While some ranchers and homeowners in the Kinney Lake/Tucker Down Road area are expressing concern about Imnaha pack wolves hanging around that piece of landscape for the past three weeks, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) Wolf Program Coordinator Russ Morgan, based in La Grande, sees the wolves lack of mobility as natural.

Ramona Phillips, who lives along Prairie Creek Road a few miles southeast of Joseph near the east moraine of Wallowa Lake, says wolf sightings, tracks, and howling the latter predominantly at night and in the early morning are becoming so common there that the general public should be apprised of the presence of wolves. She even suggests that ODFW erect warning signs.

Morgan does not dispute her claim about the wolves recent location, and adds that theyve been there before. These wolves have frequented Kinney Lake since they were first spotted in 2010, he says. Although wolves can travel long distances in short periods of time, explains Morgan, they are also known to locate in specific regions of their home range for multiple days, even weeks. The Imnaha pack, he says, commonly has had extended stays near the Imnaha River in the fall, and on prairies in the winter.

And yet Diane Witherrite, who lives on Tucker Down Road and works as a local bank manager, doesnt like it. They have come and gone in the past, but now they are not leaving, she says. She regularly takes walks with her two small dogs and has changed their route to avoid possible wolf encounters.

About 50 or 60 ranchers within the Imnaha packs home range have signed up to receive once-daily (sent about 7 a.m.) e-mail or text alerts from ODFW regarding the location of that pack, which now consists of five or possibly six wolves, says Morgan.

That messages information often has to be of a somewhat general nature, however, because wolves tend to travel quickly and tracking information gleaned from radio collars arrives sporadically.

Still, the fact that those e-mails and text messages regularly shared with neighbors and others beyond the 50 or 60 ranchers have consistently placed the pack in the Kinney Lake/Tucker Down Road area for about three weeks is disturbing to some who live, hike, or ski in that vicinity.

Kate Ladinig, a self-proclaimed wilderness buff who moved from the Yosemite area six years ago and lives on the east moraine, hikes daily with her dog and last week, for the first time, heard wolves howling in the morning. I cant stop doing what I love to do, but I do worry, she said.

Morgan says information circulated via e-mail and by text is accurate, but is becoming less abundant. Some days pass with no contact at all with the Imnaha pack, and thats easily explained. Although in the past as many as four Imnaha pack wolves have simultaneously worn collars and transmitted signals, currently only one wolf, a young one, is carrying a functional collar.

Wolves are very hard on these collars, says Morgan.

The ideal way of tracking any wolf pack is to collar its alpha male. Yet the thrice-collared alpha male of the Imnaha pack had his latest communication device go dormant about three weeks ago, Morgan said. On two previous occasions this pack leader was collared after being subdued by darts from helicopters. On another occasion, he was trapped. Considering current weather conditions, the most likely means for accomplishing the difficult task of collaring the wolf a fourth time will be with assistance from a helicopter, said Morgan.

Witherrite reports a sighting of a wolf about 100 yards from a neighbors home located about half a mile from the Ferguson Ridge Ski Area.

And last week, ODFW personnel confirmed the presence of two wolves at a completely different location approximately 3.5 miles south of Joseph near the southeast corner of Alder Slope. There, clear tracks of the two wolves were found in the driveway of Laura and Kirk Skovlins Pine Tree Road residence. The wolves have been howling and Laura Skovlin said she has seen them.

Morgan says the two wolves pack association is unknown at this time. A determination might eventually be made through DNA samples.

Wallowa County Commissioner Susan Roberts, chair of the countys wolf compensation committee, confirmed that turbo fladry is available, free of charge, to landowners in the vicinity of wolves. Landowners bear the cost of installation, though, and wolves tend to lose respect for turbo fladry after being around it for a month or two. It therefore probably makes the best sense to time turbo fladrys introduction to coincide with any calving or lambing periods.

Morgan suggests that dog owners living near wolves keep their animals within sight. In regard to people, Morgan says, Human safety with wolves in not a huge concern. It is extraordinarily rare for a wolf to attack a human being.