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March 27, 2015 CapitalPress.com 3 Klamath water transfer bill draws suspicion Opponents fear legislation would ratify controversial water deal By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI Capital Press SALEM — Irrigators in Oregon’s Klamath Basin are seeking more flexibility in how they manage water due to concerns of looming drought in the region. However, legislation that would allow Klamath irrigators to transfer or lease water rights has met with suspicion from op- ponents of a controversial dam removal project. Currently, water transfers and leases aren’t permitted in the Klamath Basin because the own- ership of water rights in the region is still being legally adjudicated. Senate Bills 206 and 264 would permit such transfers for water rights that have al- ready been quantified and al- low state regulators to partic- ipate in a “joint management entity” with irrigators in the upper Klamath Basin as part of a legal settlement. “We want to have the same flexibility that other landowners in the state do,” said Greg Add- ington, executive director of the Klamath Water Users Associa- tion, during a March 23 legisla- tive hearing. Klamath Basin irrigators must already leave water in- stream for federally protected fish, but allowing them to tech- nically lease that water would avoid the risk of forfeiting water rights, he said. “This is putting the basin on equal footing with the rest of the state,” said Richard Whitman, natural resources advisor to Or- egon Gov. Kate Brown. While the bills refer to two legal settlements between irri- gators, tribes and conservation- ists, the legislation in “no way” represents a codification or rat- ification of those agreements, Whitman said. Opponents of those broader Klamath deals — which allo- cate water use and require the removal of four hydroelectric dams, among other provisions — claim that SB 206 and SB 264 are necessary for the legal settlements to proceed. “They are integral parts and pieces of them,” said Tom Mallams, a Klamath County commissioner and opponent of dam removal, during the Senate Committee on Environment and Natural Resources hearing. Proponents claim removing four dams from the Klamath River would restore water qual- ity and hyrdrological function, but critics say it would release toxic sediments and reduce prop- erty tax revenues for counties. Farmers who rely on the Klamath Irrigation Project and those who are upstream of it have signed two separate water use deals with tribes, which hold “time immemmorial” water rights in the region. However, those deals still hinge on dam removal and fed- eral funding for environmental restoration efforts. Mallams said that local res- idents continue to oppose dam removal and claimed that farm- ers have signed onto the broader settlements under duress as they fear losing the ability to irrigate. $2 million bee health Oregon’s changing FFA elects new leaders package sought By ERIC MORTENSON Capital Press By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI Capital Press SALEM — Oregon law- makers are thinking of spend- ing $2 million for pollinator research, but a beekeeper group is perturbed by some of the legislation. The legislative package — House Bills 3360, 3361 and 3362 — would pay for a bee di- agnostic facility at Oregon State University and pollinator health outreach efforts, with beekeep- ers contributing part of the mon- ey through an assessment of 50 cents per hive. While the current bills don’t specify funding levels, speak- ers at a recent legislative hear- ing said they envision about $1 million for four full-time staff, $500,000 for equipment and $500,000 for outreach during the 2015-2017 biennium. Beekeepers have been los- ing roughly 30 percent of their hives in recent years due to a combination of factors, includ- ing malnutrition, pests, diseas- es, pesticides and low genetic diversity, said Ramesh Sagili, a bee entomologist at OSU. “There is not a single good explanation for this,” he said during a March 19 hearing before the House Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources. Last year, legislators direct- ed a task force representing beekeepers, pesticide users and conservationists to examine possible solutions to the prob- lem, which resulted in the fund- ing recommendations. The Oregon State Beekeep- ers Association is generally supportive of the legislative package but is troubled by provisions in HB 3362, which deals with registration and as- sessments for beekeepers. Harry Vanderpool, the group’s vice president, said his group objected to the bill’s re- quirement that money collect- ed from beekeepers be spent on “honeybee and native bee research.” Beekeepers don’t rely on native bees, so there’s no more justification for using their as- sessment fees on native pollina- tor research than for spending the money on salmon or oak habitat, he said. Funds from beekeepers — expected to amount to about $35,000 — should be directed solely for honeybee research, he said. Committee Chair Brad Witt, D-Clatskanie, said the bee- keeper group could ask for amendments to the bill but cautioned that a perceived lack of consensus could im- peril the legislation. Vanderpool said the cur- rent language is too divisive for the beekeeping communi- ty, which is why he broached the subject. Other agricultural entities benefit more directly from na- tive pollinators, he said. “Those revenue sources are there to be identified and discussed.” Rep. Greg Barreto, R-Cove, said that paying for native bee science seems to be justified as there’s a public interest in helping those pollinators. SILVERTON, Ore. — Luis Mendoza of Molalla High School and Addie Howell of Jefferson were elected president and vice president of Oregon FFA for 2015-16, and will head a student orga- nization that is growing and changing. Given the way delegates danced to blaring hip hop music during session breaks at the state convention this past week, FFA may stand for Funky Farmers of Amer- ica. Or, considering the in- tense interest that has led to an FFA chapter forming at a deeply urban Portland school, maybe call it Food and Fiber of America. Either way, FFA member- ship in Oregon is about 5,600 students, up from 4,800 a few years ago, and the orga- nization’s breakaway from state Department of Educa- tion funding has paid off in the form of industry support. The result is an organiza- tion that appears freshly vi- brant while still rooted in the FFA traditions of agricultur- al education and leadership training. The organization’s intended message hasn’t changed, either, said Kevin White, executive director of the Oregon FFA Foundation. “Basically, FFA is life changing,” White said. Some farmers were indif- ferent FFA members in high school, of course, and some weren’t members at all, but others say they gained from the experience. “It taught me the impor- tance of a firm handshake, how to look people in the eye when talking to them, how to address people with respect and how to speak in public,” Willamette Valley farmer Brenda Frketich said in response to a Facebook query. Kathy Freeborn Hadley said she and her husband, Troy, were active in FFA as high school students. Hadley said she still farms Willa- mette Valley fields she rent- ed as part of her FFA project. “Probably the biggest benefit I gained was the leadership and speaking skills from attending con- ferences and participating in contests,” she said on Face- book. It wasn’t that long ago, however, that Oregon FFA faltered as public schools, cramped for money, elimi- nated the ag science, home economics and shop classes that often paralleled FFA in- volvement. In 2011, Oregon FFA be- came financially indepen- dent from the Oregon De- partment of Education and the Oregon FFA Foundation, a nonprofit, was formed to raise money from industry sponsors. White, a former California state FFA vice president and national sec- retary, was hired to run the foundation. White said FFA has three main components: Classroom instruction, supervised agri- cultural projects and leader- ship training. “It’s not just a club on campus,” he said. Eric Mortenson/Capital Press The 2015-16 Oregon FFA state officers are, from left: Sentinel Bailey Myers, Reporter Ricky Molitor, Treasurer Alyssa Smith, Secretary Joe Matteo, Vice President Addie Howell and Presi- dent Luis Mendoza. Rising interest in where food and fiber come from have helped the organization grow, White said. “That’s only making FFA more rel- evant,” he said. Madison High School in Northeast Portland, with a low-income, high-minority student population, recently formed a chapter. White said. Although state funding for FFA has been eliminated, school districts are begin- ning to re-establish career and technical education, or CTE, programs, said Reyn- old Gardner,a specialist with the state education depart- ment. He credits Oregon State University’s College of Agricultural Sciences with providing the “cultural lead” in reviving the programs. Students elected to state- wide office are seniors, but delay entering college to spend a year traveling the state working with local chapters. Mendoza, the newly elect- ed president, said he met with touring state officers when he was a freshman. “That definitely inspired me,” he said. “I thought, wow, I can do this. Follow your dreams, don’t give up.” In addition to Mendoza and Vice President How- ell, other state officers are Secretary Joe Matteo of Sutherlin, Treasurer Alyssa Smith of Elkton, Reporter Ricky Molitor of Madras, and Sentinel Bailey Myers of Nyssa. Oregon bill regulates use of livestock antibiotics Capital Press SALEM — Federal over- sight of antibiotic use in livestock production recently sparked de- bate as Oregon lawmakers con- sidered enacting state restric- tions on such treatments. Proponents of House Bill 2598, which would prohibit treating livestock with “non- therapeutic” doses of antibi- otics, claim the legislation is necessary because the U.S. Food and Drug Administration doesn’t impose adequate limits on the drugs. Overuse of antibiotics is causing resistance among patho- gens, so using the medicine to stimulate growth or to prevent disease in livestock should be stopped, said David Rosenfeld, executive director of the OS- PIRG consumer group. Some antibiotics have al- ready become less effective and aren’t likely to be quickly re- placed, he said during a March 24 hearing before the House Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources. “They’re not being devel- oped at the same rate we’re los- ing them,” Rosenfeld said. The legislation would not be rendered moot by the FDA’s strategy of working with drug manufacturers to phase out some nontherapeutic antibiotic use in livestock by the end of 2016, Rosenfeld said. The federal program is vol- untary and only ceases antibiot- ic treatments meant to promote growth — most nontherapeu- tic use is aimed at preventing diseases, so the FDA’s plan is unlikely to significantly reduce overuse, he said. There’s currently no feder- al statute restricting antibiotics in livestock production, so the FDA’s approach is vulnerable to change under new presi- dential administrations, said Ivan Maluski, policy director of Friends of Family Farmers, a group that supports stronger antibiotic regulations. “We’re not necessarily con- fident the solution is going to come from Washington, D.C.,” he said. The Oregon Veterinary Medical Association is also concerned about antibiotic re- sistance but believes HB 2598 falls short of its goals, said Chuck Meyer, the group’s president. The bill would compromise animal health by banning anti- biotic use for disease preven- tion, he said. Prevention is nec- essary when dealing with herds of animals rather than individu- al people, Meyer said. Proponents of HB 2598 oversimplify the FDA’s strategy by characterizing it as “voluntary,” said Richard Carnevale, vice president of regulatory, scientific and international affairs for the Animal Health Institute, which represents drug man- ufacturers. The pharmaceutical indus- try has agreed to cooperate with FDA rather having the agency go through with the formal pro- cess of disallowing certain an- tibiotic uses, which would drag on for years, he said. Companies are commit- ting to antibiotic restrictions, by which veterinarians and farmers would have to abide, Carnevale said. “Once this takes place, those labels will be changed forever.” Of the 18 pathogens identi- fied by the Centers for Disease Control as posing an antibiotic resistance threat, only salmo- nella and campylobacter are related to animal agriculture, he said. “In the whole scheme of things, they don’t represent a huge antibiotic resistance prob- lem,” Carnevale said. Apart from the ban on non- therapeutic use, HB 2598 con- tains other contentious provi- sions: confined animal feeding operations would have to report antibiotic use to state regulators and private citizens could file lawsuits to enforce the law. Proponents of the bill say it’s necessary to track antibiot- ic usage since the drugs could still be used on healthy animals during emergencies. As for the lawsuits, proponents say the law is meant to be “self-en- forcing” and limit the role of government. Opponents counter that the recordkeeping burden for CAFOs is excessive and that the lawsuit provision will spur attorneys to seek out farmers for litigation. 13-4/#4X Bag needs? Bag solutions! SMITH PACKAGING YOUR MAIN SUPPLIER FOR: • Polyethylene Bags • Polypropylene Bags • Paper Bags • Bulk Bags • Stretch Films • Hay Sleeves • Mesh Produce Bags • Plastic Pallet Covers • Bag Closure Products • General Warehouse Supplies Competitive pricing! Great quality products! 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