May 22, 2015
CapitalPress.com
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House bills puts 10-year hold on sage grouse listing
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
Ranchers won a legisla-
tive round in the greater sage
grouse saga on Friday when
a defense bill passed the
U.S. House with a provision
delaying an endangered spe-
cies listing of the bird for 10
years.
Preventing a listing of
the bird is a top priority for
Public Lands Council and
National Cattlemen’s Beef
Association and will remain
a priority along with work-
ing to modernize the En-
dangered Species Act, said
Dustin Van Liew, executive
director of PLC and NCBA
federal lands.
The FY 2016 National De-
fense Authorization Act con-
taining the species measures
passed 169-151, with about
40 Democrats joining all
House Republicans. The ESA
content was focused on dis-
ruption of military operations
on military installations in or
near species habitat, he said.
The Senate committee
mark-up of its version of the
defense bill does not contain
the measures, but amend-
ments could be introduced
on the floor when the bill is
heard or negotiated in confer-
ence, he said.
PLC and NCBA will be
working with senators to
communicate the detrimental
effects of a species listing and
the benefits of grazing and
keeping open space intact to
protect habitat, he said.
Any time a species is list-
ed, it brings restrictions on
land and water use that af-
fect ranchers, such as when,
where and if grazing allowed,
he said.
Sage grouse habitat spans
11 Western states and encom-
passes 186 million acres of
federal and private land.
A listing would not only
destroy the ranching industry
in the West, the backbone of
many rural communities, it
would also halt conservation
efforts underway by ranch-
ers, said Idaho rancher Bren-
da Richards, PLC president
and NCBA member.
“Ranchers in particular
have consistently lived and
operated in harmony with the
sage grouse for many decades
and, in fact, the core habitat
areas are thriving largely due
to a long history of well-man-
aged grazing,” she said.
In addition to delaying a
listing, language in the bill
would put state-approved
management plans into place
for at least five years — en-
suring states have an integral
role in sage-grouse manage-
ment.
A listing would impact
ranchers, on the ground and
in court rooms. Ranchers in
the Great Plains are already
feeling the negative impact of
last year’s threatened listing
of the lesser prairie chicken,
Van Liew said.
The defense bill also in-
cludes language to reverse
and prohibit a listing of the
lesser prairie chicken as ei-
ther threatened or endan-
gered until 2021.
In addition to delaying
any sage grouse listing, the
bill blocks federal land-use
decisions that exceed state
management plans, Van Liew
said.
PLC and NCBA are al-
ready seeing U.S. Bureau of
Land Management plans that
would go beyond even Fish
and Wildlife Service plans,
he said.
For example, one such
plan would require a plant
stubble height of 6 inches,
which is not attainable in
some areas of the West even
without cattle grazing, he
said.
That arbitrary stubble
height is both “threatening
and laughable,” and a testi-
mony to the importance of
leaving management to the
states instead of a federal
one-size-fits-all approach, he
said.
“It remains a priority for
us to keep wildlife decisions
as close to the ground as pos-
Ag a key economic player in Columbia River Gorge
By ERIC MORTENSON
Capital Press
HOOD RIVER, Ore. —
Agriculture is a major economic
influence in the Columbia River
Gorge counties, panelists said
at a May 14 conference, and
Oregon’s Sherman County is a
prime example.
“Sherman County can lead
the state in terms of earnings per
capita or it can be at the bottom,
depending on what commodity
prices are doing,” said Dallas
Fridley, a regional economist
with the Oregon Employment
Department.
In 2013, thanks mainly to
good wheat prices, per capita
personal income in the county
was $57,738, while other gorge
counties ranged from $38,000 to
$40,000, Fridley said.
The income figures were
among the information nuggets
distributed during the Columbia
Gorge Economic Symposium.
Panelists said agriculture and as-
sociated activities such as food
processing are key components
of the mid-Columbia economy.
The event examined prospects
in Hood River, Wasco and Sher-
man counties in Oregon, and
Klickitat and Skamania counties
in Washington. In the region, the
natural resource sector, which
includes agriculture, provides
18 percent of jobs but only 12
percent of wages, speakers said.
Mike Glover, executive di-
rector of the Hood River County
Chamber of Commerce, said
the organization wants to make
agriculture and value-added ag-
riculture — such as wineries and
distilleries — a bigger part of the
county’s tourism draw. The an-
nual “Fruit Loop” celebration,
which encourages visitors to see
the valley’s orchards, has been
a successful event for years, he
said.
“We want to soften the sea-
sonality of it, we want to pro-
vide year-round employment,”
he said.
Eric Mortenson/Capital Press
Oregon economists Nick Beleiciks, left, and Dallas Fridley de-
scribed agriculture’s impact in the Columbia River Gorge at a May
14 symposium in Hood River.
Given the breweries, winer-
ies and cider makers springing
up in the area, Glover said the
gorge could use a fermentation
science education program.
The chamber also is con-
cerned that rising real estate
prices in Hood River put hous-
ing out of reach for workers,
Glover said.
“As we look down the pike
we don’t want to make Hood
River so popular that we love it
to death and people can’t afford
to live here,” he said.
Ken Bailey, an orchardist
based in Wasco County, said his
farm employment has almost
doubled in the past five years.
Technological changes will
require additional training for
workers, especially in packing
houses as machines take over
sorting and sizing duties, he
said.
Drone technology is poised
to take off when the FAA gives
full flight approval, with agricul-
ture and law enforcement likely
to be the first users of unmanned
aerial vehicles, said Jessica
Metta, executive director of the
Columbia River Gorge Technol-
ogy Alliance. Insitu Inc., which
makes drone aircraft for military
and other uses, is based in Bin-
gen, Wash., and has attracted as-
sociated businesses to the area.
Overall, the economies in
Oregon and Washington has
largely recovered jobs lost
during the recession and are
keeping pace with national ex-
pansion, state economists said.
Oregon’s
unemployment
rate was 5.4 percent in March,
compared to the national rate of
5.5 percent, said Nick Beleiciks,
a workforce trend expert with
the Oregon Employment De-
partment. The last time Oregon
had a better rate than the nation-
al rate was 1996, he said.
“The labor market’s doing
really well,” Beleiciks said.
“I”m not sure everyone is get-
ting that message.”
Oregon’s job growth is broad
based, with the exception of
mining and logging jobs, which
dropped recently. That’s prob-
ably due to a decline in log ex-
ports to China, Beleiciks said.
Paul Turek, an economist
with Washington’s Employment
Security Department, said the
private industry recovery is
“mostly complete.” Construc-
tion jobs haven’t rebounded
to pre-recession numbers,
but they were probably in-
flated during that time by the
housing bubble that fueled
the 2009 recession. People re-
main cautious, which should
prevent another overheated
“bubble mania,” he said.
A spike in oil prices isn’t
likely soon, Turek said, and
wage gains are “imminent.”
Cover crop company faces
$4.85 million in farmer lien s
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
Several Oregon farms have
filed crop liens against an out-of-
state seed company they claim is
past due on more than $1.5 mil-
lion in payments for radish seed.
Other growers whose con-
tractual payment dates are still
upcoming have also filed liens
against Cover Crop Solutions,
based in Pennsylvania, bringing
the total to 35 grain producers
liens worth $4.85 million.
“I don’t know of any small
business owners in Oregon that
can take that kind of hit for an
extended period of time. It’s
a scary situation,” said Anna
Scharf of Scharf Farms, which
filed a $250,000 lien against the
firm. “When we’re asked to be
the banker, it’s hard for farm-
ers.”
David Weaver, CEO of Cov-
er Crop Solutions, said he could
not yet discuss the situation but
would soon respond to a request
for comment from Capital Press.
Jim Gardner of K&J Farms,
which filed a $97,000 lien, said
his family is relatively new to
producing radish seed but it was
a major crop for their operation
last year.
“I haven’t seen a penny and I
need to pay people,” he said.
The uncertainty over pay-
ments from Cover Crop Solu-
tions will probably make farm-
ers think twice about growing
radish seed, Gardner said. “A
farmer can’t grow something
for nothing.”
A recent oversupply in the
market for radish seed, which
is planted as a cover crop, was
aggravated by weather in the
Midwest last year, said Gary
Weaver, president of Weaver
Seed of Oregon.
A wet spring in 2014 de-
layed the planting and harvest
of corn and soybeans, which
left many farmers in that region
with insufficient time to plant
cover crops in autumn, he said.
Seed producers in Oregon’s
Willamette Valley also over-
estimated demand for radish
seed, Weaver said. “The whole
valley planted too many acres.”
However, the oversupply
is likely to ease over the next
18 months as seed companies
work through their inventories,
he said.
Gardner of K&J Farms said
that growers file liens because
they’re nervous about an even-
tuality similar to the bankruptcy
of Agribiotech, which defaulted
on contracts with grass seed
farmers in 2000.
“I think it opened a lot of
farmers’ eyes about what they
need to do to protect them-
selves,” he said.
In a bankruptcy, liens en-
sure that farmers are treated
as secured creditors who have
collateral in the company’s
assets, said Tim Bernasek, an
Oregon attorney specializing
in agriculture.
“Being first in line to get
paid enhances your ability to
get paid,” Bernasek said.
Under a grain producer’s
lien, a company’s entire in-
ventory serves as collateral
for the grower — not just the
crop he delivered, said John
Albert, an Oregon attorney
who specializes in agricultur-
al liens.
Farmers therefore don’t
have to show the company
still has possession of their
crop, he said.
“That makes it a pretty
powerful tool in the hands of
a grower,” Albert said.
However, grain producers
liens aren’t effective indefi-
nitely, since they expire after
six months.
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