Billboard seeks leads on OR wolf shooting

Local wolf advocates and conservation groups back effort to publicize search for poacher.

LA GRANDE, Ore. -- Conservation groups are putting up a billboard in Eastern Oregon showing a dead wolf in hopes of sending the person who shot and killed it to jail.

Starting Tuesday, drivers headed east on U.S. Highway 82 out of La Grande will see the billboard offering a $10,000 reward for information in the shooting of a 2-year-old male wolf from the Wenaha pack last September in northeastern Oregon. It was wearing a radio tracking collar.

Wally Sykes of Northeast Oregon Ecosystems says illegal killings of wildlife give rural communities a black eye and discourage tourists interested in wildlife.

Sykes says Northeastern Oregon Ecosystems and other conservation groups are paying for the $2,700 cost of the billboard.

The $10,000 reward has been raised by conservation groups and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.