Oregon WildBlog

The 2015 Legislative session in Salem was a mixed bag. The State Capitol building has a well-deserved reputation as a place where lobbyists and corporate interests wield tremendous power, and they were out in force, bidding their allies in both political parties to push terrible bills, and discretely kill other conservation priorities.

It’s been a busy last few days for Oregon’s wolves and those working to protect them, with new places, new dates, and new pups!

When I wrote to you last, it was about an important Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) Commission meeting in Seaside. But there’s been a change! The agenda for that meeting has moved and the ODFW Commission will now be taking comments on whether to delist gray wolves on Friday, Oct. 9th in Florence, OR.

by George Wuerthner

Lodgepole pine is one of the most common trees in the Northern Rockies. For instance, 80% of the trees in Yellowstone National Park are lodgepole pine. However, it is also a common tree in the Cascades, Sierra Nevada, and into British Columbia.

Oregon’s State Capitol building in Salem has a well-deserved reputation as a place where lobbyists and corporate interests wield tremendous power. The 2015 legislative session proved this again, with legislators from both political parties pushing terrible bills on everything from legalizing illegally-constructed dams to stripping endangered species protections from gray wolves.  

by Ricardo Small

Wildlife has it made in Oregon.  Politically, that is.  Right?  Oregon voters banned hounding cougars by citizens’ initiative.  We devoted 15% of the lottery proceeds to the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department.  Restricting how an apex predator can be killed and using land for parks is good.  This means a majority of the Legislature and the Governor support wildlife welfare and the integrity of public land.  It must mean they do not support environmentally destructive, profit motivated objectives. 

At one time, gray wolves inhabited much of Oregon. Unfortunately, by the late 1940s, a very deliberate campaign had eradicated this iconic species from the state. It would be more than a half a century before gray wolves would return in earnest.

By Daniel Collay

by Ethan Shaw

In this final installment of our three-part series, we consider the extirpated Oregon grizzly’s ecological world and briefly look at the status of the existing grizzly populations nearest the Beaver State.

Read Part 1: Oregon as Grizzly Country and Part 2: The Last Grizzlies of Oregon

As it has been for most of history, Oregon is once again wolf country. Even so, they and other native hunters are seen by many as novel or – worse – as dangerous forces lurking on the edge of sanitized civilization.