The federal government has chosen to introduce the Canadian wolf into Idaho, just across the river from our county. Their efforts have been wildly more successful than they had ever dreamed, let alone planned for. The numbers that Idaho is currently facing were not expected for decades. Due to this drastic error in their planning Oregon is facing wolves much sooner than expected. Oregon has inappropriately responded by adding this wolf to their endangered species list. This will cause local ranchers and residents to have confusing and overlapping rules and will extend the restrictions surrounding wolves long into the future. Our experience in the wolf issue is from watching our ranching friends in Idaho struggling with an imported Canadian wolf and seeing them be ineffective in either protecting their livestock or getting cooperation from the federal/state/tribal agencies in dealing with these injustices.

Wolves will cause significant economic hardships to the local ranchers, in some cases ending the current way of management forever. Wolves will end the winter grazing permits, drive the wildlife from the wilderness areas to the private land close to town and force serious damage to the bunchgrass prairie because the wildlife feel safer away from the canyons or the forests. We have not been able to find the benefits to having these indiscriminate killers among us. It is irresponsible and inappropriate to have these illegal emigrants. In Oregon we still believe in the constitutional right to protect our livestock (private property) anytime any place.