Collared: Politics and Personalities in Oregon's Wolf Country

Appendix A: Timeline of Events

111 Appendix A Time Line of Relevant Events in the Reestablishment of Wolves in Oregon 1914 – Congress appropriates a small amount of funding for the control of predatory animals. 1915 – Congress allocates $125,000 for a biological survey focused on controlling predators. 1916 – An additional $75,000 is appropriated for predator control. 1920 – The Eradication Methods Laboratory is established in New Mexico and charged with determining methods of lethal control for predators. It is moved to Denver, Colorado, in 1921 and seven years later is renamed the Control Methods Research Laboratory. March 2, 1931 – A congressional act provides federal authority for the control of mammalian predators, rodents, and birds. 1934 – The Division of Predatory Animal and Rodent Control is combined with law enforcement to form the Division of Game Management with a Section of Predator and Rodent Control. 1940 – The Control Methods Research Laboratory is combined with the Division of Food Studies to become the Branch of Wildlife Research. 112 Appendix A 1947 – The last known wolf in Oregon is killed. 1950s – Gray wolves have largely been extirpated from the lower forty-eight states under federal authorization. 1964 – The report Predator and Rodent Control in the United States is published. The report criticizes predator control as being“indiscriminate, nonselective, and excessive.”It leads to minor, primarily administrative, changes in predator control, including another name change for the offices of predator control, which would now be known as the Division of Wildlife Services. 1973 – The Federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) is passed by the US Congress. According to the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS),“the purpose of the ESA is to protect and recover imperiled species and the ecosystems upon which they depend. It is administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Commerce Department’s National Marine Fisheries Service.” 1987 – The Oregon legislature enacts the state Endangered Species Act. The state’s Endangered Species List includes all native species listed under federal protection as of May 15, 1987, plus any additional native species determined by the appropriate state agency to be in danger of extinction throughout any significant portion of its range within the state. The act’s goal to conserve and protect species through“the use of methods and procedures necessary to bring a species to the point at which measures are no longer necessary”is similar to federal ESA goals. 1994 – The USFWS makes plans to reintroduce the gray wolf into Yellowstone National Park and areas of Montana and central Idaho. The wolves are to be classified as a nonessential experimental population under the federal ESA. 1995–1996 – The USFWS reintroduces sixty-six gray wolves to Yellowstone National Park and areas of Montana and central Idaho. December 1998 – The estimated population of wolves in Idaho is 115. This is the first year that the goal of ten breeding pairs is attained. January 1999 – B-45, a female gray wolf wearing a radio collar, disperses from Idaho to Oregon. She is captured and sent back to Idaho. May 2000 – A wolf radio-collared in Idaho is killed by a vehicle on Interstate 84 outside Baker City, Oregon. October 2000 – A male wolf is found shot to death between Ukiah and Pendleton, Oregon. September 2001 – The USFWS documents thirty pairs of wolves in the threestate area of Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming, triggering the three-year Appendix A 113 countdown to delisting as called for under the federal ESA and the wolf management plan. 2002–2003 – The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission initiates a process in 2002 to educate itself and the public about wolf issues and to enable the agency to be prepared and proactive for wolves’arrival in Oregon. The process includes fifteen town hall meetings in late 2002 and early 2003. April 2003 – The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) requests nomination for members to participate on the Wolf Advisory Committee with the goal of creating a conservation and management plan for the state. November 2003 – The first meeting of Oregon’s Wolf Advisory Committee is held at Silver Falls State Park. September 9, 2004 – Oregon’s Wolf Advisory Committee submits a draft of the Oregon Wolf Conservation and Management Plan to the state Fish and Wildlife Commission. November 2004–February 2005 – Public comment period for Oregon’s draft wolf plan is held. More than two thousand comments are submitted to the state. February 11, 2005 – Oregon officially adopts the state...