[ODFW-News] Draft Wolf Conservation and Management Plan to go before public for review

[ODFW News]

Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife 	
Contact: Information and Education 503-947-6002
Internet: www.dfw.state.or.us   

For immediate release	Monday, October 18, 2004

Draft Wolf Conservation and Management Plan to go before public for
review

BEND - The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission voted unanimously at its
Oct. 15 meeting in Bend to initiate a public rule-making process on the
draft Wolf Conservation and Management Plan and the associated rules
required to implement the plan. 

The draft plan is the result of the efforts of the 14-member Wolf
Advisory Committee, which met monthly from November 2003 through August
2004 to develop a plan that addresses concerns raised by the public in a
series of town hall meetings held throughout the state in November and
December 2002 and January 2003. Committee members represent a range of
Oregonians' interests including tribal members, eastern Oregon county
commissioners, range and forestland conservationists, trappers, rural
Oregon residents, educators, wildlife biologists and researchers,
hunters, livestock producers, citizens at large representing eastern and
western Oregon, economists, wolf conservationists, and public land
managers. 

Twelve of the 14 members of the committee have signed on to support the
plan, with two committee members opting to file minority reports.
Members filing minority reports are Sharon Beck, representing livestock
producers, and Wallowa County Commissioner Ben Boswell, representing
eastern Oregon county commissioners. Their reports, as well as the draft
plan, can be found on ODFW's Web site at www.dfw.state.or.us. 

"The plan's goal is to conserve gray wolves as required by Oregon
law while protecting the social and economic interests of all
Oregonians," said Craig Ely, who is coordinating the development of
the plan for ODFW. "The committee members did an excellent job of
representing their constituents' interests while considering the
interests of the other committee members. The plan represents a
collection of negotiated interests across a broad balance of issues and
concerns. It was a lengthy and involved process, and the committee
members are to be highly commended for their hard work."

The plan does not call for actively reintroducing wolves from other
areas, but managing wolves that naturally disperse into Oregon. While no
wolves have been confirmed to be in Oregon yet, biologists expect wolves
to enter the state as the Idaho wolf population grows.

The draft plan takes a conservation approach, permitting establishment
of wolves that migrate into Oregon, promoting social tolerance, and
dividing the state into eastern and western wolf management regions with
population objectives for each region. The boundary between the two
management regions follows Highway 97 from the Columbia River south to
La Pine, Highway 31 south to Lakeview, and Highway 395 south to the
California border.

The plan takes an adaptive management approach by proposing protection
of wolves in three phases. Phase 1 focuses on achieving the conservation
population objective of four breeding pairs for three consecutive years
and protects wolves from lethal removal unless livestock losses are
severe. Phase 2 focuses on achieving management population objectives of
seven breeding pairs for three consecutive years. Phase 3 ensures the
wolf population does not decline below Phase 1 levels or reach
unmanageable levels that cause conflicts with other land uses. 

The plan also calls for initiating the process to consider removing the
gray wolf from state Endangered Species Act list once a conservation
population is established in eastern Oregon. Future legal status could
see wolves listed as a "special status mammal" within the state's
game mammal category, allowing a range of management tools including
controlled take of wolves through hunting or trapping. Any proposed
change in legal status would require legislative action.

A key part of the wolf conservation and management plan is compensation
for wolf damage to livestock and to some classifications of working and
hunting dogs. The plan calls for a state-run compensation program for
confirmed and probable livestock losses due to wolf predation. This
includes funding all or part of the costs incurred by private
individuals implementing non-lethal wolf control methods, and potential
reimbursement for financial losses of lost or missing livestock. Any
compensation package would require legislative action.

The next step will be a series of six public meetings to educate the
public about the draft plan and the proposed rules required to implement
it. ODFW will hold the informational meetings during October and
November. Presenters at the meetings will give the public a history of
the development of the draft conservation and management plan, an
overview of the contents of the plan, an overview of the proposed
administrative rules, and a timeline for adoption of the rules needed to
implement the plan.

The meetings will begin at 7 p.m. and take place:
* Monday, Oct. 25, at the Blue Mt. Conference Center, 404 12th St., La
Grande;
* Tuesday, Oct. 26, in the Enterprise High School Multi-Purpose Room,
201 SE 4th St., Enterprise;
* Wednesday, Oct. 27, at the National Guard Armory, 875 SW Simpson
Ave., Bend;
* Wednesday, Nov. 3, in the Northwest Forestry Center's Cheatham
Hall, 4403 SW Canyon Rd., Portland;
* Thursday, Nov. 4, at the Benton County Fairgrounds, 110 SW 53rd St.,
Corvallis; and
* Tuesday, Nov. 9, in the North Medford High School Cafeteria, 1900 N
Keenaway Dr., Medford.

Members of the public may comment on the draft plan and proposed rules
in person at the meetings, on forms provided at the meetings, via e-mail
to ODFW.Comments at state.or.us, by fax to 503-947-6009, or by mail to the
ODFW Information and Education Division at 3406 Cherry Avenue NE, Salem,
OR 97303-4924.

Once the informational meetings have been completed, the Oregon Fish
and Wildlife Commission will enter a rule-making phase that will include
public hearings on the draft plan at its Dec. 10 and Jan. 6 meetings,
with final adoption Jan. 7, 2005.  


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