Oregon Ranch Rescue
WHY?
Ranchers will be severely harmed, some to the point of being put out of business, if wolves are allowed to populate Oregon through the implementation of the Fish and Wildlife Commission’s recently adopted Wolf Conservation and Management Plan (WCMP). In an attempt to prevent its implementation they have chosen to launch Oregon Ranch Rescue, a voluntary private land closure to any public entry with the intent being: 1. A protest of the agency for not following its own polices, mission, and goals and totally ignoring ranchers’ input or testimony; 2. To protect the wolf’s wild prey base in anticipation of their arrival in Oregon.
The Oregon Cattlemen’s Association is supporting this effort that will welcome others who believe private property rights have been violated. You can find the Oregon Ranch Rescue at http://www.orcattle.com/
On December 1, 2005 the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission adopted the WCMP as rule by reference. In doing so they disregarded Oregon laws and adopted rules that conflict with laws previously passed by the elected representatives of the people, the Oregon legislature Oregon laws that were disregarded are:
ORS 498.012 mandates that ODF&W “...manage to prevent serious depletion of any indigenous species...” The forced experimental introduction of Canadian wolves into Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming has amply demonstrated the serious depletion of moose, elk, deer, antelope, and big horn sheep, as well as domestic ungulates, directly caused in those states by the introduced wolves. There is no evidence that similar results will not occur in our game herds and no effective remedy exists in the plan if it does. No evidence exists that the Canadian Wolf was ever indigenous to Oregon.
ORS 496.172(3) and ORS 496.182(8)(a) states that when a species is listed as endangered the Commission is required to work with state land owning agencies to determine whether they can take any actions that would conserve the species.
Under these statutes the state landowning agencies, not the ODF&W, are required to analyze the needs of the species and to create a conservation plan for the species on their land. They are required by law to balance those needs with the economic impacts of conservation, the statutory use of the agency’s lands, and the role of other people and agencies. This balance must be achieved in the land owning agency’s plan before they implement a plan that can help conserve the species on their land. The agency’s duty to even create a conservation management plan is limited by whether they can help the conservation effort within the statutory mandated balance of use, economics, and effects on other people and agencies.
ORS 496.192(1) clearly states that private landowners are not required to take actions to protect threatened or endangered species or to restrict the use of their lands to conserve the species.
ORS 498.012 (1) continues private property protection by stating: Nothing in the wildlife laws is intended to prevent any person from taking any wildlife that is damaging land that the person owns or lawfully occupies or is damaging livestock or agricultural or forest crops on such land.
ORS 496.192 (2) speaks to other statutes that may authorize the protection of wildlife species such as ORS 498.012, which requires management to prevent the serious depletion of any indigenous species like elk, deer, bighorn sheep, etc. The Canadian wolf was never indigenous to Oregon and if allowed colonization in Oregon will certainly cause serious depletion of indigenous ungulates. The OWMP would criminalize the protection of domestic livestock and pets from these vicious predators thereby severely restricting the use of private lands. It even casts a cloud over ones ability to protect human life and safety by saying that Oregon’s criminal code “provides a defense that may justify an otherwise illegal take if the act was necessary to avoid imminent, grave injury to a person”.
The current wolf management plan is neither legally sound nor scientifically appropriate and it places the health, safety, and welfare of Oregon citizens in harms way.
Without these commitments by ODFW the ranchers will be subjected to unacceptable and impossible conditions due to the presence of wolves. Some of the damage listed by our neighbors in Idaho who have attempted to run cattle where wolves are prevalent include: cattle will bunch up on the range, eliminating distribution and causing damage to the range; they have experienced reduced average daily gain; reduced conception rates; increased death loss; inability to use winter range due to movement of cattle during weather events, sometimes to disastrous death losses; increased costs forced by extra management activities; loss of working dogs and potentially horses (or increased cost by not leaving critters out); loss due to crippled livestock; increased calving costs and the list goes on and on……
Landowners attempted to influence the current wolf plan to make it more acceptable to the livestock industry through countless committee and town hall meetings, hearings, written and oral testimony, all to no avail. Adoption of the WCMP leaves the rancher with no workable alternative. Ranchers have resolved to close their lands to public access in protest of the total lack of respect that ODFW Commission gave to the industry that supplies so much of the wildlife habitat and forage.
We are disappointed to been pushed to this last resort. We need the understanding and support of recreationists, sportsmen, the general public, who are usually welcome on private land, to make ODFW realize the impossible situation they have placed us in; that the WCMP needs to be fair to ranchers and local communities rather than sacrificing them for the few Oregonians who want wolves at any cost as long as the cost is to others.