When Oregon was a territory and considering statehood, wolves were a pivotal issue for the citizens. Because they had the assurance that the government would actively assist stockmen in eliminating depredation on their livestock they agreed to statehood. The government and the stockmen determined that a viable livestock industry was not possible in the presence of wolves and so they hired trappers and paid bounties, using any and all tools at their disposal to rid the region of the predator. Raising livestock has been a valuable part of Oregon’s economy since.

We can only imagine how stunned those early ranchers would be now at this betrayal of their trust in the state, how shocked they would be at this attempt to abridge those rights endowed by the constitution at statehood, to protect their property.

Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife is touting to the public that they have developed a wolf plan that is flexible, fair and balanced, and gives people who will be harmed by wolves, tools to deal with them in a way that also satisfies the desires of those who want Oregon repopulated with wolves. If the Fish and Wildlife Commission adopts the draft plan under consideration it will be over the objections of those who will be most affected because it does not give choices…it takes them away, putting ranchers at great risk of social, economic and physical loss. It is not fair, it is not balanced and any flexibility is biased toward preservation of wolves.

The department has stated over and over that they are “required” to develop a plan and they get away with that because technically the Commission directed them to do so. If the Commission adopts the plan, it will be their plan and they should remove language that says “we” are required to develop a plan because that simply is not true.

Clearly the plan seeks to control our behavior in the face of an invasion of large predators into our grazing lands among our livestock. I hope people understand that this plan does not give us tools or options to deal with wolves that ODFW insists are coming, that  it allows, even encourages what amounts to an “introduction” of wolves and extreme conflict?  

Private lands are home to 80% of the state’s wildlife. While we have not always been willing hosts because they have taken income from us directly and through indirect costs, we have worked with wildlife managers to solve conflicts and when they weren’t solved we have been forced to tolerate them. We will not be able to do that with wolves because the draft plan for accommodating their introduction and conservation ties our hands.

There is a silver lining in their timing, however, because after decades of  the government’s taking and taking from us, Oregon citizens have finally had enough, so the coming of wolves may coincide nicely with the implementation of measure 37.

My family has fought through more than a century of hard work, drought, flood, terrible winters, high feed prices and low livestock prices; but we have also experienced good times too, fair skies, enough water, plentiful grass and good prices; enough good times to allow us to continue doing what we love to do, raise livestock in this beautiful, beloved valley.

We have devoted our lives to it; but if wolves get into our cattle and we can’t even scare them off without meeting certain criteria; or if they have to be attacking our stock right before our eyes before we can kill them, and we find livestock that we even suspect have been killed by a wolf, we will surely exercise a reclaimed right. 

Measure 37 allows us to turn our grazing land overlooking the splendid checkerboard of Grande Ronde Valley’s prime farm land into an upscale, gated community with a golf course, swimming pools, hiking trails and all the accoutrements of the well-to-do.  No matter that it’s in critical big game winter range.

We are too old to re-fight the wolf wars of the past and too dispirited to continue discourse with the indifferent, unaffected, idealistic urbanites who have no idea what the strengths of a republic are, and our children and grandchildren, the 6^th and 7^th generations on this land, will be too rich to care.

Bob and Sharon Beck