People who promote a growing population of gray wolves in Oregon have used words such as “disheartening” and “stalled” and even “tragedy” to describe the predators’ plight over the past few years.

This level of concern seems a bit exaggerated now that Oregon is actually giving away wolves.

State wildlife officials announced on Oct. 6 that their counterparts from Colorado plan to capture up to 10 wolves from Northeastern Oregon, starting in December, and haul the animals to Colorado.

Colorado voters in 2020 approved a measure requiring their state to begin reintroducing wolves by the end of 2023.

Curt Melcher, director of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, said that taking as many as 10 wolves from this corner of the state, where wolves have been most abundant since the first confirmed animal crossed the border from Idaho in 1999, “will not impact any conservation goals.”

This is hardly surprising.

Although at least 20 wolves were killed in Oregon in 2022, including 10 from packs that had repeatedly attacked livestock, the population has not declined.

ODFW counted 178 wolves in Oregon — about 85% in the northeast — at the end of 2022. There are undoubtedly more wolves within the state’s borders, as ODFW acknowledges that its annual survey can’t tally every wolf.

That’s a minuscule increase from 2021, to be sure — that year’s count was 175. The census at the end of 2020 was 170 wolves.

Yet wolf numbers are not declining even as ODFW, as it should, authorizes the killing of wolves from packs that are chronic livestock-killers despite ranchers employing nonlethal tactics such as more closely monitoring their herds and ensuring there are no carcasses to attract predators.

Most recently, on Sept. 19, an agent from the U.S. Wildlife Services, a federal agency, killed a 2-year-old, non-breeding male wolf from the Lookout Mountain pack. ODFW issued a permit on Aug. 4 authorizing the killing of up to two wolves from that pack. The permit is valid until Nov. 15, 2023, or until a second wolf is killed, whichever happens first.

ODFW doesn’t know which packs will supply wolves for Colorado, except that the animals will be captured in Northeastern Oregon.

Regardless, results from the past few years suggest that removing up to 10 wolves from the region will pose no appreciable threat to the species’ continued existence in this area.