SATURDAY, JULY 31, 2021
WOLVES
Continued from Page A1
ODFW biologists have
confi rmed the four attacks
by wolves from the Look-
out Mountain pack, which
consists of an estimated nine
wolves, but potentially as
many as 11.
The attacks all happened
northeast of Durkee, generally
in the Manning Creek area
east of Lookout Mountain.
The Lookout Mountain
pack consists of the breed-
ing pair (an adult male and
female), two yearlings born
in the spring of 2020 — the
fi rst pups born to the pair that
ODFW has confi rmed — and
a second litter of pups born in
the spring of 2021.
Brian Ratliff, district wild-
life biologist at ODFW’s Baker
City offi ce, said a video from
May showed seven pups, but
since then he could confi rm
only fi ve pups from this year’s
litter. He said all seven of the
pups might have survived,
though, and are still part of
the pack.
Bennett included with his
request a letter from Deward
and Kathy Thompson, the
ranchers who own property in
the area and also own some of
the cattle that were attacked.
They also manage cattle for
other ranchers, including ani-
mals that have been attacked
this month.
The Thompsons wrote in
their letter to Melcher, the
ODFW director, that they be-
lieve the attacks are the result
of the growing pack’s need for
more food.
“It has gone rampant the
last two weeks with this years
and last year’s pups added
to the bunch,” the couple
wrote. “We are asking for your
urgent assistance in reducing
the packs need for so much
meat to exist.”
Bennett said in an inter-
view Thursday morning,
July 29, that the Thompsons
Groups petition to restore
federal protection for wolves
By Keith Ridler
Associated Press
BOISE — Wildlife advocates on Thurs-
day, July 29 petitioned federal offi cials to
restore federal protections for gray wolves
throughout the U.S. West after Idaho and
Montana passed laws intended to drasti-
cally cut their numbers.
Western Watersheds Project, WildEarth
Guardians and others sent the petition
have taken multiple steps to
protect their cattle, including
nonlethal tactics to drive away
wolves.
According to the state’s wolf
management plan, ODFW
can issue a kill permit only
if the affected ranchers have
used, and documented, non-
lethal methods to try to avoid
wolf attacks.
In his letter to Melcher,
Bennett lists some of the steps
the Thompsons have taken,
including:
• Frequently checking their
cattle starting in early Janu-
ary, continuing through calv-
ing season in February, and
into the spring and summer
when their cattle were moved
to upland pastures.
• Installing wire fencing
around their calving pen.
• Firing gunshots in the air
to try to frighten wolves.
• Installing a device that
emits noise and lights when
a wolf fi tted with a radio-
tracking collar approaches
(the male breeding wolf in the
Lookout Mountain pack has
such a collar).
Bennett also wrote that the
Thompsons decided not to use
one of their higher grazing
pastures due to the wolves.
“While local producers are
most appreciative of local
ODF&W staff efforts to assist
to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The
agency is supposed to respond within 90
days on whether there is enough infor-
mation for a potential listing under the
Endangered Species Act.
The groups cite unregulated hunting,
poaching and genetic problems involving
small wolf populations.
with tools, collaring, and other
non-lethal intervention, this
has not prevented the ongoing
losses,” Bennett wrote.
A press release from ODFW
notes those tactics, as well as
the Thompsons’ burying dead
calves and cows to avoid at-
tracting wolves.
The Thompsons’ letter to
Melcher includes a six-page
handwritten diary of their
activities since January 2021,
many of them intended to
thwart wolves and protect
their cattle. The couple say
they have put 16,000 miles on
their ATV the past two years
checking cattle.
The diary includes multiple
entries where the Thompsons
saw or heard wolves, or found
their tracks in areas where
their cattle graze.
Bennett’s request also
includes a letter written by
Greg M. Baxter, Baker County
district attorney.
Baxter said Baker County
Sheriff Travis Ash invited him
to watch an ODFW investiga-
tion of a possible wolf depreda-
tion on July 23. An ODFW bi-
ologist concluded that wolves
from the Lookout Mountain
pack had killed an 850-pound,
1 1/2-year-old heifer either
late July 22 or early on July
23. The biologist found a blood
trail leading from a struggle
scene to the carcass, as well as
tooth scrapes on the carcass of
a size and location consistent
with wolf attacks, according to
an ODFW report.
Baxter said the experience
helped him understand the
situation that ranchers face.
As district attorney, he could
potentially have to decide
whether or not the shooting of
a wolf was legally justifi ed.
That happened in the
spring of 2019, when Baxter’s
predecessor, Matt Shirtcliff
(now Baker County Circuit
Court judge) decided that a
Pine Valley rancher was justi-
fi ed in shooting and killing
one of four wolves that were
attacking his cow dog near his
home.
Oregon law allows property
owners, or their designated
agents, to use lethal force on a
wolf that is biting, wounding,
killing or chasing the owner’s
See Protection/Page A6
livestock or working dogs.
The lethal take permit, by
contrast, allows the Thomp-
sons, or their designated
agents, to kill wolves from
the Lookout Mountain pack
in any situation, regardless
of whether the wolves are
threatening or attacking
livestock.
Baxter saw more than he
expected on July 23 in the
hills and gorges northeast of
Durkee.
After watching the biologist
examine the heifer’s carcass,
Baxter wrote that he and
another local rancher, Levi
Bunch, walked up a nearby
gulch after an ODFW offi cial
said the signal from a radio-
tracking collar showed the
pack’s breeding male was
within a few hundred yards.
About 300 yards from the
carcass, Baxter said he and
Bunch saw at least two wolf
pups. Soon after, he said an
ODFW employee made a
call mimicking an elk, which
almost immediately prompted
multiple wolves to howl or
bark.
Baxter said he and Bunch
climbed a hill and saw, about
200 yards away, two wolf pups
approach two larger wolves.
They also saw four head of
cattle nearby.
Baxter said the cattle
walked away, “at a brisk pace,”
and they were almost im-
mediately followed by a “large,
adult wolf” that was about 20
feet from where the cattle had
been standing.
Baxter said that had some-
one shot the wolf at that point,
he would have considered it
a justifi ed killing because he
believed the wolf was threat-
ening the cattle.
“I wouldn’t have prosecuted
it,” he said.
Baxter said he was
impressed, after talking to
ranchers in the area, with
their efforts to protect their
cattle without seeking to kill
any wolves.
“They really are trying to do
the right thing,” he said.
Baxter said he wrote a let-
ter outlining his experience on
July 23 because he endorsed
Bennett’s request for the kill
permit.
Survey: Conservatives far more
likely to decline vaccine in Oregon
By Suzanne Roig
EO Media Group
COVID-19 vaccination
rates drop signifi cantly
outside of the Portland metro
area, according to results of
an Oregon Values and Beliefs
Center survey.
The online survey of
Oregon residents showed
the three counties making
up the Portland area had a
77% vaccination rate. In the
survey, 42% of those surveyed
said they had not received a
COVID-19 vaccine.
The survey results mirror
those from December 2020
that gauged how likely some-
one would be to get the vaccine
when it became available. The
results were published at the
same time Oregon Gov. Kate
Brown announced the state
would follow Centers for Dis-
ease Control and Prevention
indoor masking guidelines.
People who identifi ed as
socially conservative were
four times as likely to say they
would not receive the vaccine
than those who said they
BAKER CITY HERALD — A3
LOCAL & STATE
“This is not a vaccine. It
is an experimental gene
therapy drug. I chose not
to be a guinea pig.”
— Response to recent
survey of Oregonians about
whether they have had a
COVID-19 vaccination
were liberal. Nearly all those
surveyed who said they were
college educated reported hav-
ing received at least one dose
of the COVID-19 vaccine.
“In Oregon, as in most other
states, vaccination has become
a politically polarized issue,”
said Amaury Vogel, Oregon
Values and Beliefs Center
associate executive director.
“Political ideology when it
comes to social issues, is a
strong predictor of whether or
not a person has received at
least one dose of a COVID-19
vaccine.”
Some of the responses to
the survey of why people
would not become vaccinated
included:
About Oregon Values and Beliefs Center
The Oregon Values and Beliefs Center, a nonpartisan
charitable organization, has partnered with Pamplin Media
Group and EO Media Group to report how Oregonians
think and feel about various subjects.
The Oregon Values and Beliefs Center is committed
to the highest level of public opinion research. To obtain
that, the non-profi t is building the largest online research
panel of Oregonians in history to ensure that all voices are
represented in discussions of public policy in a valid and
statistically reliable way.
Selected panelists earn points for their participation,
which can be redeemed for cash or donated to a charity.
To learn more, visit oregonvbc.org.
• “The jab is a psychotic
global attempt to fulfi ll a
depopulation agenda.”
• “This is not a vaccine.
It is an experimental gene
therapy drug. I chose not to
be a guinea pig.”
• One resident said he
had survived severe acute
respiratory syndrome in
2003.
“Oregonians who remain
unvaccinated share the
same reasons as being the
most infl uential in their de-
cision not to get vaccinated:
Long- and short-term side
effects and the concerns that
the vaccine was developed
too quickly,” Vogel said.
The survey conducted July
9-14 of 1,464 residents has
a margin of error for the full
sample ranging from plus or
minus 1.5% to plus or minus
2.6%, depending on the
response category for any
given question.
L OCAL B RIEFING
Keller Williams Four Rivers welcomes its
three Baker City real estate agents
Keller Williams Four Rivers real estate has welcomed
its three Baker City agents: Shannon
Downing, Kristen McAdams and Jeff
Anderson.
Keller Williams Realty Boise expanded
to Baker City this past winter and serves
Baker, Union, Wallowa, Grant, Morrow,
McAdams
Umatilla and Wheeler counties.
All are veteran real estate professionals
in Baker County.
Downing, who is a member of Soropti-
mist International of Baker County, enjoys
spending her spare time with her family
exploring the county’s outdoor areas.
Anderson
McAdams, who was born and raised
in Baker City, has more than six years of
experience in real estate. She’s an avid
traveler who loves to go camping and boat-
ing with her husband, son and fur babies.
Anderson was born and raised in
Northeastern Oregon and moved to Baker
Downing
City at age two in 1980. He worked as a
lineman for the Bonneville Power Admin-
istration and as manager of loss control at Oregon Trail
Electric Cooperative before moving into real estate.
Governor might
require vaccine
for state workers
By Sara Cline
Associated Press/Report for America
PORTLAND — Oregon Gov. Kate Brown is “ex-
amining” whether to require that state workers get
vaccinated, as the highly transmissible delta variant
continues to spread across the state and COVID-19
cases spike.
Elsewhere, in California and New York, offi cials
announced state employees will be required to be vac-
cinated or undergo weekly tests for COVID-19. In ad-
dition, the Department of Veterans Affairs on Monday
became the fi rst federal agency to require vaccinations,
for its health workers.
“We are examining the actions taken this week by
California, New York City and the VA, and determining
what further actions can be taken in Oregon,” Brown’s
deputy communications director Charles Boyle wrote
in an email on Wednesday.
As cases continue to increase across the country, the
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention an-
nounced updated masking guidelines on Tuesday, rec-
ommending that people — vaccinated or not — return
to wearing masks indoors in parts of the U.S. where the
delta variant is rampant.
See Vaccine/Page A5
New at the library
In the last two weeks, Baker County Library has added 54
new bestsellers, 17 movies, 21 audiobooks, 64 children’s
books, and 231 other books, including 190 that are
available online.
The library, at 2400 Resort St., is open Monday through
Thursday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., Friday from 9 a.m. to 6
p.m., Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Sunday from
noon to 4 p.m.
NON FICTION
• “5 Types of People Who Can Ruin Your Life: Identifying
and Dealing with Narcissists, Sociopaths, and Other High-
Confl ict Personalities,” Bill Eddy.
• “The Art of Dying Well: A Practical Guide to a Good End
of Life,“ Katy Butler
• “Outer Order, Inner Calm: Declutter & Organize to Make
Room For More Happiness,” Gretchen Rubin
• Spirit in the Rock: The Fierce Battle for the Modoc
Homelands,” Jim Compton
• “Topgun: An American Story,” Dan Pedersen
FICTION
• “Bad Axe County,” John Galligan
• “Bookshop by the Sea,” Denise Hunters
• “How Much of These Hills is Gold,” C Pam Zhang
• “It’s Better This Way,” Debbie Macomber
• “Night of the Mannequins,” Stephen Graham Jones
MOVIES
• “Mortal Kombat” (Sci-Fi/Fantasy)
• “Percy vs Goliath” (Drama)
• “Phyllida Lloyd’s All Female Shakespeare Trilogy “ (Non-
Fiction)
• “The SpongeBob Movie” (Family)
• “Wrath of Man” (Action)
Providing quality and compassion to all his patients.
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John Day (every other monday)
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