When I look at Google Earth, my first reaction is to zoom in and out for perspective. Greater perspective helps us gain a better view of wolves in Oregon, and how removing them from the state’s threatened and endangered list will allow them to be managed as a species that has been successfully recovered.

A U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service report from April, 2009, states there were already between 60,000 and 70,000 wolves in North America at that time, including an estimated 12,000 in Alberta and British Columbia, and at least 1,645 in the northern Rocky Mountains recovery area, which is recognized as a southern extension of the robust Canadian population. Zooming in tighter to Idaho, which was a node for Rocky Mountain recovery with 15 wolves reintroduced in 1995 and another 20 in 1996, we see that Idaho’s wolf numbers tripled in just two years to 115, and reached 192 by 2000. As of late 2014, there existed a minimum pack count of 104 (with another 23 state border packs) and an estimated population of 770 wolves. This all follows six years of regulated hunting and trapping of wolves.

Idaho has been the source population, through dispersal, for wolf re-establishment in Oregon. The first Oregon pack to be confirmed was the Wenaha Pack, documented in 2009. Our state anticipated an inevitable wolf movement from Idaho, and by 2005 had produced and adopted a Wolf Management Plan. This three-phased approach called for evaluating an option for delisting once the criteria were met for Phase II. The criteria called for four breeding packs to successfully rear two or more pups for three successive years. By 2014, these criteria had been met and exceeded, as there were nine known successful breeding pairs of wolves in Oregon, including eight packs in northeast Oregon and one in the southern Cascade Mountains. In recent weeks, there have been three wolf activity areas identified in southern Oregon. The minimum population is estimated at 81, not counting this year’s pups (13 of the 16 documented pairs had litters this year).

Now, zoom out to include the entire northern Rocky Mountain region, and it becomes obvious Oregon’s wolves are well connected and thriving, and it’s equally clear they are ready to be removed from Oregon’s endangered species list.

We also need to look at how wolves have affected neighboring states to gain a clearer picture of what we can expect in the coming years. In Idaho’s Unit 26, within the Middle Fork Zone of central Idaho, wolves were reintroduced in the mid-1990s. The elk population was 1,270 and hunter harvest in 2006 was 89 bull elk. By 2011, counts for Unit 26 were just 366 total elk and hunter harvest was a meager 24 bulls. Hunter numbers for the three units comprising the Middle Fork Zone dropped in half, going from 1,678 in 2006 to 821 in 2011. The pattern of decline continued with only 757 elk hunters going to those wilderness units in 2012.

The pattern here is crippling for the local rural economies, where hunters start their journeys to the backcountry. Wolf predation might not be the only factor, influencing central Idaho elk numbers, but with a high wolf pack density in the Middle Fork Zone, it is the dominating factor according to the Idaho Department of Fish and Game.

Contrary to claims made by animal protection groups, delisting does not remove protections for wolves in Oregon. Wolves will remain a protected species, and they are still federally listed in all but the eastern-most sliver of Oregon. Delisting will, however, start the journey down the road to Phase III and allow the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) more options for applying management practices.

Following through on the promises made to Oregon’s agricultural community will also foster better tolerance of wolves and maintain the credibility of Oregon’s Wolf Plan.

We need to look more broadly on the issue of wolves and expand our focus to be able to see beyond state lines. Wolves have demonstrated the ability to look beyond state borders, and we should, too. Oregon developed a very effective management plan with detailed criteria to recover wolves in this state, while also protecting other wildlife species and agriculture. It is vital that we carefully follow the direction of the wolf plan, which was developed with buy-in from many diverse stakeholders. We must stick with the plan and delist wolves in Oregon.

Author Jim Akenson, conservation director for the Oregon Hunters Association, holds a master’s degree and a bachelor’s degree in natural resources. He had long tenures working for the University of Idaho and ODFW. In Idaho, he managed a remote field station and conducted studies on cougar and wolf predation effects on big game populations.