CORVALLIS — Oregon's wolf issue remained undecided Friday as the state Fish and Wildlife Commission used procedural problems as a reason to deny petitions that would have protected or delisted one of the nation's most controversial endangered species. Commissioners and petitioners agreed, however, that the matter is far from over. "Wolves are coming to Oregon; the only question is what are we going to do about it," said Pete Test of the Oregon Farm Bureau Association.

The Farm Bureau and the Oregon Cattlemen's Association signed a petition to take the wolf off the state endangered species list.

Commission members, however, said the petition didn't meet several criteria the law requires to de-list a species -- whether or not itexists in the state.

Wolves are considered extirpated from Oregon, but growing packs reintroduced in Idaho from Canada are the source of nomadic incursions across the Snake River.

The inevitability of their return brought a petition from the Oregon Natural Desert Association, the Humane Society of the United States and several other environmental groups to come up with plans to deal with wolves under both the state and federal acts.

Although the petition said the state is required to draft protection rules, it has had to do so only since 1995, and the wolf was listed in 1987, said Bill Cook of the Oregon attorney general's office, the commission's legal counsel. The law, he said, applies only to new listings, not existing listings.

The commission unanimously denied both petitions.

Test and Glen Stonebrink of the cattlemen's association said they would draft and submit a new petition to address the procedural difficulties.

Peter Lacy of the desert association said environmental groups haven't decided whether to try again or take the issue to court. He acknowledged, though, that court-ordered protection lacks the flexibility of state management. "We have to prevent a situation where we stick our heads in the sand and wait for the situation to overtake us."

Idaho, Montana and Wyoming have management plans to cope with wolves from reintroduced packs that raid livestock. Oregon, without a plan, must abide by strict federal rules that prohibit killing wolves.

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has scheduled wolf workshops in October and November in Portland to continue the discussion.

Sooner or later, commissioners said, the state must deal with the issue. "We will be working with wolves for a very, very long time," said Commissioner Marla Rae of Salem.