A8
Region
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, November 30, 2016
Hunting stops growth in Idaho’s wolf population
BSU survey
shows broad
support in Idaho
for hunts
By Sean Ellis
EO Media Group
As hunting is resulting in
a slow but steady decline of
Idaho’s wolf population, a
Boise State University poll
taken earlier this year showed
strong statewide support for
the hunting of wolves.
Idaho’s minimum, docu-
mented wolf population has
been on a steady decline since
the state began allowing hunt-
ers to kill the animals.
It peaked at 856 in 2009,
the first year Idaho allowed
hunters to take wolves, before
a lawsuit that resulted in the
animals being put back on the
endangered species list halted
that hunting season.
Since wolves were perma-
nently delisted and hunting
resumed in 2011, the popula-
tion has slowly declined and
was 786 at the end of 2015.
“The overall wolf popula-
tion has stabilized since state
management [and hunting]
began in 2011,” said Ida-
ho Department of Fish and
Game spokesman Mike Ke-
ckler. “That’s when that 30-40
percent population increase
we were seeing annually
stopped.”
A poll taken in January
shows support for the hunts.
“Our ... survey showed
it’s not popular to be a wolf
in Idaho,” said Corey Cook,
dean of BSU’s School of Pub-
lic Service, which conduct-
New EPA grant tightens
oversight to prevent
another What’s Upstream
By Don Jenkins
EO Media Group
The Environmental Pro-
tection Agency has award-
ed Western Washington
tribes another $25 million
for Puget Sound projects, but
with stronger instructions to
collaborate with others, a re-
sponse to congressional com-
plaints that one tribe misspent
EPA funds to malign farmers.
The new grant to the
20-tribe Northwest Indian
Fisheries Commission ex-
tends for five years a federal
program that financed What’s
Upstream, a media campaign
directed by the Swinomish
Indian tribe portraying farm-
ers as careless and unregulat-
ed polluters.
EPA staff members had
concerns about the project’s
tone and accuracy, but the
EPA’s Northwest administra-
tor, Dennis McLerran, stated
in a letter in May to a lawmak-
er that the agency couldn’t
control the grant-funded cam-
paign. The EPA did, how-
ever, sever ties with What’s
Upstream when confronted
on the national level by angry
federal lawmakers.
Moving forward, the EPA
will have 30 days to preview
plans by individual tribes and
also require projects to be
peer reviewed, according to
the agency’s agreement with
the fisheries commission. The
stipulations were not in the
$18 million grant agreement
the EPA signed with the fish-
eries commission in late 2010.
The EPA has always in-
tended for its grants to foster
cooperation between tribes
and other groups, an agency
spokesman said. The new
agreement is more explicit,
he said.
The preview of proj-
ects addresses “internal and
congressional concerns and
provide more clarity on the
collaborative nature of the
program and the ability to
proactively intervene,” the
EPA spokesman said in an
email.
The EPA and fisheries
commission signed the agree-
ment Sept. 30. It was made
available last week at the re-
quest of the Capital Press.
The EPA’s new award
comes as the agency’s Of-
fice of Inspector General is
still auditing whether the
fisheries commission and
Swinomish tribe misappro-
priated the 2010 grant to
lobby lawmakers.
Contributed photo/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
A gray wolf. Idaho’s minimum, documented wolf
population has been on a steady decline since the
state began allowing hunters to kill the animals.
the results — strong support
for wolf hunting — were the
same.
The poll results showed
that 72 percent of people sur-
veyed supported wolf hunting
ed the poll. “People didn’t
express a lot of support for
wolves.”
The phone survey of 1,000
Idahoans was conducted in
all regions of the state and
while 22 percent opposed it.
Fifty-one percent of re-
spondents strongly supported
wolf hunting compared with
13 percent who strongly op-
posed it.
Even in Boise, Idaho’s
main urban area, 64 percent of
respondents favored allowing
hunters to take wolves while
28 percent opposed that.
The poll results show that
Idahoans understand hunting
is an important wolf manage-
ment tool, said Idaho Farm
Bureau Federation spokes-
man John Thompson.
“It certainly is a good thing
to hear,” he said. “You cer-
tainly wouldn’t expect to find
that (support) in some of the
other states that wolves are
moving into.”
After wolves were re-in-
troduced into Idaho in 1994
and 1995, the animal’s popu-
lation grew rapidly, expand-
ing at a rate of 30-40 percent
annually.
Hunting has stopped that
growth.
“We’re getting over the
honeymoon period (and) peo-
ple see hunting as a good tool
in the management toolbox,”
Thompson said.
While wolf hunting has
been successful in controlling
the animal’s population in
Idaho, IDFG numbers show
that wolves are getting smart-
er when it comes to avoiding
hunters.
During the 2010-2011
hunting season, Idaho’s first
full year of wolf hunting, 181
wolves were killed by hunt-
ers. That number rose to 376
the next year but has declined
each year since then, to 319
and then 303 and 249 last
year.
Umatilla Indian Reservation
grapples with pipelines
By George Plaven
EO Media Group
The explosion shook the
ground beneath the Umatilla In-
dian Reservation and unleashed
a massive fireball that roared up
to 500 feet into the air.
On Jan. 2, 1999, a natural
gas pipeline ruptured about a
mile south of Cayuse at the base
of the Blue Mountains, trigger-
ing the blast that left behind a
large crater and sent shrapnel
flying hundreds of feet.
“It sounded like a jet en-
gine had crashed,” remembers
Chuck Sams, now the commu-
nications director for the Con-
federated Tribes of the Umatilla
Indian Reservation.
Fortunately, no one was hurt
and no homes damaged in the
accident, but for tribal officials
it underscored the potential
danger of fossil fuel pipelines
criss-crossing the landscape
where American Indians live,
hunt and retain cultural resourc-
es.
Now as protesters clash with
police over the Dakota Access
Pipeline on the Standing Rock
Sioux Reservation in North
Dakota, Sams said the CTUIR
knows firsthand that some util-
ities simply are not capable of
protecting tribal resources and
treaty rights.
“For the Standing Rock
Reservation, that’s what they’re
EO Media Group/E.J. Harris
Markers denote the path of the Tesoro Logistics
pipeline at the point where it crosses underneath
the Umatilla River south of Cayuse.
trying to do,” Sams said.
There are actually two un-
derground pipelines that run
underneath the Umatilla Indian
Reservation — neither of which
were originally negotiated by
the CTUIR. The Northwest
Pipeline, owned and operated
by the Williams Companies, is
what blew up on the reservation
nearly 18 years ago. The entire
line spans 4,000 miles over six
western states, with the capaci-
ty to carry 3.9 million dekath-
erms of Rocky Mountain natu-
ral gas per day.
The other line is owned by
Tesoro Corporation, an inde-
pendent refiner and marketer
of petroleum products based
in San Antonio. Its Northwest
Products System pipeline
stretches 760 miles from Salt
Lake City to Spokane, Wash-
ington. It transports gasoline,
diesel and jet fuel.
Both lines converge on the
reservation east of Pendleton,
and were essentially inherit-
ed by the tribes. The right-of-
way for each was settled in the
1950s by the Bureau of Indian
Affairs. At the time the CTUIR
government was not developed
to the point where it could pro-
vide much technical or legal
analysis.
It wasn’t until President
Gerald Ford signed the Indian
Self-Determination and Educa-
tion Assistance Act of 1975 that
tribes, including the CTUIR,
assumed greater control over
their own welfare. The legis-
lation also authorized the gov-
ernment to deal directly with
federally recognized tribes.
“Those were the beginning
days of the tribes developing
government infrastructure to
take over these rights-of-way
with the natural gas compa-
nies,” said longtime CTUIR
attorney Dan Hester. “If there
is a problem with the pipeline,
we know who to call, and they
know who to call.”
The Tesoro line, through the
BIA, was granted a permanent
easement in 1970, Hester said.
The original six-inch line was
built in 1950, but has not been
used for the past 20 years. An-
other eight-inch line was built
in 1957, running parallel to the
first line, which is what carries
petroleum products today.
Company spokesman Bren-
dan Smith said spills of any
volume are unacceptable, and
Tesoro conducts roughly 30
spill response drills annually
across the system.
In North Dakota, protesters
have raised concerns over the
Dakota Access Pipeline poten-
tially spilling crude oil into the
Missouri River, which is the
reservation’s primary source of
drinking water. Energy Trans-
fer Partners is the developer of
that project, reaching from the
Bakken oil fields into Illinois.
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Better Blooms & Gardens
Between John Day & Prairie City • 541-820-3329
04867
Please join us on
. for our annual Light up a Life event.
Baker City
2830 10th St.
541-524-0122
We take this time to remember those in our
community who have passed away, but continue
to live on in our memories and hearts. We would
like to invite you to include your loved one in this
memorial service. Please bring a picture of your
loved one to our office, or email a picture and
plan to join us on December 6th, at
Donations are
accepted, but there is no cost for participating in
this memorial service.
541-575-1648
mgibson@bluemountainhospital.org
Every other Monday
in John Day
170 Ford Rd.
541-575-1311
04834