The Oregon Department of Agriculture announced Wednesday that it approved the distribution of more than $37,000 to five counties, all east of the Cascades, to help pay for nonlethal methods of preventing wolf attacks on livestock.

Crook County will receive $3,000 to help fund a bone pile removal program, according to the department. The county last month announced it would be receiving the money but still had to finalize the grant with the state.

Bone piles are places where ranchers dispose of cattle carcasses, often animals that died by accident or through disease. While no known wolf packs roam Crook County, lone wolves tracked by the state and federal scientists via electronic collars have passed through in recent years.

The bulk of the grant money will go to Wallowa and Umatilla counties in Eastern Oregon, where there are established wolf packs. The department said each county will receive more than $15,500 to help pay for range riders, people who patrol rangeland for wolves coming close to livestock, and fladry, electrified rope with flagging designed to keep wolves away from livestock.

The grants announced Wednesday come in addition to more than $25,000 the department distributed in June. The department denied Crook County a grant in that round of funding.

— Bulletin staff report