ACTION ALERT: “SAVE OREGON’S 29 WOLVES, oppose HB 4158″…..

Oregon Walla Walla Pack Pup (ODFW)

Oregon’s wolves are under attack AGAIN. The Oregon Cattlemen’s Association is going after the state’s 29 wolves, especially the Imnaha’s, who are the natal pack of OR7, they are his family.  Members of the pack have been under constant threat of death over the last several years for a handful of livestock depredations, even though Oregon ranchers  lost nearly 60,000 cattle to non–predation in 2010. By my calculations that averages 140 cattle a day that drop dead from one thing or another or are stolen by cattle rustlers.  And yet ranchers are screaming bloody murder over 20 cows in two years, supposedly killed by wolves??

No rancher is going to go out of business over 20 cow losses. They seem to be able to absorb thousands and thousands of non-predation losses just fine. This is a smokescreen people, they want to get rid of Oregon’s tiny wolf population. They tried this emergency nonsense in Idaho, which I’m now going to start referring to Eastern Oregon as Western Idaho. They seem to have the same outrageous attitudes toward wolves as Idaho has.

HB 4158 seeks to undermine the Oregon ESA and make it easier for ranchers to kill the state’s tiny wolf population.  They also want to declare a State of  Emergency over 29 wolves.  Talk about dramatics. This is all in response to a kill order placed on the alpha male and sub-adult of  the Imnaha pack, which was stayed by the Oregon Court of Appeals.  Because ranchers didn’t get their way,  it was history repeating itself on a smaller scale. When Judge Molloy relisted wolves in the Northern Rockies, the wolf hating crowd ran to the politicians to remove wolves’  ESA protections. Now the Oregon Cattlemen’s Assoc. wants to weaken the Oregon ESA and allow ODFW to kill the two Imnaha wolves.

What about the 51, 200 cattle Oregon ranchers lost to non-predation in 2010?  They are trying to say losing thousands and thousands of cattle to disease, theft, calving, weather, etc. is acceptable but 20 cow losses to wolves in two years is a state of emergency?  Uh-huh.

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2012 session

House Bill 4158

Relating to wolves; declaring an emergency.

Allows killing of wolves to address depredation of livestock.

Bill progress

Measure activity House SenateVotes

Feb 1, 2012: First reading. Referred to the desks of the Co-Speakers.

Feb 1, 2012: Referred to Agriculture and Natural Resources.

Feb 9, 2012: Public Hearing and Possible Work Session scheduled. Public hearing on HB 4158 will be held in Room D. starting at 1 pm.

VOTES

No votes

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 76th OREGON LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY–2012 Regular Session

House Bill 4158

Sponsored by Representative BENTZ; Representatives ESQUIVEL,
GARRARD, HUFFMAN, JENSON, SCHAUFLER, SPRENGER, WHISNANT, WITT,
Senators BOQUIST, FERRIOLI, JOHNSON, OLSEN, WHITSETT (at the
request of Oregon Cattlemen’s Association) (Presession filed.)

SUMMARY

The following summary is not prepared by the sponsors of the
measure and is not a part of the body thereof subject to
consideration by the Legislative Assembly. It is an editor’s
brief statement of the essential features of the measure as
introduced.

Allows killing of wolves to address depredation of livestock.
Declares emergency, effective on passage.

A BILL FOR AN ACT

Relating to wolves; and declaring an emergency.
Be It Enacted by the People of the State of Oregon:

SECTION 1.  { + (1) As used in this section, ‘livestock’ has
the meaning given that term in ORS 610.150.

(2) Notwithstanding ORS 496.171 to 496.182, the conservation of
wolves in Oregon may include the killing of wolves to address the
depredation of livestock by wolves. + }

SECTION 2.  { + This 2012 Act being necessary for the immediate
preservation of the public peace, health and safety, an emergency
is declared to exist, and this 2012 Act takes effect on its
passage. + }

http://www.leg.state.or.us/12reg/measures/hb4100.dir/hb4158.intro.html

Imnaha Pack  (ODFW)

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What can you do?

Please sign the petition to Governor Kitzhaber

The Governor of OR: SAVE OREGON’S 29 WOLVES, oppose HB 4158

Petition Letter

SAVE OREGON’S WOLVES, oppose HB 4158

Greetings,

We, the undersigned, urge you to oppose HB 4158, a bill proposed by the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association, which allows killing of wolves to address livestock depredation and declares a “state of emergency.” With less than 30 wolves in the entire state, we find this declaration absurd. We, and most Oregonians, highly value our wildlife and strongly support endangered species protection and the return of wolves to Oregon, and their strong recovery.

Oregon has less than 30 confirmed wolves in the entire state and approximately 1.3 million cows. We feel that a Bill establishing a “state of emergency” over the presence of a tentatively recovering endangered wolf population is an attempt to bypass the Oregon Endangered Species Act and would set a dangerous precedent which could be used to circumvent protections of other endangered species at the behest of special interests. Furthermore, we believe it is an effort to short-circuit current litigation which aims to clarify the relationship of the state Endangered Species Act with the Oregon Wolf Plan.

Statements by Oregon Cattlemen’s Association members and officers constantly stress the aim of lethal removal over the use of non-lethal measures and tools, which they routinely disparage. As quoted in the Lewiston Tribune Online, 7/2/11, OCA Wolf committee Chair Rod Childers said, “To be able to move to lethal control we as producers have to show we tried nonlethal actions. I can’t say if it works or not, it is just things we have been told we have to do, and the whole key to me is getting them to move to lethal control,…” With this in mind, we believe HB 4158 to be an attempt to weaken the commitment to non-lethal measures.

With so many critical issues before this short session of the legislature, devoting precious time to this controversial and unnecessary Bill is a mistake.

Please oppose HB 4158.

Thank you.

[Your name]

Click Here To Sign Petition

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CONTACT

Contact Gov. John Kitzhaber 

Governor’s Citizens’ Representative Message Line
503-378-4582

Fax: 503-378-6827

Governor Kitzhaber
160 State Capitol
900 Court Street
Salem, Oregon 97301-4047

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Oregon House of Representatives

House of Representatives Leadership
Co-Speaker of the House Bruce Hanna – (R-Roseburg)
Co-Speaker of the House Arnie Roblan – (D-Coos Bay)

Co-Speaker Pro Tempore Representative Peter Buckley – (D-Ashland)
Co-Speaker Pro Tempore Representative Andy Olson – (R-Albany)

House Republican Leader Representative Kevin Cameron – (R-Salem)
House Democratic Leader Representative Tina Kotek– (D-N/NE Portland)

http://www.leg.state.or.us/house/

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Oregon State Senate

Senate Leadership:
Senate President Peter Courtney – (D-Salem/Gervais/Woodburn)
Senate President Pro Tempore Senator Ginny Burdick – (D-Portland)
Senate Majority Leader Senator Diane Rosenbaum – (D-Portland)
Senate Republican Leader Senator Ted Ferrioli – (R-John Day)

http://www.leg.state.or.us/senate/

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This is how confident they are.

Clem expects wolf bills to clear House

By MITCH LIES

Capital Press

SALEM — Rep. Brian Clem, D-Salem, says that he believes cattlemen have the votes to get two wolf bills through the Oregon House.

House Bill 4005 would provide livestock owners a tax credit for livestock losses to wolves. A second bill, House Bill 4158, stipulates the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has the authority to kill problem wolves.

The bills are in the House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee, which Clem co-chairs.

HB4005 is up for a committee vote Feb. 7. The committee meets in Hearing Room D beginning at 1 p.m. HB4158 is scheduled for a public hearing Feb. 9, also in Hearing Room D, beginning at 1 p.m.

Speaking to county Farm Bureau presidents during Oregon Farm Bureau’s Day at the Capitol on Feb. 6, Clem said he believes the House Agriculture Committee will support both bills unanimously. And, he said, the bills should enjoy continued strong support through the House floor.

Getting the bills to the desk of Gov. John Kitzhaber, however, may be difficult, he said.

Several bills last session cleared the House Agriculture Committee and the House floor, but failed to clear the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee, which is chaired by Sen. Jackie Dingfelder, D-Portland.

HB4158 is backed by the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association in response to an injunction issued Oct. 6 by the Oregon Court of Appeals. The injunction prevents the state from killing two wolves that prey on livestock.

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife in September issued a kill order for the wolves. The wolves are part of the Imnaha Pack in northeast Oregon, one of the state’s four known wolf packs.

The pack is responsible for killing more than 20 head of livestock, according to state wildlife officials.

http://www.capitalpress.com/oregon/ml-Clem-talk-021012-art

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Please raise your voices for Oregon’s fragile wolf population. Sophie, B-300, the alpha female of the Imnaha Pack, is OR7’s mother. She swam the Snake River in 2008 and established the first wolf pack in Oregon in over 60 years. Do not allow the Cattleman’s Association’s dramatics to overshadow common sense. There is no way on earth 29 wolves could constitute a state of emergency. That is patently ridiculous. This is a witch hunt pure and simple? It will not stop until the American people speak out loud and clear to tell the ranchers, hunters and politicians,  STOP KILLING WOLVES!!

OR10 Walla Walla Pack (ODFW)

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In happier times. November 19, 2009

“This video taken by ODFW on Nov. 12, 2009 in the Imnaha Wildlife Management Unit (east of Joseph, Ore. in Wallowa County) shows at least 10 wolves make up a pack that ODFW has been monitoring since June 2008. The video was taken from an adjacent ridge across a canyon and shows a mixture of gray and black individual wolves moving up-slope.”

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Photos: Courtesy ODFW

Video:  Courtesy ODFW

Posted in: Wolf Wars, Oregon Wolves

Tags: HB 4158, Oregon Cattleman’s Assoc.,  embattled Oregon wolves, Imnaha Pack , OR7, Governor Kitzhaber, Oregon House of Representatives, Oregon Senate

Oregon’s Imnaha Pack Safe….For Now

Imnaha Pack alpha male (ODFW)

While 55 wolves have been killed in the ongoing  Montana and Idaho hunt/slaughter,  Oregon’s Imnaha Pack alpha male and yearling are safe tonight, after the Oregon Court of Appeals granted a temporary stay of the” kill order”  hanging over the two wolves heads!

Three environmental groups filed a lawsuit on October 5th to halt the killing of the two wolves and the judges listened.  The killing of the alpha male and the younger wolf would likely have been the nail in the coffin for the Imnaha pack, leaving the alpha female, B-300 and her six month old pup to fend for themselves.

Although the injunction is temporary we call on Governor Kitzhaber to end the “witch hunt” permanently and stop the harassment of this wolf pack.

As I stated in an earlier post, Oregon ranchers lost 51,200 cattle to non-predation in 2010, so the continual coverage of miniscule wolf depredations looks like persecution, driven by the livestock industry and is casting a pall over Oregon’s reputation as a moderate and progressive state.

Court orders state to halt hunt for two wolves of Imnaha pack in NE Oregon

Published: Wednesday, October 05, 2011, 9:07 PM     Updated: Wednesday, October 05, 2011, 9:10 PM

JOSEPH — As state biologists combed northeastern Oregon’s rugged mountains Wednesday to kill two gray wolves in the Imnaha pack, conservation groups challenged the kill order in court and called on Gov. John Kitzhaber to intercede.

Late in the day, the Oregon Court of Appeals granted their request to temporarily halt the hunt, The Associated Press reported.

Cascadia Wildlands, the Center for Biological Diversity and Oregon Wild contend that efforts by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife to remove the pack’s alpha male and a younger wolf would leave only a female wolf and one pup born this year to fend for themselves this winter.

“They are proposing to take out the leader of the pack, which will, in my best estimate, render the pack unviable,” said Josh Laughlin, spokesman for the Eugene-based Cascadia Wildlands. “Oregonians are not going to stand for that.”

Read More: http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2011/10/conservation_groups_win_tempor.html

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Oregon’s Governor Kitzhaber (503-378-4582) 

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Photo: Courtesy ODFW

Posted in: Wolf Wars, Oregon Wolves, Howling for Justice

Tags: Oregon Court of Appeals, Imnaha alpha male, ODFW,  “kill order” stayed, Oregon Wild, Cascadia Wildlands, Center for Biological Diversity