Families concerned about an increase in wolf activity in Wallowa County have formed a grassroots group to do something about it.

About a dozen residents met June 18 at the South Fork Grange in Lostine for the second meeting of the Lostine Livestock and Community Protection Association to hear advice from a Baker County rancher who is working with state and federal agencies as well as with fellow producers to overcome the wolf problem.

“There are people who think we just need to kill all the wolves, period; there are people who think we shouldn’t be raising livestock,” said Kim Kerns, who with her husband operates a potato farm and cattle and sheep ranch in Keating Valley about 15 miles northeast of Baker City. “Management is the key to the whole thing.”

Observe and preserve

Kerns offered advice to the Wallowa County residents who gathered, particularly about observing and reporting predator activity.

“You can have dead livestock and you need to report it,” she said. “If it’s a wolf kill, please report it. The only way things are going to change is if the numbers are there. If the numbers don’t exist, if the confirmations don’t exist, then nothing’s ever going to change. Without the numbers, everyone in Salem, everyone in Portland, everyone in the environmental groups are just going to say, ‘See, there’s no proof.’ … So, keep reporting, please.”

Kerns stressed that she has a good working relationship with wildlife biologists in her area from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, something she urged Wallowa County producers to develop if they haven’t already.

But that doesn’t mean everyone is supportive of the ranching community.

“There are hundreds of organizations that want nothing less than for us to not have any livestock,” she said.

Kerns said ODFW officials, as well as those from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, are restrained to a degree by their superiors and by rules governing how they respond to reports of depredation. Therefore, she said, it’s important for producers to collect evidence of predation.

“You’ve got to start really paying attention to tracks, to wolf activity, if your livestock are in an area of known wolf activity, if you’re just walking along, look down, look for tracks, look for scat, look for all kinds of things,” Kerns said. “We need to know what is happening. Be very observant of your surroundings.”

She recommended measuring, photographing and otherwise recording signs of the presence of wolves. When tracks are found, she said, preserve them.

“Take a flowerpot and set it over the track, look for scat, look for blood spatter,” she said.

Kern also recommended preserving the carcass of any animal believed to have been killed by a predator until ODFW officials can investigate. She said the carcass should be covered with a tarp or something similar. While ODFW urges producers to remove carcasses so they don’t act as an attractant for later predation, they can be secured with a tarp for investigation and removed later.

And file a report with ODFW and FWS immediately, she said.

“Be a real pain in the neck. Get your report out after it’s made,” she said. “The more information you guys can file away, the better,”

Tools of the trade

Kerns also demonstrated tools that can be used to ward off wolves by nonlethal means, a strategy recommended by ODFW. She showed several kinds of lights that can deter wolves and other predators.

She also helped the group learn how to set up an electric fence powered by an automobile battery. She said it’s particularly effective on dry ground.

Leita Barlow, who lives between Joseph and Enterprise and helped organize the meeting, said even the fences don’t always work. She said a wolf came to Kate and Paul Barrett’s property near Lostine and was deterred by a fence, but went to June Colony’s place and killed her sheep.

The nonlethal means promoted by the government aren’t necessarily effective, Kerns said, but producers are urged to make use of them.

“Even if it’s stupid and it doesn’t work, you need to have it out there and document it” for the state, she said.

Wolf worries

Lostine, a small community of just over 200 people, is surrounded by ranches. One woman at the June 18 gathering, who is not a rancher, was concerned about just walking or jogging around town and having to be aware of wolves.

Barlow agreed, saying average people may feel the need to be armed.

“What are they going to do, carry a gun when they’re out walking?” she said. She said she was not aware of any wolf attacks on humans.

Ranchers are allowed to shoot wolves in Eastern Oregon when they’re caught in the act of attacking or harassing livestock.

Michelle Dennehy, a spokesperson for ODFW, said June 19 that there have been no attacks by wolves on people in Oregon or the Rocky Mountain states since wolves were reintroduced in the 1990s.

“The rare attacks that have occurred in Alaska and Canada were mostly related to people feeding wolves, as it leads to habituation as we see with other wildlife like bears,” Dennehy said.

Heartache of predation

Several people at the Lostine gathering told of their livestock killed recently.

Ranchers Jeremiah Stent and Aimee Danch, who live near Wallowa, had eight sheep killed in May, while the animals were penned right next to their house, and one more killed at their ranch next to Highway 82.

The wolves’ 5-inch-wide tracks, along with another set measuring 4.25 inches across, went right through the yard of their renter’s house and to the barn where they killed and devoured a sheep, Stent and Danch said. The images were captured on game cameras.

The most recent attack happened in a herd of Jacobs sheep, owned by Kate and Paul Barrett in Lostine. The ram was penned securely in its correct pen, they said. The wolf jumped the fence, killed the ram and gorged itself. Two nights previous, Kate’s favorite ewe, named Windy, a flock leader she has had since it was a lamb who always greeted her at the gate, was attacked and eaten alive. The whole process was captured on video.

Before these attacks, two rams were attacked and killed, and last spring, 19 lambs and three ewes were slaughtered in their pen in one night.

Lostine resident June Colony also lost two prized rams that were penned right next to her house. She was given the advice from state agencies to “start packing a gun,” which she quickly pointed out would be irresponsible, as she has nearby neighbors on all sides.

Barlow said ranchers and residents are giving up reporting predation to government agencies out of frustration.

“A growing group consensus is not a drive to obliterate all wolves, but when a community of families with animal pets to full-scale ranching, are threatened in their own yards, real action needs to be taken to remove the threat, by the state and federal agencies tasked to manage wolves,” she said. “Those same agencies also need to respectfully and effectively investigate and support those people who have been repeatedly affected.”

What’s next?

Barlow said the group will continue to meet and consider ways to solve the wolf problem.

She said next on their list is to compose a letter to ODFW and FWS outlining their concerns.

The grassroots group will continue to meet, network and share information with each other and the state and federal agencies tasked with wolf management. She said no subsequent meeting has yet been scheduled.

She said those agencies have been invited to their meetings, but have yet to show. Kerns is working on that, but has yet to make progress.

At the group’s previous meeting, two local experts on wolves and ranching — Wallowa County Commissioner Todd Nash, a rancher and past president of the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association, and John Williams, Eastern Oregon co-chairman of the OCA’s wolf committee, attended and offered advice.

Lostine Livestock and Community Protection Association

For more information about the group, call Leita Barlow at 541-624-9151.