FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Press Advisory - Conservationists to Kitzhaber: Require Balance on Wolf Compensation

A Dozen Local, State, and National Conservation Organizations urge Governor Kitzhaber to ensure pro-wildlife voices included in wolf panels

Conservation groups raise serious concerns about abuse of taxpayer-supported compensation program.

A dozen conservation organizations, including Oregon Wild, Sierra Club, and Defenders of Wildlife, today sent a letter to Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber asking him to ensure pro-wildlife voices are included in the panels that will make decisions regarding a taxpayer-funded compensation program for livestock interests.  The program, created by the Oregon Legislature earlier this year, is meant to reduce conflict between livestock interests and endangered gray wolves.  It requires at least two pro-wolf voices be included in the county-by-county panels that will make decisions regarding the funds.

A well-designed and implemented fund could help reduce tensions between livestock interests and wildlife advocates.  However, concerns recently arose in Wallowa County when local officials installed representatives to a panel even before the Oregon Department of Agriculture had completed a public comment period on the rules meant to govern such entities.  Initially, no pro-wolf conservation voices existed on the Wallowa County panel, raising concerns the county would be disqualified from receiving any taxpayer funding under the program.

However, due to the local Soil and Water Conservation District (billed by local officials as a suitable pro-wolf conservation group) stepping down, the Wallowa County panel now has a vacancy.  Conservation groups are urging Governor Kitzhaber to require that vacancy be filled by a legitimate conservation voice.   The conservationists observed that the wolf compensation fund is supported by Oregon tax dollars, and the vast majority of Oregonians support wolf conservation.  Allowing decisions on how to use those dollars to be made by a panel with an anti-conservation tilt is illegal and not in the interests of Oregon taxpayers.

The letter was signed by a dozen groups including all three involved in the negotiations that resulted in the compensation bill passed by the state legislature in 2011. The groups include Big Wildlife, Cascadia Wildlands, Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife, Hells Canyon Preservation Council, KS Wild, NE Oregon Ecosystems, Oregon Chapter Sierra Club, Oregon Wild, Predator Defense, Wolf Education & Research Center, & the Wolf Recovery Foundation.

The letter can be viewed online here:  

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