Ranchers are howling.

Byline: The Register-Guard

A year ago, a citizen task force made up of ranchers, conservationists, hunters, economists and tribal representatives attained what many thought was impossible: agreement on a strategy to make Oregon the first Western state to independently embrace the return of gray wolves.

It was a visionary, practical - and, above all, balanced - strategy that called for dividing Oregon into zones, with a goal of establishing a minimum number of breeding pairs in each. The plan acknowledged the legitimate concerns of ranchers by giving them the legal right to shoot wolves that attacked and killed livestock on private lands or on public lands where grazing permits exist. It also called for the establishment of a fund to compensate ranchers for losses from confirmed wolf attacks.

It was an impressive accomplishment that was rightly hailed as a national model and embraced by the state Fish and Wildlife Commission. This improbably diverse group of citizens crafted a strategy that promised to allow wolves to re-establish themselves in Oregon while giving ranchers both the lethal and nonlethal tools they needed to protect their economic interests.

Enter the 2005 Oregon Legislature, which failed to pass the legislation allowing ranchers to shoot wolves and to provide compensation for losses to wolf attacks. What had been a carefully crafted plan that recognized and met the needs of all key parties became a lopsided one that left ranchers out in the cold.

It's hardly surprising that ranchers are upset that the new plan now bars ranchers from killing wolves that attack livestock and does not include a dime of compensation for wolf-related losses. Nor is it surprising that the Oregon Cattlemen's Association has approved a resolution urging ranchers to close their land to hunters and anglers to protest the new plan.

Defenders of Wildlife, an environmental group, has offered to provide some compensation to ranchers for lost livestock. That's a helpful offer, but it fails to address the long-term problem that state lawmakers must now address.

When the next state Legislature convenes, one its first items of business should be to restore the wolf plan's integrity and balance - and to regain the vital support of the ranchers who helped create it.