Plan calls for turning management over to state biologists
Gary Lewis /
For the first time, I considered leaving my dog at home. I was headed into the mountains of the Imnaha in September — home of the Imnaha wolf pack.
I’ve heard enough stories of bird dogs being killed by wolves that I wasn’t sure I should take her. After some consideration, I brought the dog along. While it might be dangerous to hunt birds around a pack of wolves, the chances I would be near a den were small.
The landowner said wolves had crossed her property, but didn’t live there.
When I returned to the Imnaha in October, I spent three days in the high country and two days along the river. On the last evening, after dark, elk bugled from ridge tops, coyotes yodeled and a wolf howled less than half a mile from the ranch house on a ridge to the south.
It had been a long time since I’d heard a wolf. The last time was in Canada. Now the coyotes and the elk were quiet. Another wolf answered back, this time from the ridge to the north.
Canadian gray wolves released in Yellowstone National Park in the 1990s settled in Idaho and expanded their range into Oregon in the late 2000s. According to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife website, Oregon now has nine confirmed breeding packs.
These are known as the Imnaha, Snake River, Walla Walla, Wenaha, Minam, Mt. Emily, Umatilla River, Meacham and Rogue packs.
In addition, there are known packs (two or more animals) in the Catherine Creek, Chesnimnus, Desolation, Keno, south Snake River and Sled Springs areas.
Here in Oregon we had the benefit of watching what happened in Idaho as Canadian wolves populated the Gem State and Oregon implemented a Wolf Conservation and Management Plan in December of 2005 — before the presence of wolves had been confirmed in Oregon.
At present, Oregon’s wolf population is thought to number between 81 and 90 animals, all since 2009 when the first pack was established in the Wenaha Unit.
It’s interesting to take a look at populations across North America. In a 2009 study, experts said there were between 60,000 and 70,000 in the United States and Canada. There are an estimated 12,000 in Alberta and British Columbia. Idaho counts 104 packs with another 23 packs that roam the borders with Montana, Washington, Oregon and Canada.
With Idaho as Oregon’s source population, wolves are here to stay.
Through the process, 15 town hall meetings and four informational sessions were held to involve the public as much as possible. As a stakeholder committee made up of protectionist groups, conservation groups and cattle growers all sat at the same table, the Wolf Conservation and Management Plan was adopted by a unanimous vote of the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission.
The wolf in Oregon has been listed under the Endangered Species Act. One of the key provisions of the Wolf Plan is to turn management over to the state, to give ODFW the ability to scientifically manage the wolf.
The formulation and adoption of the Wolf Plan was a key provision, a road marker, a conservation population objective that said that the Oregon ESA protections would be withdrawn when four breeding pairs have two or more pups that survive until Dec. 31, for three consecutive years. This would allow a naturally sustaining population to exist in Oregon. This goal was reached at the end of 2014.
Why does this matter? According to the research, the average Canadian gray wolf needs about 35 deer or elk or stock animals per year. The stress on both wildlife and livestock is known to prevent live births in high-impact areas close to wolf denning areas.
We know that wolves have contributed to a precipitous decline in elk populations in Yellowstone and Montana. In Idaho’s Unit 26, the Middle Fork zone, the elk population dropped from 1,270 animals in 2006 to 366 total animals in 2011.
The same thing can happen to deer and elk herds here and could wipe out bighorn sheep populations. And when big game herds suffer, small towns in Eastern Oregon are the first to feel the economic pinch.
We don’t begrudge the animal’s need to eat, but Oregon’s predator numbers are high already. Allowing wolf numbers to grow unchecked is not fair to the farmers and ranchers who make their living on their lands.
Contrary to some claims, delisting will not remove protections for wolves, but it will offer wildlife managers more tools in controlling wolves that prey on livestock.
This is a good opportunity for the state to honor its promise to conservation groups and livestock growers as we enter Phase II of the Wolf Plan, to delist and turn effective management of the wolf to state wildlife biologists.