NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
A2
Saturday, December 4, 2021
OSP seeks information on poisoning of eight Oregon wolves
lab for testing. The female wolf was
dispersing from the Keating Pack.
Fish and Wildlife Troopers were
initially hampered in investigating
the scene due to snow levels and
inclement weather. Troopers contin-
ued searching over the next few
weeks as snow melted and found
evidence of suspected poisoning.
The evidence was submitted for test-
ing and analysis.
In April, the USFWS submitted
its examination reports with find-
ings consistent with poisoning as
the cause of death for all six wolves,
the skunk and two magpies. Lab
results also indicated the suspected
evidence confirmed a poisonous
substance.
It is unlikely that the two magpies
or the skunk died from consuming
flesh from the poisoned wolves,
according to OSP’s Stephanie
Bigman, who is captain of govern-
ment and media relations.
“I don’t believe they died from
eating the wolves. They probably
died from eating the poison,” she
said, adding that she knows infor-
mation about the case she cannot
share with the public.
Two more collared wolves were
found dead in Union County after
the initial incidents. In April, a
deceased adult male wolf from
the Five Points Pack was located
west of Elgin, and in July, a young
female wolf from the Clark Creek
Pack was located northeast of La
Grande.
In both cases, the cause of death
was not readily apparent. Toxicol-
ogy reports confirmed the pres-
By DICK MASON
The Observer
UNION COUNTY — Oregon
State Police are asking for the
public’s help in identifying individ-
uals responsible for the poisoning of
the Catherine Wolf Pack earlier this
year in Eastern Oregon.
Oregon State Police in a press
release reported Fish and Wildlife
Division troopers received informa-
tion in February from the Oregon
Department of Fish and Wildlife
about a dead, collared wolf. Troop-
ers responded to the area and found
five dead wolves — three males and
two females. It was later determined
the wolves were from the Catherine
Pack, with all known members pres-
ent and deceased.
The wolves were southeast of
Mount Harris, within Union County.
Troopers and ODFW personnel
with the assistance of a helicopter
searched the area for anything of
evidentiary value and found a dead
magpie in the vicinity of the dead
wolves.
The five wolves and magpie were
collected and transported to the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service Forensics
Lab in Ashland to determine the
cause of death.
Fish and Wildlife troopers again
received information in March from
ODFW personnel of an additional
wolf collar emitting a mortality
signal in the same general loca-
tion. A search of the area located a
deceased female wolf, a skunk and
a magpie, all close to the scene. All
animals were collected and imme-
diately submitted to the USFWS
Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife/Contributed Photo, File
Oregon State Police are seeking the public’s help, now that its investigation into the poisoning of eight wolves
in Eastern Oregon has stalled out.
ence of poison in each wolf.
Based on the type of poison and
the locations, the death of the young
female wolf may be related to the
earlier six poisonings, according to
OSP.
Bigman said the wolf from the
Five Points Pack died from a poison
not similar to the type which killed
the seven other wolves.
“It is different enough that it
could be a different incident,” she
said.
ODFW spokesperson Michelle
Dennehy said the poisonings are
“terrible news,” and the agency
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hopes someone from the public will
come forward with information to
help solve the case.
“The poisoning of an entire pack
is significant,” she said. “We’ll have
a clearer picture on how that affects
the overall (wolf) population after
we complete our winter surveys this
year.”
There were 173 known wolves in
Oregon at the end of 2020. In addi-
tion to the eight poisonings, another
wolf was poached in September
in the Skull Creek drainage of the
Wallowa-Whitman National Forest
in Eastern Oregon.
Oregon farmworkers challenge exclusion
of agricultural workers from overtime pay
By JAMIE GOLDBERG
The Oregonian
Periods of sun, a
shower or two
Turning cloudy
On-and-off snow
and rain
Chilly with sunny
intervals
A couple of
morning showers
PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
48° 35°
41° 31°
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HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
51° 36°
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54° 37°
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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
45/33
42/27
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Kennewick Walla Walla
49/34
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49/33
53/37
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51/36
Pullman
Yakima 46/29
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Portland
Hermiston
53/37
The Dalles 51/36
Salem
Corvallis
54/33
Yesterday
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Records
La Grande
54/32
PRECIPITATION
John Day
Eugene
Bend
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Ontario
48/32
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Pendleton 52/27
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HERMISTON
Enterprise
48/35
57/39
48°
29°
43°
29°
64° (1975) 10° (2013)
PRECIPITATION
Moses
Lake
43/32
Aberdeen
39/25
44/28
Tacoma
Yesterday
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Records
Spokane
Wenatchee
43/35
Today
Boardman
Pendleton
Medford
52/39
Sun.
WSW 6-12
WSW 7-14
WSW 3-6
WSW 6-12
SUN AND MOON
Klamath Falls
54/25
Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2021
Sunrise today
Sunset tonight
Moonrise today
Moonset today
7:19 a.m.
4:12 p.m.
7:56 a.m.
4:31 p.m.
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NATIONAL EXTREMES
Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states)
High 89° in Zapata, Texas Low 4° in Gold Butte, Mont.
The Oregon Department of Fish
and Wildlife also culled six wolves
from the Lookout Mountain pack
over the summer in Baker County.
The wolves had repeated attacked
livestock.
State police is asking anyone
with information about the poison-
ings to contact the Turn-In Poach-
ers Hotline at 1-800-452-7888, or
email TIP@state.or.us referencing
case number SP21-033033.
— Capital Press reporter
George Plaven contributed
to this report.
SALEM — Two Oregon
farmworkers and a Salem-
based nonprofit filed a peti-
tion with the Oregon Court
of Appeals on Tuesday, Nov.
30, challenging the valid-
ity of state regulations that
exclude agricultural workers
from overtime pay.
Farmworkers Javier Ceja
and Anita Santiago and
nonprofit organization Mano
a Mano contend in the peti-
tion that the Oregon Bureau
of Labor and Industries has
no statutory authority to
exclude farmworkers from
overtime pay and claim that
the regulations were adopted
without consideration of the
health and wellbeing of agri-
cultural workers.
The petition contends that
Oregon law hasn’t had a cate-
gorical exemption prevent-
ing the labor bureau from
making rules to limit hours
of work and require overtime
pay for agricultural work-
ers since 2017 and that the
bureau’s current rules are a
product of an outdated stat-
ute. It also contends that the
state agency failed to evalu-
ate whether overtime pay was
necessary to the health and
wellbeing of farmworkers in
adopting its rules.
The petition asks the court
to declare the regulations
unlawful.
Labor Commissioner Val
Hoyle said Nov. 30 that she
has always supported over-
time pay for farmworkers,
but it wasn’t until recently
that the bureau was informed
that a change in Oregon law
had given it more author-
ity over setting agricultural
overtime requirements.
Hoyle said the bureau had
been in the process of work-
ing with farmers and work-
ers to enact changes to the
overtime rules and that she
believes the lawsuit could
delay those efforts.
“Unfor t unately, this
lawsuit will halt that work
and will delay our ability to
get farmworkers their over-
time wages,” Hoyle said in
an emailed statement. “The
legal filing makes it so that
we are precluded from
communication with stake-
holders and now all commu-
nications must be handled
through the Department of
Justice.”
Ceja said in the petition
that he has worked in the
Oregon agriculture indus-
try for 40 years and has often
been asked to work 11 or 12
hours per day without over-
time pay. Now in his 70s,
Ceja said the years of work-
ing long hours without finan-
cial security have impacted
his health and he now deals
with high blood pressure and
stomach issues.
“Is it fair for farmworkers
to not be paid time and half
for our challenging work?”
Ceja said in a statement
provided by his lawyers at the
Oregon Law Center. “I dream
that I can see the day that
farmworkers are not treated
differently from other work-
ers because they are farm-
workers.”
Petitions requesting judi-
cial review of administrative
rules are common.
While the majority of
hourly employees in the
United States receive time-
and-a-half pay for the hours
they work beyond 40 hours
a week, farmworkers were
intentionally excluded from
that mandate back when the
Fair Labor Standards Act
passed in 1938.
In recent years, however,
a handful of states have
extended overtime protec-
tions to farmworkers.
NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
IN BRIEF
Three people die
in head-on crash
THE DALLES — Two
women from Condon and a
man from McMinnville died
Tuesday, Nov. 30, in a fiery
head-on crash.
Oregon State Police
reported the troopers and
emergency personnel at
approximately 5:24 p.m.
responded to the report of a
head-on collision in the east-
bound lanes of Interstate 84
near milepost 89, about 3
miles east of The Dalles.
The preliminary inves-
tigation, according to state
police, revealed Colin Leas,
32, of McMinnville, was
driving a Subaru Forester
west on the eastbound lanes
and crashed head-on into
a Kia Sorrento. Both vehi-
cles became fully engulfed
in flames immediately after
impact.
Jessica Treadwell, 35, of
Condon, was driving the
Sorrento, and Lorena Spark-
man, 56, also of Condon,
was a passenger. Oregon
State Police reported Leas,
Treadwell and Sparkman all
suffered fatal injuries.
The crash resulted in the
closure of eastbound lanes
of I-84 for approximately
two-and-a-half hours.
The Dalles Police Depart-
ment, Wasco County Sher-
iff’s Office, Mid-Columbia
Fire and Rescue and Oregon
Department of Transporta-
tion also responded to the
crash.
—EO Media Group
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