Here is some great news!
Update: Video of the Oregon wolf on YouTube.
Update: Here is the story from a local newspaper. Biologist sees wolf in Wallowas. Baker City Herald. By Jayson Jacoby.
Update: Here is the story in the Oregonian. Idaho wolf spotted in northeast Oregon. The radio-collared female is the first live wolf seen in Oregon since March 1999. Friday, January 25, 2008. By Richard Cockle. The Oregonian Staff
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Original news release Jan. 24, 2008
Contact: ODFW:
Russ Morgan: 541-963-2138
Michelle Dennehy: 503-947-6022
FWS: Phil Carroll: 503-231-6179
A female gray wolf from Idaho’s Timberline Pack has been positively located in Oregon, using radio signals from her tracking collar. The wolf, a two- to three-year-old female identified as B-300F, has been wearing the collar since she was captured northeast of Boise by Idaho biologists in August 2006. She’s now traveling in the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest near the Eagle Cap Wilderness Area, between Medical Springs and Wallowa. Biologists have observed evidence of wolves in this area over the past six months.
Aerial searches for signals from wolf tracking collars, specifically those which have been reported as missing from Idaho, helped the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife located the wolf. A signal was picked up January 17, but the location of the animal was not confirmed. A ground search the next day turned up tracks which appeared to be of a wolf.
Another aerial search January 21 failed to pick up the signal, but on January 23 the signal was picked up and a single wolf was visually identified.
This is the fifth confirmed wolf to have been found in the state. In March 1999, a radio-collared female was captured near John Day and returned to Idaho. In 2000, a collared wolf was found dead along Interstate 84 south of Baker City, and a wolf without a radio collar was found shot between Ukiah and Pendleton. Most recently, a mature female wolf was found dead from a gunshot wound in Union County in July 2007.
All four animals were confirmed to have been migrants from Idaho. Experts have long predicted that wolves from the expanding Idaho population would continue to cross the Snake River and enter Oregon. Biologists have been investigating evidence of wolves in Northeast Oregon for some time. This wolf’s confirmed sighting validates the suspected use of this area by wolves, but the presence of breeding pairs or packs has not been confirmed. State and federal biologists will regularly monitor the movement of this wolf and continue to look for other wolf activity in Oregon.
Russ Morgan, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife wolf coordinator, reminds the public it is illegal to shoot a wolf, even one mistaken for another animal. Any gray wolf which shows up in Oregon is listed as an endangered species under both state and federal law. Killing an animal protected under the federal Endangered Species Act is punishable by a fine of up to $100,000, one year in jail, or both. Killing a wolf is also a violation of Oregon state game law, with fines and penalties that are assessed by the court.
In the unlikely event that a wolf attacks a human, any person may use lethal force to prevent or stop the attack. Such an incident must be reported to the Fish and Wildlife Service, at 541-786-3282, or 541-962-8584; or ODFW at 541-963-2138, within 24
hours.
The wolf carcass must not be disturbed. Individuals who see a wolf, or suspect or discover wolf activity are asked to immediately contact one of the following:
* Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Wolf Coordinator Russ Morgan in La Grande: 541-963-2138
* U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Wolf Coordinator John Stephenson in
Bend: office, 541-312-6429; cell, 541-786-3282.
* U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service La Grande Field Office:41-962-8584.
Although the Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed to remove the wolf from the list of threatened and endangered species in the Northern Rockies, including part of Oregon, the wolf will remain federally listed until that process is complete. Oregon has a Wolf Conservation and Management Plan, created with extensive, state-wide public input and collaboration, which was adopted by the Fish and Wildlife Commission in 2005. More information on wolves and wolf management in Oregon is available on the website:ww.dfw.state.or.us/wolves/
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The mission of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife is to protect and enhance Oregon’s fish and wildlife and their habitats for use and enjoyment by present and future generations. The agency consists of the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission, a commission-appointed director and a statewide staff of approximately 950 permanent employees. Headquartered in Salem, ODFW has regional offices in Clackamas, Roseburg, Bend, and La Grande with ten district offices located throughout the state. For additional information, please visit www.dfw.state.or.us
Posted in Wolf dispersal, Wolves, wolves Oregon. 1 Comment »
Comments
Let’s see how long she lasts. The only thing going for her is that she does have a collar so it will be easier to know when and if she is killed or finds a mate.
I hope she finds a mate or already has one and will have pups this spring.
I’ve got to believe there are more wolves in there.
Go to Google Earth and look at the hundreds of miles of canyonlands cut into NE Oregon. I know most of them are full of deer and elk at the higher elevations.
My wife and I went to the this area on vacation over the New Years Holiday hoping to catch a glimpse of a wolf. We had seen a report from November that someone had seen tracks. We did a lot of snowshoeing and hiking but no luck finding a wolf. I am excited to get back out there to try again. Growing up in Oregon I never thought that someday I might see a wolf in this state- how things change for the better. Now I just hope all these other issues don’t ruin the wolves comeback.
If I was a wolf I would leave Idaho as soon as possible and head west.
Heading west unfortunately may not be the best option, as I doubt you will find the ranchers in Eastern WA and OR anymore accommodating to the idea of wolves on the landscape than you do in Idaho!
As a native of eastern Oregon ranch country, the news of B300F in the Wallowa Mountains is received with reserved optimism. There’s a lot of cattle and private land in NE Oregon around the Wallowas and nearby Blue Mountains
However, it’s my understanding that the Oregon management plan for wolves was developed by a lot of different folks inc. ranchers and wolf advocates and it’s much better than Idaho’s (which of course might not be saying much)
I hope that Oregon politics allow the Dept. of Oregon Fish & Wildlife to reach out to ranchers and hunters and educate them about wolves. Am looking forward to hearing from people in my homeland who can keep the rest of us wolf huggers informed. I’ve been in Idaho’s mountains for 27 years and try to keep track of goings and comings in Oregon, but the plate here in spudland (I prefer to think of Idaho as “wolfdom”) is pretty full.
Yes it sounds like the wolves are just as hated there as here.
Chuck – I did not mean to imply what your post stated. Wolves are a new issue within a state that I believe is far more progressive than ID/WY/MT. While celebrating B300F becoming a celebrity in Oregon, I am making notes, thinking of how those of us in Idaho who live with wolves, can help wolves to be accepted and survive in Oregon. Someone seeing a wolf in Idaho nowadays barely gets a nod. Yet B300F was a star, a big story in The Oregonian and other Oregon media.
I would have to disagree with you on seeing a wolf in Idaho barely gets a nod. Maybe for people living in the small towns in the heart of idaho, but the majority of Idahoans don’t live there. i would argue Most Idahoans would consider it near spiritual to hear or see a wolf. That is for pro- AND anti-wolf advocates. There doesn’t always have to be so much doom and gloom in being progressive.
I went back to Ed Bangs’ reports on Gray Wolves in the Northern Rocky Mountains and found this re. the Timberline Pack. I am assuming that B300F was one of the wolves caught and trapped “on Thursday east of Idaho City”. This is the only reference I can find re. the Timberline Pack.
If indeed B300F (now in the Wallowa Mt area of Eastern Oregon) was one of the “subadults” caught in late August — than B300f would likely be going on 3 years old come April.
From: Gray Wolf Recovery Coordinator, Helena – Status of Gray Wolf Recovery, Week of 8/21/06 to 8/25/06
Carter Niemeyer, Steve Nadeau, and volunteer Jenny Niemeyer, along with Jim Caswell and Jeff Allen (Governor’s staff) and Calli Daly (Sen. Craig’s staff) discussed wolf management issues and trapped/collared 2 sub-adult wolves northeast of Idaho City on Thursday in the Timberline Pack Territory.
smalltownIdaho – I like your words: ” i would argue Most Idahoans would consider it near spiritual to hear or see a wolf. ”
Unfortunately, no one in a position of leadership or power or within IDFG (maybe a couple) seems to feel that way. And the terrible proposed IDFG Wolf State Management Plan is the result. If and when the state’s proposed hunting season starts from late August through March, very few people will ever see live wolves again in this state. Those few will be hunters, outfitters and trappers who are howling and baiting wolves so as to kill them. And hopefully an army of wolf supporters who are scaring the hell out of any wolf that shows its furry face.
We may have to go to Oregon — or someplace else (Yellowstone?) — to find wolves who don’t run at the sight of a human, or the sound of a vehicle or plane.
At the recent IDFG meetings over the proposed hunting plan, myself and others tried using the logic that the plan would preclude most Idahoans from ever seeing wolves, and that live wolves could bring money into our state as it does to Yellowstone. This fell on deaf ears. The idea of wolf viewing areas was bantered about but with so many stipulations, it’s obvious IDFG has no interest in even a token few areas where hunting would not be allowed.
So now we go into federal court and try and stop delisting and the further gutting of the 10(j) rule.
In the meantime, may B300F find a mate and take up a good life in Oregon’s Wallowa country!
A slight correction – Idaho’s proposed wolf hunting plan is in the: “Wolf Population Management Plan”. This is different than the 2002 Idaho State Wolf Management Plan. The wolf hunting and trapping details will be presented by IDFG personnel to the governor-appointed IDFG commissioners at the March meeting in Boise. But first, wolves have to be delisted. And that’s a big if.
This March meeting will be very important because it will set up the details of the hunt that begins this late summer through winter.
The commissioners could take these two very bad plans Lynne mentioned above and yest create a wolf hunt that is not all that bad; or they could use the full authority these bad plans give them and set up a big wolf reduction slaughter.