Northwest ranchers uneasy living among wolves

Denny Johnson

Denny Johnson has raised cattle for 32 years on his remote northeast Oregon ranch at the foot of the Wallowa Mountains, struggling each winter through bitter cold, biting winds and deep snow. Lately, he's found summer nearly as difficult, thanks to gray wolves that have migrated from the Northern Rockies to the Pacific Northwest, killing livestock. Among Johnson's losses: an 1,800-pound bull, valued at up to $5,000, that ultimately died from infection. Johnson said wolves were responsible for that death and four others he's reported since last fall, but the state hasn't always agreed. Ranchers contend the state is too quick to rule out wolves in livestock deaths, increasing the likelihood of steep financial losses on the farm. "We're not raising cattle for the government zoo," he said. "Most of the people I know in the county who are for the wolves have no skin in the game. But it's changing our life. It's more stress on our family." Experts believe more than two dozen wolves now live in Washington and Oregon, all east of the Cascade Mountains. Northeast Oregon ranchers have reported more than 50 attacks in the past year and a half, but state wildlife officials listed only about half of those incidents as probable or confirmed wolf attacks, said Rod Childers, chairman of a wolf committee organized by the Oregon Cattlemen's Association...more