The wolf known as OR-7 was the first wolf to be documented in the Cascades. In December, a second single wolf was documented near Mount Hood.
Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife
Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife released a draft 2013 Wolf Conservation and Management Annual Report this week. Two sentences in the 17-page report hold an interesting "nugget," says Rob Klavins with Oregon Wild.
Under a subheading “Other Confirmed Wolves” the agency reports:
“In addition to OR7, wolf activity was documented west of the federal delisting boundary in two locations in December. A single wolf was documented once in the White River Unit and on the same day a single wolf was documented in the Heppner Unit.”
White River Unit is the key location. The canyon on the east side of Mount Hood is a popular destination for backcountry skiing, snowshoeing and sledding.
When the state wildlife agency received a report of wolf tracks, a staff biologist checked them out, and confirmed: a wolf in the Cascade Mountains.
"This is historic. This is only the second wolf documented in the Cascades since a bounty was collected in 1946," Klavins says. Wolf OR-7, who recently returned to Oregon from California, was the first.
As U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposes to remove gray wolves from federal Endangered Species protection, the confirmation of wolves in new areas and closer to larger human populations will surely bring fodder for debate.
Klavins says this could be the first of many wolves to visit the Mount Hood area.
“The idea of having wolves on Mount Hood, being able to hear the howl of a wolf from timberline or hike the backcountry wilderness of Mount Hood and see wolf tracks I think is a really exciting possibility,” he says.
How would you feel snowshoeing through Mount Hood hearing a backdrop of howling wolves?
-- Toni Tabora-Roberts