When the lone gray wolf appeared ahead of a snowplow
driver on Highway 7 in the Blue Mountains of northeastern Oregon,
it became the state’s first official wild wolf sighting since 1946.
Leaving Idaho, the two-year-old female had
traveled hundreds of miles over mountains, rivers and highways,
looking for a mate, but its days in Oregon will be brief. The U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service, the Oregon Department of Fish and
Wildlife and the Oregon State Police have teamed up to track the
sub-adult wolf and return it to central Idaho; there she will have
a better chance of finding other wolves.
“It’s
very unlikely that she’ll find a mate over there (in Oregon),” says
Roy Heberger of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Boise. “It is
in her best interests, and the best interests of recovery, that we
bring her back (to Idaho).”
Oregonians seemed to
have mixed feelings about the wandering wolf. Some said to send it
back to Idaho, no questions asked, while others said it was time to
talk about wolf reintroduction in Oregon. “Everyone expected that
if the Idaho population flourished, there would be dispersal into
neighboring states,” says Pete Frost of the National Wildlife
Federation in Portland. “But this has been unexpectedly early. Most
people just don’t feel ready; we haven’t had widespread discussion
on the ramifications of wild wolves in Oregon.”
*Juniper Davis
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Here comes a wayward wolf.
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