By RaeLynn Ricarte
Wasco County’s Wolf Compensation Committee wants a livestock owner with a domestic animal killed by wolves to receive fair market value for the loss.
After studying the compensation paid in other counties, as low as $250 for a wounded calf and $500 for a kill in Wallowa, the local panel decided to be more equitable, said Steve Kramer, county commissioner.
Maupin rancher Keith Nantz and Dufur Gap Road rancher Mike Filbin, both of whom are seated on the committee, contend that the market value of a bred cow right now is about $3,000 and the going price for a weaner calf is about $1,200.
“We’re going to run with market value. Everyone agrees that our ranchers need to be on an even playing field,” said Kramer.
Filbin maintains that the loss of a cow is multiplied several times when the number of potential calves that are lost with her death are also factored in.
In addition, he and Nantz said that stress from a kill can cause weight loss and lowered fertility in the rest of the herd.
Kramer chairs the committee that, by state law, is comprised of two agriculture representatives and two wolf proponents, which are Debra Lutje, a licensed massage therapist and Sherlene Brown, operations administrator for a wind power project.
Also seated at the table are two business representatives; Mike Urness, owner of a car dealership and Brandon Ayres, owner of a guide service.
Wasco County can only qualify for compensation from the Oregon Department of Agriculture if the committee is in place, which spurred ranchers to ask for its formation.
Kramer said consensus has also been reached among the group that money should be sought from the state to get as many non-lethal measures in place as possible to safeguard livestock.
“We’ve decided to jump out a bit and be proactive to see if we can get some funding,” he said. “We’ll send in an application and see what happens.”
That is going to be a challenge, said Kramer, since the legislature only allocated $100,000 a year to cover livestock kills by wolves – and eastern Oregon counties are already claiming most of that money.
Wolves established themselves first in areas of the state that border Idaho, where they were reintroduced by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 1995.
The wolf population has grown enough on the eastern side of the state that they have been federally delisted as an endangered species and are managed by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.
The state allows limited hunting of packs that build up a history of kills and may begin the process to delist wolves in 2015. The Oregon Wolf Conservation and Management plan allows that to happen when there are at least four breeding pairs for three consecutive years.
Under the plan, a breeding pair is classified as having at least two pups that survive to the end of the year. Pups have been documented in nine Oregon packs this year, according to Russ Morgan, who heads ODFW’s wolf program. Environmental groups have vowed to fight any removal of protections for wolves until the population is much higher.
Wolves on the western side of the state are still federally protected and a “no kill” order is in place.
Kramer said members of the wolf committee want to seek funding from the federal government, which initiated wolf recovery efforts.
Lutje has expressed strong interest in asking conservation groups that support wolf recovery for financial assistance.
Before Oregon adopted its wolf plan, ranchers were compensated by Defenders of Wildlife and Lutje thinks they, and other organizations, should now be asked to help with nonlethal measures.
Kramer said the group could take on some grant writing to see what might be available.
He believes the legislature needs to revisit the amount of money made available for compensation at next year’s session and increase the size of the pot. He said the state has mandated that the county pay 10 percent of funding to institute non-lethal measures and he would like to know if in-kind services count.
“There’s just a lot of questions that are still out there for us to follow up on,” said Kramer.
Meanwhile, Wasco County is preparing applications that livestock owners can fill out to qualify for compensation.
Lane Magill, chief deputy of the Wasco County Sheriff’s Office, has received training in the investigation of a wolf kill scene.
He will be responsible to work with state and federal biologists to confirm that the death of a cow or other livestock is from a wolf attack.
Jeremy Thompson, a biologist from ODFW’s office in The Dalles, will also be educating ranchers about things that can be done to ward off predators — such as cleaning up bone piles left from the death of livestock.
“We are basically ready, if we have a kill we can move forward,” said Kramer.