BAKER COUNTY, Ore. — Wolves with a taste for mutton have returned to the Baker County ranch where, almost 15 years ago, the predators were blamed for killing livestock for the first time in more than half a century in Oregon.

State wildlife biologists concluded that wolves from the Keating pack killed eight sheep and injured two others during a roughly week-long period in mid October on Curt and Anne Jacobs’ ranch in the Keating Valley, about 15 miles northeast of Baker City.

That’s the same ranch where wolves killed 23 lambs in April 2009.

First attack

That was the first confirmed instance of wolves killing livestock in Oregon since the predators, which were extirpated from the state about 1946, returned in 1999, crossing the border from Idaho, where the federal government transplanted wolves earlier in that decade.

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife now estimates the wolf population at 178, with about 85% of those in the northeast corner of the state, including Baker County.

There are almost certainly more wolves within the state’s borders, however, as ODFW acknowledges its annual survey can’t tally every wolf.

The two wolves implicated in the 2009 attacks on the Jacobs’ sheep were killed by federal agents in September 2009.

Wolves have continued to roam in the vicinity for most of the subsequent 14 years.

Kim Kerns, who is the Jacobses’ daughter and helps run their ranch, which raises cattle as well as sheep, said they have over the years occasionally found a dead animal they suspected was killed by wolves. Most were never confirmed as wolf attacks by ODFW, she said.

Series of attacks

But the recent series of attacks — there were at least four, according to ODFW — is the ranch’s biggest loss to wolves since those precedent-setting depredations in 2009, Kerns said.

In one instance, she said, dead sheep were within 500 yards of four homes. Another carcass was less than 100 yards from two homes, Kerns said.

The proximity is especially troubling, she said, because the Jacobs ranch employs a variety of tactics to deter wolves and protect sheep.

These include deploying large guard dogs, a mix of Akbash, Kangal and Anatolian breeds, Kerns said.

The ranch also has installed Foxlights — strobe lights that emit intermittent bursts of light in a variety of colors and are designed to keep wolves at bay. Kerns said workers have to move the lights frequently to reduce the risk that wolves will cease to fear them.

Since the October attacks, Kerns said ranch workers have taken additional precautions. Sheep, which graze during the day on alfalfa fields, are confined each night within woven wire electric fencing.

She has also ordered collars for the guard dogs that are equipped with strobe lights.

Permit issued

ODFW has issued a permit allowing employees on the Jacobs ranch, or their agents, including employees from the federal agency USDA Wildlife Services, to kill up to two wolves from the Keating pack on private land while livestock are present. The permit is valid until Dec. 31 or until two wolves have been killed, whichever comes first.

Kerns said on Nov. 8 that no wolves have been killed.

In announcing the permit, ODFW listed the nonlethal tactics that have been used on the Jacobs ranch, including having donkeys as well as guard dogs to mingle with the sheep, fencing, regular patrols by employees, and the use of strobe lights.

Worried about winter

The October attacks happened while there are relatively few sheep on the Jacobs ranch.

Kerns said about 250 sheep are on the Keating property now, including animals the ranch raises for 4-H projects.

The majority of the Jacobses’ flock — around 900 ewes and lambs — are grazing now on grass seed fields in the Grande Ronde Valley.

But those sheep will return to Keating around the first week of January. They’ll stay there during the winter, dropping a new crop of lambs before moving to spring range, on the Jacobses’ property southeast of Keating, in April.

Kerns said she’s “super concerned” about the potential for more wolf attacks when the sheep numbers grow this winter.

“It’s a low-grade anxiety attack,” she said. “The boldness of the predators right now, so close to homes and guard dogs. It’s a huge, huge concern, especially with a large group of sheep coming.”

Year-round threat

Kerns said she and others who run the Jacobs ranch have been accustomed over the past few years to dealing with wolves wherever the sheep are.

The Keating pack poses a threat on the family’s ranch. There are also wolves in the Lookout Mountain area, near where ewes and lambs graze during the spring and early summer on Jacobs property south of the Powder River.

During the summer the flock grazes on a U.S. Forest Service allotment in the Meacham area, where wolves, including the Five Points pack, have menaced sheep, Kerns said.

The summer of 2021 was particularly tense, she said, as she and other herders dealt with “three weeks of really aggressive wolf pressure.”

Although Kerns said ODFW didn’t confirm any wolf attacks on her family’s sheep that summer, the agency did conclude that wolves had killed or injured five sheep and two calves on private land in the same vicinity.

“We learned a lot about how much wolves stress livestock,” she said.

“The boldness of the predators right now, so close to homes and guard dogs. It’s a huge, huge concern, especially with a large group of sheep coming.”

— Kim Kerns, Keating sheep rancher who is concerned about recent wolf attacks on her family’s sheep, and the potential for more attacks when nearly 1,000 sheep arrive this winter