Oregon is a diverse mix of urban, suburban, and rural settings with coastal, mountain, desert, forest, and agricultural environments. This ecological and geographic diversity allows the State to be host to a variety of wildlife species. WS biologists assist Oregon’s livestock, timber, fruit and grass seed producers, they address threats to human health and safety, and they assist in the protection of natural resources, including threatened and endangered species.
F/E – Federal Endangered
F/T – Federal Threatened
S/T – State Threatened
Highlight
Historically, predators have been responsible for more than 60% of all egg destruction and mortality of young Western Snowy Plover, a Federally threatened bird. For several years, Federal and State agencies were unsuccessful in halting predation with nonlethal methods. WS was able to provide assistance to the plover conservation effort through the selective removal of avian and mammalian predators. As a result, nesting success of plovers on Oregon beaches has been the highest on record since monitoring began in 1990.
During the last four years, WS assisted the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service with the protection of Federally threatened Columbia white-tailed deer which live on islands in the Columbia River. WS removed coyotes that had previously been causing a complete failure of the annual fawn crop. Through carefully timed coyote control conducted by WS personnel, fawn success has soared to 100 percent.
