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CapitalPress.com
January 2, 2015
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Opinion
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Publisher
Editor
Managing Editor
Mike O’Brien
Joe Beach
Carl Sampson
opinions@capitalpress.com Online: www.capitalpress.com/opinion
O ur V iew
Fees for crossing state trails unneeded
W
ashington state is in
the midst of creating a
solution for a problem
that doesn’t exist with its proposal
to charge farmers a fee to cross
any of its long-distance trails.
The five long-distance trails
are the John Wayne Pioneer
Trail between Cedar Falls and
the Columbia River; Willapa
Hills Trail between Chehalis and
Raymond; Columbia Plateau Trail
between near Cheney and near the
Tri-Cities; Klickitat Trail from Lyle
north and east 30 miles; and the
Spokane Centennial Trail between
Spokane and the Idaho border.
Because the trails were built on
old railroad rights of way they often
pass through farms, ranches and,
in one case, a rodeo grounds. For
that reason, an occasional tractor,
hay windrower or other type of
equipment may need to use a trail to
get from one field to another.
In the past, farmers and
ranchers have been responsible
users of the trails. In some cases,
farmers have adopted stretches
of the trail and pitched in with
maintenance chores.
“Allowing use of the trail for
occasional farm vehicle travel
in return for maintaining and
monitoring irrigation ditches,
drains and structures, caring for
fences, controlling weeds and
respecting users and the trail
environment and structures seems
like a ‘win-win’ situation,” one
farmer wrote to the state Parks
and Recreation Commission.
“All it takes is a good working
relationship between the ranger
and landowner and/or operator. I
saw it work to everyone’s benefit
for almost 20 years.”
We agree.
A cursory review of the 205
public comments posted on the
state parks website shows that
most of the concerns were about
all-terrain vehicles and snow
mobiles, not farm equipment.
Considering that, it’s difficult
to understand why the parks staff
decided to pile on fees for farmers
who occasionally use the trails.
According to the proposal, there
would be a $200 application fee
and a separate “processing fee”
of at least $300. In addition, the
annual “use fee” could be as much
as $3,000 per mile.
We understand that trails are
primarily for non-motorized use.
We also understand that, in the
case of farms bisected by a trail,
a farmer will occasionally have to
cross the trail or use it for a short
distance.
Why that occasional use, which
has taken place since the time the
railroads were still in operation,
represents a problem, or an expense
to the state, we cannot say.
We urge the state Parks and
Recreation Commission to
reconsider the staff’s proposal to
charge a fee for occasional use of
the trails.
Cooperation has worked well
in the past, and it can work well
in the future, if the commission
decides to allow it.
Making progress
for rural Oregon
By GREG WALDEN
For the Capital Press
T
Rik Dalvit/For the Capital Press
O ur V iew
Increased risk with increased access to China
W
ashington apple growers are
hailing news that China is
expected to open its market
to all varieties of U.S. apples later this
month.
That would be an important
development. China is a country of 1.3
billion consumers with a growing middle
class hungry for quality foodstuffs.
Washington growers are producing
increasingly larger crops and more
and more depend on foreign markets.
Industry representatives say China could
be a $200 million market — more than
triple today’s volume.
We’ve often touted the value of the
export market to U.S. farmers. But
before growers start making cropping
decisions based on potential foreign
sales, they need to understand the
potential downsides.
China provides a perfect example.
Westerns have been trying to
understand the Chinese market since the
13th century, when European merchants
began making treks to the seat of the
Mongol Empire then located in what
today is Beijing.
Trading in silk and spices made many
rich, but many more potential fortunes
were lost to the mercurial whims of the
imperial officials.
That’s still the case, according to
modern China hands.
Desmond O’Rourke, a retired
Washington State University agricultural
economist, is a longtime student of the
apple industry and China watcher. He
says China is an “extremely unreliable”
trading partner.
He noted that China halted Red
and Golden Delicious apple imports
for two years over disease allegations
and impacted Pacific Northwest alfalfa
markets when it switched to a different
standard for detecting trace amounts of
genetically modified hay.
“China is authoritarian and repressive
with a secret power structure,” he told
the Capital Press. “No one quite knows
how much the Chinese military and
communist party influence the decisions
of the official government.”
The government tailors its import
strategy to favor Chinese companies,
he said, and don’t honor trade deals the
same way other trading partners do.
Andy Anderson, executive director
of the Western U.S. Agricultural Trade
Association in Vancouver, agrees.
“You never know when they’ll decide
it’s in their interests to put a hold on
something or stop something,” Anderson
said.
With those caveats, no one says the
Chinese market isn’t worth pursuing.
China is already our largest international
market for agriculture and food products,
and accounts for 20 percent of U.S. farm
exports — a record $29.9 billion in fiscal
2014.
As China’s government opens access
to more products, the potential for even
more sales grow. But what China gives,
it can take away.
U.S. producers should heed the old
admonition about putting all their eggs in
one basket.
How to prevent more port slowdowns
I
t’s hard to say what
members of the
International Longshore
and Warehouse Union have
against Agri Beef Co.
The Boise, Idaho-based
beef processor reports that
the ILWU’s West Coast
port slowdown is costing
the company — and its
employees — millions of
dollars and has reduced
its export volume by 70
percent. As a result of the
lost business, the company
has had to reduce employees’
hours, according to the
Idaho State Department of
Agriculture, which surveyed
the damage the union action
has caused to farmers,
ranchers and processors.
The region’s apple, potato,
hay, dairy, Christmas tree
and pear industries have all
been damaged. Any crop or
commodity that is shipped
in a container is vulnerable
to the ILWU’s slowdown.
Not only are late shipments
costing agricultural exporters
millions of dollars a week,
the possibility of losing sales
contracts looms large.
“We are losing $700,000
a week in sales,” Dusty
Standlee, president of
Standlee Hay in Eden, Idaho,
told the ISDA. “The bigger
problem is that we have
contracts in place that are at
risk of being voided by our
customer because we cannot
deliver.”
Phrases such as “wreaking
havoc,” “lost business”
and “canceled orders” are
repeated as agricultural
exporters are damaged by the
ILWU-created disaster on the
docks.
Sooner or later, the ILWU
will reach an agreement
with the Pacific Maritime
Association, whose members
operate the West Coast’s
container terminals. The
contract expired last summer,
and union members began
dragging their feet by way of a
slowdown to demonstrate their
unhappiness with the PMA.
But instead of hurting
the PMA, the union is
hurting agricultural exporters
and other industries that
import and export their
goods via the ports. The
results have been billions
of dollars in lost business.
The National Association of
Manufacturers and National
Retail Federation estimate the
port slowdown has cost their
members $2 billion a day.
Such damage to the
nation’s economy cannot be
overlooked.
There is a way to prevent
the union from throwing
tantrums: Put the ports under
the Railway Labor Act. That
law bars railroad and airline
unions from striking until
they have gone through
arbitration and mediation.
The law was passed
because of the importance
the railroads and the airlines
have to the nation and its
economy. Certainly the
ports have a similar impact
on the economy. It only
makes sense to place them
under the jurisdiction of the
Railway Labor Act, too.
Members of Congress
can wring their hands about
the mess the current labor
slowdown has made of
West Coast ports, or they
can pass legislation that
will prevent it from ever
happening again.
he biggest disagreements
and loudest voices got
most of the attention
during this last session of Con-
gress, from filibusters to failed
websites, immigration to ISIL.
However, while the pundits
blared, many of us worked hard
to achieve important legislative
wins for Oregon and America in
2014 — like boosting American
energy and jobs and rooting out
waste to save taxpayer dollars.
Make no mistake, we still
have work to do, but we have
a strong foundation to build on
next year with the new Repub-
lican majority in the Senate on
efforts to grow and strengthen
Oregon’s rural communities.
All in all, I’m proud that
three bills I wrote this session
— protecting rural satellite tele-
vision service, providing more
water and power for Central Or-
egon, and boosting agriculture
research in Hermiston — are
now the law of the land.
And several other of my ini-
tiatives passed the House with
bipartisan support, including
the plan to reform federal for-
est policy to grow jobs in the
woods, improve forest health,
and provide needed revenue for
schools, roads and law enforce-
ment. Although I am disappoint-
ed the Senate did not hold a vote
on this plan or any forestry bill
to assist our region, this gives
us a strong base to build on next
year with the new majority in
the Senate. I’ve already begun
conversations with members
of the House and Senate from
both parties on efforts to re-
form federal forest policy and
better manage our lands. All of
these initiatives were developed
transparently with community
support, so they will have good
momentum going into 2015.
One of my top priorities is
making federal agencies like
the IRS, the VA and the EPA
more transparent and account-
able to taxpayers. I sought and
secured a federal investigation
into the enormous, costly fail-
ure of Cover Oregon to stop the
waste, demand the truth, and
get accountability. That investi-
gation is ongoing, and we hope
to get the results in the near fu-
ture.
And when the FDA pro-
posed rules that would have
made it harder to grow onions
and brew local beer, I pushed
back hard on behalf of produc-
ers and brewers, inviting the
FDA to visit with Oregon grow-
ers to witness the rules’ impact
firsthand. Our voices were heard
as the agency reworked them to
make them better for Oregon
producers. I doubt most people
realize how much time a mem-
ber of Congress and his/her staff
spend helping cut through red
tape at agencies like the Social
Security Administration or the
VA. For me and my team, we
helped more 2,811 Oregonians
over the past two years, includ-
ing nearly one thousand veter-
ans’ cases.
The Energy and Commerce
Committee I serve on had 51
bills signed into law this ses-
sion, including legislation to
increase hydropower and boost
Guest
comment
Greg Walden
research for pediatric diseases.
We launched a major initiative
called 21st Century Cures to
aggressively help find cures for
the nearly 6,500 known diseases
that lack them. This is an excit-
ing initiative that will dramati-
cally improve the lives of people
all over the world.
The committee also conduct-
ed thorough oversight of federal
agencies under our jurisdiction.
When the Federal Communi-
cations Commission proposed
a “study” that sought to poke
their noses into America’s news-
rooms, the Communications
and Technology panel that I
chair objected strongly, lead-
ing to the agency dropping this
threat to the First Amendment.
And Congress successfully
passed legislation to help clean
up the mess at the VA and allow
more veterans to go outside the
VA to access care in the com-
munities where they live. This
will really help veterans, espe-
cially in our rural communities.
We also passed plans to stream-
line and improve job-training
programs and provide needed
resources to farmers to tackle
drought, fire and new diseases
and pests in their crops.
Getting deficit spending un-
der control also remains a huge
priority of mine. The House
passed a budget that balanc-
es over the next 10 years and
eventually pays off America’s
debt. I supported efforts to re-
form programs, eliminate waste
and duplication and as a result
we cut discretionary spending
to a level below when President
Obama took office.
This work doesn’t always
grab the headlines or dominate
the chatter on Twitter, but these
quiet gains improve the lives
of people and help get our re-
gion and country on a better
track. I could not have been as
successful working on these is-
sues without hearing from and
listening to you — the people
of Oregon’s Second District.
Just this year, I traveled more
than 9,000 miles through our
enormous district to hold town
halls (49 in the past two years)
and other community meet-
ings. That’s in addition to the
thousands of telephone town
hall questions, emails, letters,
phone calls, Facebook mes-
sages, and tweets I’ve received
from you and answered (more
than 41,000 just this year).
As the New Year dawns, I
pledge to continue to work as
hard as I can to solve our prob-
lems, here at home and across
the nation. I want to continue
to hear from you about your
ideas and priorities. This is how
I develop my “to do” list to
take back to Washington, D.C.,
each week. Please visit www.
walden.house.gov to send me
an email to let me know what
you think should be on my
plate for 2015.
Greg Walden represents
Oregon’s second congressio-
nal district, which covers 20
counties in southern, central
and eastern Oregon.