I am writing on behalf of the lone wolf who arrived in Baker Valley and is feeding on unburied cow carcasses on private land. With most of its family dead after killing livestock on Lookout Mountain, it is clearly being set up to experience a similar fate.

We have known since 2009 when wolves first arrived in the Keating Valley that carcass and bone piles draw in wolves. We have known for 14 years that burying these piles helps eliminate wolf-livestock conflicts, reducing pain and stress for wolves, ranchers, livestock, and wildlife lovers alike. Yet despite knowing, the habit of leaving carcass piles persists.

When we knowingly do something that places communities at risk, we make clear that we do not care. What matters to us may be convenience, habit. Or it may be a feeling of entitlement deep inside that says it is our wants that matter, even if we hurt others.

In this case, the failure to bury the dead cows has placed our ranching neighbors and their livestock on private and public lands at risk. It has created a place of potential conflict and anxiety among groups.

The lone wolf returns over and over to the cow carcasses. Easy food. Predictable. And still the dead cows are not buried.

It will be good when we have a carcass removal system in place but this does not mean that people will use it. Options are great, but choices are, in the end, about attitudes.

If livestock losses occur due to this wolf now or in the future, compensation should be paid by the private landowners who set the stage for conflict. It is they, not the wolf, that are at fault. It is they who placed their ranching neighbors and the wolf in conflict and led to damage. Only when responsibility and financial costs are appropriately assigned for damage inflicted, are there incentives to shift behavior in ways that can change future outcomes. Until then, wolves and livestock will continue to die needlessly.

Suzanne Fouty

Baker City