OPINION  LETTERS
Wallowa.com
Wednesday, May 22, 2019
A5
Delisting gray wolf long overdue
Capital Press
L
et’s take stock of the progress of
the gray wolf’s recovery in the
Lower 48 states, shall we?
As it currently stands, upwards
of 6,000 gray wolves have taken up res-
idence in states ranging from California,
Oregon and Washington state on the West
Coast across the northern continental U.S. to
Michigan. That’s in addition to about 55,000
wolves that live across the border in Canada.
In every state, the population estimates
are just that: wildlife managers offer only a
minimum population estimate because they
don’t really know where all of the wolves
are. They are popping up all over the place.
In Oregon and Washington, they are now
in the Cascade Range and heading farther
west and south.
OR-7, the wolf that took off from north-
eastern Oregon and headed down to Cali-
fornia before returning to southern Oregon,
found a female mate that wildlife managers
didn’t even know about and formed a new
pack.
Many of those wolves are descendants
of 66 from Canada that were reintroduced
in Yellowstone National Park and central
Idaho in the 1990s. Others followed their
noses into the U.S. from Canada.
The wolves have caused massive prob-
Contributed photo
The gray wolf population is thriving in the U.S.
lems for ranchers, who have lost sheep, cat-
tle and working dogs to the predators while
wildlife managers were forced to stand by.
Because the wolves are protected, only
after livestock was repeatedly attacked were
managers able to do anything other than
tell ranchers about non-lethal tactics such
as fencing with fl ags on it and hiring range
riders.
If anyone has needed protection, it’s been
ranchers.
One thing is clear: The wolf population is
thriving in the U.S. — and it will continue
to thrive.
For years we have urged Congress, the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service — and any-
one who would listen — to take the gray
wolf off the list of endangered species.
Under the federal Endangered Species Act,
wolves are treated as though they are frail
little creatures that cannot survive without
protection.
In point of fact, the wolves are multiply-
ing and spreading across the countryside in
all directions. At this point, they need no
protection from anyone.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has
now proposed taking the gray wolf off the
endangered species list.
All we can say is it’s about time. Wolves
should be managed the way any other game
animal is managed.
The Fish and Wildlife Service is solic-
iting your comments on taking wolves off
the endangered species list. This is your
opportunity to make sure your voice is
heard. The deadline is May 14. A website
link that you can use to comment is pub-
lished with this editorial.
The reintroduction of gray wolves can
be described as many things, but it has
accomplished its goals. Wolves are back.
They are thriving. They need no special
protections.
Those are the facts. It’s long past time to
take them off the endangered species list.
LETTERS to the EDITOR
Appreciation for Joseph
City Council
I want to thank Belinda Buswell and
Marty Hamilton for their efforts at the
most recent Joseph City Council meeting
to fi nd documentation and build commu-
nity. They are so appreciated.
As one of the three people who took
some time and trouble to write the letters
to the council that were read out, I wasn’t
too surprised that there was no comment
on the letters.
That said, I do remain surprised that
one citizen complaint at the last min-
ute weighs so greatly against dozens of
comments in favor. I acknowledge that
the Chieftain article cites a statement
about “lots of complaints that aren’t doc-
umented” so I went to the city web page
to double check in the council notes that
what I read was what was said, but coun-
cil notes aren’t posted. So I couldn’t
check it out. But is that the standard?
“Lists of undocumented complaints?” and
most oddly, allegations of “falsities on
both sides?” What does that even mean?
The article also reports a discussion of
imposing a transient tax on the displaced
market, “if not this year, to be revisited
next year.”
That didn’t sound like a reasoned rev-
Writing
about home
Students: Imnaha
Subject: Home
Prompt: Close your eyes
and imagine home, or write
when you are home. What
do you see? How does
home make you feel? What
does it remind you of? Here
are some thoughts from stu-
dents in Mrs. Warnock’s
class in Imnaha, Oregon.
Hope you enjoy!
Aaron Lopez, 1st grade:
Home makes me feel
happy.
I see a piggy.
This is Shrek.
I like my bike.
I like my Sponge Bob.
enue decision, so I looked up multiple
“transient tax” documents in our county,
all of which refers to lodging, not events.
I also looked up event taxes for our
county, fi nding none. Will all our vendors
and yard sales in the city be paying the
nonexistent transient event tax next year?
Or was that just a gotcha?
Kathy Bowman
Joseph
Successful salmon recovery
starts at the ocean
One rule that must apply to salmon,
regardless of the area and river system, is
that the adults must return from the ocean
for the run to be successful.
Logic suggests dams are not the prob-
lem as is commonly suggested. Coastal
rivers with no dams showed such strong
declines in those rivers that ODFW
closed some hatcheries because of low
adult runs. This indicates that the adults
were not returning from the ocean while
ODFW continued to release sustained
numbers of salmon smolts.
Also some of these rivers had very
little logging since the runs began to
decline. Surely some streams must have
had suitable spawning habitat for these
adult returns. There is no evidence that
I see my house, here is
the sink.
This is my mask.
I see a sprinkler,
the stove inside.
Katharina E.R. Hoffman,
8th grade:
Horse books make me
happy,
horse crafts make me
smile.
Both can be time
consuming
but can also be very
worthwhile.
Cows are a way of life.
Button makes days very
nice.
Pan is a friend in times
of need,
Someday Button will be
a mighty steed.
Mika is beautiful and
loving.
When I’m in the saddle
I’m hard to beat.
I have a memory without
defeat.
Beautiful wildfl owers are
always near.
Souvenirs bering me
happy memories for years.
Kourtney Hoffman, 1srt
grade:
It makes me like But-
ton. These are big horses.
These are Reata, Zoey and
Jasper. We are at the beach
and these are seashells.
This me me on the swings.
This is my sister’s duck and
these are my sister’s fl ow-
ers. These are my fl owers
in our yard. These are our
sheep, too.
Gabe Neveau, 4th grade:
OPEN HOUSE
SUNDAY• 5-26-2019• 10 TO 2PM
84142 Alpine Ln - Joseph • $575,000. MLS 19157586
This comfortable, custom built, 3 bedroom, 2 bath, single level home sits on a beautiful 5 acre
mountain view lot outside of Joesph. Fenced for horses, cattle or hay. 4 irrigated pastures and
many out buildings including: large barn, loafing barn, pump house, 4 wheeler and garden
sheds and the “Wilson Saddle Shop.” The business can be purchased separately with equipment
plus owner training for $50,000
the adult returns were normal in Oregon
and Washington during this time, even in
coastal rivers in wilderness condition and
with normal releases of smolts. Also this
would indicate no streams with spawning
or rearing habitat existed!
I have worked on salmon spawning
ground surveys and have observed nat-
ural spawning many other years. I have
fi shed in streams and rivers in N.E. Ore-
gon for 70 years. I do not recall a time
during the declining salmon runs when
there were more adult salmon than avail-
able spawning area. Additional riparian
habitat was not needed for the low adult
runs to spawn or for rearing areas for the
limited numbers of smolts which were not
produced because of low adult returns. It
is also interesting that the Grande Ronde/
Wallowa River steelhead program went
from almost 0 adults to excess adults
returning to the Wallowa Hatchery and
adults to the whole system during this
same time of “few suitable places to hold
and spawn.”
And I can tell you that “if you build
it, they will come” does not work IF
the adult salmon do not return from the
ocean! That is like building a winter shel-
ter to improve livestock production when
the mortality occurs during the summer
when the livestock are grazing away from
the barn.
This is my cat, Isaiah.
This is dad’s bull elk and
it is very big.
This is the household
angel, Moses.
These are the ducks.
This is long fl uffer.
This is dark fl uffer.
This is Roxy and the
Zomibie calf.
This is stretched Moses,
she is very fl uffy.
This is the alien puppy.
Ruthy Neveau, K:
The chicks are in their
pen and they are happy and
they are nice. My brother is
good at baseball. My mom
loves Gabe. My brother is
being weird on the hill. Our
cat is nice. This chicken is
in the horse’s pen and our
chick’s tree is growing. We
have animals on our farm.
Our horses are nice, too. I
painted a skull. This is my
farm, and I love my home.
Also if you want budget support then
you should publish the before and after
results so your organization can prove
the investment is actually producing
more fi sh and not because of some other
cause such as ocean, estuary survival or
improved snow packs or….
John Isley
Enterprise
Proud of dad’s stand
To the Editor:
Thank you very much for reprinting
my dad’s — Gwen Coffi n’s — editorial
concerning the cruel internment of the
Japanese during World War II. As you can
well imagine, it “ruffl ed” many feathers
at the time. The Coffi n household would
experience years of “ruffl ed feathers.”
I am very proud of my dad. I know that
with all his heart he strived to produce an
excellent newspaper: one full of timely
news, one with a thought-provoking edito-
rial page, one with interesting, fact-fi lled
articles. I feel he more than met his goals.
He didn’t expect everyone to agree with
him, but he did always hope people would
read what he wrote and think about it.
So, again, thank you!
Gail Coffi n Swart
Joseph
Bella Cervantes, 3rd
grade:
When I see my kitties
they look like fl uffballs with
eyes. When I hold them I
feel warm and fl uffy inside
and outside. I love them.
Sometimes they lay down,
sometimes they stare. I love
my kitties very much. Hav-
ing kitties is very fun.
The Earth is But One
Country and Mankind
its Citizens
The body of the human world is sick.
Its remedy and healing will be the oneness of
the kingdom of humanity
So Powerful is the Light of Unity
that it can Illuminate the
Whole Earth
~from the Sacred Writings of the Baha’i Faith~
www.bahaisofwallowa.org
Introducing Orthopedic Surgeon
Dr. Adam Heisinger
• Doctor of Osteopathy,
Des Moines University, Iowa
• Internship and Residency completed
in orthopedic surgery at Affinity
Medical Center, Ohio; Fellowship in
sports medicine completed at Orthopedic
Research of Virginia, Richmond
• Served four years as flight surgeon,
Langley Air Force Base, Virginia and
Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina
Dr. Heisinger will be seeing patients at Wallowa
Memorial Hospital regularly for clinic visits
and surgery. Ask your physician for a referral today.
103 N. Main St.,
Joseph, OR 97846
Call Karen Raminha
541-398-0308
We treat you like family
601 Medical Parkway, Enterprise, OR 97828 • 541-426-3111 • www.wchcd.org
Wallowa Memorial Hospital is an equal opportunity employer and provider.