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CapitalPress.com
November 11, 2016
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Opinion
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Editor
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Mike O’Brien
Joe Beach
Carl Sampson
opinions@capitalpress.com Online: www.capitalpress.com/opinion
O ur V iew
How to reduce cost of killing wolves
T
he Washington Department
of Fish and Wildlife spent
$119,577.92 to kill seven
wolves from the Profanity Peak
pack.
It seems like a lot of money,
considering the job was left
undone. But we have no
expertise in such things.
Wolves in the eastern one-
third of Washington aren’t
protected by the federal
Endangered Species Act. The
state’s policy calls for shooting
wolves when measures such
as putting more people on
horseback around herds fail to
stop depredations.
Though the entire Profanity
Peak pack was slated for
elimination, the operation
has been suspended with four
The Wash-
ington State
Department of
Fish and Wild-
life has spent
$119,577.92
to kill seven
wolves from
the Profanity
Peak pack.
Courtesy of Wash-
ington Department
of Fish and Wildlife
wolves surviving. Wildlife
officials say they didn’t quit
because of the mounting cost.
WDFW spent the money
during an operation in
northeastern Washington that
began Aug. 4 and ended Oct.
19. Expenses included renting a
helicopter, hiring a trapper, and
paying the salaries and benefits
of WDFW employees.
Tracking and killing wolves
is an expensive proposition that
seems to carry no real discount
even when done in volume.
Dispatching 64 percent of
the Profanity Peak pack cost
$17,082.56 per wolf killed.
That’s less than the $26,000
it spent to kill just one wolf
in 2014, but more than the
$10.857.15 per wolf it spent in
2012 to kill seven.
Wildlife wolf policy
coordinator Donny Martorello
said the agency will look at
culling wolfpacks in the future in
“the most frugal way we can.”
Cattle Producers of
Washington President Scott
Nielsen has an idea.
He says Washington wildlife
officials could authorize
ranchers to kill wolves that are
attacking livestock.
“We would work
collectively,” Nielsen said. “It
would cost the state nothing.”
It’s probably too simplistic to
assume it would cost nothing,
because government would still
be involved, or that ranchers
would necessarily have better
luck. Still it’s an idea worth
studying.
Environmentalists would
rather pay ranchers to move off
allotments than to kill even one
wolf. That’s not going to work
for cattlemen.
Allowing a cattleman to kill
a wolf attacking his herd makes
sense. Killing a problem wolf
early enough may prevent the
need to kill a whole pack later.
That would be cheaper for the
state, better for the cattlemen,
and better for the wolves.
It’s not often cattlemen catch
wolves in the act, but they
nonetheless should have the tool
at their disposal.
Region depends on
Columbia-Snake
River System
O ur V iew
By TOM KAMMERZELL
For the Capital Press
O
The other monumental mistake
N
ot one more acre.
That’s our answer to the
question no U.S. senator
from Oregon would ever ask us: How
much more Western land needs to be
locked up as national monuments?
Whether it’s in Oregon or
anywhere else, no one has
demonstrated the need for setting
aside more land — particularly
productive land better used for
grazing or timber harvests.
All proponents have demonstrated
is the ability to pander to special
interests and build websites
promoting new monuments as the
next best thing to Yosemite.
Not only is the environmental
lobby promoting the 2.5 million-
acre Owyhee Canyonlands National
Monument proposal in southeastern
Oregon — a travesty in itself — it
also wants to double the size of
the Cascade-Siskiyou National
Monument in Southern Oregon.
Why? Because it’ll make
President Barack Obama look good
to the environmental lobby. He can
lock up those areas without so much
as a vote of Congress.
A particularly insidious feature
of this latest proposal — backed
by Sens. Jeff Merkley and Ron
Wyden, both D-Ore. — is that
34,000 privately owned acres will be
included in the new lock-up. That’s
on top of 19,000 privately owned
acres already within the monument.
If the monument is ultimately
expanded, about 40 percent of it will
be privately owned.
That means private ranches could
lose grazing allotments and access
to timber land could be lost as the
Bureau of Land Management closes
roads.
What proponents don’t say is
hikers can now enjoy the land
without adding 1 square inch to the
monument. Nothing has to be done
to make it “better.”
In fact, the people who have
grazed their cattle on the land have
done such a good job of managing it
that recreationists now say they want
to preserve it the way it is.
If those people — including
Oregon’s two U.S. senators — care
so much about the land, they should
just leave it alone.
The U.S. government already
manages 27 million acres of National
Conservation Lands. That’s an area
equal to the size of Rhode Island,
Delaware, Connecticut, New Jersey,
New Hampshire and Vermont
combined — with Puerto Rico
thrown in.
You’ll note that not even the most
strident environmentalist would
suggest turning those states or that
territory into national monuments.
It’s because people live and work
there.
Just like in rural Oregon.
Re: Owyhee irrigators
get full allotment. We were
allotted 4 acre-feet this
year, but how can you use
it all when they shut off
deliveries two weeks early?
A normal season should
run from 15 April to 15 Oc-
tober. They even shut our
pumps off.
They hoped to save
100,000 acre-feet in the res-
ervoir; they saved around
160,000 acre-feet.
It is commendable to save
water, but another two weeks
wouldn’t have drafted the
lake that much and it would
have really helped those
with beets in the ground
and those putting in fall
crops.
As for the pumps, the
board needs to sit down
with Idaho Power and the
Bureau of Reclamation and
negotiate a fiscal year for
electricity.
There is lots of water in
the river and it makes no
sense to shut those irrigators
down early.
P. T. Rathbone
Farmer
Marsing, Idaho
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Guest
comment
Tom Kammerzell
the increased trucking raised
emissions by a whopping
323.2 percent.
Clean power
The eight dams on the riv-
er system are also counted on
by every person in the Pacific
Northwest when they reach for
a light switch. Close to 60 per-
cent of the power used in the
Northwest is generated by the
clean, renewable, carbon-free
hydropower generated by the
dams on the river system.
Furthermore, the dams help
to regulate the flow of energy
to the grid from wind and so-
lar, and provide a firm backup
for when those other renew-
ables are not generating. This
is evident in the winter when
cold weather requires more
electricity and the dams are
called upon to meet that de-
mand.
Economic asset
Salmon gains
The Columbia-Snake Riv-
er System is a vital economic
asset for the entire Northwest.
The eight dams and locks on
the Columbia-Snake River
System provide transportation,
energy and economic benefits
to the region. They also pro-
vide flood safety, lest we for-
get the Vanport flood of 1948
which removed an entire city
and killed over 50 people.
Thanks to the eight dams
and locks on the Columbia
and Snake rivers, farmers and
businesses have access to the
safest, most environmental-
ly friendly way to move their
product downriver to export.
Farmers as far inland as the
Midwest can take advantage
of barges to move their crops
down to the export terminals
on the lower Columbia River.
The modern benefits of
the river system have allowed
commerce and energy to flow
while also dramatically im-
proving salmon runs on the
river. The eight dams on the
Columbia-Snake mainstem
have always had fish passage
facilities. Over the past 20
years, we have seen tremen-
dous investments made at the
dams to make them world
class facilities, plus important
habitat work in our tributaries
and the estuary.
The collaborative efforts
of our federal agencies, tribes,
states and nonprofits have led
to record-breaking returns for
some of our salmon popula-
tions and dramatic improve-
ments in others.
Like every other river in the
world, we’ll always have chal-
lenges, such as the unusually
high temperatures we saw last
year. But as improvements con-
tinue and partnerships strength-
en, we look forward to contin-
ued increases in our fish runs.
The year is 2016, not 1816.
We require electricity all of the
time, not just when the wind
blows and the sun shines. With
the ever-increasing world pop-
ulation more mouths need to
be fed affordably. I encourage
advocates of the current river
system to weigh in to help pro-
tect these vital economic assets
for our region.
Visit http://www.crso.info/
for the list of meetings, sub-
mit your comment letter at
comment@crso.info or mail a
letter to CRSO EIS, P.O. Box
2870, Portland, OR 97208-
2870 by Jan. 17.
Tom Kammerzell is a Port
of Whitman County, Wash.,
commissioner and wheat
producer.
Wheat gateway
Readers’ views
Irrigation
deliveries
shut off early
nce again, the value of
the Snake River system
is going to be reviewed,
but this time with a twist.
In May, Judge Simon, in
his ruling related to the Snake
River Biological Opinion, has
now brought the entire river
system, including the dams on
the Columbia, into the discus-
sion.
This is new territory. The
public is being given the op-
portunity by Jan. 17 to weigh
in on the diverse value of the
entire river system. Contact in-
formation can be found at the
end of this column.
As the dialogue continues
with regard to the damage done
to salmon numbers, it should
be noted that the true devasta-
tion was done in the late 1800s
and early 1900s by fish wheels
and canneries, which no longer
exist. In fact, the numbers of
fish are continuing to increase
and in some cases are higher
than in 1938 when Bonneville
Dam was built.
The Columbia-Snake River
System is the nation’s No. 1
wheat export gateway with 49
percent of U.S. wheat moving
through the system, and our
inland lock and dam system
plays a big role in getting that
wheat to market. Just rail or
barging can’t do it alone —
we need both cargo modes to
move all the product coming
out of our area.
Keeping the river system
open for business helps to pro-
tect lives, jobs, farmers, our
regional and national economy
and helps feed people around
the world.
From an environmental
perspective, the dams should
be celebrated for providing
the cleanest, greenest way of
moving millions of tons of
commodities. The last time
barging was suspended for a
period of time, the impact of