Oregon Gov. Kate Brown (D) submitted a letter to the federal government on May 15 to “clarify and correct a position outlined in a May 9, 2019, letter from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW).”
Brown stated that Oregon and its agencies were not in support of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (USFWS) proposal to delist wolves from under the federal Endangered Species Act.
This letter opposed the previously submitted comments of ODFW director, Curtis Melcher, who said the department was supportive of USFWS’s conclusion that the gray wolf no longer met the definition of endangered.
Brown acknowledged in her letter that she appreciated the successes ODFW described in their efforts towards wolf recovery, but “the conclusion that Oregon or its agencies support delisting the wolf based on our own success is incorrect.”
ODFW is also currently working on updating the state’s Wolf Conservation and Management Plan, and the plan is set to be voted on June 7 in Salem, OR.
