Reward of $7,600 offered for information in wolf poaching incident in eastern Oregon

Advocates for gray wolves have boosted a reward being offered for information on a recent poaching incident in eastern Oregon.

The illegal killing marks the second wolf to be poached in Baker County within the last five weeks, according to Amaroq Weiss, a senior West Coast wolf advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity. It also comes soon after the Department of the Interior announced it would be removing the canid from the list of animals protected under the Endangered Species Act.

Oregon was home to at least 158 wolves according to the last official count, which was released in April.

“Oregon’s small wolf population faces an increasingly large poaching problem that could affect whether these incredible animals fully recover here,” Weiss said in a statement. “With federal protections disappearing soon, we fear these two recent wolf poachings could become just the tip of the iceberg. We’ve got to crack down on these illegal killings.”

Around Oct. 29, an elk hunter discovered the body of a young female wolf, thought to be between one and two years old, off a forest service road in the Grouse Flat area of the Wallowa Whitman National Forest, about eight miles northeast of Halfway, Oregon. The area is within the territory of the Pine Creek Pack.

The hunter notified Oregon State Police, who said the animal had been shot illegally.

About a month earlier, the body of an adult male wolf was discovered by state troopers northwest of New Bridge in the Skull Creek drainage of the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest. The wolf was the breeding male of the Cornucopia Pack and, along with his mate, had been fitted with a radio collar and tracked by state biologists who monitor the species’ recovery. The pair had raised three pups in 2019, officials said.

“Poaching is a heinous crime and a serious threat to Oregon’s wildlife,” Sristi Kamal, Senior Northwest Representative for Defenders of Wildlife, said at the time. “The recent poaching of a wolf in Baker county is very disheartening and perpetrators of such a crime should be held accountable. We will continue to work with (the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife) on their anti-poaching efforts to promote coexistence between Oregonians and the wildlife with whom we share the landscape.”

The reward for information in that case stands at $6,150.

Even after Endangered Species Act protections are lifted, scheduled for early 2021, it is illegal to kill wolves in Oregon except under circumstances where human life is at stake or a specific wolf has repeatedly preyed on livestock.

Investigators encouraged anyone with information about either case to contact Oregon State Police Sgt. Isaac Cyr through the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Turn in Poachers (TIP) hotline at 1-800-452-7888. Tips could also be submitted by emailing TIP@state.or.us.