A2 THE BULLETIN • THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2022
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2022 May Primary Election
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Republican governor’s forum
in Bend to air Thursday night
Bulletin staff report
The Bulletin and Central Oregon
Daily News are hosting a political fo-
rum in Bend with the top four Republi-
can gubernatorial candidates Thursday.
The four of 19 Republican candidates
were selected for the forum as they met
several strict criteria regarding their
campaigning and fundraising efforts.
The four are: Christine Drazan, Stan
Pulliam, Bud Pierce and Bob Tiernan.
The recorded forum will air at 7 p.m.
on CBS (KBNZ) in Bend. It will post
online at approximately the same time
at bendbulletin.com and at centralore-
gondaily.com.
The remaining Republican candi-
dates have been asked to participate in
an online forum Thursday, April 28,
which also will be posted on the web-
sites of The Bulletin and CO Daily.
“Due to the large field of primary
candidates, it became clear that to host
a live debate with all the candidates
would be nearly impossible and a bit
chaotic,” said Bulletin Editor Gerry
O’Brien. “Instead, we chose to partner
with CO Daily, Pamplin Media Group
and KOIN-TV in Portland to estab-
lish criteria for the top fundraisers and
front-runners from a recent poll and
host two forums with the top four can-
didates and a secondary, online forum
with the remaining ones.” The second
forum will be held in Portland and
hosted by Pamplin and KOIN-TV.
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Bend, OR 97702
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Bend, OR 97708
B
21 Oregon wolves killed last year
by poison, cars, wildlife officials
Deaths have
slowed the growth
of state wolf
population
Associated Press
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PORTLAND — The
growth of Oregon’s wolf
population slowed signifi-
cantly last year because 21
animals were poisoned by
poachers, hit by cars or were
killed by wildlife officials af-
ter they attacked livestock,
state wildlife authorities said
Wednesday.
The 2021 census counted
175 wolves, up just two ani-
mals from the previous year,
the Oregon Department of
Fish and Wildlife said. The
number of documented
packs decreased to 21 from
22 after eight wolves in East-
ern Oregon were illegally
poisoned, wiping out an
entire pack. The number
of breeding pairs of wolves
was down to 16, from 17 in
2020.
It was the slowest rate of
wolf growth since 2016, al-
though agency officials did
add that wolves expanded
their range into four new ar-
eas of activity in rural areas
in Jefferson, Klamath, Grant
and Union counties.
The count only captures
wolves observed through vi-
sual observations, tracks and
remote camera photographs
and the actual number of
wolves in Oregon is higher,
officials stressed. Just 13% of
Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife via AP, file
This photo taken in August 2019 by a trail camera shows a wolf pack that had at least four pups in the
Umpqua National Forest. State officials said Wednesday that the growth of Oregon’s wolf population
slowed last year because 21 wolves were killed.
the wolves in Oregon are in
the western part of the state.
The number of wolf at-
tacks on livestock was up
in 2021, including 49 con-
firmed incidents last year
versus 31 in 2020, the depart-
ment said.
Wildlife officials said they
killed eight members of the
Lookout Mountain Pack
because the animals chron-
ically attacked nearby live-
stock.
A conservation group,
Cascadia Wildlands, said
Wednesday the high num-
ber of wolf deaths at the
hands of humans was unac-
ceptable.
“Oregon’s wolf population
simply cannot sustain such
high levels of human-caused
wolf mortality,” said Nick
Cady, Cascadia Wildlands’
legal director. “The state
needs to both seriously pros-
ecute poachers and stop
killing wolves to subsidize
commercial livestock oper-
ations.”
Wolves once ranged most
of the U.S. But they were
wiped out in most places
by the 1930s under govern-
ment-sponsored poisoning
and trapping campaigns.
More than 2,000 wolves
occupy six states in the
Northern Rockies and Pa-
cific Northwest after the
animals from Canada were
reintroduced in Idaho and
Yellowstone National Park
starting in 1995.
However, wolves remain
absent across most of their
historical range. Wildlife ad-
vocates argue that continued
protections are needed so
they can continue to expand
in California, Colorado, Or-
egon and other states.
Wolves in Oregon no lon-
ger have state protection and
were without federal Endan-
gered Species Act protection
for 2021 after the Trump ad-
ministration removed those
protections. In February,
federal protection was re-
stored to wolves in the west-
ern two-thirds of the state.
REDMOND BUREAU
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Bend, OR 97708
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COVID-19 community levels for
Central Oregon counties
The Bulletin is no longer publishing
COVID-19 daily case counts by county.
The Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention monitors community lev-
els of COVID-19 to help communities
decide what prevention steps to take
based on the latest data. Levels can be
low, medium or high and are deter-
mined by looking at hospital beds be-
ing used, hospital admissions and the
total number of new COVID-19 cases
in an area.
The CDC listed the following levels
for Central Oregon:
Deschutes County: Low
Crook County: Low
Jefferson County: Low
Precautions the CDC recommends
for communities with low levels: Stay
up to date on vaccines and get tested if
you have symptoms.
Tuesday is
deadline
to register
with major
party
BETSY HAMMOND
The Oregonian
Oregon makes it easy to vote
– fill out your ballot at home,
then pop it in the mail, no
stamp needed.
But Oregon voters don’t get
a say in which Democratic or
Republican candidates get nom-
inated for governor, Congress
or the Legislature unless they’re
a registered member of one of
those parties. And right now,
a huge chunk of Oregon vot-
ers – about 41%, or nearly 1.3
million– are not. About 34% of
registered voters are Democrats,
and 24% are Republicans. Reg-
istering without a party affili-
ation has become much more
common since Oregon adopted
automatic voter registration tied
to getting or renewing an Ore-
gon driver’s license or state ID.
You might be among the 1.3
million who are not registered
with a major party — and it’s
easy to check. Simply go to or-
egonvotes.gov/myvote. Enter
your first and last names and
birthday and you’ll see whether
your registration is current and
which party, if any, you belong
to.
Many unaffiliated voters are
perfectly content with that sta-
tus. They get to vote in the May
17 primary for state labor com-
missioner, county commission-
ers, city council members and
other nonpartisan positions,
such as auditor.
But elections officials say the
top complaint about perceived
election unfairness in spring
primaries comes from voters
who are certain they registered
as members of the Republican
or Democratic parties and are
outraged someone changed
their registration and took
away their ability to vote for or
against a major party candidate.
State and county elections of-
ficials looked into many such
complaints in 2020 and found
no cases where a voter’s party
registration was changed by
anyone but the voter.
The upshot: If you want to
vote for or against Tina Kotek,
Bud Pierce or any other Repub-
lican or Democrat next month,
you should act now. http://ore-
gonvotes.gov/myvote and con-
sider changing your party reg-
istration if you’re not satisfied
with the current one. All you
need to switch your party mem-
bership online is your birthdate
and Oregon driver license or
state ID number to verify your
identity. But you must do it by
Tuesday’s deadline to affect
which ballot you’ll receive later
this month.
WE’RE
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