Wolves
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, September 27, 2017
WOLVES
Continued from Page A8
Compensation committee
When wolves do prey
on livestock, the state has a
mechanism to compensate
ranchers for their losses.
The Oregon Wolf Dep-
redation Compensation and
Financial Assistance Grant
Program is administered by
the state Department of Ag-
riculture with funds allocated
by the Legislature, distributed
to counties and awarded to
producers.
Jerry Baker, a part-time
wildlife biologist who lives
in Athena, serves as chair-
man of the Umatilla County
Wolf Depredation Advisory
Committee. He said the group
meets two or three times a
year to apply for funding and
consider requests for compen-
sation.
“We know (wolves) are
here,” Baker said. “We’re try-
ing to deal with them.”
In February, the commit-
tee awarded nearly $50,000
in state money to ranchers
for livestock compensation,
including nonlethal deterrents
for hazing wolves away from
their property. Baker said the
&
EO Media Group/E.J. Harris
Contributed photo/ODFW
A remote camera catches a wolf from the North Emily
group in northeast Oregon.
committee will meet again
sometime in November or
December, and has received
about a half-dozen requests so
far this summer.
In the case of Cunningham
Sheep, the company satisfied
its requirements for nonle-
thal deterrence prior to asking
for lethal control, according
to ODFW. That includes re-
moving dead or weakened
animals from their herd that
may attract wolves, and hiring
a range rider five days a week
to monitor the pasture.
“We’ve had depredations
before,” Rimbach said. “For
I
T
N
E
M
E
V
O
R
P
M
whatever reason, it really
ramped up this year.”
Cunningham Sheep would
normally graze cattle on the
pasture until October. Instead,
the company is rounding up
the animals to move to an-
other location. It also gave up
using its adjacent sheep allot-
ment two years ago to avoid
wolf conflicts.
Larry Givens, Umatilla
County commissioner and
liaison to the wolf compensa-
tion committee, said he sym-
pathizes with ranchers, and
will continue to lobby Salem
for greater support.
The Mt. Emily Summit Road runs through the territory of
three known wolf packs in the Umatilla National Forest
near Meacham.
“That’s a tremendous fi-
nancial loss to these folks,”
Givens said. “We know we
can’t just go out and get rid
of the wolves. So we have to
have a way to mitigate those
losses.”
Continued growth
Driving along Summit
Road near Fox Prairie, Rim-
bach can point in the direction
of multiple areas of wolf ac-
tivity within just a few miles.
The Meacham pack can
be found four or five miles to
the west. OR-11 — the Wal-
la Walla pack disperser — is
now about four miles to the
north with a new mate. To
the south is OR-52, recently
paired up with a mate outside
the Union County town of
Perry.
The Blue Mountains is a
popular spot for outdoor rec-
reation, and Rimbach insists
wolves do not change that dy-
namic. Wolves tend to avoid
humans, he said, and locals
should not have any concerns
for safety.
“The chance of people
having any adverse effect
with wolves is almost zero,”
he said. “They might sit on
H ouse to H ome
A9
their haunches and watch as
you walk by, but that’s about
it.”
Rimbach did caution
against letting dogs run off
leash in wolf territory, as the
predators do become territo-
rial with other canines. As for
folks who live in the area, the
presence of wolves is nothing
new.
“I don’t think it’s a big sur-
prise to the few people who
live there year-round,” he
said. “They’ll see wolf tracks
there. They’ve been seeing
those for five years.”
If the latest documented
wolf pairings become full-
fledged packs, Rimbach said
he could see where wolves in
the district start running out
of room to function, and the
population naturally begin to
level off.
Baker said he believes
wolves have fared better in
the area than anybody ex-
pected, and he is interested
in seeing how they affect the
local ecosystem in the coming
years.
“We’re going to have to
work together on this, all of
us, to try and make the best
situation we can,” Baker said.
“Because (wolves) are here to
stay. No doubt about it.”