Opinion
4A
Saturday, June 26, 2021
OUR VIEW
Animal ‘cruelty’
initiative
frightening
t sounds farfetched, and quite likely it is.
Oregonians ought to hope so, anyway.
At least those Oregonians who like to eat
the occasional burger or slice of bacon. Or hunt
deer and elk. Or watch or compete in rodeos.
But the economic destruction that Initiative
Petition 13 could cause in this state is so severe,
and so widespread, that the eﬀ ort, however
quixotic it might be, simply can’t be ignored.
David Michelson of Portland is the chief peti-
tioner. His goal is to put on the statewide ballot
in November 2022 a petition that would crimi-
nalize, under animal abuse laws, essential parts
of the ranching business, including branding
and dehorning cattle and castrating bulls. Even
artiﬁ cial insemination could be classiﬁ ed as
sexual assault of an animal, which is a Class C
felony.
Backers of the initiative emphasize that
it would not actually prohibit ranchers from
selling their animals to slaughter — but they
could do so only after the animal dies natu-
rally. You needn’t be in the livestock business to
know this won’t — can’t — work.
The petition would also eliminate excep-
tions to animal cruelty laws for hunting, ﬁ shing,
rodeos and wildlife management.
It might seem unbelievable that a majority
of Oregonians would vote for a measure that
would wreak such havoc on an industry that’s a
big part of Oregon’s economy. But little wonder
that the Oregon Farm Bureau and other groups
are preparing to counter the petition with coåm-
pelling stories about how much damage this
eﬀ ort could have.
I
Public records
advocate should
be independent
regon’s public records advocate should
be an advocate for openness and
transparency.
Senate Bill 500 would make it clear that the
position will be more independent, too. The
governor will no longer get hiring and ﬁ ring
authority. That will become the purview of the
state’s public records advisory council.
The public records advocate is part of gov-
ernment, but it also must push government to
adhere to the law and encourage improvements
in the law. It’s not an easy path to walk. And it’s
even more complicated if the governor controls
your hiring and ﬁ ring and may have diﬀ erent
priorities for openness.
Ginger McCall, Oregon’s ﬁ rst public records
advocate, resigned in 2019 because she felt she
was getting undue pressure from the governor’s
oﬃ ce. Maybe nobody did anything technically
wrong. But it did make it clear that a change in
the law would be a good idea.
The advocate can hold government account-
able for how it complies with the law. The advo-
cate can help educate the public and govern-
ment about the law. And the advocate can point
out where changes are necessary in the law. But
to do all that right, the oﬃ ce does need to be
independent.
S.B. 500 surely seems on its way to be signed
by Gov. Kate Brown. That’s just what should be
happening.
O
We need to improve our approach to ﬁ res
ROB
KLAVINS
OTHER VIEWS
resh oﬀ the Labor Day ﬁ res,
and in the midst of a drought,
I imagine many of us shared
a feeling of dread when we heard
of early June wildﬁ res. Thanks to
breathless reporting, west-siders
were fearful of coming to a “disaster
area.” With very real impacts to our
local economy, some began can-
celing planned visits. After taking
a few deep breaths of cool, clean
mountain air, I began to process
things a little more calmly.
The Joseph and Dry Creek ﬁ res
burned in a ﬁ re-dependent land-
scape miles from the nearest paved
road. It’s part of a landscape that we
are spending millions of dollars to
“restore.”
There is consensus that a primary
cause of that restoration need is pre-
vious logging and a ﬁ re deﬁ cit. That
is to say — most serious experts
agree we need more ﬁ re and less ﬁ re
suppression.
Fire addresses the root causes —
rather than just the symptoms — of
decades of mismanagement. With
rain on the way, these ﬁ res could
have done even more restoration
work. For free.
They could have improved more
wildlife habitat, created more snags,
renewed more systems and left more
money for real emergencies. Where
these ﬁ res were allowed to burn,
they increased the heterogeneity of
the landscape and will aﬀ ect how
future ﬁ res burn. This is the anti-
dote to a century of ﬁ re suppressions
and makes forests more resilient to
future ﬁ re and drought.
F
Like most wildﬁ res, much of the
ﬁ re footprint was in ﬁ re-evolved
grasslands. Not surprisingly though,
it led to reﬂ exive calls for more
“management” (aka logging) of our
forests. It may not be what some
want to hear, but in an age of unde-
niable climate change, we need more
ﬁ re, not more logging.
Scientists around the world, and
here at Oregon State University,
have demonstrated that logged for-
ests emit 10 times more carbon than
wildﬁ re, beetles and other natural
disturbances that we futilely try to
suppress with chain saw restoration.
Only about 3% of a tree’s carbon is
burned in a ﬁ re. Meanwhile, logging
is Oregon’s No. 1 emitter of carbon.
Ecological and economic con-
cerns aside, we likely shared another
immediate thought — “I hope
everyone stays safe.”
In a press release, our own
Oregon Department of Forestry
administrator Matt Howard told the
media “this is probably one of the
most diﬃ cult places to ﬁ ght ﬁ re in
Oregon.”
In addition to spending huge
amounts of money, the decision to
ﬁ ght ﬁ re risks lives. The best way
to keep those brave folks safe is to
keep them out of harm’s way. I know
many wildland ﬁ reﬁ ghters who
resent being sent out to these sorts
of ﬁ res.
In the end — and as is usually the
case — weather ultimately stopped
the ﬁ re.
Make no mistake, some ﬁ res are
dangerous, destructive and should
be fought. Drought, a ﬁ re deﬁ cit and
man-made climate change are all
realities. But ﬁ ghting ﬁ re is a choice,
and we need to start making better
ones.
Uncommon bedfellows celebrated
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the Forest Service’s decision to let
the Granite Gulch Fire burn in 2019.
That breakthrough won’t mean much
if it’s just a one-oﬀ .
So, other than throwing out piles
of money and risking lives to put out
ﬁ res, what other choices do we have?
For starters, we can reduce the
risk of inevitable wildﬁ res by better
managing new development and
improving the ﬁ re resistance of
existing homes and structures. We
should thin small trees starting in
the structure-ignition zone and work
our way out from there. We should
retain large and old trees across the
landscape. And we must let some
ﬁ res burn.
The last part of that requires
ﬁ re-use planning — something
that many are still reluctant to con-
template, even as they are eager to
encourage spending millions of tax-
payer dollars to create expensive,
destructive and counterproductive
plans that only double down on past
mistakes.
A ﬁ re deﬁ cit coupled with past
logging of large trees, man-made
climate change, overgrazing and
increasing development means we
do have a problem. But it’s not one
we can solve with more logging,
grazing, climate denial and ﬁ re
suppression.
We really do know better. Now
we just need to start doing better.
———
Rob Klavins is the Northeast
Oregon ﬁ eld coordinator for Oregon
Wild. He lives near Enterprise
and helps run the family farm and
business.
STAFF
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