More on the Wolf Issue

Oregon has set up a fund to help ranchers offset the costs from livestock losses due to wolf depredation but according to Bill Hoyt, rancher and former President of the Oregon Cattleman's Association, it won't be enough.

HOYT: As the wolf population grows we all know that there isn't going to be enough money to compensate everyone. We have an Oregon Wolf Management plan and that plan calls for delisting of the wolves in Oregon which changes the rules a great deal especially in the Rocky Mountain population of which our northeast Oregon wolves are a part. The wolf plan says when there are four breeding pairs that have existed in the area for three years running then the state would become eligible for delisting.

And of course that would have a whole new set of rules to follow.

HOYT: Our problems are right now that that only pertains to wolves that are east of 395. Any wolf like this OR-7 that everybody has been talking about, that wolf falls into the U.S. Fish and Wildlife domain and is an endangered species on the U.S. list. What we basically have is two jurisdictions. U.S. Fish and Wildlife has jurisdiction over wolves west of 395 and the State of Oregon has jurisdiction over wolves east of 395 and ultimately we will have to bring the two together

That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.