Five-year review to be presented in April
Katy Nesbitt, For The Observer
ENTERPRISE — Extreme winter weather has more than just travelers harried — wildlife biologists attempting to count Oregon’s wolves have had to delay their annual report well into the spring.
A press release from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife said the onslaught of storms in parts of Northeast Oregon has delayed field work, including fixed-wing, helicopter flights and on-the-ground surveys of wolves. Because Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife staff need additional time to complete their counts, the 2016 Wolf Annual Report, which includes an updated wolf population count and number of breeding pairs, has been delayed from its usual March release date.
Over the past few years Oregon’s wolf population has increased approximately 36 percent, on par with neighboring Idaho and Montana’s increases since wolves were reintroduced in 1995 and 1996 in Central Idaho and Yellowstone National Park. Last year’s count of known, documented wolves totaled 110 statewide.
In recent years, wolf biologists have presented their end-of-year reports to the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission at the March meeting. This year, the report will be presented April 21 at the commission’s monthly meeting to be held in
Klamath Falls.
The annual report, which will be presented,along with the Oregon Wolf Conservation and Management Plan’s five-year review, was delayed two years so wolf biologists could first concentrate on determining if wolves should be removed from the state’s endangered species list. In November 2015, the commission voted 4-2 to go with the staff’s recommendation. Wolves are no longer protected by the state’s endangered species act. In 2011, gray wolves were removed from the federal Endangered Species Act in the easternmost part of Oregon, but today remain protected by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service west of U.S. Highway 395.
The Fish and Wildlife staff’s wolf plan review will be presented to the commissioners, and public comment will be accepted at the April meeting, but a vote is not expected until later this year, the agency’s press release said.