Rep. Cliff Bentz brought his argument to remove protections for wolves to Pendleton.

The Republican from Ontario hosted an informal listening session Thursday, April 4, at the Pendleton Convention Center to hear what local constituents had to say about wolves and the damage they cause to lives and the economy.

“I happen to be chair of the Water, Wildlife and Fisheries Subcommittee in Congress, and as a result, I have the opportunity to determine what type of hearings we might hold,” said Bentz, who represents Oregon’s Second Congressional District, which includes most of Oregon east of the Cascades. “Wolves being wildlife fits nicely within the jurisdiction of my committee.”

He quoted history, facts and figures about wolves to the audience.

“I was told the day before yesterday that the population of moose in northern Idaho is now zero, where there used to be a significant population,” Bentz said.

He said the wolf population in Minnesota has grown like weeds in July, and “populations of deer in the Minnesota area have been dramatically reduced.”

Umatilla County Commissioner Dan Dorran also came ready to push for what he wanted, including federal compensation for ranchers who lose livestock to wolves.

“We’re way past enough is enough is enough,” he said. “In my personal opinion it’s time we start compensating, so I think the federal government should start paying.”

Oregon has a compensation program but critics contend the amounts don’t cover the full extent of ranchers’ financial losses.

The federal government listed the gray wolf as an endangered species. That status doesn’t apply to wolves throughout Oregon, however.

Wolves are federally protected west of a line formed by Highways 395, 78 and 95 — roughly two-thirds of the state. East of that line, wolves in Oregon have not been federally protected since 2011. Ranchers east of the line have more flexibility in dealing with depredating wolves, including applying with the state for permits allowing them to kill wolves after repeated attacks on livestock. That option isn’t available for landowners west of the line.

Many in the audience of about 80 people appeared to be ranchers, and more than a few know firsthand how wolves can affect their operations. One of the most-heard words at the Pendleton meeting was “delisting.” That would take the wolf off the federal endangered species list and make them much easier to control across the state.

Demanding the number

Bentz told the crowd the Endangered Species Act is behind the wolf situation. He twice asked in his introduction, “How many wolves is enough?”

“I’m from a cattle ranch. My answer would be none,” he said, “but you know, that’s not good. That’s not the law. The law is these animals are being reintroduced, thus we’re going to have wolves, so the question is, how many?”

That should have prepared the panel for what might have been a difficult question, but Union County Commissioner Paul Anderes came to the podium well into the meeting and asked the agency representatives who were present, “What is the number? What is the appropriate number for each of your agencies, please?”

Nick Myatt of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife responded, “The Oregon wolf conservation management plan does not have a target number or a population objective.”

“We currently don’t have a number nationally,” Marisa Meyer of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said. “I believe we are working on a recovery plan for the wolves in the lower 48. … there will be a number scheduled to come out in December 2025.”

ODFW counted 178 wolves in Oregon — about 85% in the northeast corner — at the end of 2022. The agency acknowledges that there are more wolves in the state, as the annual survey can’t tally every wolf. The count at the end of 2021 was 175 wolves.

ODFW typically releases its annual wolf report, which includes the wolf count from the end of the previous year, in April.

“When you’re asked that question of the number, I would say, what resource?” Kevin Christensen of the U.S. Department of Agriculture said. “Already described today there’s more than enough conflict, more than enough loss, more than enough loss of rights in trying to deal with the conflicts. I think that already speaks volumes where there’s already more loss out there from an agency that’s trying to respond and help assist with that loss. … We can’t provide enough services to meet the needs that are out there.”

Shifting the costs of control

Dorran said in the 1990s the counties, the state, and federal government joined together for predator control, and that split was 61% federal, 14% state and 25% county.

“In Umatilla County it’s much higher,” Dorran said. “But this year it’s gone up again but the feds are only in for 30%. The counties are in for 54% and the state is still static, they’re 15-16%. The reason we don’t take control at the local level, even though we’re the biggest spender on the regulatory side of predator control, is because we have no authorization, no ability to enforce regulations, and no ability to enforce any type of law.”

But Umatilla County residents, he said, are paying more than 54% of the cost of predator control.

John Williams, wolf committee co-chair for Oregon Cattlemen’s Association, said he spent two hours speaking with a journalist from London on April 3, “and she admittedly granted she was on the other side than the cattlemen, and I kept trying to struggle with, ‘What do you call your side?’ She said, ‘It’s the poetic side of the wolf concept.’ “

Bentz said he has held a listening session on wolves in Klamath Falls, “not long after wolves got into cattle and ran them off across the southeastern part of the state.” Then he hosted a larger meeting Feb. 22 in Prineville. After Pendleton, he said, the next meeting is going to be a congressional hearing May 3 in Minnesota, which has far more wolves than Oregon.

“So the challenge for us is to make that hearing the most productive it could possibly be,” Bentz said. “We’ll have C-Span watching somewhere between 200,000-2 million people at any one time. I think we’re going to make a lot of it by you guys giving us the proper fodder for the social media. The challenge is going to be how to convince the nation these animals are just what they were created to be, killers. Cold killers, that’s what they do for a living.”