ENTERPRISE — State Sen. Todd Nash has accomplished one of his chief goals as a new state senator — getting the Legislature’s upper house to pass an update to Oregon’s wolf depredation compensation program.

The Senate in a 28-1 vote Tuesday, March 25, passed Senate Bill 777. Nash was the chief sponsor for the bill that now moves to the House, where Rep. Bobby Levy, R-Echo, is championing the legislation, which has yet to be assigned to a committee.

The bill provides what Nash said is “fair compensation for ranchers who lose livestock or working dogs to confirmed wolf kills while increasing funding for nonlethal deterrence,” according to a press release.

Nash has been promoting an increase in the compensation rate to wolf depredation for several years. In the 2023-24 Legislature, he and others sought a bill that included a 7-to-1 multiplier on compensation on losses for ranchers.

“In 2011, we created Oregon’s first compensation program when wolves were still new to the state. We’ve learned a lot since then,” Nash said. “This bill reflects what we now know: that our previous system didn’t fully account for the losses ranchers face. SB 777 is a long-overdue fix that restores trust in the system and ensures that Oregon’s wolf policy reflects reality, not outdated assumptions.”

Long eradicated from Oregon, grey wolves were reintroduced in the Northwest in 1996 when the first of the predators were brought to Yellowstone National Park. From there, they migrated through North-Central Idaho into Northeast Oregon. When Oregon’s compensation program was first established in 2011, only Wallowa County was affected. Since then, wolves have spread across the state so now half of Oregon’s 36 counties rely on compensation programs.

But that was in response to damage the predators had done.

“Wolves started eating on livestock in 2010,” said John Williams, who has been working on the livestock compensation bill with Nash for several years. Williams is the Eastern Oregon co-chairman of the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association’s wolf committee.

The new bill offers compensation of up to five times the fair market value of calves, yearlings, sheep and goats and three times the value of cows. There is a cap of $25,000 per animal. There is no multiplier for working dogs and horses. The bill also expands support for ranchers as wolf populations grow.

Half of the funds provided under the program will go to support ranchers’ efforts at nonlethal means of warding off wolves. Under current law, the support is 30%.

Williams emphasized all the nonlethal efforts can mean little because “wolves are very smart.”

Nonlethal efforts may keep wolves out for 60-90 days, but rarely will the efforts do so permanently.

“It might scare him off for a while,” he said. “But it becomes more difficult to find new ways.”

Such nonlethal means are most effective when ranchers get out and personally chase off the wolves. Other means include flagery — the stringing of colored flags on a fenceline — loudspeakers and lights.

One element of the new bill was a tradeoff for ranchers — there is no provision for missing animals.

“We are giving up being paid for missing livestock,” Williams said. “(Ranchers usually find) only 1 in 8 carcasses of dead cattle. … It helps (the rancher) get paid for some of those he didn’t find.”

Other losses ranchers face include stress on cattle from wolf predation that can reduce conception rates as much as 10%, reduced weaning rates, lower body weights and increased management costs.

Williams said Nash introduced SB 777 at the request of the cattlemen’s association and has high hopes it will make it through the House, especially given the strong support it received in the Senate.

“We’re optimistic …  that the House will understand the need for this bill,” he said. “This is one of the more important bills for the livestock industry to pay back some of the costs other than dead animals that the rancher incurs.”

“SB 777 updates the program to address this expanding challenge, ensuring ranchers in every affected county receive fair treatment,” Nash said.