House hears bills to reverse wolf protections
The proposals are aimed at keeping out strays from Idaho.
LAURENCE M. CRUZ
Statesman Journal
April 9, 2003
House lawmakers heard testimony Tuesday on a trio of bills aimed at pre-emptively rolling back protections for gray wolves that stray into Oregon from Idaho.
The proposals are among a plethora of anti-wolf measures moving through the Legislature this session with backing from Eastern Oregon Republicans, ranchers, farmers and hunters.
House Bill 3125 calls for wolves found in Oregon effectively to be deported from the state.
HB 3126 would authorize penalties against people who release wolves on nonfederal lands, would allow the killing of wolves when people’s property or safety is threatened and would remove wolves from the state’s threatened species and endangered species lists.
A third bill, HB 3075, would declare the gray wolf a predatory animal and bar its listing under the state Endangered Species Act.
No wolves are known to be in Oregon currently, but three strayed here from Idaho, one of several states with successful recovery programs. Some residents fear that more will follow to prey on livestock, reduce wildlife populations and attack people.
“This spring, these wolves are going to be having pups, and these pups are going to moving into Oregon,” said Rep. Greg Smith, R-Heppner, sponsor of HB 3125 and HB 3126.
The hearing came three weeks after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service downgraded the gray wolf from endangered status to threatened — a lesser degree of protection. The wolf is expected to be dropped from the federal list altogether by 2004, after which management of wolves will be up to the states. The gray wolf is on the state’s endangered species list.
Opponents argue that wolves are a “keystone species” that poses minimum threat to humans and a slim threat to livestock and, in a roundabout way, may benefit salmon.
Bob Beschta, a retired professor of hydrology from Oregon State University, said research he did in Yellowstone National Park — one of the wolf recovery sites — indicates that lands along rivers were healthier because the wolves kept elk from feeding on cottonwoods and other vegetation year-round. In Oregon, streamside vegetation is considered critical salmon habitat.
Supporters of the bills cited concerns over the cost of a wolf management program that the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife expects to complete by the end of 2004. Other states have spent between $800,000 and $2 million per year on such programs.
Ron Anglin, administrator of ODFW’s wildlife division, said he did not yet know how much a wolf management plan would cost in Oregon, but he suggested that the money — initially about $300,000 — would come from federal grants with an in-kind match by the agency.
Anglin said returning wolves to Idaho or delisting them at the state level cannot be done unless the state can demonstrate that recovery goals are being met.
He said it already is illegal to release wild animals without a permit and that declaring wolves as predatory would offer no relief to livestock owners because the federal threatened listing of wolves still would bar unregulated killing of wolves.
No action was taken on the bills because they are being amended to allow livestock owners to kill wolves caught in the act of killing livestock.