Livestock depredations by a wolf prompt emergency declaration in Oregon
The Lake County (Oregon) Board of Commissioners has declared a public safety and livestock emergency in the wake of livestock depredations by wolf OR158. It is, according to Commissioner Barry Shullanberger, one of the first times such a declaration has been made.
According to the declaration, OR158 is responsible for five confirmed calf kills and three probable kills in Lake County in less than 10 days. Efforts by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Animal Plant Health Inspection Service to haze the wolf with a drone, which was ineffective. The declaration requests immediate assistance from Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek for intervention in removing the wolf and requests that the state direct the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife to pursue a permit for the take of endangered species, as allowed under Title 50, Section 17 of federal code.
Lake County ranchers Tom and Elise Flynn run cattle with Tom’s father, and Elise operates a veterinary clinic on the ranch.
“We’ve heard of people having wolf issues, and you feel bad for them,” Elise said. “But until that happens to you, you don’t realize. It’s just insane, it’s uncomprehensible how our hands are tied over this and they’re taking away our basic human rights by not allowing us to take care of it and protect what’s ours.”
Flynn said she watched Colorado ranchers struggle with wolves released on the landscape, wolves she knew came from her state, before she had any experience ranching alongside the predators. Now, she said, she feels guilty that they’re just beginning to experience what has plagued other producers.
“This has been a nightmare for way too long,” she said.
STARTED IN JANUARY
On Jan. 30, she said her husband spotted wolf tracks on the road to the cattle feeding grounds and observed wolf OR158 near a freshly killed calf with the cow bawling nearby. As he neared the wolf, coming within 50 yards, the wolf never spooked or ran off. Identifying the wolf as collared, he called ODFW for permission to shoot him.
He did not have a gun with him that day, something that turned out to be a blessing, she said.
ODFW, despite the evidence of the wolf kill, told him the wolf could not be shot, even if he observed him attacking another calf. Days later, Tom caught the same wolf attempting to kill another calf. The cow, frantic and tired, managed to fight off the wolf until Tom arrived and scared the wolf off.
“That’s his favorite cow now,” she said.
Flynn said the ODFW officials she has spoken to admit that the wolf is a problem and should be removed, but their hands are tied as wolves are federally protected and protected via state statute. ODFW also admitted they knew the wolf was in the area but didn’t alert producers. Officials confirmed wolf tracks within 100 yards of the Flynn’s home and veterinary clinic.
The Flynns ranch is on deeded and public lands, utilizing summer and spring grazing permits and calving close to home.
“They talk about compensation for those kills, but it’s more than the kills,” she said. “There are animals injured that aren’t documented as wolf damage, it’s the ones that get sick from stress, it’s the pasture that doesn’t get utilized because the cows won’t go to that corner because that’s where the wolves are, it’s secondary things like poor breed up.”
Flynn said she has veterinary clients who have experienced lower conception rates and lower weaning weights and higher percentages of dry cows who have struggled to pinpoint the source of the stress. It’s apparent, now, that wolf pressure is a possibility.
Another young ranching couple a few hours away in Brothers, Ore., have also struggled with OR158. The husband was actually a groomsman in the Flynn’s wedding, and they are good friends.
The Brothers-area ranchers utilized a number of non-lethal deterrents — playing a.m. radio at night, fladry and fox lights. Despite these efforts, that ranch lost cattle.
“You can’t say people haven’t tried non-lethal methods,” she said. “This wolf is an exception to their idea of natural wolf behavior.”
The Flynns, who have small children, were told the wolf could only be shot in self-defense.
“They’ve also drilled into us that it better be in the head or chest, we have to be able to really prove it was self-defense and it better be close range,” she said. “They’re made it clear they’re willing to investigate whether it was self-defense, and it makes me so mad when they’re agreeing this isn’t right.”
After killing two calves on Flynn’s operation, the ODFW reported the wolf left the area, but was reported by another rancher about an hour away after he ran OR158 out of his own cowherd. OR158 was also confirmed as responsible for an injured calf in Crook County on Jan. 14, ruled probable in the Nov. 21, 2024, depredation of a calf.
“Just because we don’t have him here, somebody does because he’s a problem,” she said. “It’s what he does — he kills livestock. It’s not his fault, he’s smart.”
MEETING COUNTY AND STATE OFFICIALS
The Flynns met with ODFW department heads and representatives from Congressman Cliff Bentz’s, R-Ore., office. She said little was gained.
Lake County officials, however, have been more proactive, issuing the declaration and requesting state and federal assistance.
Commissioner Barry Shullanberger said he, too, watched the release of Oregon wolves in Colorado.
“I imagine Colorado has quite a bit of red, it’s just not in the right places,” he said.
He said he spoke to Tom Flynn about the wolf attacks on the ranch.
“I asked him how long the wolf stuck around once he pulled up to the cow and killed the tractor, and he said 40 minutes,” he said. “He told me it sat on its butt and wasn’t even looking at him, he was looking out at other things, where it was going to go next.”
The next place the wolf went, with Tom following in the tractor, was where he had just fed a line of hay and pairs were eating, walking right through the cattle, never even looking back at the tractor.
Not unlike Colorado, he said Oregon’s politics are dominated by the Democratic-dominated urban strongholds like Portland, Salem, Eugene and other major population centers. Three hours from a freeway, Lake County is home to some of Oregon’s largest cattle operations. Shullanberger said Lake County is about 8,300 square miles with about the same population, of one per square mile, give or take. The county was once home to a thriving timber industry and five sawmills, where only one now remains after spotted owl regulations came about during the Bill Clinton administration. Without the timber business, agriculture remains the major economic driver — cattle and alfalfa hay — are boons for the county and wildfire has become a threat. After using hounds to hunt mountain lions was outlawed along with disallowing the baiting of bears, he said mountain lion and bear populations have exploded in the area. And now, wolves.
Wolves, he said, were originally located in three counties in northeast Oregon, and wolves are now prominent in 19 counties. A lack of funding for depredation compensation and for non-lethal deterrents is a constant struggle, he said.
Shullanberger said OR158 originated in Baker County in northeast Oregon and came south by himself seeking territory. That took him to Modoc County, California, with a stop in Brothers where he killed calves and was not afraid of multiple non-lethal deterrents, including drones. He returned to Lake County, where he killed calves on Flynn’s ranch and then traveled west to Klamath County where he reportedly killed a calf.
“Drones don’t have a real long battery life,” he said. “Apparently, they found the wolf, but they had already been flying the drone for a while. They hazed him away from the cows about a mile, but the battery was going down, so they had to return the drone. Well, he just turned around and came right back and killed a calf. Pretty frustrating.”
Shullanberger said the declaration was issued as an attempt to protect both generational ranches and the young kids being raised on those ranches. The boldness of OR158 and his habituation to people paired with prints near the Flynn home and corrals raises alarms.
“Even though it’s rare for a wolf to attack humans, or so I’m told, we don’t want to take that chance,” he said. “The other thing we experience is U.S. Fish and Wildlife and Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife aren’t in the PR business, letting people know where these wolves are.”
He said the commissioners are seeing the tension, stress, and exhaustion being experienced by area ranchers and they want to bring the situation to the attention of the state and federal agencies. That, he said, doesn’t come without its challenges. Kessina Lee, a Biden-era appointment, is the Oregon state supervisor for USFWS.
“It would be up to her to help remove this wolf, but we issued the declaration to get the governor’s office involved so they can more quickly work with federal partners to see if we can get a resolution” he said. “In my call yesterday to the governor’s office, they assured me they are working with federal partners. We have to give them that space and let them do their job.”
