STATE
MyEagleNews.com
Wednesday, July 8, 2020
A7
Ranchers hit hard by wolves during spring grazing
By George Plaven
EO Media Group
ODFW
INVESTIGATIONS
A ranching couple in northeast
Oregon says they are frustrated and
heartbroken after struggling to pro-
tect their cattle from wolves earlier
this spring.
Cassie Miller and her husband,
John Petersen, graze several hun-
dred mother cows and their calves
on roughly 10,000 acres of spring
pasture owned by the Confederated
Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reser-
vation in the Blue Mountains east of
Pendleton.
Most of Oregon’s 158 docu-
mented wolves live in the state’s
northeast corner, including the Uma-
tilla Indian Reservation.
Despite camping out with the
herd at night, hiring a range rider
during the day and maintaining a
human presence around the clock,
Miller said they are 19 calves short
after moving the livestock over to
their summer range July 1.
Miller, a fifth-generation rancher
from Union, said they have only
been able to find six dead calves on
the large allotment — a mix of grassy
meadows and timber stringers. The
Oregon Department of Fish and
Wildlife investigated each case, but
could only confirm one of the calves
was killed by wolves from the nearby
Mount Emily pack on May 13.
Two others were ruled “probable”
wolf attacks, and three were “pos-
sible/unknown,” since most of the
remains had already been eaten by
scavengers.
While biologists did find evi-
dence of wolves in the area — such
as tracks, scat and coordinates for at
least one wolf fitted with a GPS col-
lar in February — they cannot know
for sure what killed the livestock
unless there is enough of the car-
Northeast Oregon ranchers
Cassie Miller and John Peters-
en found six dead calves this
spring on their tribal grazing
allotment in the Blue Moun-
tains east of Pendleton. The
Oregon Department of Fish
and Wildlife investigated each
case for possible wolf depreda-
tion, and made the following
rulings:
• April 30 — Probable
• May 2 — Probable
• May 12 — Possible/unknown
• May 13 — Confirmed
Contributed photo/Cassie Miller
District biologists for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife in Pendle-
ton investigated whether this calf was killed by wolves May 13 on tribal land in
the Blue Mountains. The incident was later confirmed.
cass left intact, leaving ranchers like
Miller in a difficult position.
“Definitely, we should have had
more confirmed depredations,” she
said. “That is why producers are get-
ting so upset.”
Miller said she does not blame
local wildlife biologists or tribal
land managers, but rather the crite-
ria they must follow for confirming
wolf kills.
“They’re following the proto-
col lined out for them,” Miller said.
“They were empathetic. They said
we definitely have a problem here.”
Greg Rimbach, the district wild-
life biologist for ODFW in Pendle-
ton, said he sympathizes with ranch-
ers who must spend more time and
money hazing wolves, but believes
the agency is doing the best it
can with timely, evidence-based
investigations.
“We go where the evidence leads
us,” Rimbach said. “That has caused
some concern or anguish with live-
stock producers. I don’t blame them
at all.”
Except for one confirmed depre-
dation, Rimbach said there was so lit-
tle left of these calves they could not
identify pre-mortem injuries. The
Blue Mountains are ripe with pred-
ators and scavengers, from birds to
bears and cougars. It does not take
long before a carcass is mostly, if
not entirely, consumed.
In 2017, Miller and Petersen
received a five-year grazing permit
from the tribes. Their allotment is
divided into two sections on either
side of a steep canyon, where the
cows are rotated on an annual basis.
The east side of the permit, which
runs up to an area known as Tele-
phone Ride, is where the couple has
run into trouble.
Two years ago, they came out
• May 24 — Possible/unknown
• May 26 — Possible/unknown
23 calves short. Miller said they did
not realize the extent of the situation
until it was already too late. This
spring, they found their first two
dead calves on back-to-back days,
April 30 and May 1, and immedi-
ately got to work.
For three weeks straight, Miller
said they camped out an average of
five nights a week with the herd, fir-
ing gun blasts to scare away wolves.
The tribes also hired a range rider to
help patrol the ridge.
“We did a ton of hazing,” Miller
said. “We went into this with the
intent of giving it 100%.”
Yet Miller said despite their best
efforts, the deaths did not stop. The
couple found more dead calves on
May 12, 13, 24 and 26. Miller said
they may never find the other miss-
ing animals.
Gordy Schumacher, the range,
agriculture and forestry program
manager for the tribes, acknowl-
edged they need to come up with a
better plan to mitigate wolf attacks
on Telephone Ridge. He pondered
additional non-lethal deterrents,
such as fladry and flashing lights,
though any proposal would need to
be approved by the tribes’ Fish and
Wildlife Commission.
Oregon does allow for kill-
ing wolves that prey on livestock
at least two times in nine months,
defined as “chronic depredation.”
But Schumacher questioned whether
killing wolves would only encour-
age other packs to move into the
area, potentially making the situation
worse.
“You’ve got to be real careful
with how you do this,” Schumacher
said. “Once you have a group of coy-
otes or wolves you can live with, you
leave them alone.”
The tribes allowed Miller and
Petersen to move their cattle to the
west side of the allotment at the end
of May, after which the problem
seemed to stop. Miller said they have
never had an issue on the west side of
the permit.
Around the same time, Rimbach
said OR-85, a male wolf collared by
ODFW in February, abruptly left the
area and wandered south near the
John Day River.
“All of a sudden, we got no more
indications from the livestock pro-
ducer or the tribes that wolves were
still there,” he said.
Finding a solution is critical for
Miller, who said the deaths of calves
impact them both financially and
emotionally.
“If you talk to ranchers, they’re
all going to tell you the absolute most
horrific part of this is the feeling your
animals have been put in this situa-
tion,” she said. “They’re important
to us.”
‘Ominous’ virus infection trends could reverse reopening
Governor extends
emergency
declaration to Sept. 4
By Gary A. Warner
For the Oregon Capital Bureau
Oregon’s COVID-19 infec-
tion rate is rising so fast that,
unless checked, businesses
may have to close again and
reopening schools this fall
could be jeopardized, top state
officials said July 1.
“Today, Oregon, you have
a choice,” Gov. Kate Brown
said. “A choice only you can
make. What happens next is
up to you.”
The press conference in
Salem with Brown and top
state health officials came a
day after the governor had
extended her emergency dec-
laration for 60 days, to Sept. 4.
The governor and health
experts underlined the need
for public help in reducing
infections.
Brown issued an order
June 29 that face coverings
or masks be worn by anyone
over the age of 12 in all public
indoor space.
In the 100 days since she
issued her order for peo-
ple to stay home, Brown said
COVID-19 cases had grown
from 14 to more than 8,900,
killing 208 people in the state
through July 1. The pan-
demic has killed 127,000 in
the United States, while the
death toll worldwide has raced
past 500,000 since the virus
appeared in China at the very
end of 2019.
About 20% of the new
cases in Oregon have come
in two weeks in June, and the
numbers continue an inexora-
ble rise.
“We are on track to hit a
worst-case scenario,” said Dr.
Dean Sidelinger, the state’s
top infectious disease expert.
New cases have been on
the rise for five straight weeks.
But the worst may be yet to
come.
Oregon could soon see
900 cases or more per day,
according to state models.
Daily hospital admissions
could go from eight to 27
people per day.
If the current rate of
spread increases exponen-
tially, Oregon could see cases
explode to 4,800 per day and
82 patients requiring hospital
beds each day by the end of
July.
“The trend is ominous,”
Sidelinger said.
Brown said decisions on
keeping businesses open and
sending children into class-
rooms this fall were at stake
in coming days. The state
began a phased “reopening”
of businesses and allowing
larger gatherings on May 15.
Any business that does not
enforce the mask rule would
face investigation and could
lose its business licenses and
face other sanctions. Brown
said she did not want law
enforcement involved in any
disputes and asked businesses
and customers to be courte-
ous to each other and “de-es-
calate” any dispute.
Though the state’s overall
positive test rate of 4.3% is
on the low end of the national
scale, the virus is increasingly
showing up in areas of Ore-
gon that haven’t been hit hard
before.
“We are seeing the fast-
est case growth in Central and
Eastern Oregon counties, such
as Deschutes, Malheur, Uma-
tilla,” Sidelinger said.
The warnings in Oregon
echoed those around the coun-
try as the coronavirus has
spiked, especially in states
such as Arizona, Texas and
Florida that reopened busi-
nesses earlier than others.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the
nation’s top infectious-disease
expert, told Congress on June
30 that the country was “going
in the wrong direction” in the
fight against COVID-19.
More than 43,000 new
coronavirus
cases
were
reported July 1 across the
country, according to the
Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention, with Ore-
gon and seven other states
hitting single-day highs in
infections.
California Gov. Gavin
Newsom said COVID-19 has
killed over 6,000 people in
the state. Los Angeles County
alone has recorded 100,000
cases. The state ordered 19
counties where infections
are rising rapidly to close all
bars, shutter the indoor por-
tion of many businesses, close
movie theaters and limit beach
parking.
New York City will not
allow indoor dining this week,
as originally planned, Mayor
Bill de Blasio announced. He
cited the nationwide upward
trend of cases of the virus
that debilitated the city in the
spring.
Oregon will begin report-
ing clusters of virus infection
cases in child care facilities.
PIONEER FEED &
FARM SUPPLY
S195790-1
60561 HWY 26,
John Day, Oregon 97845
541-575-0023
541-523-6377
541-963-6577
541-573-6377
541-576-2160
Willamette Week reported
last week that a Lake Oswego
child care center had eight
children and 12 teachers test-
ing positive.
Those younger than 50 are
the fastest growing segment
of the population to become
infected with COVID-19. The
death rate for those younger
than 50 is less than 1%. How-
ever, they can spread the
infection to more vulnerable
populations.
The chances of death rise
to 20% for those 75 and older.
The New York Times reported
Hello Grant County,
Well, summer is finally here. I hope
that makes you all feel a little better
about things.
I think we all agree that our world
has gone a little crazy and it makes
it difficult to know what is going to
happen tomorrow. Hang in there,
things would be much worse if we
didn’t live in Grant County!
May and June are normally the
months that we begin our election
process here at the Chamber. But,
due to not being able to have regular
meetings, etc., we are a little behind
schedule.
A nominating committee has been
appointed. Our Bylaws state that
names of candidates for Directors
can be nominated by a petition
bearing the signatures of at least
five members in good standing.
Petitions are available at the Chamber
office. Letters of interest may also
be submitted. Both of these must
be received at the Chamber office no
later than 4:00 PM July 15th.
Membership Due notices are being
mailed also. If your business has been
struggling due to closures please be
sure to read the insert.
Our July meeting will be held at
the Chamber office on Thursday July
16th at 10:30 PM.
The proposed budget will be
presented to the Board for approval
and an update on the new Grant
County Logo will be given.
Take care everyone. Stay Well!
Tammy Bremner
Manager, Grant County Chamber
of Commerce
S197416-1
last week that long-term care
homes have accounted for
55% of the pandemic deaths
in Oregon. The national aver-
age was 43%.
Sidelinger said, no mat-
ter how low, each case has an
impact.
“We all have to remem-
ber that the numbers I speak
about are people, our fellow
Oregonians,” he said. “These
are people who are sick, and
tragically, some of them have
died. These are people with
families. These people are our
neighbors.”