For Immediate Release

18 Conservation Groups Call for Gov. Brown to Lead on Wolves

18 Conservation groups called on Governor Kate Brown to intervene in the revisions of the Oregon Wolf Conservation and Management Plan. The groups cite concerns that the two year delay in revising these revisions, and lack of important accountability and conservation sideboards that were dropped from wolf management in recent years. The letter states that ambiguity in the current Wolf Plan has led to unnecessary confusion and conflict, highlighted by the state’s continued campaign to kill off members of the Harl Butte Pack.

EXCERPTS:

“Under ODFW’s current draft proposal to modify the Oregon Wolf Conservation and Management Plan, pups as young as 4-months old could be killed by trophy hunters for conflict with unattended livestock on public lands with little more than someone’s word that they occasionally checked on their animals. The public may never understand the basic facts until after wolves have been killed – if ever. If the agency proceeds on this course, it will serve only to further polarize wolf conservation in our state, and further erode public support for the agency.”

“Solutions are readily available. Upon his retirement in 2014, outgoing ODFW Director Roy Elicker cited as his proudest accomplishment an agreement between the livestock industry, conservationists and the state that provided clear expectations and sideboards for the agency and stakeholders. Those provisions have expired in Eastern Oregon. Under those clear rules, timely transparency and earnest efforts to prevent conflict increased. Oregon was the only state in the nation that achieved a management framework where wolf populations went up, conflict declined, and lethal actions did not need to be taken. These provisions should be carried forward in the revised wolf plan.”

“ODFW’s action in recent weeks clearly demonstrates the need for stronger requirements for transparency and public accountability. We stand ready to work with your staff, and the staff of ODFW, to develop a plan that achieves these goals, and ensures Oregonians can once again be proud of our state’s wolf conservation program.”

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