By MITCH LIES

Capital Press

SALEM -- A top Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife official said the department believes it has the right to kill problem wolves after ranchers have exhausted nonlethal techniques to try and prevent depredation.

The state's authority to kill wolves that kill livestock is being tested in the courts after conservation groups last fall filed a lawsuit.

The Oregon Court of Appeals also last fall issued an injunction preventing the state from killing two wolves from the Imnaha pack in northeast Oregon that it has identified as responsible for multiple livestock depredations. The injunction is in place until the lawsuit is settled, a settlement that could be more than a year out, according to Curt Melcher, a deputy director for the department.

Wolves from the Imnaha pack are responsible for seven livestock depredations since the Oct. 6 injunction, according to state officials.

In an interview at the Oregon Capitol, Ron Anglin, wildlife division administrator for ODFW, said he believes state law permits killing of wolves in certain situations.

"The plan the (Oregon Fish and Wildlife) Commission adopted gives the department authority for lethal removal of wolves," Anglin said.

"And we believe it is consistent with the Oregon Endangered Species Act," he said. "But that is all subject to the legal challenge. We'll find out what the courts say."

The lawsuit, filed by Oregon Wild and other conservation groups, contends the state's Wolf Conservation and Management Plan is inconsistent with the state Endangered Species Act, which, they say, outlaws the intentional killing of endangered species.

The Northern Rocky Mountain population of gray wolf, which populates Oregon, has been removed from the federal endangered species list, but is still protected under the state's Endangered Species Act.

The state's wolf plan was first adopted in 2005. The plan was crafted with the Endangered Species Act in mind, Anglin said.