Wolf arrives in Western Oregon

MEDFORD, Ore. (AP) — A 2-year-old male wolf from northeast Oregon has ventured over the crest of the Cascade Range and into Western Oregon.

Biologists say it's the first confirmed wolf in the area since one was killed in Douglas County and turned in for a bounty in 1946.

The wolf's transmitter collar shows it left the Imnaha Pack in Wallowa County on Sept. 10, wandered southwest as far as Lake County last week and then headed due west across the Cascades, said Russ Morgan, the state's wolf program coordinator.

It was in the Umpqua River drainage in northeastern Douglas County on Thursday.

"It's the first one in modern times to go in that direction, and he's really traveling," Morgan said. "He could turn around and go back. He could go to California or Idaho. There's no way to predict it."

Wolves have been known to travel more than 1,000 miles during their dispersal from a pack, Morgan said.

The wolf is designated OR-7 and was collared in February, he said.

Most dispersing wolves travel alone, and there was no indication one way or another that OR-7 was joined by any other animals, but Morgan said there was a "high likelihood" other wolves, without collars, have reached the Cascades.

Last month, a judge temporarily halted the Department of Fish and Wildlife's plans to shoot two of the state's wolves for killing livestock, which would bring the number down to 12, from a high of 21. Wolves migrated to Oregon from Idaho in the 1990s.

Reaction in southwest Oregon suggested more contention would follow wolves west of the Cascades.

"Our deer and elk populations suffer enough from cougar predation," said Duane Dungannon, spokesman for the Medford-based Oregon Hunters Association. "It won't do local game herds any good to deal with wolves."

Spencer Lennard, project director of Big Wildlife, said some studies show wolves help keep animals such as deer and elk from grazing freely along creekside riparian areas and damaging fish habitat.

"I think they need to be supported," he said. "They are critical ecological components to this land."

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Information from: Mail Tribune, http://www.mailtribune.com/

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press