In Oregon, where the first batch of wolves released in Colorado originated, ranchers have been watching the wolf situation in Colorado play out from afar. Most of the wolves migrated into the state naturally from populations released in Yellowstone and central Idaho in the mid 1990s. Wolves remained primarily in three counties in the northeast corner, but have over the past decade or so become prominent in 19 counties.

Not unlike Colorado, Oregon’s politics are dominated by major population centers like Portland, Eugene and Salem. In rural Lake County, Oregon, located about three hours from a freeway and four hours from a metropolitan area, a trip of county commissioners issued a declaration of public safety and livestock emergency in the wake of livestock depredations by Wolf OR158. And it drove Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services to action.

Commissioner Barry Shullanberger, who is a lifelong area rancher, said he watched the Colorado wolf releases play out and said he assumed there is “a lot of red in Colorado, but not in the right places.” Knowing how the wolf reintroduction vote played out, it appears Schullanberger is correct.

Stay up to speed: Sign up for daily opinion in your inbox Monday-Friday

He said Lake County is about 8,300 square miles with about the same population, of one per square mile, give or take. The county was once home to a thriving timber industry and five sawmills, where only one now remains after spotted owl regulations came about during the Clinton administration. Without the timber business, agriculture remains the major economic driver — cattle and alfalfa hay are boons for the county. Without much of a timber industry, wildfire has become a major threat. After using hounds to hunt mountain lions was outlawed along with disallowing the baiting of bears, he said mountain lion and bear populations have exploded in the area. And now, wolves. A cautionary tale for Colorado seems to be playing out.

According to the declaration, Wolf OR158 is responsible for five confirmed calf kills and three probable kills in Lake County in fewer than 10 days. Tom and Elise Flynn ranch in Lake County and Elise is also a veterinarian with her clinic located there on the ranch. Wolf OR158 killed a calf on the feeding grounds on Jan. 30. Tom easily located the cow, who was bawling in the direction of a blood trail ending at a fresh carcass. The wolf drug the calf under a fence, through a drainage, and was sitting near the dead calf.

Flynn, who was in a tractor and feed wagon, parked near the cow and called ODFW to ask if he could shoot the wolf. He couldn’t. And he didn’t. But he did sit in the tractor on the phone and watching OR158 who, even with Flynn within 50 yards, sat on his haunches for 40 minutes, disinterested in Flynn’s presence. OR158 then left, with the tractor behind him, and went through a second group of cattle that had already been fed.

A few days later, another calf was killed. A few days after that, Flynn ran the wolf away from another calf he was trying to kill but was being fought off by the cow. ODFW confirmed OR158 was confirmed in a number of other livestock depredations and didn’t respond to multiple nonlethal deterrent tools, including a drone. Lake County is located in the portion of the state where wolves are listed, so all management related to harassment and removal is under the jurisdiction of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Shullanberger said the declaration was issued as an attempt to protect both generational ranches and the young kids raised on those ranches, including the Flynn kids. The boldness of OR158 and his habituation to people paired with prints near the Flynn home and corrals raised alarms. The declaration, he said, was meant to bring the situation to the attention of the state and federal agencies and encourage them to seek a timely resolution.

ODFW confirmed on Feb. 27, OR158 was lethally removed by federal authorities following “eight confirmed depredations and four probable depredations attributed to the wolf, extensive unsuccessful attempts at non-lethal deterrence (including range riders, spotlighting, pasture monitoring, fox lights, air cannons, non-lethal projectiles, carcass removal and drones with thermal optics), and increasing concerns about public safety.”

Schullanberger said prior to the wolf’s removal that “there are no wins, only losses” when it comes to wolves that chronically depredate on livestock and don’t respond to human presence or any other deterrent. Even with the wolf removed, there is still a zero in the win category. Ranchers — especially this time of year — are spending inordinate amounts of time to nurture new calves and none of them are doing it because they don’t respect life. It’s not a win, but maybe it’s a glimmer of hope that management can happen even when ranching in blue states.

Rachel Gabel writes about agriculture and rural issues. She is assistant editor of The Fence Post Magazine, the region’s preeminent agriculture publication. Gabel is a daughter of the state’s oil and gas industry and a member of one of the state’s 12,000 cattle-raising families, and she has authored children’s books used in hundreds of classrooms to teach students about agriculture.