A18 STATE Wallowa County Chieftain Wednesday, February 16, 2022 Environmental groups oppose $1M wolf compensation bill By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI Capital Press SALEM — Environmen- tal groups oppose provid- ing Oregon ranchers with an additional $1 million in com- pensation for wolf problems, arguing the bill sends a bad message about the predators. Supporters of House Bill 4127 counter that as wolves spread across the state, it’s necessary to devote more money to pay ranchers for lost livestock and for pre- ventive measures. “We need to ensure this fund doesn’t go dry,” said Rep. Bobby Levy, R-Echo, referring to the Wolf Man- agement Compensation and Proactive Trust Fund created in 2011. “We have over twice as many confi rmed depreda- tions as we saw in 2020,” Levy said, noting that wolves killed 41 cows, 23 sheep, 9 goats and a guard dog last year. Based on previous levels of compensation, that means ranchers would need more than $750,000 in compensa- tion for last year’s confi rmed losses, she said. For the current bien- nium, Oregon has $400,000 per year in federal and state money authorized for wolf compensation, said Jonathan Sandau, special assistant to the director at the Oregon ODFW Environmental nonprofi ts oppose a bill to provide ranchers with an additional $1 million in compensation for wolf problems. Department of Agriculture. On average over the past three years, the wolf com- pensation fund has annu- ally received $425,000 in requests and paid out $185,000, Sandau said. At least 30% of the funds must be dedicated to pre- vention, but usually that proportion is much higher, hovering at about 70% per year, he said. Coalitions of environ- mental nonprofi t groups have come out against HB 4127, claiming it will pro- vide funds for missing live- stock that wasn’t necessarily killed by wolves. The Oregon Conserva- tion Network, a coalition of 30 organizations, opposes “throwing more money at missing livestock,” partly because it will confl ate way- ward animals with wolf depredations, said Julie McGraw, the network’s rep- resentative at a recent House Agriculture, Land Use and Water Committee hearing. “The more it appears that wolves are killing livestock, the worse it is going to be in terms of the quality of the relationship with people try- ing to raise livestock,” she said. The number of live- stock that have allegedly gone missing due to wolves far surpasses the number of confi rmed depredations, said Julie Moser, wildlife pro- gram coordinator for the Oregon Wild nonprofi t. Meanwhile, livestock go missing for any number of reasons, so those claims for compensation aren’t verifi - able, Moser said. “Blaming wolves for any unaccounted livestock not only superfi cially infl ates wolf-livestock confl ict but it perpetuates a problematic stigma about wolves,” she said. Critics of the bill also argued the wolf compensa- tion fund is prone to mis- use and should be reformed, while adding more money to it will create a “moral haz- ard” by encouraging ranch- ers not to look for missing animals. “Making the fund easier to abuse is not a solution,” said Bethany Cotton, conser- vation director for the Cas- cadia Wildlands nonprofi t. The bill’s supporters pointed out that despite the critics’ focus on missing livestock, the added fund- ing would go to the wolf compensation program as a whole. “There’s a lot of con- jecture on this but there are really no facts,” Rep. David Brock-Smith, R-Port Orford said. With wolf depredations reaching a record level in 2021, it’s worth adequately funding the wolf compensa- tion program to encourage acceptance of state policies for the species, Rep. Mark Owens, R-Crane said. “It’s a trend that’s start- ing to possibly erode the social tolerance we started to develop with the wolf management plan,” Owens said of rising depredations. “Nothing in this bill changes the wolf management plan. Nothing in this bill harms wolves. In fact, this bill is there to support that social tolerance of wolf interac- tions with our public.” Wolves cause problems for the livestock industry that go beyond depredations, such as lower conception rates and weight loss, said Todd Nash, president of the Oregon Cattlemen’s Associ- ation and a Wallowa County commissioner. “If we paid for the miss- ing livestock and the con- fi rmed depredations, it wouldn’t come close to cap- turing the cost incurred by ranchers,” Nash said. “If there’s going to be fraud in the system, the fraud is that we have a compensation sys- tem and there are not funds available.” Judge restores many wolves to endangered species list By DON JENKINS Capital Press A federal judge in Oak- land, California, Thurs- day, Feb. 10, restored many wolves in the Lower 48 to the endangered species list, overturning a decision by the Trump administra- tion that was cheered by ranchers. U.S. District Judge Jef- frey White embraced claims by wolf advocates that stripping protection was premature. The ruling again puts wolves in Western Wash- ington, Western Oregon and California under federal protection. The decision does not cover wolves in Eastern Washington, Eastern Ore- gon, Idaho or Montana. Wolves in those areas will remain off the federally protected list of species and will still be managed by state offi cials. The U.S. Fish and Wild- life Service argued that wolves throughout the U.S. were no longer threatened with extinction because of robust wolf populations in the Northern Rocky Moun- tains and the Great Lakes. The agency said West Coast wolves were an extension of those large and stable populations. White, however, said the agency erred by declar- ing West Coast wolves are recovered based on the sta- tus of wolves in Rockies and Great Lakes. Environmental groups that sued to restore pro- tection celebrated White’s decision. “This is a huge win for gray wolves and the many people across the country REFLECTIONS ON THE 2021 MARKET HERE’S WHO RUBY PEAK SERVED 234 buyers and sellers assisted where the buyers were from 45- Wallowa County or returning 7 - Eastern Oregon 42 - Western Oregon 10 - Washington 6 - California 6 - Idaho 7- Other 25 retired buyers 18 20% median sale price increase first-time buyers 50 Home in Town City/Area  # of sales   # of sales Median Median 2020 2021 Sale Price Sale Price 2020 2021 Joseph                20            28     $256,000      $334,500 Enterprise          37            37        $225,000         $299,650 Lostine                3              2      $165,000         $250,000 Wallowa              5              22       $190,000        $202,500 Imnaha                4                1     $86,250        $552,500 Wallowa Lake    17              16      $355,000         $472,500 Thank you to our clients for a successful 2021! 83365 Joseph Hwy, Joseph, OR 97846 541-432-5000 throughout the U.S. The agency said increased hunting of wolves in states such as Idaho may cause it to reconsider its decision to remove federal protection. Under federal protection, wolves that attack livestock are not subject to lethal removal. Washington and Oregon wildlife managers have used lethal control to curb attacks on livestock. 2020/2021 HOME SALES IN WALLOWA COUNTY Homes on 1 - 20 29            Acres (All Areas)         Residential 16 Acreage (1-10 Acres) investment property/ second homes See our listings at www.RubyPeakRealty.com who care so deeply about them,” Collette Adkins, car- nivore conservation direc- tor at the Center for Bio- logical Diversity, said in a statement. The Biden administra- tion inherited the lawsuits and defended in court del- isting wolves throughout the Lower 48. 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