October 21, 2016
CapitalPress.com
5
Christmas tree promotions available to farmers
Online files
available for
banners, bumper
stickers, websites
Courtesy Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife
OR 28, the alpha female of the Silver Lake wolfpack in Southern
Oregon, was found dead Oct. 6.
Silver Lake alpha
female wolf found dead
By KATY NESBITT
For the Capital Press
The alpha female of the
newly named Silver Lake wolf
pack was found dead Oct. 6 on
the Fremont-Winema Nation-
al Forest near Summer Lake
where wolves are federally
protected.
The wolf, designated OR-
28, is being examined to deter-
mine the cause of death. The
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
is offering a $5,000 reward
for information on the wolf’s
death.
The Center for Biological
Diversity, often critical of the
way Oregon manages wolves,
called the killing “heartbreak-
ing” and said it would add
$10,000 to the reward fund.
“This was a cowardly
crime,” said Amaroq Weiss,
the group’s West Coast wolf
organizer. “I hope the perpe-
trator is caught quickly.”
The wolf has a mate and a
pup, Weiss said in a prepared
statement.
OR-28 was itted with a
GPS collar in 2014, and was
originally from the Mt. Emily
Pack in northeastern Oregon.
An update released in July
from Oregon Department of
Fish and Wildlife said that
state biologists along with U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service staff
conirmed that the three-year-
old had paired with OR-3, an
eight-year-old who dispersed
from Wallowa County’s Imna-
ha wolfpack in 2011.
Based on remote camera
images, the two are believed to
have produced at least one pup
in 2016. According to ODFW
the pair were primarily using
the Silver Lake Wildlife Man-
agement Unit in western Lake
County.
OR-3 was caught on a
game camera near Fossil
shortly after he left Wallowa
County and was sighted in
Crook County not long after
that, but disappeared from the
radar until a few months ago.
Unlike his littermate OR-7
who traveled across the state
to California and back, OR-3
had a VHS collar, not a GPS
collar. VHF collars do not au-
tomatically transmit location
information and wildlife man-
agers lost track of him after the
fall of 2011.
ODFW’s update said in the
summer of 2015 OR-3 made
a brief reappearance on a trail
camera in northern Klamath
County. His radio-collar is no
longer functional.
According to a recent
ODFW depredation report, on
Sept. 28 a cattle producer was
gathering cattle off his Forest
Service grazing allotment and
noticed a live calf with severe
injuries between its rear legs.
An ODFW biologist examined
the calf the following day with
a follow-up examination on
Oct. 1. It was estimated the calf
had received the injuries 14-21
days before being found.
S. Oregon rancher
frustrated by wolf attacks
By LEE JUILLERAT
For the Capital Press
FORT KLAMATH, Ore.
— A rancher who had two
steers killed and a third seri-
ously injured by wolves earlier
this month is frustrated by the
lack of protections and other
impacts on raising cattle in the
Wood River Valley.
“This valley, with so many
cattle, is going to be like a
smorgasbord for the wolves.
They’ll take the animals that
put up the least resistance,” said
Bill Nicholson, third generation
owner of the Nicholson Ranch,
where the three wolf attacks
took place. They have been
veriied by state Department of
Fish and Wildlife biologists.
During the spring and sum-
mer, upwards of 35,000 head of
cattle are trucked to the valley
to graze on the nutrient-rich
grasslands. Most have now
been trucked out of the area to
winter grazing areas, predomi-
nately in far Northern Califor-
nia.
Nicholson said 300 to 400
steers remain on his ranch and
estimates about 5,000 cows,
calves and yearlings are still in
the enclosed valley.
While the focus has been on
the killings, Nicholson said a
potentially more serious prob-
lem is stress caused by wolf
attacks.
“You’re losing a lot of
pounds with the stress,” he said.
“Cattlemen estimate the aver-
age steer will gain about 3 to
4 pounds a day feeding on irri-
gated pasture known for its nu-
tritious blend of sedges, rushes,
grasses, forbes and clover.”
Because of the presence of
wolves, Nicholson and Butch
Wampler, who oversees the
ranch’s cattle, say the cattle
have remained in groups, often
standing through the night.
Recommended methods of
avoiding wolf attacks, includ-
ing fencing, lights and more
frequent patrols, also increase
costs, although the state pays
some of them.
Wampler discovered the
steers that had been attacked.
On Oct. 5, concerned about
possible attacks, he was in his
pickup truck using his head-
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
Christmas tree growers
have a host of promotion-
al materials at their disposal
this year through the national
checkoff program.
The Christmas Tree Pro-
motion Board is making
available free downloads of
banners, bumper stickers,
digital logos and other online
iles that feature the signature
slogan, “It’s Christmas. Keep
it real.”
“We will have a whole lot
of digital tools for the industry
to pick up and use,” said Tim
O’Connor, the board’s execu-
tive director.
Checkoff fees of 15 cents
per tree were irst collected
from the 2015 crop, gener-
ating $1.8 million, but this
year marks the irst time the
board will run a full promo-
tional campaign designed by
Courtesy of Christmas Tree Promotion Board
A promotional banner from the 2016 Christmas Tree Promotion
Board catalog.
the Concept Farm advertising
agency.
The goal of making pro-
motional material available
to farmers is to boost their ad-
vertising efforts while extend-
ing the campaign’s overall
reach, O’Connor said.
Growers can direct their
local print shop to create ban-
ners from the iles, or they can
simply use the logos on their
websites and social media
sites, he said.
The campaign must ind
clever ways of increasing its
exposure, since running na-
tional television commercials
would prohibitively expen-
sive, O’Connor said.
“That’s not the way you
do it today, particularly with a
smaller budget,” he said.
The campaign website will
adopt a similar strategy to an
Advent calendar, with a new
promotional video or other
online promotional tool fea-
tured daily.
These items will be pro-
moted through social media,
while traditional consumer
media organizations will re-
ceive real trees and press kits.
The campaign will also try
to generate word of mouth
among popular “mommy
bloggers” — women who
write online about family is-
sues — by bringing them to
farms and retail lots to pick
real trees.
Such bloggers are effec-
tively media personalities that
have a lot of credibility among
their audiences, O’Connor
said. “It will garner us a lot of
eyeballs.”
Christmas trees will also
be unveiled at “Ronald Mc-
Donald Houses” for ill chil-
dren and their families during
events featuring musicians
from Island Records.
The holiday season is the
“loudest media part of the
year,” so the campaign must
ind ways of gaining attention
from related events, such as
the delivery of a Christmas
tree to the White House and
the annual airing of “A Charlie
Brown Christmas,” he said.
“We’ll pick up their promo-
tions and connect with those,”
he said.
As the various videos and
other promotional items are
released, the campaign will
track what elicits the most re-
sponse — humor or sentiment,
he said.
“We can be very much
in the moment of measuring
views, and adapt as we go,”
O’Connor said.
The campaign will begin
rolling out in mid-Novem-
ber and hit its full stride after
Thanksgiving, so as not to an-
noy consumers with messages
too early.
“We’re trying to ind the
right timing,” he said.
Idaho ag groups protest Clif Bar foundation’s ‘Mr. Seed’ video
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
While Idaho’s agricul-
tural community welcomes
Clif Bar into its fold, Food
Producers of Idaho wants the
Clif Bar Family Foundation to
know it is not happy with its
“Mr. Seed” video that bashes
conventional agriculture.
The video features a foul-
mouthed animated character,
the organic Mr. Seed, that
depicts conventional agri-
culture as shady, producing
“Pharm Food” and ruining the
world with pesticides, perfor-
mance-enhancing chemicals
and GMO seed.
Mr. Seed wraps up the vid-
eo saying “America, if you
care about your food, the en-
vironment, your children or
the future of all mankind ...
you don’t have to buy every-
thing those big agri-chemical
companies are selling.”
Food Producers is sending
a letter to the Clif Bar Family
Foundation to register its dis-
satisfaction and ask that the
video be removed from You
Tube and other outlets. It also
This screen capture from the “Mr. Seed” video shows the main
character criticizing conventional agriculture. The Food Producers
of Idaho organization has sent a letter of protest to the Clif Bar
Family Foundation, which produced the video.
invites foundation oficials to
join with the organization in a
productive dialogue to under-
stand the different facets of
today’s agriculture.
“As the group representing
most of Idaho agriculture, we
want to make sure Clif knows
the harm in some of the mis-
truths it’s spreading in the vid-
eo,” said Wyatt Prescott, Food
Producers president.
The video presents a false,
negative perception and is
offensive to many in Idaho
agriculture, he said. Food
Producers wants to set the
record straight with Clif Bar
and let the foundation know
it’s watching, he said.
“The deceptive imagery
throughout the video can only
be seen as propaganda de-
signed to manipulate consum-
ers. Perpetuating myths about
conventional farming, as seen
in the ‘Mr. Seed’ video, brings
harm to hardworking farmers
and ranchers around the coun-
try,” the letter states.
When contacted by Capi-
tal Press, the Clif Bar Family
Foundation responded with an
emailed statement.
“We understand that the
Food Producers of Idaho is in
the process of sending us a let-
ter,” the email stated. “Once
we have the letter, we’ll have
a much better sense of their
speciic concerns and will be
better able to address the mat-
ter.”
Clif Bar, which produces
energy bars and is based in
Emeryville, Calif., recently
celebrated the opening of its
$90 million bakery in Twin
Falls, Idaho.
“Mr. Seed” was produced
by the foundation’s Seed Mat-
ters initiative.
Food Producers pointed
out in the letter that conven-
tional farming practices and
technology have resulted in
reduced pesticide use and till-
age, more food production on
less land and better resistance
to disease.
Courtesy of Bill Nicholson
One of the calves that was
killed by wolves near Fort
Klamath in Southern Oregon
was eviscerated. Another calf
was also killed and a third was
seriously injured.
lights and spotlight when he
heard a bawling calf. Although
unable to ind the calf, he found
a large group of cattle.
“They were all standing in
a big circle. They should have
been bedded down,” he said.
The next morning, he found
the 450-poind calf.
“You could see the tooth
marks,” he said.
Biologists removed some of
the hide, which Wampler said
exposed deep wounds in its
legs. The calf is still alive but
doing poorly.
“He’s pretty crippled,”
Nicholson said.
Wampler, who had seen
three wolves on a neighbor’s
ield in mid-September, said
he was riding to his home
Oct. 2 when he found a dead
800-pound steer, then “I saw
this wolf take off toward the
fence.” He then spotted a sec-
ond wolf.
A day later he saw three
wolves feeding on the carcass.
On Oct. 4 he found a second
dead 600-pound steer.
“His stomach was ripped
open. ... His heart, lungs and
liver, they were all gone.”
Wampler and Nicholson called
the Oregon Department Fish
and Wildlife’s Klamath Falls
ofice, which immediately sent
out two biologists who con-
irmed both as wolf kills.
John Stephenson, wolf co-
ordinator for the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service, said it’s be-
lieved the attacks were by the
Rogue Pack, which is known to
be in the area.
No veriication could be
made because no wolves in the
pack wear radio monitoring
collars.
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