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About The Blue Mountain eagle. (John Day, Or.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 7, 2019)
RECORD-BREAKING NUMBER OF RODEO YOUTH COMPETE The PAGE A13 Blue Mountain EAGLE Grant County’s newspaper since 1868 Wednesday, August 7, 2019 151st Year • No. 32 • 18 Pages • $1.50 MyEagleNews.com Bulls killed, mutilated at Silvies Valley Ranch Sheriff, state police are investigating By Sierra Dawn McClain EO Media Group Five bulls were found dead and mutilated — with genitals and tongues cut out — on Silvies Valley Ranch in Harney County. Two carcasses were dis- covered July 30. On July 31, three more carcasses were found. The smell of decom- posing bodies gave them away. The cause of death is unknown, but investigators suspect one or more people are responsible. The Harney County Sher- iff’s Offi ce has named Dep- uty Dan Jenkins as the pri- mary investigator for the case. The Oregon State Police and the Malheur National Forest Emigrant Creek Ranger Dis- trict are also investigating. “I got stuck with the case,” Jenkins said. He laughed wryly. “And it’s a mystery.” As an isolated incident, the case might appear a strange fl uke. But according to the Federal Bureau of Investi- gation, thousands of killings and mutilations of cows have happened since the 1970s. The animals typically die in the same way with the same body parts removed. Jenkins said it’s hard to tell how these fi ve bulls died. There are no entry wounds. A metal detector revealed no bullets. According to climate data from the National Weather Service, the past month has had no major lightning storms in the area that could have killed cattle. Colby Marshall, vice pres- ident of Silvies Valley Ranch, said there were no outward signs of a struggle — no rope burns on trees, no scattered hoof prints, no strangulation marks. The bulls, he said, Capital Press See Bulls, Page A18 One of the fi ve mutilated bulls discovered July 31 in Malheur National Forest about 20 miles north of Burns, Ore. Wolves seen in Keeney Meadows No evidence of breeding or depredations By Richard Hanners Blue Mountain Eagle T wo wolves seen east of Highway 395 and north of Mt. Vernon don’t appear to have bred, and there’s been no evidence of livestock depredations. According to Ryan Platte at the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s John Day Field Offi ce, trappers fi rst reported seeing two black wolves in the Hog Creek and Long Creek Mountain area during the past winter. ODFW personnel found the wolf tracks in the snow and set up trail cameras. There were no hits until June after the cameras were relo- cated, Platte said. First they had a photo of a single wolf, then another photo with another wolf and fi nally a sequence of one and then the other, he said. A rancher working on a fence in the Keeney Mead- ows area reported in June seeing one wolf for sure and maybe a second, Platte said. Platte said ODFW believes the two are a male and female because one is larger than the other. No pups have been photographed by the trail cameras, which are checked about every two weeks, he said. Wolves can range over a wide area, especially if they are in a small group and are not denning, Platte said. A wolf that was collared in the Desolation Creek area north of Keeney Meadows ranged from the Elkhorn Mountains Contributed photo Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife trail cameras caught photos of two wolves in the Keeney Meadows area north of Mt. Vernon. near Granite all the way west to Service Creek near Fos- sil and south to the Middle Fork of the John Day River, he said. ODFW offi cials won’t provide detailed informa- tion on the location of the wolves, such as GPS data or the site of trail cameras, in order to protect the wolves, Platte said. Offi cials have met with ranchers holding grazing allotments in the area and spoke to them about the sightings and state regu- lations governing wolves. ODFW is the fi rst to hear about wolf attacks on live- stock, and so far the agency has received no depredation reports involving the Kee- ney Meadows wolves, Platte said. With only two wolves in the group, the impact on elk and deer would be too small to detect in the fi eld, he said. In addition to the Keeney Meadows pair, the two to three wolves in the Desola- tion Creek area and a “pair” in the Heppner area north- west of Desolation Creek, there was a report of a wolf sighting in the Logan Valley area last year, Platte said. Archers who had set up trail cameras in the Logan Valley area reported see- ing a black wolf, and video supplied to ODFW con- fi rmed the report, Platte said. ODFW also confi rmed a wolf attack on a calf in Logan Valley last fall. ODFW heavily moni- tored the Logan Valley area after the attack but found no signs of a wolf, Platte said. That winter, ODFW received two reports of wolf tracks seen in the snow in the Murderers Creek area, which were confi rmed by ODFW personnel who responded to the site. Making adjustments Matt Jones, a Mt. Ver- non rancher with 80 cows on a 7,000-acre grazing allot- ment in the Keeney Mead- ows area, said locals have suspected wolves were in the area for the past decade. At least fi ve different people said they saw a wolf in the past 5-10 years, he said. So far, Jones has had no wolf or other predator prob- lems. Coyotes are too small to take anything more than a sick calf with an inatten- tive mother, and cougars are more interested in deer, he said. Jones said ODFW offi - cials told him to immedi- ately cover any cow carcass he fi nds with a tarp to pre- vent it from being eaten by other predators and then call ODFW. The carcass can then be examined to determine if it was killed by a wolf. He was also told to remove the Contributed image This map from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife shows an approximation of the range occupied by two wolves confi rmed to be in the Keeney Meadows area north of Mt. Vernon. carcass soon so it wouldn’t attract wolves or other pred- ators to the area. The grazing area is so large that fi nding a cow car- cass is diffi cult, Jones said. In the past 15 years, he’s only lost one calf, which he never found so he’s not sure what happened to it. Jones said ODFW offi - cials are reluctant to blame cow deaths on wolves and will offer other explanations. But if he’s missing cows at the end of this season, that could be evidence that wolves are to blame, he said. Jones said he’s concerned about the wolf reintroduction program in Oregon but feels pretty helpless about it. All he can do is be out with his cows, he said. Using guard dogs is not advised as cows will lose their natural instinct to fi ght back against wolves, he said. Jones said he expects the problem will get worse as more wolves move to East- ern Oregon and eventu- ally form packs. The two in Keeney Meadows are prob- ably looking for a home, he said. See Wolves, Page A18 Another wild horse plan for Murderers Creek Comment period for latest proposal closes Aug. 17 tory,” the scoping document states. “Increased impacts have become an issue in recent years, with degrada- tion to resources and safety concerns. Confl icts have occurred between wild horses and private land commercial horse breeding and livestock operations.” By Richard Hanners Blue Mountain Eagle The Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management are seeking comments for a wild horse management plan for an area that has seen mul- tiple plans and projects and a lawsuit alleging the agen- cies blamed cattle for riparian damage that could be blamed on wild horses and elk. The Murderers Creek Wild Horse Territory and Herd Management Area Plan calls for maintaining herd Management area Eagle fi le photo A helicopter was used to drive wild horses into corrals during a gather in the Murderers Creek area in August 2010. population at 50-140 horses “to achieve a thriving nat- ural ecological balance of resources and ensure the health and genetic variability of the herd.” “Wild horses are impact- ing federal lands as well as private and state lands within and outside the terri- The Murderers Creek management area was estab- lished in 1972 following pas- sage of the Wild Free-Roam- ing Horses and Burros Act in 1971, which requires the For- est Service and Bureau of Land Management maintain a “thriving natural ecologi- cal balance” and multiple-use relationship on public lands. The management area encompasses 108,488 acres of federal land north of the Izee Highway, south of Aldrich Mountain, east of the South Fork of the John Day River and west of Flagtail Mountain. The management area includes 92 miles of streams designated critical habitat for Middle Columbia River steelhead, which are listed as threatened under the Endan- gered Species Act. The area also includes the Phillip W. Schneider Wild- life Area managed by the state, summer and winter See Plan, Page A18
