Oregon Dept. of Fish and Wildlife Recommends Wolf Delisting

Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife staff believe gray wolves have met the criteria to be delisted from the state Endangered Species Act and will recommend this action to the Fish and Wildlife Commission at their Nov. 9 meeting in Salem.Oregon Cattlemen’s Association Wolf Committee Chair Todd Nash says
Nash: “To come out with a recommendation right prior to the commission voting — yea, that is unusual — but I really appreciate it. ODFW sees that it is the right thing and it was something that was implied in the Oregon Wolf Plan and we hope to see that come to pass. Get through these different issues and phases of the Oregon Wolf Plan to where we can start to manage wolves in a manner that we can all live with.”
Nash says that even if the Commission does agree with the recommendation, it will most likely be appealed and then a judge will make the decision. Either way Nash says the delisting will not result in any immediate changes to the wolf management in the state.
Nash: “It doesn’t have any impact on the what the Oregon Wolf Plan is right now. Wolf-Livestock conflict —that’s not going to change. The way that they deal with is not change. This is just a process that we need to get through. We are basically dealing with two different criteria right now — we’re dealing with the Oregon Wolf Plan as it is written and the Oregon Endangered Species Act. So we have two different things that we have to comply with at once. And that just gets one of these out of the way.”