ENTERPRISE – Four conservation groups sued the U.S. Department of

Agriculture’s predator control branch, Wildlife Services, Thursday for

its role in authorizing the killing of two wolves blamed for killing

calves.

According to the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Portland,

Wildlife Services did not conduct the environmental analysis required

to disclose the impacts of killing two of Oregon’s 14 confirmed wolves.

Cascadia Wildlands, Hells Canyon Preservation Council, Oregon Wild and the national Center for Biological Diversity brought the suit. They are also strongly considering suing the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife for its role in authorizing the kill permits.

“Wildlife Services is required to do an environmental assessment for the health of the wolves’ population before they go out and remove them,” said Sean Stevens of Oregon Wild.

The lawsuit states, “Wildlife Services and its Oregon State Director violated (National Environmental Policy Act) by financing, assisting and/or conducting the lethal removal of gray wolves, a species listed as endangered by the state of Oregon, without following mandatory procedures. Defendant David Williams is the Oregon State Director for Wildlife Services, and he is sued in that official capacity.”

Carol Bannerman, public affairs specialist for Wildlife Services in Washington, D.C., said Thursday that Wildlife Services has not received any official notification of the lawsuit.

The state has issued a permit to the federal agency to kill two wolves in order to curtail livestock depredation in the Wallowa Valley. The permit has been extended to Aug. 31. Six calves were confirmed killed by wolves on private property between May 5 and June 4.

“As a federal agency we need to be in compliance with NEPA,” Bannerman said. “We would have conducted some type of NEPA process.”

The conservation groups said they do not believe that non-lethal measures listed in the Oregon Wolf Conservation Plan have been fully utilized.

“The Oregon Wolf Conservation Plan has all of these different measures to avoid lethal take including injurious harassment and relocation provisions,” Stevens said.

“Right now we’re suing the federal government over an inappropriate action to pursue the kill permit.”

Rod Childers of Enterprise, Oregon Cattlemen’s Association wolf chairman, said he doesn’t believe the lawsuit has merit.

“We have a pack of wolves killing livestock,” Childers said. “ODFW drew a line on a map. If they come back into that area on private land, Wildlife Services is authorized to take the wolves. ODFW authorized Wildlife Services to lethally take the wolves. They did not make the decision. I don’t see that they are doing anything wrong.”

The plaintiffs claim, “Oregon’s wildlife agency is violating the wolf management plan by issuing the kill permits when damage is not presently occurring, the wolves are not on the land where damage is occurring and multiple carcass dump piles were left on ranch lands resulting in ‘unreasonable circumstances’ that attract wolves to the area.”

The press release issued by the conservation groups said, “Had Wildlife Services conducted the proper environmental analysis, the agency would have realized that wolves pose no current depredation threat and hunting them is inappropriate. The state’s wildlife department has also failed to document how efforts by ranchers to avoid depredations through nonlethal means were ‘deemed ineffective’ or to document unsuccessful attempts to solve the situation through nonlethal means – both of which are requirements of the plan.”

Mike Carrier, Gov. Ted Kulongoski’s director for Natural Resources Policy, said, “The governor stands by ODFW, the Wildlife Commission and the adoption of the Wolf Conservation Plan.”

In April 2009 two wolves killed 24 lambs and a calf in the Keating Valley. The following month, just one day after wolves were removed from the federal endangered species list, a 2-year-old male wolf was trapped and fitted with a radio collar by ODFW. A smaller wolf, believed to be a female, was in the area at the time the male was trapped.

By August four more livestock kills were attributed to the two wolves. On Aug. 29, 2009, ODFW authorized Wildlife Services to lethally remove the wolves. The wolves were killed Sept. 5.

Greg Dyson, executive director of Hells Canyon Preservation Council, based in La Grande, said the Keating situation was much different than the one in Wallowa County.

“In Keating it was a small, defined geographic location and the wolves were removed immediately after confirmed depredation. It’s been almost a month since the last depredation or wolf activity in the Wallowa Valley.”

The area in which Wildlife Services is currently authorized to kill two wolves in Wallowa County is approximately 70 square miles.

Another difference between the authorization to lethally remove wolves in Keating and the current situation in Wallowa County is that there are 10 known wolves in the Imnaha Pack, but biologists are not positive exactly which have been involved in each calf kill. In Keating, there was substantial evidence that there were only two wolves involved in the 29 livestock losses and they were killed shortly after the last depredation.

Dyson said he’d like to see more non-lethal control used while there is an opportunity. Non-lethal control includes fladry, special wolf deterring fencing, radio-activated guard boxes that send out loud noises when activated by collared wolves and employing more patrol on horseback.