Oregon Public Broadcasting

The GPS collar on the Imnaha alpha male has stopped transmitting data, curtailing a text-message warning system that gave Wallowa County ranchers the heads-up on preying wolves.

The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Department reported last receiving data from the GPS collar Jan. 25. The collar allowed state wolf biologists to periodically download via satellite fairly precise location data, which they used to alert ranchers to wolves in proximity.

“That was important to us, when we had a wolf that we knew was habitually killing cattle, to be able to put him at a site,” said Todd Nash, president of the Wallowa County Stockgrowers Association. “He had somewhat of a pattern, and you knew if he was coming you could better armor yourself.”

The Imnaha pack killed a yearling heifer Jan. 7 near Kinney Lake and probably killed a mule on Deadhorse Ridge a week later, according to the fish and wildlife department. The pack possibly bit and injured a mature bull discovered Jan. 8, according to a department report. State biologists investigated injuries to a sick cow a rancher euthanized Jan. 9, but ruled that case unknown or possible wolf attack, according to a report.

Since Jan. 7, a range rider has patrolled the Wallowa Valley using VHF signals from collars on OR-4 and its mate, OR-2, to track the animals, the fish and wildlife department reported. The simple radio transmitter sends a real-time, continuous signal, but is less precise and does not store data to download. 

The 5-member pack killed as many as 20 livestock animals between spring 2010 and December 2011, according to department reports. The department targeted the alpha male, designated OR-4, and another year-old wolf for elimination until a court order stopped cold a hunt for the animals in October 2011. The stay order, issued by the Oregon Court of Appeals, remains in force while three conservation groups in court challenge state authority to kill wolves under the Oregon Wolf Conservation and Management Plan.

With the GPS device biologists downloaded data twice daily that closely plotted the wolf’s movements, and its pack’s, said state wolf coordinator Russ Morgan of La Grande. With that data, Morgan and his staff at 5 a.m. and 5 p.m. daily sent text message to ranchers in the Wallowa Valley whose herds were most susceptible to preying wolves. 

In January alone, that totalled 920 text messages, the department reported. About 50 ranchers subscribed to the list. The text alerts proved popular, although a drain on staff time, Morgan said. Still, it beat the alternative.

“The thing about it is that the Imnaha Valley is about 1,000 square miles; that’s a lot of producers and we can’t make that many phone calls,” he said Friday.

The VHF transmitter the 5-year-old black-coated alpha male still wears allows anyone with a receiver tuned to the correct frequency to know it’s in the area. Range rider Will Voss works mostly at night, getting to high ground to detect the radio signal and then positioning himself to ward off the wolf pack by his simple presence, Morgan said.

The state budgeted $50,000 in 2011-2012 for non-lethal wolf control measures like the range rider, said department spokeswoman Michelle Dennehy. Sixty-five percent of the money comes from federal grants; the remainder is a voluntary check-off by Oregon taxpayers. Morgan said Voss is allocated a set number of hours in which to work. The department after the Jan. 7 livestock attack also erected about a half-mile of fladry and installed three radio-activated guard boxes, both non-lethal measures.

The biologists still send text alerts when they have information to share, Morgan said.

“I think I got a text about a week ago,” Nash said Monday. “ODFW had flown and had a visual on two wolves, and got signals of the VHF collar. That’s as much as we’ve gotten.”

The VHF signal, although continuous, is weaker and depends on the receiver being in a line of sight of the transmitter, Nash said. He said ranchers would prefer to see a working GPS collar on OR-4.

Morgan said that’s a decision yet to be made. Collaring a wolf is expensive and time-consuming. The wolves seldom cooperate. OR-4 has been collared twice, first in February 2010. That collar malfunctioned four months later. The animal was recaptured and collared again a year later.

For now, the VHF collars will serve, Morgan said. “The pack is fairly well trackable,” he said. “Any time we need to, we can go out and find them.”

Meanwhile, calving season has arrived in the Wallowa Valley. Ranchers in the farther-flung region are nervous, Nash said. 

The text alerts helped but often arrived after the wolf pack had come and gone, he said. And the range rider can’t be everywhere.

This story originally appeared in East Oregonian.