Will Gov Ok Wildlife Kill Funds

As science shines a spotlight on the importance of predators, a stealth bill would set up a new wildlife killing fund in Oregon.

A so-called Wildlife Conservation Fund is actually a wildlife-killing fund, according to Eugene-based Predator Defense and conservation group Oregon Wild. HB 3636 was passed unanimously by the Oregon House and by the Senate, and it awaits Gov. John Kitzhaber’s signature. The bill would create a voluntary fund for killing predators, including wolves and “fur-bearing mammals.” Oregon’s population of less than 20 gray wolves is state endangered species listed. Wolves in the western two-thirds of Oregon are also federally protected.

If Kitzhaber signs the bill into law, the fund would allow people applying for a license, tag or permit from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) to make a voluntary contribution for predatory animal control within the counties that the license allows for the person to hunt.

This means the money will go to killing endangered gray wolves, as well as to lethally controlling bear, beaver, raccoons and foxes, among others. Sally Mackler of Predator Defense calls the bill “reckless” and says, “The state is spending a tremendous amount of money on killing wildlife.” Mackler says the amount of money the state spends on killing predators has doubled in the last biennium to about $840,000, but predators are responsible for very few livestock deaths.

Rob Klavins of Oregon Wild says that rather than kill endangered wolves, “the state is required to conserve the species.” He says HB 3636 was “designed to fly under the radar” and slipped through unnoticed in the last days of the legislative session. Klavins says that it “hijacks the hunting license system.” He points out that Oregon’s 17 or so wolves already face 28 active landowner kill permits.

A recent study in the journal Science says that humans’ destruction of top or apex predators like wolves causes previously unknown reverberations including changes in the landscape, increases in wildfires, pandemics and ecosystem shifts. The study called killing predators “humankind’s most pervasive influence on the natural world.”

The study gives as an example that when wolves returned to Yellowstone National Park it benefited creekside trees, and that without predators to kill deer, the populations explode with consequences such as more deer ticks to spread Lyme disease to humans.

Oregon Wild and Predator Defense are calling on Kitzhaber to veto the bill. Kitzhaber’s press secretary Christine Miles says, “The governor will review HB 3636 before making any decision on the bill.”

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Click here to see a letter from 8 conservation groups asking the Governor to kill the bill.

Click here to tell the Governor to veto the bill.