Collared: Politics and Personalities in Oregon's Wolf Country

3. Getting Organized

25 Getting Organized There are twenty-one milk crate–sized boxes of documents stacked like building blocks along the back wall of the third-floor conference room at the ODFW’s headquarters in Salem, Oregon. Every box is bulging at the sides with reams of notes collected from 2003 to 2005, when the planning process for the Oregon Wolf Plan (OWP) was underway. One-third of the boxes are filled with public comments. The letters are scrawled in shaky cursive and block lettering, typed on business letterhead in Times New Roman, and signed by construction company presidents, retired professors of animal science, the president of the Oregon Farm Bureau, the secretary of Backcountry Hunters andAnglers,andthousandsuponthousandsofregularOregonians,including the entirety of Mr. Bailey’s fourth-grade class from Hazeldale Elementary School in Aloha, Oregon. These letters are bundled together with a paper clip the size of my thumb. The following is an excerpt from the top of the pile (reprinted verbatim): Dear ODFW: In my opinion, we, the Oregonians, should accept wolves into our state. Wolves will balance our ecosystem if we give them the chance. I understand the issue with wolves killing livestock. I find it appropriate to kill a wolf if that wolf is caught consuming a ranchers’ livestock . . . If we work hard, the wolf can roam freely in Oregon again. Sincerely, Alec E. Age 10. 26 Getting Organized Another submission, this one left on an ODFW comment sheet and titled “What do you think about Wolves in Oregon,” shows a hand-sketched wolf underneath a circle with a slash through it—a universal sign for No Wolves that is repeated by the phrase“Lobos Nada”printed in all caps at the bottom of the page. A note in the upper corner says it was sent in from Baker City, Oregon. I spend hours leafing through the comments, but I could spend weeks. I spread them out on the table and the floor and move wobbly stacks of paper from one pile to another in an attempt to impose order. The voices behind the comments rise off the page and divide into two largely straightforward camps: “Yes, we want wolves,” or “No, wolves should not be allowed in the state.” Eventually, time and the repetitive nature of the notes prompt me to move on to the fourteen waiting boxes that contain the details and minutes from the actual WAC meetings, which served to create the state’s wolf management plan. The first meeting of the newly formed WAC was held the week before Thanksgiving in November 2003 at the Silver Falls State Park conference center outside Silverton, Oregon. A few memorable things happened. The first was that despite the low elevation of the park it snowed several inches— enough that travel became difficult and the conference center took on an isolated feeling. It felt like the group had been sequestered in the middle of the woods, said De Morgan. A lot of things could have happened out there that no one would have ever found out about. “I remember thinking the storm was either a sign of good things to come, or a signal of bad tidings,” said De Morgan, who talked to me over the phone from his home in Utah while I sifted through the WAC documents.“Then because of how the center is organized, some of the committee members ended up having to share rooms. Many of them had never met, most disagreed on at least a few issues, and here they were being asked to share at least a bathroom and in some cases a bedroom, as well.” Getting Organized 27 ThemovieadaptationofStephenKing’sTheShiningstarringJackNicholson wielding a bloody red axe comes to mind, but De Morgan’s notes assure that allWAC members survived the meeting, though there were some bumps and bruises that began with the introductions.The fourteen group members were asked to provide a brief personal background and their reasoning behind their decision to participate in the planning process. Meg Mitchell had worked for the US Forest Service for sixteen years, ten of which were in Alaska, where she regularly worked with the issues specific to large predator and habitat management. She had previous experience and specialized knowledge of natural resource conflict resolution, collaboration, and public involvement. In addition, she was a ranger on the 2.2-million-acre Wallowa-Whitman National Forest in northeastern Oregon, where wolves were anticipated to first enter...