Data adequate to consider delisting gray wolf in Oregon

GRANTS PASS, Ore. – State biologists are telling the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission there is enough information to consider taking the gray wolf off the state endangered species list.

A draft status review was posted Tuesday on the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife website with materials for the commission’s next meeting. The meeting’s agenda includes a formal staff recommendation that the commission determine there is significant information to start the rulemaking process.

A final decision is not scheduled until August in Salem, but the commission is to make the first step in the process – deciding whether it has enough information to consider the issue – when it meets April 24 in Bend.

At last count, Oregon had 77 wolves descended from animals introduced in Idaho in the 1990s. The 76-page status report says they are projected to increase at a rate of 7 percent a year, and the probability of a major drop in population is very low. There is plenty of habitat available on public lands, and wolves continue to expand their range, establishing at least one new pack in the western third of the state.

The rate of wolf attacks on livestock has been low, the review notes.