OHA Conservation

Attention OHA members! We need you to support the NEW Oregon Wolf Plan language, in particular as it respects wolf recovery, but also supports management through controlled take in Phase III, which the Eastern Oregon Zone just entered.

Send emails now and/or attend and/or testify at the May 19 Commission meeting in Portland. You can attend and show support without testifying. (We have stylish stickers you can wear!)

Portland meeting: Friday May 19, 2017 - 8 a.m. 7900 NE 82nd Avenue, Portland, OR 97220 Agenda TBD

OHA needs a respectful show of support for the new DRAFT Wolf Conservation and Management Plan. Allowing hunting as a tool for controlled take is critical. The meeting will include opportunity for public comment.

To send written comments, email: [email protected]

• In the subject line of the email use the words: "Please Support the Draft Wolf Plan"

• State that you are a member of OHA.

• Make your email original and stress just 2 or 3 points. (Examples listed below). Do not use a form email. Please make it your own.

To attend and/or testify:

• To testify, you must register at the meeting. • Please be concise and specific. Time is limited to 2 to 3 minutes. • Be respectful of others; please represent us well. • State that you are a member of OHA. • Testimony must be factual and lean toward the professional and scientific need to properly manage the wolf population. We must protect other wildlife and livestock.

Points to Consider:

* Wolves have successfully re-established in Oregon and ODFW has been proactive in planning for them through an effective management plan process – supported by OHA.

* Oregon's wolves (approximately 150) are a western extension of a much larger Northern Rockies population (over 2,000), which needs to considered when assessing abundance and viability.

* Oregon's wolves have "special game animal status" and are part of an experimental population – brought from Alberta to Idaho in the 1990s.

* Any controlled take (very limited hunting) would be done with close concern for the species abundance and effect on other economic interests, such as livestock raising.

* ODFW's proposed plan allows for continued growth and health of the wolf population, yet considers other very important concerns for Oregonians, such as hunting for deer, elk, and other big game, and the agricultural activities of Oregon.

* OHA is not proposing hunting at this time. Hunting is part of the management tool bag OHA wants the ODFW to be able to use when/if the need arises. * Single year population results are not an indicator of long-term success or failure.

* When and where ever needed, hunters can aid ODFW in controlled take, lowering financial impact on ODFW's strained budget, most of which now comes from hunters and anglers.

* Elk and deer populations are under increasing pressure from a variety of sources; predation levels are increasing the management complexity. * It's mostly rural Oregon that is currently feeling the impact of predators (cougar and wolf) that adversely affect the local economies, family livelihoods and safety.

Thank you for your support of OHA and our mission of protecting Oregon's wildlife, habitat and hunting heritage! 

By Jim Akenson, OHA Conservation Director  (Photo by OHA member Jim Ward of La Grande)

It is inherently tough to see Eastern Oregon deer herds struggling from severe winter weather. The great temptation is to encourage biologists to jump into a massive feeding program, or at least pressure ODFW to do that. The question here is: will this allow more deer to carry through to the spring? In polling several experienced biologists the answer is…probably not, except in a few situations.

So why wouldn’t we start dumping hay to shivering and weakened mule deer? For one thing, it is an abrupt shock to a digestive system that has adjusted to browsing “low-octane” twigs and branches…their stomach flora cannot properly digest higher protein feed unless it is brought on gradually. We see elk being fed successfully in different parts of the state, so why is that? For one thing, elk have a more adaptable digestive system so they can “catch-up” better with their stomach bacteria. Deer dying with full stomachs of hay or pellets is common. It would take a phase-in program starting over a month ago to ensure their metabolic recovery.

Now, there are some things that could be done. Tree thinning of fir varieties and spruce will bring palatable lichens and mosses to the ground where deer can benefit. Some of the special mixes of pellets, with the correct fiber-to-protein blend, can pull some deer back from starvation. Also, feed sites need to be selected carefully because they can become mortality sites from vehicle collision or predation. How long will the winter effect contribute? This can stretch on into early spring, even April, in many parts of Eastern Oregon. As of Jan. 26, 2017, ODFW announced that it would not expand the mule deer feeding program beyond those places where it was started back in December, which include the Elkhorn, Wenaha, White River, and Jewel wildlife areas. The rationale given is for the same biological reasons mentioned above. So, more than anything, we need one of those warm southerly Chinook winds to bring relief to Eastern Oregon!

As OHA members and sportsmen, what are your thoughts on this topic?

July 26, 2016

Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission

RE: Implementation of the Oregon Black-tailed Deer Management Plan

Dear Chair Finley and the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission:

The Oregon Hunters Association (OHA) is requesting the development of Management Objectives (MO’s) for black-tailed deer in Oregon. The Oregon Black-Tailed Deer Management Plan identifies several factors that may be responsible for the decline of this species across its range. We have deep knowledge on the biology of this species, it just needs to be applied to their management. Additionally, one of the objectives of the plan is to “Manage black-tailed deer populations to attempt to achieve buck ratios and populations at benchmark levels while collecting information over the next five years to develop Management Objectives” (Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, 2008). The plan was written in 2008 and this objective is distinctly overdue. OHA has written multiple letters to the Department and Commission supporting the development and implementation of the plan. In September of 2011, the Department assured us that they were “looking at a number of techniques that will hopefully provide us the ability to establish population MO’s for black-tailed deer, something that we are currently and critically lacking”.

In Oregon, the first deer season was established in 1901, deer tags were separated from hunting licenses in 1948, and in 1976, separate tags were adopted for mule and black-tailed deer (Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, 2008). At a minimum, this means the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has not been able to develop management objectives for black-tailed deer for 40 years. Based on the Oregon Black-Tailed Deer Management Plan and Oregon’s Mule Deer Management Plan, it appears that black-tailed deer provide approximately half of the deer hunting opportunity in the state. Clearly, black-tailed deer are a critically important resource to the hunters of Oregon.

OHA realizes that black-tailed deer populations are difficult to survey and estimate. However, given promising recent results from ODFW led research in several Wildlife Management Units in SW Oregon, it appears that ODFW has moved much closer to accomplishing the capability to make reliable populations estimates. We support the continuation and expansion of current research (from 4 to 6 WMU’s) to both answer questions regarding the decline of this important resource, and to establish scientifically developed management objectives for this species. OHA strongly supports this effort and is requesting applying these findings to management objective development by 2018, or the next species plan revision, whichever comes first. It should be our ultimate goal to manage blacktail deer with management objectives, consistent with mule deer and elk.