PORTLAND — Oregon should move
forward with the process that could remove the gray wolf from the
state’s endangered species list, the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission
decided Friday. The commission will look at two options:
delisting the wolves statewide or partially, in eastern Oregon only. The
option of not delisting also remains.
The decision came as the number of wolves
and breeding pairs have increased in the state. By 2014, there were 77
wolves in 15 known packs.
The state’s wolf plan calls for initiating a
process to delist the wolves when the conservation objective of four
breeding pairs for three consecutive years in eastern Oregon is reached.
That objective was met in early 2015. “This is a success story,” wolf program
coordinator Russ Morgan said in a statement. “Not very many years ago,
we had no known wolves in Oregon. Now we not only have wolves, but the
population is healthy and growing.”
Oregon’s current wolf population descends
from animals introduced in Idaho in the 1990s. The state predicts the
wolf population will increase at a rate of 7 percent a year, and the
probability they will go extinct is low. That’s because there is plenty
of habitat and wolves continue to expand their range.
The Oregon Cattlemen’s Association has been
pressing for the commission to delist wolves. While taking wolves off
the state’s endangered list would not open up hunting, their rising
numbers would allow ranchers to shoot more wolves when they attack
livestock.
But conservation groups say wolf numbers
are still too low to justify lifting their protections. Most of the
three dozen people who spoke at the commission meeting were against
delisting, said Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman Michelle Dennehy.
Delisting wolves from the state Endangered
Species Act would not affect a federal endangered listing that includes
the state’s western two-thirds. Commissioners will draft a proposal by June
and vote on it in August. The commission’s next meeting is scheduled
for June 5 in Salem.
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