AGRICULTURE DAY SPECIAL | PAGES A11-A13
Wednesday, March 23,
2022
154th Year • No. 12 • 18 Pages • $1.50
MyEagleNews.com
WOLVES AT THE DOOR
Wolves at the door
Federal judge has redrawn map
for managing wolves in West, and
Grant County is at ground zero
By STEVEN MITCHELL
Blue Mountain Eagle
A
judge’s decision to restore
federal protections for gray
wolves last month has put
Grant County at ground zero
for relisting the predators
under the Endangered Species Act.
The decision drew a dividing line
between wolf populations that can continue
to be managed by state agencies and those
that will once again be governed by more
restrictive federal rules.
In most of Oregon, the dividing line is
Highway 395, which runs right through the
middle of Grant County.
While the ruling does not change any-
thing for wolves in the easternmost part of
the state, it does cover wolves in the west-
ern two-thirds of Oregon and puts them
back on the federal endangered species list.
Before last month’s ruling, wolves in
Western Oregon had been under the fi rst
phase of the state wolf plan, which allowed
for killing wolves in defense of livestock
and guard animals in limited circumstances.
Specifi cally, wolves could be killed if
caught chasing or biting livestock or in sit-
uations where the state could confi rm that
a pack had depredated four times in six
months.
See Wolves, Page A10
WOLVES IN OREGON
A federal judge has redrawn the map for managing wolves
in the West, and Grant County is at ground zero
Umatilla
County
101
84
Portland
Pendleton
La Grande
5
395
Salem
Grant County
20
26
West
Murderers
Creek
20
101
Eugene
Bend
Redmond
Coos Bay
East
Murderers
Creek
20
20
5
84
John Day
Burns
OREGON
Malheur
County
395
78
395
Harney
County
Grants Pass
Medford
Klamath Falls
95
Source: Oregon Fish & Wildlife
EO Media graphic
Areas of known wolf activity – Murderers Creek
Federal wolf delisting boundary
Federally listed (USFWS)
State management (ODFW)
A BRIEF HISTORY OF WOLF RECOVERY
Gray wolves were once widespread in the
United States but were trapped, hunted and
poisoned until they were all but extirpated from
the Lower 48 by the middle of the last century.
The last native wolf in Oregon is believed to
have been killed in the late 1940s.
In the mid-1990s, however, gray wolves were
reintroduced in Central Idaho and Yellowstone
National Park, and since then the species has ex-
panded beyond expectations, both in population
and geographical area.
There are now more than 1,600 wolves in the
Northern Rockies, including at least 173 in Ore-
gon, according to recent estimates.
However, wolves were never deliberately
reintroduced to Oregon. They came here on
their own, dispersing from established packs in
neighboring states.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife captured the fi rst known
returning wolf in Oregon in 1999 near the
Middle Fork of the John Day River and returned
the radio-collared female, known as wolf B-45,
to Idaho.
In 2011, Congress removed federal protections
for the Northern Rocky Mountains wolf popu-
lation, including Montana, Idaho and Eastern
Oregon.
In 2015, the Oregon Department of Fish and
Wildlife removed wolves from the state endan-
gered species list, although the federal Endan-
gered Species Act designation remained in the
state’s western two-thirds.
In 2020, the Trump administration removed fed-
eral Endangered Species Act protections from
gray wolves across 44 states, including Western
Oregon.
A coalition of environmental groups fi led suit in
early 2021 to have federal protections restored,
and on Feb. 10 of this year, a U.S. district judge
granted their request.
Animal rights measure won’t make ballot
Alex Wittwer/EO
Media Group
A gray and
black steer
grazes on a
ranch along
Airport Lane,
La Grande,
on Thursday,
March 17, 2022.
By ALEX WITTWER
EO Media Group
LA GRANDE — A controversial pro-
posal on animal cruelty laws appears to be
off the table, for now, but proponents of the
initiative say their campaign isn’t over yet.
“We just submitted the initiative for 2024
and are waiting for confi rmation from the
state,” an organizer with the Yes on IP13
campaign said. “At this point, it does not
look like we will gather enough for 2022. I
believe the plan is to shift gears to the newly
numbered initiative as soon as we have it.”
Initiative Petition 13, otherwise known as
the Abuse, Neglect and Assault Exemption
Modifi cation and Improvement Act, would
remove exemptions to the Oregon animal
abuse laws that protect hunters, farmers and
anglers from abuse violations. That means
hunters could possibly be prosecuted for kill-
ing wild animals, as could farmers who send
their livestock to slaughterhouses.
David Michelson, the author of the initia-
tive and the lead organizer for the campaign,
acknowledged the proposal’s long road, and
said that like other social justice reforms
throughout history, it will take time.
See Ballot, Page A18
Grant County agencies adjust to rising fuel costs
By JUSTIN DAVIS and
STEVEN MITCHELL
Blue Mountain Eagle
JOHN DAY — Like every-
body else, government agen-
cies throughout Grant County
have been adjusting to the sud-
den rise in fuel costs since the
start of the war in Ukraine.
While some say contin-
gency planning has helped
them weather the sharp rise in
prices so far, others say they
may have make signifi cant
budget adjustments going for-
ward. All of the agencies the
newspaper spoke to, how-
ever, say they’re continuing
to operate normally and pro-
vide the services the public
expects.
Over the past month, the
average price of gasoline
has risen from $3.52 a gal-
lon to $4.27 a gallon nation-
ally, according to the Ameri-
can Automobile Association.
In Grant County the average
is even higher, topping $4.50
a gallon.
The Grant School Dis-
trict has been able to con-
tinue bus service despite
steep increases in fuel prices
over the past month. Assistant
transportation manager Rach-
elle Simmons says the true
fi nancial impact of higher gas
prices won’t be known until
the end of the budget month.
“We did budget higher
fuel prices into the 2021-2022
school year budget,” Sim-
Steven Mitchell/Blue Mountain Eagle
A Humbolt Elementary School kindergarten student gets off
the bus Dec. 15, 2021, at Valley View Assisted Living in John Day,
where the students held their annual Christmas hat parade.
mons said.
Superintendent Bret Upt-
mor says the timing of the
rise in fuel prices is helping
schools better cope with the
circumstances.
“Higher prices in March
aren’t going to have the same
eff ect as opposed to, say, Sep-
tember,” he said.
For now, prices aren’t
aff ecting school buses or
school bus routes, accord-
ing to both Uptmor and Sim-
mons. If gas prices stay high
for a prolonged period of
time, however, the school dis-
trict would take steps to miti-
gate those eff ects.
“If gas prices severely
aff ect the budget, shortening
routes is a possibility,” Sim-
mons said. Simmons added
that eliminating bus service as
a response to high fuel costs
“isn’t feasible.”
See Fuel, Page A18