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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 11, 2025 Contact(s): Bethany Cotton, Conservation Director, Cascadia Wildlands, (541) 434-1463 Eugene, OR — Today, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) released in its annual report of the minimum 2024 gray wolf population and pack count for the state, which shows encouraging growth after years of stagnation. In both 2022 … Read more
We need you to speak up to improve a bad bill moving through the Oregon legislature! Unfortunately, the wolf compensation multiplier bill – SB 777, passed out of the Senate and is now getting a hearing in the House Agriculture, Land Use, Natural Resources and Water Committee. The bill, as in past sessions, is designated … Read more
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 12, 2024
Eugene, OR — Today the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) revealed Oregon’s wolf population did not grow in 2023. The stagnation in the wolf population marks the worst year for wolves in Oregon since the species began returning to the state in 2008 after decades of absence. This concerning news for Oregon wolves caps a multi-year trend of very low population growth: the 2022 minimum wolf count was 178, just three wolves more than the 2021 year-end count of 175, which itself was just two wolves more than 2020’s minimum count of 173. Oregon’s wolf population has grown less than 3% in the past four year combined.
December 7, 2023 — The Oregon Wildlife Coalition, conservation partners and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are offering rewards totaling $26,500 for information leading to arrests and convictions following the separate killings of two wolves in Oregon.
April 18, 2023 — Today, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) released its annual report of the minimum 2022 gray wolf population and pack count for the state, which shows a continuing pattern of very low growth. The 178 wolves documented in 2022 is only an increase of three wolves over year-end 2021 numbers, while the number of wolf packs increased from 21 to 24. The state’s minimum wolf population only grew by two wolves in 2021, from 173 to 175 wolves. The stagnant population numbers are a cause for great concern in a state with significant suitable – yet unoccupied – wolf habitat. Removal of state Endangered Species Act protections was predicated on an assumed steady population increase, an assumption that has proven false since 2020.
January 13, 2022 — Conservation groups announced today a $16,500 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction for the illegal shooting death of a two-year-old collared female wolf in Wallowa County in early January. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Turn in Poachers (TIP) division also offers a potential $300 reward for information regarding illegal wolf killings.
August 2, 2021 — The Oregon Wildlife Coalition, an alliance of nine wildlife conservation organizations, has learned that the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife (ODFW) needlessly slaughtered two 3 ½ month-old wolf pups from the Lookout Mountain pack by helicopter over the weekend. As allowed by ODFW’s weakened wolf conservation and management plan, the pups were killed to appease the livestock industry, making it clear that Oregon aligns its wolf management with states like Idaho, Wyoming, Montana and Alaska. The killing of defenseless pups underscores how the removal of federal wolf protections allows state agencies hostile to wolf recovery to undermine the decades long species’ recovery efforts. Pups this age are entirely dependent on the older wolves in their packs to bring back food: they do not participate in hunts.
January 14, 2021 — The most recent data from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and its state partners show an estimated 4,400 wolves inhabit the western Great Lakes states, but only 108 wolves in Washington state (with only 20 outside of eastern Washington), 158 in Oregon (with only 16 outside of northeastern Oregon), and a scant 15 exist in California. Nevada, Utah, and Colorado have had a few wolf sightings over the past three years, but wolves remain functionally absent from their historical habitat in these states.
October 29, 2020 — Today, the Trump administration will announce its decision to prematurely remove endangered species protections for wolves in the lower 48 states, in violation of the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The most recent data from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and its state partners show an estimated 4,400 wolves inhabit the western Great Lakes states, but only 108 wolves in Washington state, 158 in Oregon, and a scant 15 in California. These numbers lay the groundwork for a legal challenge planned by a coalition of Western conservation groups.
September 4, 2020 — In a win for wolf advocates, Gov. Jay Inslee directed the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission today to draft new rules governing the killing of wolves involved in conflicts with livestock. This action reverses the commission’s denial of a petition filed by advocates in May that called for reforms of the state Department of Fish and Wildlife’s lethal wolf-management policies.
May 11, 2020 — Conservation groups petitioned the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission today for rules limiting when the state can kill endangered wolves for conflicts with livestock. The state has killed 31 wolves since 2012, relying on a protocol that skews heavily toward lethal and ineffective outcomes.
April 20, 2020 — The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife released its annual wolf report today. The population posted meager overall growth resulting in a total count of 108 wolves up from 97 wolves last year. The number of packs decreased. Oregon posted large population gains this year, indicating that the stagnant growth in Washington was not a function of weather patterns but again a function of large amounts of lethal control of which Oregon had none.
Cascadia Wildlands
P.O. Box 10455
Eugene, OR 97440
541.434.1463
