A draft of the long anticipated and hotly contested management plan for wolves in Oregon was released Monday, nearly five years after it was due.

The plan would change current policy governing when a wolf can be killed for attacking livestock. Under the current plan, a wolf that attacks livestock twice or more over any period of time is deemed a “chronic depredator” and can be killed in the eastern third of the state, where wolves are managed by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

The draft plan, which will be voted on June 7 in Salem, calls for wolves to be classified as chronic threats to sheep and cattle after two attacks in a nine-month period in Eastern Oregon. In the rest of the state, wolves are protected under the federal Endangered Species Act and cannot be legally killed.

Derek Broman, state carnivore coordinator, said the draft plan was the product of years of meetings with conservationists and ranchers across the state, though they were unable to reach agreement on all of the issues surrounding wolf management.

“Wolf management is a polarizing topic with strong views on all sides, so it’s tough to find consensus,” Broman said in a statement. “But regardless of people’s views on wolves, the wolf population in Oregon is growing in size, number of packs and packs reproducing, while expanding its range.”

The agency released its annual report on wolves last week, which showed a 10 percent increase in the canid population with the state hosting a minimum of 137 animals.

Jerome Rosa, executive director of the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association, said he saw the population increase as evidence that protections for wolves should be lifted in parts of Western Oregon.

The first wolf management plan was implemented in 2005 and revised in 2010, just a year after wolves made their return to Oregon after decades of extirpation. The plan was supposed to be updated every five years, but the 2015 revisions became mired in argument and repeated delays ensued.

Last year, the state hired a professional facilitator who presided over five meetings with stakeholders from August 2018 through early January. But just before their last meeting, scheduled for Jan. 8 in Clackamas, all four of the conservation groups — Defenders of Wildlife, Oregon Wild, Cascadia Wildlands and the Center for Biological Diversity — announced that they would be pulling out of the talks.

In an Op-Ed published by The Oregonian/OregonLive, representatives of the environmental groups called the process “biased, superficial and unscientific.” Jim Akenson, conservation director for the Oregon Hunters Association, recognized that negotiations had been heated at times, but said he felt the process had been fair.

On Monday, conservation groups blasted the report. Sristi Kamal, from Defenders of Wildlife, said she was “extremely disappointed“ by the draft plan because it included few, if any, of the suggested policy changes conservation groups had proposed during negotiations.

Representatives from ranching industry groups did not immediately return calls for comment.

The public will get its chance to weigh in before the commission votes on the draft, either by sending comments to the state at odfw.commission@state.or.us before May 23 or in person at the wildlife commission’s June 7 meeting in Salem.

-- Kale Williams

kwilliams@oregonian.com

503-294-4048

@sfkale

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