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About Wallowa County chieftain. (Enterprise, Wallowa County, Or.) 1943-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 9, 2015)
A4 Opinion wallowa.com September 9, 2015 Wallowa County Chieftain California gets wolf experience C alifornia is privileged to host a new wolf pack. 7ZRDGXOWJUD\ZROYHVDQG¿YHSXSVKDYHWDNHQXS residence in Northern California’s Siskiyou County. EDITORIAL While California The voice of the Chieftain environmentalists and wildlife advocates are happy to see gray wolves in their midst after a long absence, pardon Northwest ranchers if they don’t join the celebration. Livestock producers have intently watched the wolf experiment in the Northwest. Since 66 wolves were released in Idaho and Yellowstone National Park in 1995 and 1996, some of them have plagued ranchers around the region. Though the federal Endangered Species Act demanded that they be protected like some dainty EXWWHUÀ\ZROYHVDUHDJJUHVVLYHSUHGDWRUVWKDWUHSURGXFH far more rapidly than anyone anticipated. More than 1,000 now roam in Idaho, Montana, Washington state and Oregon. ESA protections have been lifted in some areas, and state wildlife managers are allowed to do a better job of taking care of problem wolves, but in other areas wolves are still protected. :LOGOLIHPDQDJHUVKDYHDGLI¿FXOWWLPHZLWKZROYHV Mainly, they don’t know where some of them are. A female wolf magically appeared in southwestern Oregon to mate with OR-7, a wolf that had gone on a walkabout from Wallowa County’s Imnaha pack into California and then met his dream date back in Oregon. They now have pups, so ranchers in that part of the state are getting ready for the excitement to begin. Another wolf that managers didn’t know about was hit by a truck on Interstate 90 east of Seattle. Other wolves regularly cross the Canadian border into Washington state. When it comes right down to it, the estimate of the number of wolves in the Northwest can best be categorized as an educated guess. State wildlife managers always couch their population estimates by saying they are minimum numbers. Yet ranch families — many who have raised cattle DQGVKHHSLQWKHUHJLRQIRUXSWR¿YHJHQHUDWLRQV²DUH supposed to stand back and allow the wolves to do their thing, which on many occasions means attacking their cattle and sheep. 7KH\¶UHDOVRVXSSRVHGWRSD\IRUUDQJHULGHUVÀDVKLQJ OLJKWVÀDJVDQGRWKHUHTXLSPHQWWKDWPD\RUPD\QRWNHHS wolves away from their livestock. The states and other groups do pitch in with the nonlethal preventive costs, but to put it bluntly, wolves have done little more for the ecosystem of the Northwest than to create a big, whopping pain in the ... neck. Though some packs do stay away from livestock because other food is plentiful, others have helped themselves to whatever livestock is around. Though the number of livestock depredations is relatively small, they GRQRWUHÀHFWWKHFDWWOHDQGVKHHSGHDWKVWKDWZLOGOLIH managers could not identify as wolf attacks or the losses in livestock weight caused when wolves continuously chase the herd. Wolves have proven to be lousy neighbors everywhere they’ve moved in. The California pack will probably bring more of the same heartburn — cattle and sheep depredations and attacks on wildlife. California is coming up with a wolf management plan. Our suggestion: Don’t worry about the wolves; they obviously can take care of themselves. It’s the ranchers who will need protection. USPS No. 665-100 P.O. Box 338 • Enterprise, OR 97828 OI¿Fe 29 1: )irst 6t., Enterprise, Ore. Phone 27 • )ax 2392 :aOOoZa &oXnt\¶s 1eZspaper 6inFe 88 Enterprise, Oregon M EMBER O REGON N EWSPAPER P UBLISHERS A SSOCIATION P UBLISHER E DITOR R EPORTER R EPORTER N EWSROOM ASSISTANT A D S ALES CONSULTANT G RAPHIC D ESIGNER O FFICE MANAGER Marissa Williams, marissa@bmeagle.com Rob Ruth, editor@wallowa.com Stephen Tool, stool@wallowa.com Kathleen Ellyn, kellyn@wallowa.com Elliott Seyler, eseyler@wallowa.com Brooke Pace, bpace@wallowa.com Robby Day, rday@wallowa.com Cheryl Jenkins, cjenkins@wallowa.com 3HULRGLFDO3RVWDJH3DLGDW(QWHUSULVHDQGDGGLWLRQDOPDLOLQJRI¿FHV 1 Year $40.00 $57.00 6XEsFriptions PXst Ee paiG prior to GeOiYer\ See the Wallowa County Chieftain on the Internet www.wallowa.com facebook.com/Wallowa | twitter.com/wcchieftain POSTMASTER — Send address changes to Wallowa County Chieftain P.O. Box 338 Enterprise, OR 97828 Contents copyright © 2015. All rights reserved. Reproduction without permission is prohibited. Volume 133 Anyone who has handled cattle a lot will notice that cattle handle differently depending on gender, age and pairs. Heif- ers tend to mill in the corral a lot more than steers. Cows with young calves are PRUH¿JKW\WKDQZKHQWKHFDOYHVDUHROG- er. Bulls are the easiest to handle, if you don’t get them heated up and mad. Most of my experiences with bulls have been OK. Bulls, when you are try- ing to move them, however, will some- times take to a pond and swim to the middle and refuse to leave when they feel they have traveled enough. I once trailed a bull all the way to the corral where I had a trailer with the gate open waiting at the end of the alley. He did ¿QHWLOO,ZDVUHDG\WRVWDPSHGHKLPLQWR the trailer. He suddenly spun around and picked me and my horse up and carried us across the corral. I would have gotten off except my leg was trapped between WKHKRUVHDQGKLVKXPS7KHKRUVH¿QDO- ly bucked off and we started over a little more watchful. People do not appreciate the expression “strong as a bull” till they experience bull rage. A friend and I had seven King Ranch Santa Gertrudis bulls that we shared. Joe had fall calvers and I had spring calvers so we traded bull locations twice a year. I was loading the bulls to return to Joe but was having trouble loading. The boss bull would load and then refuse to let the oth- HUVRQ,FXWKLPEDFNDQGORDGHG¿YHDQG was walking back to get boss bull and the sixth bull. When I got close to the end of the alley the boss bull charged the sixth bull and picked him up, 1,600 pounds, and knocked me down and carried him OPEN RANGE Barrie Qualle across me — luckily without stepping on me. Things happen fast sometimes. I worked for a ranch in the California foothills and ran the commercial herd for Tim Coleman. His herd ran in the high- er part of the ranch where the oak trees were and his dad, Jim Coleman, owner of Vintage Angus, ran about 500 top-notch purebred cattle on the lower ranch. We KDG¿QLVKHGSURFHVVLQJFDWWOHDQGQHHGHG to load a single bull to transport to anoth- er ranch. I had a couple of cowboys drive the bull to the loading alley and since it was the end of the day they tended to hurry and made the bull mad. He got on the ¿JKWDQGZLWKP\KHOSZHVRRQKDGKLP tearing things up. Kenneth, who worked for the purebred end, was watching and ¿QDOO\VDLG³,I\RXFRZER\VZLOOJHWLQ the other corral I will load that bull for you before he tears the rest of this cor- ral down.” We scoffed and told him to give it his best shot. Kenneth went to the barn and returned with a halter and calmly walked out and haltered the bull and led him into the trailer. He had shown the bull at Denver and other big purebred shows. You couldn’t wipe the grin off his face for days. I got even with Kenneth later that fall. :HKDGMXVWDERXW¿QLVKHGEUDQGLQJ7LP¶V commercial calves with the exception of about 10 that had gotten under a gate and were scattered in the several pens that made up the corrals and processing facil- ity that Tim and his dad shared. Danny Pritchard and I went to collect the escap- HHVDQGZKHQRQHUDQEHKLQGWKHVTXHH]H lead-up, I spooked him back from the other side and noticed a lone calf in a pen next to the barn. I pointed him out to Danny and he gathered him along with the rest. We dropped this bunch into the branding pen and were looking forward to BBQ and beer. This bunch was processed like the others with an earmark, brand, shots and FDVWUDWLRQ:HZHUHMXVW¿QLVKLQJDQGDV we let the last one up, Kenneth got a hor- UL¿HG ORRN RQ KLV IDFH DV KH ZDONHG XS to help. It turns out that the calf we included from the pen by the barn was one of the purebreds. He was being doctored for a bad eye and was in the sick pen. He was an embryo transplant and was the last son of Lass and Pinedrive who were both deceased. The little bull calf was worth $50,000 the day he was born and was now a steer with the wrong brand worth 91 cents a pound. I wondered if a testicle LPSODQWZRXOGZRUNDQGLIZHFRXOG¿[ the earmark and vent the brand to make things right. I told Kenneth I would take full blame but he was inconsolable. Colemans were great and just shook their heads. I thought it would be my last day, but they never said a word. I really shouldn’t tell stories like this on myself. I am sure I will regret it. &oOXPnist Barrie 4XaOOe is a ZorNing FoZEo\ in :aOOoZa &oXnt\. Reopening of trail appreciated To the Editor: I would like to thank you, Ken Core- son, and acknowledge your decision to open the trail to the Wallowa Falls again. I was very pleased to hear from Gail Swart, and also saw in your Chieftain ar- ticle, that you stated the closure was only temporary. I am very sorry for any mis- understanding between us. Had I known that your organization, “Creating Mem- ories for Disabled Children,” was only closing the trail for a short period of time, I would have honored it. I am looking forward to the reopen- ing of the trail. If you could let the public know an approximate time when the trail will reopen, it would be appreciated. I know we are all looking forward to that date. Thank you again. Forrest Wilson Joseph Forest preservation meanings P UBLISHED EVERY W EDNESDAY BY : EO Media Group Subscription rates (includes online access) Wallowa County Out-of-County A 50,000-dollar slip-up To the Editor: One of the many excuses to restrict use of our public lands by the Wallowa-Whit- man and Malheur National Forests is that we need to “preserve” our forest for the next generation, the only problem is, the forest service isn’t doing that. The Forest Service, with assistance from their part- ners in the local environmental commu- nity, allow our forest to degenerate into fuel dense stands waiting to take our homes and property with it. 7R SUHVHUYH KDV PDQ\ GH¿QLWLRQV ² “To save from decomposition”, “To keep safe from injury”, or “To reserve for per- sonal or special use.” The only preserving I see is the third, to reserve for personal or special use, to which those special uses seem to be geared only to those that mean to use public lands for their personal enjoyment of “recreational use” which comes from LETTERS TO THE EDITOR the local environmental groups. That preservation comes at the expense of our friends and families homes and future generations needs of the natural resourc- es that are now gone forever. I’m not sure who, or if anyone reads these letters, but in the west we are well schooled in preserving our summer fruits and vegetables. Would anyone that takes part in canning to preserve those resourc- es, go thru that work and then open up the cupboard doors and bust every jar with a hammer, and then close the doors and let the mess set? But yet this is the mentality we are watching unfold in our mountains. It’s time it ends and I hope that this summer brings the people of Eastern Oregon and the west together to call for sane, active, vegetative management to both the Forest Service and elected coun- W\RI¿FLDOVZKRDUHUHVSRQVLEOHIRUSUR- tecting the safety, health, and welfare of our local rural communities. John D. George Bates More on active forest management To the Editor: I believe your editorial in September 2nd’s paper was right on, and I think Jon Rombach’s piece, in the same paper, was making the identical point. It is my understanding that the fol- lowing write-up by David Powell was an op-ed in the East Oregonian Pendle- ton newspaper recently. I think this piece supports the case for active Forest Man- agement. You may not want to print the entire piece, but use portions of it to con- tinue the discussion of the role of active IRUHVWPDQDJHPHQWYLVjYLVIRUHVW¿UHV From that Powell op-ed: “It now VHHPVDVLIWKHHQWLUH1RUWKZHVWLVRQ¿UH ZLWKKRPHVEHLQJGHVWUR\HGDQGDLUTXDO- ity at unhealthy levels. Although there DUHPDQ\UHDVRQVIRU¿UHVZDUPZHDWK- er and drought are certainly important ones... “...Obviously we can’t control the weather. But we can take actions to better prepare our forests for increasing levels RI ZLOG¿UH LQVHFWV DQG GLVHDVHV DOO RI which are related to changing climate conditions. It is important to take these DFWLRQV VRRQ EHFDXVH ¿UHV DUH SUHGLFWHG to burn up to six times more area, each year, in the Blue Mountains by the mid- dle of this century than was burned annu- ally between 1950 and 2003... “...What can be done to prepare our IRUHVWV IRU PRUH ZLOG¿UH LQ WKH IXWXUH" Perhaps our best hope lies with thinning; it can be used to mimic presettlement ¿UHE\UHPRYLQJWKHVPDOOWUHHVWKDW¿UH would have killed. This avoids severe ¿UHVE\HOLPLQDWLQJµODGGHUIXHO¶²VPDOO understory trees that act like a ladder by FDUU\LQJ ¿UH IURP WKH JURXQG XS WR WKH tree tops, where it then races from one WUHHWRDQRWKHUDVDFURZQ¿UH “After thinning an area, it could then EH WUHDWHG ZLWK SUHVFULEHG ¿UH ,W LV LP- SRUWDQWWRDSSO\SUHVFULEHG¿UHLQDVDIH and controlled manner, because it recy- FOHVQXWULHQWVDQGUHPRYHVWKH¿QHIXHOV (needles, twigs, etc.) that contribute to VHYHUHZLOG¿UHV0DQ\RIRXUIRUHVWVQRZ contain so much fuel that a late-summer ZLOG¿UH LV QRW D VDIH H[SHULHQFH HLWKHU IRU WKH IRUHVW RU WKH ¿UH¿JKWHUV WDVNHG with suppressing it...” David C. Powell, a member of the Umatilla County climate change focus group, presented a discussion about cli- mate change and forestry at an EO Forum held Feb. 10 at Blue Mountain Community College. John Nesbitt Enterprise