OFF PAGE ONE
Thursday, December 2, 2021
East Oregonian
A7
Wolves:
Continued from Page A1
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Mourners fill the Pendleton Convention Center on Tuesday, Nov. 30, 2021, for the funeral of 70-year-old saddlemaker and former president of the Pendleton
Round-Up Randy Severe. He died of COVID-19 at a Portland hospital on Nov. 21.
Mr. Round-Up:
Continued from Page A1
“I think of him every time I
think of Eastern Oregon,” said Dave
Gamroth, an account executive at
MicroGenDX in Portland and friend
of Severe.
Severe’s procession began in the
packed convention center parking
lot and wound through town, closing
roads as police led the way and the
Oregon Department of Transporta-
tion blocked interstate exits. Dozens
of cars followed.
“Even if they weren’t at the service
themselves, they knew exactly who
that was coming through,” Phillips
said.
Tim Hawkins, a former Round-Up
president, looked on as the Severe
family carried his good friend’s
casket, on its way to Olney Cemetery.
“When people thought of the
Round-Up, they thought of Randy
Severe,” said Hawkins, a lifelong
friend who met Severe at Pendleton
High School more than 50 years ago.
“He went away way too soon. He had
a lot of saddles left to make, songs left
to sing, and a lot of people to grace his
presence with.”
Sharing stories
A large table sat beside the
hundreds of mourners at the service,
covered in Severe’s belongings and
photos of his life. There was his
guitar, his leather boots, magazines
and books about his saddlework.
There was even a 1976 check and
letter from U.S. President Gerald Ford
for $379.75 made out to the Severe
Brothers
The service began with the sounds
of Alisha Mae’s “Dancing in the Sky.”
Then the six remaining Severe broth-
ers stepped to the front of the room
one after another, some with tears
welling in their eyes.
They painted a portrait of East-
ern Oregon life with their brother:
playing tag; riding horses; jumping
off the big rock into the Umatilla
River; skinny dipping and getting
sunburns on their backsides; hiding
dead rattlesnakes to pull pranks on
the waitress at the local A&W, which
banned them from the restaurant.
Their jokes triggered low, muffled
laughter.
Stewart Severe said his brother
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Randy Severe’s grandchildren perform “Grandpa” at his funeral Tuesday, Nov. 30, 2021, at the Pendleton Conven-
tion Center.
had a photographic memory for
phone numbers. Every time he called,
his brother would answer in that same
upbeat, cheery voice: “Well hello,
Stewart.”
“Rest in peace, my brother,”
Stewart Severe said. “You set quite
an example for your brothers. And I
will be calling you again.”
And the service was filled with
music. Paul Green, a family friend,
played “Green Grass of Home.”
A dozen of Severe’s grandchil-
dren sang in unison a song titled,
“Grandpa.” Some mourners swayed
in their chairs to the music while
others dotted their eyes with hand-
kerchiefs.
Severe’s sons, Jarad and Ryan
Severe, stepped forward. They told
the story of how their mother met
their father and fell in love with him
as he strummed ballads on his guitar.
They told about how their father
had a firm but loving hand, adding,
“Being in the leather business, there
was never a belt far away.” They
recalled digging post holes, spread-
ing manure. They recalled a house
full of fiddles, guitars and yodeling.
They didn’t have much growing up
in the ways of nice cars or vacations,
one said, but they had each other.
Family with Severe
in final days
And as Severe lay in the hospital
before he died, the five children fought
to be next to him. Hospital protocol
allowed just two family members to
see a patient per day, Phillips said. But
health care workers went to the hospi-
tal management and vouched for the
whole family to see him. Then, two
family members at a time rotated in to
see Severe, Phillips said.
“It was pretty neat that they saw
that compassion, that we really loved
and wanted to be there with our dad,”
Phillips said.
Curtis Severe said during the
service that although doctors said
Severe’s lungs were only operating at
10% capacity, he knew his brother died
peacefully.
“Families are meant to be eter-
nal,” Curtis Severe said. “And I know
Randy’s will be.”
Phillips wrote a poem about her
father that was on the back of the
funeral program. The final two stan-
zas read:
“I wanna walk just like you
And I’ll get back on and ride
‘cause I know you’ll be here,
you’re just on the other side.
Your love and memory goes on
forever cherished by all,
In the toughest of times
I promise to always stand tall.”
The service concluded with poetry,
music and words from Tygh Campbell,
a former Round-Up director. Bishop
Gary Edwards made the closing
remarks, his voice cracking through
the tears as he spoke to Severe’s loved
ones.
“When it’s your time to go, you
won’t have to tap an angel on the shoul-
der and ask where he’s at,” Edwards
said. “He’ll come to you.”
As people stacked chairs and the
room emptied, Rawley Stanley and
Larry Enbysk lingered near the front
of the room, sharing their memo-
ries. Enbysk talked about spend-
ing time with Severe on his ranch,
sitting around the fire and playing
guitars. Stanley spoke about bringing
his 10-year-old daughter to Severe’s
saddle shop in May. He knows the
shop might not continue without his
old friend from high school.
“How could it, without …” his
voice trailing off. He repeated over
and over again, “I could never say a
bad thing about him.”
By 3 p.m., long after the service
had concluded, the sun briefly broke
through the clouds.
Despite the boost,
ranchers say it is still
not enough as they face
g reater instances of
wolves attacking and
killing their animals.
Oregon has at least
173 wolves scattered
across the state, accord-
ing to the most recent
estimate from the Oregon
Department of Fish and
Wildlife. So far in 2021,
ODFW has confirmed 87
animals killed or injured
by wolves, including 51
cattle, 28 sheep, six goats
and two guard dogs.
That is up by more than
double over 2020, when
32 animals were attacked
or killed by wolves — 28
cattle, two llamas and
two guard dogs.
Levy said the esti-
mated cost for dead and
missing livestock, as of
Nov. 6, was $780,000
a nd that nu mber is
expected to increase as
ranchers finish moving
their livestock out of the
mountains and down into
winter pasture.
Rodger Huffman, a
Union County rancher
and member of the OCA
wolf committee, said the
compensation program
likely will not cover
counties’ grant requests.
“ Mo r e t o ol s a r e
needed,” Huffman said.
“If more tools are not
provided in manage-
ment, then more money
is needed for compensa-
tion.”
What’s more, Huff-
man said the program
does not compensate
ranchers for other hidden
costs they suffer due to
wolves. Livestock might
not be directly killed
or injured, but have
lower birth rates or gain
less weight if they are
stressed by predators.
“There’s cost in the
cattle production side,”
Huffman said. “Then
the other big cost is the
producer cost to be out
there trying to prevent
the depredations.”
Sandau, with ODA,
said applications for
r a ncher s to receive
compensation for 2021
depredations will be
m a d e a v a i l a bl e i n
February 2022. With the
$400,000 boost in fund-
ing, he said they should
be able to fulfill more
requests than they have
in past years.
“We talk to stake-
holder groups and county
governments, and with
the available funds make
the best investment that
we can,” Sandau said.
“With potentially more
depredation requests
for 2021 in the granting
cycle for 2022, we’ll see
how it all balances out.”
Center:
Continued from Page A1
For more than 30 years, Blue Mountain
Wildlife has cared for wild animals, primar-
ily birds of prey, who are seriously injured,
often after coming into contact with humans.
Each year, Blue Mountain Wildlife takes in
more than 1,000 birds that get stuck in build-
ings, get shot by hunters or mistakenly ingest
lead ammunition they find in carrion. During
last year’s sweltering heat wave, the rehabil-
itation center took in dozens of chicks that
threw themselves out of their nests to escape
the blazing sun.
Beyond rehabilitating birds and returning
them back to their habitats, Blue Mountain
Wildlife has an educational component. For
years, Tompkins would transport her reha-
bilitation center’s permanent avian residents
to schools around the region to give students
lessons about conservation.
But COVID-19 halted her trips to schools,
and with her husband and co-founder, Bob,
dying in March, Tompkins doesn’t have the
same appetite for travel.
“I’m at a point where I’m not going to drive
all over the countryside,” she said.
That doesn’t mean Blue Mountain Wild-
life is leaving behind the educational part of
its mission.
The group recently built a new educational
facility at its property, so visitors can view the
birds the center uses for educational purposes
away from the rehabbing animals. Tompkins
said she would like to start granting money to
schools to cover the costs of field trips to Blue
Mountain Wildlife.
Tompkins also said she is hoping the
$45,000 gift will aid Blue Mountain Wildlife’s
efforts to build a a new wildlife hospital on site.
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
A newly constructed educational facility at Blue Mountain Wildlife in Pendleton is among director Lynn Tompkins’ plans to help expand the
educational abilities of the organization.