A8
Wolves
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, September 27, 2017
Wolf numbers growing in Mount Emily, Meacham
By George Plaven
Wolf packs in Walla
Walla, Mount Emily units
EO Media Group
A misty rain fell Wednes-
day morning in the Blue
Mountains east of Pendleton,
where Greg Rimbach drove
the muddy forest roads scan-
ning for wolf tracks.
“Once you see one, now
you’re an expert,” said Rim-
bach, district wildlife biologist
for the Oregon Department
of Fish & Wildlife. “When
they want to go somewhere,
they like walking along roads
down ridges. It’s just easier.”
Since wolves dispersed
from Idaho and returned to
northeast Oregon in the late
1990s, more of the predators
are settling and forming packs
in the Walla Walla and Mount
Emily wildlife units. The dis-
trict is now home to seven
packs or groups of wolves
totaling at least 36 animals —
nearly one-third of the state’s
known wolf population.
Rimbach figures he spends
a quarter of his workdays
managing wolves, from trap-
ping and collaring to inves-
tigating claims of livestock
predation. His latest project
East Oregonian
Contributed photo/ODFW
The Walla Walla and Mount Emily wildlife manage-
ment units are home to seven wolf packs, pairs or groups
of wolves totaling at least 36 known animals, according to
the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife. They include:
• Walla Walla pack — 11 known animals
• Mount Emily pack — 8 known animals.
• Meacham pack — 7 known animals.
• North Emily wolves — 3 known animals.
• OR-52 group — 3 known animals.
• OR-11 pair — 2 known animals.
• OR-30 pair — 2 known animals.
A collared wolf is photographed in the Mount Emily area in northeast Oregon.
involves finding and re-collar-
ing OR-11, a male wolf from
the Walla Walla pack that ini-
tially split to form the Mount
Emily pack, and has split once
again and paired up with a
new mate at the south end of
the Mount Emily Unit.
The trajectory of increased
wolf activity comes as no sur-
prise to Rimbach.
“This is absolutely what
we expected,” he said. “It cer-
tainly is tracking with what
other states have seen.”
Meacham pack
The presence of wolves,
however, remains a polarizing
issue as ranchers contend with
livestock losses. Most recently,
ODFW determined the Mea-
cham pack was responsible
for attacking cattle four times
in eight days last month on the
same 4,000-acre private pas-
ture owned by Cunningham
Sheep Company.
Predations occurred less
than a mile from Interstate
84, and two miles from the
community of Meacham. In
response, ODFW issued a lim-
ited duration wolf kill permit,
allowing Cunningham Sheep
to shoot two adult or sub-adult
wolves on sight within the
densely forested pasture.
One of the wolves, a
non-breeding female, was shot
Sept. 7. The action sparked a
wave of anger on both sides of
the debate, with environmen-
tal groups criticizing ODFW
for allowing any wolves to be
killed and the Oregon Cattle-
men’s Association arguing the
entire pack should be removed.
Wolf-livestock
conflicts
were anticipated when wolves
re-entered Oregon, Rimbach
said. That is why ranchers and
environmentalists were both
included at the table when the
state wrote its Wolf Manage-
ment and Conservation Plan,
to balance conservation with
protection of livestock.
“This is exactly what came
out on the back end of those
discussions,” Rimbach said.
ODFW is still in the pro-
cess of revising the plan,
which it hopes to present back
to the Oregon Fish and Wild-
life Commission by December
or early 2018.
Personally, Rimbach said
he sees wolves as another part
of the local ecosystem that
needs to be managed.
“Hopefully someday, we
can start normalizing wolves
into our fauna,” he said.
See WOLVES, Page A9
Grant County
FALL HOME