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CapitalPress.com
May 29, 2015
Obama immigration action may be dead, labor leader says
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
YAKIMA, Wash. — A fed-
eral appeals court upholding an
injunction against the President
Barack Obama’s controversial
executive action on immigra-
tion probably means it is dead
for the remainder of his term in
office, a farm labor leader says.
“It is my understanding the
administration probably will
appeal and that could take a
couple of years,” said Mike
Gempler, executive direc-
tor of Washington Growers
League, a non-partisan associ-
ation representing agricultural
employers on labor issues.
The executive action
would defer deportation and
provide temporary legal work
status for about 5 million of
an estimated 12 million peo-
ple in the U.S. illegally, was
scheduled to take effect in
May. Many of the illegal im-
migrants are farmworkers.
On Feb. 16, U.S. District
Judge Andrew Hanen, in Tex-
as, ruled in favor of 26 states
that sued to overturn the ex-
ecutive action and issued an
injunction stopping the pro-
grams on grounds that they
were implemented without
following the Administrative
Procedures act which requires
a public comment period.
The injunction was ap-
pealed to the 5th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals in New Orle-
ans. A three-judge panel of that
court upheld the injunction on
May 26.
“In my opinion, it was pro-
ductive to push the envelope a
little on this,” Gempler said. “It
was provocative and made peo-
ple think and hopefully would
trigger action in Congress.”
Comprehensive immigra-
tion reform by Congress seems
unlikely anytime soon but it is
needed because an executive
action “is a very temporary
measure,” Gempler said.
Tom Roach, a Pasco, Wash.,
immigration attorney, could
not be reached for comment.
Previously, he has estimated
90,000 to 100,000 people in
Central Washington and north-
eastern Oregon are eligible
under the executive action for
Deferred Action for Parents
of Americans — known as
DAPA — or an expanded 2014
version of the 2012 Deferred
Action for Childhood Arrivals
— called DACA.
Thousands of illegal immi-
grants are eligible in Idaho and
California, he said.
Gempler said he believes
there’s always been public
support for DACA because
it makes sense to not deport
people who have grown up in
the U.S.
“For DAPA, I don’t get a
sense that there’s a lot of sup-
port in the general public or in
the farm community necessari-
ly, but I think there is in the im-
migrant community,” he said.
United Farm Workers,
Keene, Calif., issued a news
release denouncing the court
ruling. UFW was among more
than 100 organizations filing
friend of the court briefs and
issuing statements in support of
the president’s action. UFW ex-
Iris yellow spot virus detected in volunteer onions
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
ONTARIO, Ore. — Or-
egon State University re-
searchers have alerted onion
growers in the region to be on
the lookout for the iris yellow
spot virus in this year’s crop.
The virus has been detect-
ed in several volunteer onions,
said OSU Cropping Systems
Extension Agent Stuart Reitz.
“I haven’t seen it in the
crop yet but if we’re seeing it
in the volunteers, it’s only a
matter of time before it shows
up in the crop,” he said. “I ex-
pect to see it showing ... up in
the crop any time basically.”
About 25 percent of the
nation’s fresh bulb onions are
grown in Eastern Oregon and
Southwestern Idaho and the
virus is one of the industry’s
top production challenges.
It weakens the onion plant
and can significantly reduce
growth, which is important
in the onion industry because
larger-sized bulb onions fetch
higher prices.
The virus is transmitted to
onions by thrips and the in-
sect’s populations are starting
to build up rapidly, Reitz said.
“We’re consistently seeing
1 to 2 adult thrips per plant,
which is a healthy population
for this time of year,” he said.
The virus was detected in
last year’s crop in early June.
Reitz said growers should
be focusing on controlling
volunteer onions, since they
act as early season reservoirs
for thrips and the virus to
move into the crop.
“People need to get all of
the volunteer stuff away,” said
Nyssa farmer Paul Skeen, pres-
ident of the Malheur County
Onion Growers Association.
Nyssa grower Reid Saito
said the virus is one of the
industry’s top two problems,
along with the nutsedge weed.
“We don’t have a real good
handle on it,” he said. “You
just never know when it’s go-
ing to show up. Year to year
and area to area, the virus pres-
sure varies.”
Saito said he has seen onion
fields that look great “and then
when the virus shows up, I’ve
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Sean Ellis/Capital Press
An onion field is irrigated May 26 near Nyssa, Ore. The iris yellow spot virus has been detected in
volunteer onions and Oregon State University researchers say it will soon show up in this year’s crop.
seen the whole complexion of
the crop change from good to
terrible in a matter of days.”
Reitz and Skeen credit
an aggressive thrips control
program with helping keep
virus pressure low last year
compared with the previous
several years.
2013 was a bad year for the
virus but last year was mild by
comparison, Skeen said, and
that was due in part to farm-
ers spraying earlier and more
often for thrips.
Farmers should be out
scouting their fields now and
acting quickly if any virus
pressure is detected, Reitz said.
“People should be check-
ing their crop very carefully
to see if any virus shows up,”
he said. “The people who had
less severe pressure last year
were the ones who stayed on
top of it.”
For more information
about thrips and the virus,
contact Reitz at (541) 881-
1417.
AIRWAY
HEIGHTS,
Wash. — The Washington De-
partment of Fish and Wildlife’s
wolf advisory group needs
to build trust to work on wolf
issues together, its director
said May 21 during a meeting
closed to the public.
Department director Jim
Unsworth told the advisory
group it will take time to see
how wolves affect different
aspects of the Washington land-
scape compared to previous
wolf introductions in Idaho,
Montana and Wyoming.
“I predict, with lots of con-
fidence, wolves will not have
the dire impacts some people
predict, nor will they have
the benign influence others
predict,” he said during the
group’s meeting in Airway
Heights, Wash.
Unsworth said it’s appro-
priate to start thinking about
a plan now for when wolves
are taken off the endangered
species list, as he expects the
wolf population to begin to
rapidly increase.
The advisory group met
in the morning, allowing only
members of the media to at-
tend. It met in private during
the afternoon and planned to
take a private field trip to talk
with ranchers on May 22. Ac-
cording to the advisory group’s
guidelines, all meetings are
open to the public unless a ma-
jority of the 18-member group
votes to change the guideline.
Unsworth declined to com-
ment on closing the meeting,
saying it was consultant Fran-
cine Madden, co-founder and
executive director of the Hu-
man-Wildlife Conflict Collabo-
ration, who asked that the meet-
ing be closed to the public.
Madden will work with the
group for the first few meet-
ings, he said. He hopes to see
a funding mechanism from the
state Legislature to keep her on
board, Unsworth told reporters
outside the meeting.
Madden said the feeling
of advisory group members
during her assessment was that
the group was not productive
and had no relationship build-
ing or trust.
“You’re not going to get
one side to respect the needs
of the other side if they don’t
respect each other as individ-
uals and you’re not going to
build trust if you don’t have
respect,” she said.
Many in the group are new
to the process, she said. The
advisory group recently grew
from nine members to 18.
Online
http: //wdfw.wa.gov/about/
advisory/wag/
“We want to use every op-
portunity to learn what is going
to work in this system and how
do we engage in a way where
people can start to build trust in
a broader community and build
engagement,” she said.
Madden said her goal is to
expand involvement and not
constrict it. The closed meeting
was a “one-off,” she said.
“The goal of the closed
meeting was to build some
trust so we can get everybody
to trust each other enough so
we can start to expand that
involvement,” she said. “To
compensate for the closed
meeting, we said we would
audiotape the whole thing so
people would know there’s no
hidden agenda, there are no se-
crets here.”
An audio recording of the
entire meeting will be avail-
able on the department website,
Madden and department public
affairs and outreach manager
Bruce Botka said.
“As a department, we try
to do our business openly and
transparently as possible,”
Matthew Weaver/Capital Press
Hunters, Wash., rancher Dave Dashiell greets consultant Francine
Madden prior to the Washington Department of Fish and WIldlife wolf
advisory group meeting May 20 in Airway Heights, Wash. Madden is
working to help the group overcome deep-rooted conflicts between
opposing viewpoints to move forward on managing wolves.
Botka said. “Making the in-
formation available is one way
we can people engaged at a
level of detail some of them
want to pursue.”
Brendon Wold, deputy
communications director of
the Washington House of Rep-
resentatives House Republican
Caucus, was told he would not
be allowed to attend the meet-
ing as a member of the public.
Wold said he represents East-
ern Washington legislators and
their constituents.
“This would be the first
time I’ve ever been asked to
leave a state agency meeting,
advisory meeting, some sort
of council, where the media
&
HWY 730 • IRRIGON, OR
is able to be,” Wold said. “It is
a little bit concerning. I have
representatives who are very
involved in this issue and the
outcome, so they would like
somebody here to take notes
and listen.”
Stevens County commis-
sioner Don Dashiell is an ad-
visory group member, but re-
mained outside the meeting,
only entering during breaks to
interact with new and returning
members. As an elected offi-
cial, he said, state law doesn’t
allow him to attend a meeting
that excludes the public.
The advisory group doesn’t
set policy, but will be “incredi-
bly powerful and influential” if
they can speak with one voice,
Unsworth told members.
LEGAL
f
f
u
t
S
SAGE Fact #114
Finley Buttes Regional Landfill is situated on
1,800 acres and is the second largest landfill in
Oregon. The landfill receives over 500,000 tons of
municipal solid waste annually.
Visit the SAGE Center:
Sunday - Thursday 10am - 5pm
Friday & Saturday 10am - 6pm
“The Buttercreek Boys”
will be playing the third Sunday
of each month at the museum.
541-561-2211 | 541-561-2327 | 541-303-3923
22-1/#6
22-1/#6
NOTICE OF OREGON WHEAT
COMMISSION PUBLIC
BUDGET HEARING
NOTICE HEREBY IS GIVEN
that a public meeting will be
held pursuant to ORS 578,
the
Oregon
Wheat
Commission Act, at the
Oregon Wheat Commission
office, 1200 NW
Naito
Parkway, Ste. 370, Portland,
OR 97209 on Monday, June
15, 2015 at 1:30 pm to review
the proposed budget for the
operation of the Oregon
Wheat Commission during
the Fiscal Year July 1, 2015 to
June 30, 2016.
At
this
meeting,
any
producer of wheat in Oregon
has the right to be heard
with respect to the proposed
budget, a copy of which is
available
for
inspection,
under reasonable circum-
stances, in the office of each
County Extension Agent in
Oregon.
For further information,
contact the Oregon Wheat
Commission office, 1200 NW
Naito Parkway, Suite 370,
Portland, OR 97209-2800 or
by phone at (503) 467-2161.
Dated this 18th day of
May, 2015
ATTESTED: Robert Newtson,
Chairman
Blake Rowe, Administrator
22-1/#4
Capital Press
Biotech crop
mediation bill
faces resistance
Capital Press
Wolf advisory group gets rancher input
By MATTHEW WEAVER
pressed optimism that Obama’s
executive order eventually will
prevail and said it will continue
to help prepare illegals for ad-
ministrative relief under DAPA
and DACA.
OneAmerica, a Seattle
immigration group, issued a
statement calling the decision
“disappointing” and saying it
believes eventually millions
will be given the chance to ap-
ply for DAPA and DACA.
Presente.org, a Latino pow-
er group, issued a statement
saying the court ruling “is part
of a continuing and well-or-
chestrated Republican attack on
Latinos and immigrants.”
After an uncontroversial
start, legislation that would
require mediation for disputes
over biotech crops in Oregon
is now facing opposition from
critics of genetic engineering.
House Bill 2509, which
would direct the Oregon De-
partment of Agriculture to me-
diate conflicts over genetically
modified organisms, didn’t ini-
tially meet with objections and
passed the House by an over-
whelming margin.
The bill arose from a work
group convened by Rep. Brian
Clem, D-Salem, that evaluated
a range of GMO proposals.
During a May 20 legisla-
tive hearing, Clem said he’s
surprised by the recent surge
of antagonism toward HB
2509, which emerged from the
concerns of GMO critics who
worried that biotech farmers
wouldn’t agree to mediation.
“This came from the an-
ti-GMO community,” he said.
“This was designed to be help-
ful for people worried about be-
ing interfered with by GMOs.”
Friends of Family Farmers,
a group that favors stronger
GMO regulation, participated
in the work group negotiations
and credited the bill with pro-
viding an incentive for media-
tion during a work session last
month.
Now that HB 2509 is before
the Senate, however, the non-
profit group and other GMO
critics are asking lawmakers to
reject the proposal because they
say farmers who are harmed by
biotech cross-pollination should
not be forced into mediation.
“It strikes us that mediation
should be a choice farmers
make, not a mandated situa-
tion,” said Ivan Maluski, policy
director of Friends of Fami-
ly Farmers, during the recent
hearing before the Senate Com-
mittee on Environment and
Natural Resources.
If a dispute over geneti-
cally engineered crops occurs
between farmers, the bill calls
for ODA to provide mediation
to seek a coexistence solution.
If a grower refuses mediation
and later loses a lawsuit in the
dispute, he’d be required to pay
the opposing party’s legal costs.
While Friends of Family
Farmers believes mediation may
be useful in some circumstances,
the group has decided to oppose
the bill because mandatory me-
diation could impose a financial
burden on small growers.
The mediation requirement
may delay a timely court deci-
sion when a farmer faces mar-
ket rejection of his crop due
to cross-pollination, the group
claims.
Our Family Farms Coalition,
which successfully campaigned
for a GMO ban in Jackson
County, argues that HB 2509
would hinder the ability of or-
ganic and conventional growers
to enforce that prohibition.
The group argues that small
farmers would effectively be
blocked from seeking a “quick
legal action to prevent contam-
ination of their crop” due to
fears of paying astronomical
attorney fees.
“This bill would prevent
that as a practical matter,” said
Kellie Barnes, a representative
for the group.
The Center for Food Safe-
ty, a nonprofit involved in
prominent legal battles over
GMOs, alleges that ODA
can’t be trusted to oversee the
mediation program because
the agency has served as the
“mouthpiece of the agricultur-
al biotechnology industry.”