His research will describe differences in wolf diet between three recently established packs along ecological and human land-use gradients in the oregon cascades: the warm springs, indigo, and rogue…

The U.S. Department of the Interior Fish and Wildlife Service Region 1 awarded the State of Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) a Formula Grant totaling $375,488 under the Wildlife Restoration and Basic Hunter Education and Safety program (CFDA 15.611) for the period of July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2026. This award funds a comprehensive wolf diet research study examining three recently established wolf packs in the Oregon Cascades (Warm Springs, Indigo, and Rogue packs) across varying ecological and land-use contexts. The research will collect and analyze wolf scat samples via fecal metabarcoding to determine diet composition and diversity, with particular focus on ungulate consumption, non-ungulate prey items, and domestic livestock predation.

The study will provide the first empirical data on the diet of recently reestablished wolf packs in western Oregon and enable comparative analysis across packs inhabiting different ecological landscapes and land management contexts. Research findings will contribute to foundational understanding of wolf impacts on regional prey populations, sympatric predator dynamics, and livestock producers in the Cascade Mountains and broader western Oregon region. Data collection will occur between August and November 2025 across the three packs' known ranges through opportunistic scat surveys conducted along trails and roads.

His research will describe differences in wolf diet between three recently established packs along ecological and human land-use gradients in the oregon cascades: the warm springs, indigo, and rogue packs. The warm springs pack occupies the cascade mountains southeast of MT. Hood into the warm springs reservation, where deer and ELK populations are robust and density of feral horses are high. The indigo pack exists entirely on US forest service land north of crater lake national park where ungulate densities are low and livestock are not present in meaningful numbers. Finally, the rogue pack of the southern cascades and klamath mountains occupies a mix of public (USFS and BLM) and private lands with active cattle and sheep ranching. We will collect wolf scat opportunistically and by surveying trails and roads in each packs known range between the months of august and november and determine diet composition using fecal metabarcoding. This research will allow US to:1. Collect the first data on diet of recently reestablished wolf packs in western oregon. 2. Compare diet composition and diet diversity, with a focus on ungulate, non-ungulate, and domestic diet items, between three wolf packs inhabiting different ecological and social landscapes. 3. Contribute to our initial understanding of how wolves will impact prey populations, sympatric predator populations, and livestock producers in the cascade mountains and elsewhere in western oregon.