A12
OFF PAGE ONE
Wallowa County Chieftain
Wednesday, January 5, 2022
Cattle:
Continued from Page A1
The ranch
Warnock issued a state-
ment on the situation by
email Jan. 2.
“I am not aware of any
plans or attempts to seize any
assets,” he said.
He also described the
situation.
“Dean Oregon Ranches
cows were all purchased in
Oregon and Washington and
began arriving on Dean Ore-
gon Ranches property Octo-
ber of 2020 and continued
arriving through July of 2021.
The cows were a mixture
of spring and fall calvers,”
Warnock said. “They were
all acclimated to this cli-
mate, but not all acclimated
to this specifi c terrain. Some
do not know how to navi-
gate canyons, so they have
wandered in the wrong direc-
tion as we searched for them
and brought in other groups.
New cows are more diffi cult
to gather than cows that have
run on the same range for
several consecutive years and
know the way home. These
Anna Butterfi eld/Contributed Photo
Calves rescued from the deep snows in the Upper Imnaha get some refreshment Sunday, Jan.
2, 2022, at the Joseph-area ranch of Mark and Anna Butterfi eld. They are among many rescued
in the past week.
cows are not calving in the
snow; the ranch’s fall calving
season was October through
November. When we began
gathering in September, there
were 1,613 mother cows on
summer range.
He acknowledged bovine
ZOE HERMENS
Sp
OF
THE
ing
wa, had two solid scor
Zoe Hermens, of Wallo e Cougars’ girls basketball
r th
efforts in two wins fo e netted 14 points in a 39-18
team last week. Sh c. 28, and two days later,
De
victory over Condon on ding 11 in the second half, to
scored 20 points, inclu a’s second-half rally in a 49-46
spark Wallow
Cougars’ sixth
win at Enterprise, the of the season.
udly
Pro onsore d b y
casualties in the recovery
eff orts.
“Despite the eff orts of our
crew and the community, 10
cows have been found unre-
coverable,” he said, adding
that “1,548 Dean Oregon
Ranches mother cows were
successfully gathered by
Dean Oregon Ranches crew
before the snow. After the
snow, 34 mother cows have
been gathered through the
joint eff orts of our crew and
the community. Of those, 26
were Dean Oregon Ranches
cattle; the others were owned
by neighboring ranches.”
Warnock expressed his
gratitude to fellow ranchers
assisting in the recovery.
“We truly appreciate the
eff ort the community has
shown in this fi nal push to
gather the remaining cows,”
he said. “We plan to continue
aerial searches and hope to
bring in the majority of the
remaining 29 mother cows.”
County involved
At an emergency meet-
ing of the Wallowa County
Board of Commissioners on
an unrelated matter Dec. 30,
NEED HEALTH INSURANCE?
OPEN ENROLLMENT FOR 2022 PLANS
NOVEMBER 1, 2021 TO JANUARY 15, 2022
Nash — who is a rancher and
president of the Oregon Cat-
tlemen’s Association — said
information on the situation
at present was limited.
“The things we do know
is that this was a Forest Ser-
vice permit for the Upper
Big Sheep Creek and the
Upper Imnaha,” Nash said
after the meeting. “It takes in
a large area — 72,000 acres
— known as the Marr Flat
Grazing Allotment. They
had a viable permit to go
on sometime in the spring.
They were supposed to have
all cattle removed accord-
ing to the Forest Service per-
mit. By the 15th of October,
there were still cattle that
remained out there and are
in very deep snow, some of
them have expired. There is
a rescue eff ort being made
right now to try and rescue
as many as possible. We’ve
committed county resources
to it. There’ve been a num-
ber of people who have vol-
unteered or have contributed
time. There’s been helicop-
ters that have fl own feed into
some that were extremely
isolated and the rescue con-
tinues. Those are the basic
facts that I do know.”
Nash went on to specify
the county resources.
“The Road Department
cleared about 10 miles of
road in a heavy snowfall area
on the Upper Imnaha,” he
said. “They cleared about 90
trees out of the road. Com-
pounding the heavy snowfall
that came all at once, we had
an event where we had rain
and heavy snowfall after-
word. There are trees across
a lot of the access roads that
they’re trying to get down
right now that has exasper-
ated those eff orts to try to
extricate the cattle from their
situation.”
He was unsure how many
cattle were involved, but
was aware some had young
calves.
Rancher Casey Tippett
said he called the Forest Ser-
vice in November after hear-
ing reports from hunters that
cattle were on land where
they weren’t supposed to be,
but he never heard back from
the federal agency.
“Those cattle should’ve
been taken off that land a
long time ago,” Tippett said
Anna Butterfi eld/Contributed Photo
Dr. Brooke Greenshields of Double Arrow Veterinary Clinic In
Enterprise, left, and rancher Anna Butterfi eld at Butterfi eld’s
ranch northeast of Joseph attend to one of the calves rescued
from the Bob Dean Oregon Ranch in southern Wallowa
County.
Dec. 30. “When they take
strange cattle to an allotment,
when winter hits they don’t
know how to get out. The
people who know that coun-
try should’ve been getting
them out.”
Humane Society
Carol Vencill, president
of the local Humane Soci-
ety, said she, too, was unsure
of the numbers, but said the
snow was 7 feet deep in some
places.
“Adam Stein is really the
hero in all of this,” she said of
the Joseph construction con-
tractor. “It was Adam Stein
who got the ball rolling.”
She said he started gather-
ing people to help after view-
ing the cattle from the air.
Warnock added his take
on Stein’s assistance.
“I contacted Adam Stein
to fl y for the ranch and fl ew
with him to look for cows
multiple times,” Warnock
said. “I am very thankful we
reached out to Adam — he
has been awesome through
all this and his expertise in
the snow and in the air has
been an invaluable resource.”
Nash said various agencies
have been apprised of the sit-
uation, ready to lend what aid
they could. He said the Wal-
lowa County Sheriff ’s Offi ce
and the Wallowa-Whitman
National Forest are aware, as
well as others.
“I’ve had some discus-
sion with the Oregon Depart-
ment of Agriculture on this
situation,” he said. “They’re
the ones with the Brand
Department a lot of the (state
laws) concerning the current
situation.”
Peter Fargo, public aff airs
offi cer for the Wallowa-Whit-
man National Forest based in
Baker City, said in an email
Dec. 31 that the county, the
sheriff ’s offi ce and volunteers
not only had been rescuing
cattle, they “have been haul-
ing hay and water with snow-
mobiles, side-by-sides and
helicopters. The priority of
the operation is fi rst on every-
one’s safety and then saving
as many cattle as possible.”
He said the Forest Service
instructed the permittee and
ranch manager to remove all
the cattle in October.
Fargo estimated there
were an estimated 70 head
of cattle still on the allotment
Dec. 21 and as of Dec. 30,
there were up to 25 animals
still unaccounted for. Tom
Birkmaier, president of Wal-
lowa County Stockgrowers,
said he has heard the num-
bers are higher, but couldn’t
say exactly how many.
But mostly it’s people in
Wallowa County who are
getting out the eff ort to res-
cue the stranded cattle and
calves.
“There’s a lot of people
who are quite concerned,”
Nash said.
Birkmaier, who ranches
on Crow Creek where he and
wife, Kelly, have been car-
ing for some of the rescued
calves, was emphatic in his
concern for the situation.
“Several factors created
near perfect storm that led to
an unfortunate series of event
impacting a group of cattle
in southern Wallowa County.
Apparent mismanagement,
extreme weather events and
lactating cows with young
calves all played a part,”
Birkmaier said. “Over 40
folks nearly all volunteers,
mostly led by Adam Stein’s
common sense and tireless
commitment both in the air
and on the ground have been
working the past 10 days on
an incredible rescue of many
livestock.”
Still, many livestock have
succumbed to the conditions.
“As Wallowa County
stockmen, we need to hold
each other accountable, work
hard to support to help and
support those in need and do
everything humanely pos-
sible such as this from hap-
pening again in the future,”
he said. “In addition, serve
our animals with the animal
husbandry practices they so
deserve.”
VISIT US ON THE WEB AT:
www.Wallowa.com
Get your message out there!
Call Jennifer Cooney at 541-805-9630 for assistance with
all your advertising in the Wallowa County Chieftain!
All Print Advertising
541-805-9630 jacs.isms@gmail.com
Sales and
JAC’s Innovative
Marketing Solutions