Wildlife conservation groups Oregon Wild and the Center for Biological Diversity today released an attack ad against Gov. Kate Brown, criticizing her stance on protecting gray wolves.
While Brown is not up for re-election, the ad urges Oregonians to call the governor and “tell her Oregon needs a leader who will protect our environment, not sacrifice it.”
“Oregon’s governor is considering a plan to allow trophy hunting and trapping of Oregon’s tiny population of wolves,” the ad’s narrator says.
The slam is a response to Brown’s nomination of big game hunter James Nash to the board that oversees the wolf management plan (Senate leadership ultimately rejected Nash’s nomination), and her support of a wolf plan that could allow for increased wolf killings.
Oregon Wild announced plans for the attack ad last month, after Brown’s staffers refused requests to pull Nash’s nomination. (Sen. Ginny Burdick (D-Portland) eventually quashed the appointment.)
“Oregonians did not vote for a governor who is going to behave this way,” Steve Pedery, the conservation director of Oregon Wild, told WW at the time. “She was not re-elected with a mandate to act like Trump.”
On May 9, tensions over Oregon’s wolf plan again came to a boil when Curtis Melcher, director of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, sent a letter to the U.S. Secretary of the Interior supporting feds’ plans to pull the gray wolf from the endangered species list. Six days later, amid blowback, Brown sent a letter correcting Melcher’s stance. She said she was unaware of Melcher’s position.
Sean Stevens, Oregon Wild’s executive director, says Oregon needs stronger environmental leadership.
“Over the last few years, Oregonians have endured an unending parade of politicians and corporate polluters dismantling our state’s green reputation,” Stevens says. “Allowing Oregon’s tiny wolf population to be hunted and trapped would be another betrayal and an irreversible stain on Governor Kate Brown’s environmental legacy.”
A spokesperson for Brown did not immediately respond to request for comment.