
Lawrence Drake was riding southbound
on the highway near milepost 23 when his
KTM 950 motorcycle went off the highway
and crashed, according to Oregon State
Police. He died at the scene.
The crash occurred shortly before 4 p.m.,
police said.
The curve is on the grade below Larch
Summit, about 2 miles south of Sumpter
Valley.
The Baker Fire Department, Powder
River Rural Fire Department, Life Flight
and the Oregon Department of Transporta-
tion assisted OSP.
— EO Media Group
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