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October 2, 2015 CapitalPress.com 13 Ag economist: Keep eye on global slowdown By CAROL RYAN DUMAS Capital Press By JADE MCDOWELL EO Media Group Residents in eastern Or- egon and Washington have discussed breaking away from their more liberal neighbors to form a new state for years, but a new twist has been added to the conversation: Why form a new state when the rural counties could just join Ida- ho instead? Ken Parsons, a 72-year- old farmer from La Grande, said the idea was floated offhand by someone else in a letter to the editor in the La Grande Observer. After thinking about it for a cou- ple of months and discuss- ing it with friends, Parsons said he has decided to try to get input from residents of neighboring counties, in- cluding Umatilla and Mor- row County. “It’s an intriguing idea,” he said. As Parsons sees it, ru- ral Oregon and Washington residents who are tired of being outvoted by the pop- ulation centers in Portland and Seattle would be better understood by politicians from the more rural, con- servative Idaho. Legislators born and raised in the most urban parts of their state “don’t have any idea,” he said, of how environmental lobbyists often hurt farmers, hunters and others in more rural parts of the state. “The environmental regu- lations that come out of Sa- lem make it almost impossi- ble to do my work,” he said. Jeffrey Dense, a political science professor at Eastern Oregon University, called the logistics of trying to create a new, larger Idaho “largely insurmountable.” “Given the inability of Puerto Rico and Washing- ton, D.C., to effectuate this type of large scale change, disgruntled citizens would be better off to get involved with politics instead of com- plaining about the state of affairs,” he said in an email. A state boundary hasn’t been redrawn in the United States since West Virginia was carved out of Virginia in 1863. The idea of seced- ing from one state to the other is hardly new, howev- er, and various efforts have landed on ballots and on the floor of state legislatures across the country. Occasionally, those ef- forts have even come close to fruition. In 2002 the U.S. House of Representatives voted unanimously to al- low state legislators to ad- just the Nevada-Utah state boundary. The move would have been a minor one, but it would have allowed the economically struggling city of Wendover, Utah, to join the casino-rich city of West Wendover, Nevada, and get rid of what residents called an invisible “Berlin Wall” in the community creating poor infrastructure and schools on one side of the state line and abundant services on the other. The bill ended up dying in the Senate, however, after Ne- vada Senator Harry Reid opposed it. According to 2014 data from the U.S. Census Bu- reau, Idaho currently has 1,634,464 residents. That would increase to 3,680,297 people if all 17 Oregon counties east of Hood River County and the 20 Washing- ton counties east of King County jumped ship. Oregon, meanwhile, would go from 3,970,239 residents to 3,471,709 and Washington would drop from 7,061,530 residents to 5,514,227. How that would affect each state’s representation in Washington, D.C., would depend on how other states’ populations changed at the same time. The 435 seats in the House of Representatives are apportioned every 10 years based on population counts in the latest census. If other states’ populations stayed roughly proportion- ate to their current levels, Washington would likely lose two of its 10 seats, add- ing them to Idaho’s current two seats, while it would be a close call on whether Or- egon would hang on to its five representatives or lose one to another state. The number of Elector- al College votes a state re- ceives is equal to the num- ber of U.S. senators and representatives the state has, which would give Ida- ho more sway in presiden- tial elections too. Rep. Greg Smith, R-Hep- pner, said during his fresh- man year in the Oregon Legislature in 2001 he tried to introduce the idea of cre- ating a state of Eastern Ore- New Idaho: Re-drawing the map A La Grande, Ore. farmer is seeking comment on the idea of eastern portions of Washington and Oregon joining Idaho. The new, supersized Idaho would see a 125 percent population increase. Proposed state of Idaho Area in detail Spokane Seattle Olympia WASHINGTON Canby Herald Jade McDowell and Alan Nenaga/ EO Media Group La Grande Salem IDAHO Bend Burns Boise Idaho Falls OREGON Pocatello Twin Falls Medford ‘Given the inability of Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., to effectuate this type of large scale change, disgruntled citizens would be better off to get involved with politics instead of complaining about the state of affairs.’ Jeffrey Dense, a political science professor at Eastern Oregon University that getting rural Oregon and Washington counties to join Idaho is a long shot. “If it came to fruition it would probably not be in my lifetime,” he said. To start the discussion he emailed every state leg- islator in all three states, contacted newspapers in the area and started a forum on Yahoo Groups titled “Ore- gon and Washington Joining Idaho” to discuss logistics like what would happen with assets like state prisons and universities in counties that voted to join Idaho. “I figured there are a whole lot of people smarter than me who could figure all that out,” he said. Parsons realizes that government officials in Boi- se may not want to take on more rural counties, even if they also got population centers like Spokane, the Tri-Cities and Bend. The U.S. Congress would have to approve. Still, he said if Eastern Oregon did secede to Ida- ho, local residents wouldn’t have to worry so much about Portland residents pushing laws such as a $15 an hour minimum wage on rural areas. “If they want to buy a $20 Big Mac that’s fine with me,” he said. CANBY, Ore. — A cou- gar has been killing live- stock and worrying families near this north Willamette Valley town. Stefani Carlson, whose husband, Paul, owns and operates 4:8 Financial, an investment services firm in Canby, said they lost two alpacas and three lambs last week. Another neighbor lost three sheep around the same time, and another nearby family lost two llamas and a pygmy goat, Carlson said. “Everyone knows it’s funky out there, a weird feeling out there,” Carlson said. “Even cattle are act- ing funny out here. (One of our neighbors), Nancy Ben- nett, said one of her llamas jumped over one of their fences and hurt its leg badly trying to protect (their live- stock from) something out there.” Bennett said her llama has been on “super-high alert” ever since Sept. 9, when the cougar first killed her livestock. USDA Wildlife Services sent out a trapper who set bait near the dead animal carcasses to try and catch the cougar, but the effort has not been successful. USDA officials were not immediately available for comment. BUYING 6” and UP Alder and Maple Saw Logs, Standing Timber www.cascadehardwood.com Have you seen these invasive plants? Italian and slenderflower thistles are aggressive, tap-rooted annuals capable of forming dense stands that outcompete desirable forage plants. Learn more at www.nwcb.wa.gov Flowers are pink, in terminal clusters and covered with cobwebby hairs. Italian thistle flowerheads are in clusters of 1-5, while slenderflower has clusters of 5-15. Oregonian research Pendleton Portland gon, but couldn’t even get a hearing on it. “I know there’s a real frustration with the ur- ban-rural divide,” he said. However, he also said that although Eastern Ore- gon provides the state with food and fiber, the west side of the state provides a tax base that supports state services. The transportation package, for example, that both sides of the aisle would like to see come to fruition would likely result in East- ern Oregon infrastructure benefiting from tax money generated by Portland resi- dents. Parsons said he knows Cougar kills livestock in north Willamette Valley town By DANIEL PEARSON Yakima Eugene market is bouncing all over, the government is devaluing currency and the country has serious natural resource issues, he said. “We’ve got to keep our eye on China because political un- rest and just economic unrest in that region can spread through that whole Asian region, and the second-largest economy in the world does matter, particu- larly (to) agriculture and rural America,” he said. Looking at other factors in the region, Japan has a debt is- sue and South Korea is “very, very” sluggish. There’s also a demographic wedge in both Japan and China of one child to every two parents and four grandparents, a demographic that is more conservative in investments and spending and creates defl ation and sluggish- ness, he said. Both thistle species have spiny-lobed leaves and spiny- winged stems. The underside of the leaves and stems are covered with cobwebby hair. ROP-40-5-4/#24 The state of New Idaho he said. “Interconnected global risk … is a house-of-cards risk. It’s one I think we really have to watch for because again, like a house of cards, you pull one and it can kind of go through- out the world,” he said. China’s economy is also slowing down, with exports off by more than 10 percent. The country had phenomenal growth oriented on building infrastructure, which kept manufacturing jobs in China and abroad going. But recent articles suggest some of Chi- na’s cities are now like Detroit and Cleveland in the sense that manufacturing there is no lon- ger needed. Many of the resi- dents there who had good-pay- ing jobs are being displaced, he said. China has lowered inter- est rates fi ve times, the stock Canada thistle stems are Why are slenderflower not spiny, flower heads (Carduus tenuiflorus) & Italian (C.pycnocephalus) are not tightly clustered and roots are thistles noxious weeds? rhizomatous. • Both thistles displace desirable forage species, What can you do? impacting livestock and • Learn to correctly identify wildlife grazing. these Class A noxious weeds. Where do you find these • Please note that thistles? eradication of these plants • Italian and slenderflower is required in Washington thistles can be found in State to prevent them pastures, rangelands, from gaining a foothold. right-of-ways and waste • Report any sightings to areas. your county noxious weed • Italian and slenderflower control board or to thistle can be confused noxiousweeds@agr.wa.gov with Canada thistle, a Class C weed. However, Italian thistle tends to grow taller than slenderflower thistle, though both can reach 6 feet tall. 40-2/#13 Capital Press File Economist Dave Kohl is seen speaking in this fi le photo. Countries some see as hav- ing few ties to U.S. agriculture are in fact critical to the indus- try due to interconnected econ- omies, an ag economist says. There’s plenty going on around the world — from de- fl ation and infl ation to reces- sion and political unrest — to keep on the radar back on the farm, said Dave Kohl, profes- sor emeritus of ag and applied economics at Virginia Tech and a long-time partner in the Northwest Farm Credit Ser- vices development program. A rundown on economies around the globe and their im- plication for U.S. agriculture was one area of focus in Kohl’s recent ag outlook webinar. Starting with the EU, Kohl said Europe is critical to the health of the U.S. economy. First of all, social and regula- tory trends usually start in Eu- rope and gravitate to the U.S., he said, but there is also a Eu- rope-China connection, with Europe being China’s biggest customer. Europe’s central bank is providing stimulus and may extend it because France’s economy is “very, very slug- gish” with signs of contrac- tion, Germany’s economy is extremely export-driven and Greece is in a debt crisis, he said. While Greece’s economy is smaller than Alabama’s, its connection with other econo- mies makes it worth watching. Many French and German banks have loans to the Greek government, and many U.S. lending institutions have loans to French and German banks,