The return of wolves stirs up old hostilities between rural and urban Oregonians

by JORDAN GREEN 

   In March, Rob Klavins and his wife, Emily, picked up their life in Southwest Portland and moved to Enterprise, a town with 1,888 people and zero stoplights in the northeastern corner of Oregon. Rob grew up in Wisconsin, a scruffy-bearded, sharp-eyed and talkative son of concert violinists. He fell in love with the rural West during his college years. He and Emily realized a dream when they bought Barking Mad Farms, a bed-and-breakfast situated in a century-old farmhouse with a wraparound porch and an eye-popping view of the Wallowa Mountains. 
    ...Settling in Wallowa County isn’t easy. Winters are brutal. It’s isolated. The county has eight times the landmass of Multnomah County, yet contains only 7,000 residents.

And it’s been harder for the Klavins clan, because Rob has a very controversial second reason for moving here—wolves. 

     Wallowa County is cattle country. For every resident, there are an estimated 10 cattle, many owned by third- or fourth-generation ranchers. Cattle are as central to the area’s economy and identity  as Yamhill grapes.

     And wolves are not considered friends of cattle.
    ...And to people like Klavins. In addition to operating his B&B, he works for Oregon Wild, a group that’s taken the lead in defending wolves. 

     “Wolves are captivating and interesting animals, to be sure, but I wouldn’t say I’m necessarily any more into wolves than sea otters,” he says. “Why is Rob Klavins the wolf guy? Because there isn’t a campaign against bald eagles.”

     Klavins has been harassed. Earlier this month, he was the first on a hall-of-shame list posted by the Oregon Outdoor Council, a hunting group, which also targeted leaders of the Portland Audubon Society and the Humane Society.
    ...Tensions between environmentalists and Eastern Oregonians are hardly new. Back in September 1994, an effigy of Oregon Wild’s former head, Andy Kerr, was tarred, feathered and lynched in Joseph during a conference sponsored by the local newspaper.

     Klavins has also fared better than the former owners of Barking Mad, Diana and James Hunter, who were harassed for hosting an Oregon Wild campout. They were denied a zoning variance to build a bunkhouse in a fight that had very little to do with actual zoning issues.

     “I liken this to building a mosque at ground zero,” a neighbor testified.

READ ENTIRE POST