Groups want to restore gray wolf population
By PAUL FATTIG
Mail Tribune
ASHLAND – Nancy Weiss isn’t likely to throw back her head and let loose a
howl, even though it would capture her feelings when talking about one of
her favorite subjects: wolves.
“If someone were to tell me I was like a wolf, I would take that as a
compliment,” said the western director of species conservation for
Defenders of Wildlife.
“That would mean I was courageous, intelligent, loyal, protective of my
family, curious and that I did things that make my surroundings a better
place,” she said.
Weiss says restoring gray wolves to the remote areas of Southern Oregon
and Northern California would make this region a better place – and that’s
just what her group and other environmental organizations hope to do.
An attorney, scientist and wolf specialist, Weiss was one of the keynote
speakers Monday night during the final day of Wolf Awareness Week being
observed at Southern Oregon University.
Wolves once roamed the Southern Oregon region, as indicated by the
mythology of American Indians, which contains numerous references to
wolves, she observed.
Restoring wolves in the region could be done through natural migration
from Idaho where a gray wolf population is established or by actively
reintroducing them, Weiss said.
“We’re not asking for land to be set aside or have any more wilderness
area designated,” Weiss said. “There are already 1.8 million acres of
wilderness in this area. There are already 16 million acres of federally
managed land.
“There is already a lot of largely roadless, largely intact forests with
relatively little human development,” she added. “There is a good prey
base.”
That makes an ideal wolf habitat, she said.
“What wolves need from humans is a little tolerance,’ she said.
The event at SOU was sponsored by the ecology Center of the Siskiyous, the
Native American Student Union and the newly formed Pacific Alliance for
Wild Wolves (PAWWS).
In addition to Defenders of Wildlife, organizations involved in PAWWS
include the Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center, Mount Shasta Bioregional
Ecology Center, World Wildlife Fund, Klamath Forest Alliance and the
California Wolf Center.
In an interview before her Monday address, Weiss acknowledged that many
people, including ranchers, are not convinced that bringing wolves back
benefits anything but the wolves.
Weiss rejects those concerns.
“All they have to worry about is the media overblowing any wolf
incidents,” she said. “When there is a wolf livestock depredation, it
tends to get huge press.”
In reality, wolf-caused livestock deaths are less than 1 percent of all
livestock losses, she said.
“There are so many more livestock losses caused by weather, dehydration,
starvation, theft, dogs and other predators,” she said.
Defenders of Wildlife has a program to compensate ranchers who lose
livestock to wolves.
“We will pay fair, full market value,” Weiss said, adding that the group
will also work with ranchers to avoid conflict between wolves and
livestock.
The presence of wild wolves helps bring balance to the natural
environment, Weiss said, noting that studies at Yellowstone National Park
where wolves have been re-established have shown that the presence of
wolves “puts food on the table” for other wildlife.
“Without the wolf, the ecosystem is a much lesser place,” Weiss said.
Fellow conference participant Regina Neri, representing the Mount Shasta
Bioregional Ecology Center, agreed.
“When the wolf is restored to an ecosystem, the ecosystem itself is
healthier,” she said. “That system becomes more abundant, producing more.
Not only for animals, but for people as well to enjoy.”
In 2001, the Defenders of Wildlife petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service to keep the wolves listed as “endangered” under the Endangered
Species Act in Oregon and California. The group wants full protected
status for the wolves should they wander from Idaho where they are
established into the Northern California-southwestern Oregon area.
Following the successful repopulating of wolves in central Idaho and the
Yellowstone National Park area, the agency is considering a reduced level
of protection for them. A decision is expected next month.
Wild wolf populations re-established in the Great Lakes area in Minnesota,
Wisconsin and Michigan and in the Southwest in Arizona and New Mexico as
well as the Northern Rockies now number about 4,000, according to official
estimates.
No wild wolves have howled in the Klamath-Siskiyou range for more than
half a century.
The last purebred wolf in the Oregon wild probably was killed in 1946,
according to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Although a wolf was killed in Oregon in 1974 and another in 1978,
officials said those were likely wolf hybrids, the domesticated cross
between wolves and large dogs.
ODFW plans wolf hearings
The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife will hold meetings in November
and December throughout the state to gather public comments about future
wolf management in Oregon. A meeting will be held Dec. 3 at North Medford
High School, followed by another session Dec. 4 at the Oregon State
University Extension Service office in Klamath Falls. Both sessions begin
at 7 p.m.
The public is encouraged to make comments at the meetings or to send them
via e-mail to the department at odfw.news@state.or.us