Oregon Wolf Wars

Oregon's Imnaha Wolf Pack Dodges State Kill Orders

January 21, 2012 - In September 2011 the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildife (ODFW) issued kill orders on the alpha male and another member of Oregon's first breeding wolf pack, the Imnaha pack. Because of dispersal and government killing, the pack had diminished from 16 to only 5 remaining wolves as of the end of the year.

Within two weeks of wolves losing federal protection and falling under state management, ODFW killed 2 Imnaha pack wolves. This pack produced the now famous "OR7," the young male wolf who has captured the attention of the world and is being followed as he winds his way from NE Oregon and into California. He was right about getting out of Oregon!

Read more about OR7's fascinating journey in the Jan. 25, 2012 Sacramento Bee article, Wandering Wolf Tracked in Same Area as California's Last Wild Wolf in 1924.

The Imnaha pack kill orders were challenged in court for violating Oregon's endangered species act, and the judge put a hold on kill orders until the lawsuit proceeds. As of January 2012, the hold is still in place.

Please see our September 2011 Oregon wolf alert for details on the kill orders.

Summer Wolf Wars Escalate in Eastern Oregon

August 1, 2011 - Anti-wolf sentiment runs high in east Oregon during the season of summer calving and the move to summer pastures.  At summer's start there were 24 wolves in Oregon; now there are 17 or fewer.  There are more kill permits issued to ranchers (approximately 24) than there are wolves in the state.  

The month of June brought the threat of extermination of Oregon's main wolf pack, the Imnaha, leaving us to wonder if every livestock depredation will now be blamed on wolves. Please see our Imnaha extermination alert and the legislative update below for a sense of the politics and relationships between ranchers, state and federal agents.

With the State now in charge of wolf management—thanks to Congress' removal of wolves from the federal Endangered Species Act in April—and a generous source of funding available to Oregon wildlife managers, lethal control (killing) is rapidly taking priority over protection.  The direction of wildlife management is largely driven by the tremendous political influence that agricultural and hunting interests have over Oregon wildlife managers through the legislature and the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission.  The generous funding of predator control from federal, state, county and private coffers has provided wildlife managers with the ability to implement the lethal management strategy desired by special interests. 

When will science and population demographics trump politics in determining how our wildlife is treated?  Not until decision makers hear the voices of conservationists, scientists, constituents on a much louder level, a level that competes with the shrill demands of ranchers and hunters. 

We are committed to working with other organizations, the media and you, our members, to bring attention and focus on the factual information that supports science-based wildlife management.  The Oregonian recently went to bat for wildlife by highlighting recent studies from OSU and elsewhere demonstrating the importance of predators, and by editorializing against predator-killing legislation. 

We have our work cut out for us and must make serious headway before Oregon's fledgling wolf pack loses its tenuous toe-hold on existence.

2011 Oregon Legislative Wrap-up: Wolf War Chest Grows

August 2011 - Two bills adding funds to wolf management are to become law this month.  We opposed the bills to no avail; they passed both houses unanimously.  The livestock industry is bellowing loudly and is heard in Salem above the conservationists' voices.

• HB3560, granting $100,000 of tax money to compensate ranchers for losses due to wolves, easily made it through both houses to the governor's desk.  There was no stopping this bill, but at least some of the funds will go toward non-lethal husbandry improvements.
• HB3636 adds a check-off on hunters' licenses for hunters to voluntarily donate funds to predator control for the killing of several species including cougars, bears, coyotes, furbearers and wolves.  Although Predator Defense opposed HB3636 early on in the session, the bill ran under the radar screen of most conservation organizations because it was not exclusively oriented to wolves.  HB3636 has the potential to raise a lot of hunter dollars since approximately 50 thousand tags are sold yearly. Predator Defense joined other groups in asking the governor to veto HB3636, but it was too little, too late.  Read our letter to Oregon officials

The legislative budget process awarded Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) and Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA) a whopping $740,000 for killing of coyotes, birds, feral swine, rodents and other species.  On top of that, ODFW directed another $100,000 toward specific killing of cougars, bears and wolves. 

Basic addition shows a total of $840,000 (the vast majority of that being tax dollars) going to kill wildlife during the 2011–13 biennium.   This amount is just a fraction of the total spent on wildlife killing in our state.

Thank you to those of you who contacted legislators in response to alerts on these bills.  If you would like to be on our alert list, please send an email to:
brooks@predatordefense.org and put 'alert list' in the subject line.

Learn More about the Challenges Facing Wolves

Wolves were taken off the federal Endangered Species List on April 15, 2011, when President Obama signed the federal budget into law. This means that Oregon wolves are no longer federally protected and are now strictly under state management.

Learn more about the challenges facing America's wolves and our work to protect them in Wolves at Risk.