Take Action
We need your help to send a strong message to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to reject ODFW’s permit application and to select the “No Action” alternative or “Alternative 2” which allows removal of eggs/nests but not killing of adult Ravens.
*Comments are due by the end of the day on February 8, 2021.
Submit Comments Here: permitsR1MB@fws.gov
Bird Alliance of Oregon is deeply concerned about sage-grouse declines in Baker County and across the west. We have worked for decades to recover declining sage-grouse populations and serve on Oregon’s collaborative “SageCon” Partnership which developed the Oregon sage-grouse Action Plan. However, poisoning ravens in Eastern Oregon is yet another example of wildlife agencies scapegoating one species for the decline of another while failing to adequately address the primary human causes for that decline.
Key Talking Points
- The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service should reject ODFW’s preferred Alternative 3 which would allow it to kill up to 800 adult ravens in Baker County. Instead USFWS should select Alternatives 1 (no action) or Alternative 2 (nest manipulation). Neither of these alternatives will result in the death of live Ravens.
- ODFW has not presented a sound scientific basis for killing adult ravens in Baker County. They have not documented a single incident of raven predation on sage-grouse nests in Baker County despite years and years of intense research.
- ODFWs proposal to place as many as 3,200 poisoned eggs out on the landscape to kill 800 adult ravens will put non-target wildlife at risk. The proposed lethal control is also inhumane. Poisoned ravens will die a slow death due to renal failure. State and federal agencies should not be scattering poisoned eggs across Oregon’s landscape.
- The agencies should focus their efforts to protect sage-grouse on documented problems such as habitat loss, wildfire and a 4,918 off road vehicle area that sits on public lands within the designated Sage-grouse priority Area for Conservation (PAC)
Please tell the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to select the “no action” alternative or “Alternative 2” and reject ODFWs application to kill adult Ravens in Baker County. Please also personalize this letter with your own words—unique letters have more impact!
