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Senator wants to end state protection for wolves
By BRAD CAIN SALEM, Ore. (AP) -- There may not be many gray
wolves in Oregon at the moment, but a state lawmaker worries that the
wolf population is rising and soon will become a threat to Oregon's
livestock industry.
"We have to manage them, and our hands our
tied," said Sen. Roger Beyer, R-Molalla.
Beyer's proposed solution is SB97.
It would take the wolf off the state endangered
species list and authorize state wildlife officials to take such steps
as allowing ranchers to shoot wolves preying on sheep or cattle herds.
The bill is needed, Beyer said, because as long
as wolves remain on the state endangered species list, Oregon will be
obligated to protect them after they stray into the state from Idaho.
"If we want to effectively manage wolves,
they are going to have to be de-listed," he said.
A spokesman for the Portland Audubon Society,
Stephen Kafoury, thinks Beyer's bill is an overreaction and that it
addresses a problem that hasn't occurred.
"If you delist the wolves, then they have
no protection at all," Kafoury said. "We think that there is
a role for wolves in the natural ecosystem."
Beyer's bill, which gets its first hearing
Wednesday in the Senate Water and Land Use Committee, addresses an
issue that has become a concern to agriculture officials just in
recent years.
Wolves were hunted to extinction in Oregon more
than 50 years ago to keep livestock safe, but went on the state
endangered species list after they were put on the federal list in
1974.
The listing means that it is illegal to kill a
wolf not only on public lands but also on private property.
However, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
expects the predator to be dropped from endangered to threatened
species protection soon, and removed from Endangered Species Act
protection entirely by 2004.
That will leave management of wolves entirely up
to the states.
Oregon has already had three confirmed cases of
wolves migrating into the state from Idaho, and the Oregon Department
of Fish and Wildlife said it has received dozens of wolf sightings
since then.
Beyer said that's why the state must act now to
take the wolf off the state endangered species act to make sure that
growing populations of the predator don't become a problem for
Oregon's livestock industry.
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