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CapitalPress.com
October 2, 2015
Editorials are written by or
approved by members of the
Capital Press Editorial Board.
All other commentary pieces are
the opinions of the authors but
not necessarily this newspaper.
Opinion
Editorial Board
Publisher
Editor
Managing Editor
Mike O’Brien
Joe Beach
Carl Sampson
opinions@capitalpress.com Online: www.capitalpress.com/opinion
O ur V iew
Board of Ag appointment adds to diversity
T
he Oregon Board of
Agriculture is a 10-person
advisory body whose job is
to provide a sounding board for
state Agriculture Director Katy
Coba on the many issues facing
farmers and ranchers.
To do that requires a
board with expertise and a
broad perspective. Current
members run family farms,
agri-businesses, diversified
operations, ranches, urban farms
and have even administered
the state Department of
Environmental Quality. They
come from across the state —
Klamath Falls, Portland and
Eastern Oregon.
It may be among the most
diverse boards the Department
of Agriculture has ever had. As
such, it aptly and ably represents
the state’s 35,439 farmers and
ranchers.
If we were asked our opinion
about adding a member to
the board, we would suggest
someone who was involved in
dairy production, organic crop
production, alternative energy,
labor relations, conservation
set-asides and innovative
cropping systems. Such a
person could offer value to any
agriculture-related advisory
board.
Gov. Kate Brown last week
appointed Marty Myers, general
manager of Threemile Canyon
Farms in Boardman, to the board.
The appointment was a master
stroke. Myers brings with him a
unique set of tools and experience
that can benefit the board and the
state Department of Agriculture
by providing insight unavailable
from other sources.
Having worked on small
farms during high school and
college, Myers now manages
one of the most diverse farms
in the West. The farm’s 32,000-
cow milking herd produces 2
million pounds of milk a day
that is made into Tillamook
cheese. The farm converts the
manure into electricity using an
anaerobic digester that produces
a third of the farm’s power needs.
The byproduct of that power
production is used to fertilize the
crops, which include 7,450 acres
of organic vegetables and 6,100
acres of potatoes. Crops include
corn, wheat, alfalfa, mint, peas,
green beans, carrots and onions
on a total of 39,500 acres.
The farm also raises its own
replacement heifers and 7,000
steers in addition to a nursery for
its calves. It grows its own seed
potatoes and has a 23,000-acre
conservation set-aside.
It also employs 330 people
year-round — many of them
union members — and 400
people seasonally with an annual
payroll of more than $10 million.
By any measure, Threemile
Canyon is a unique and cutting-
edge farm that has pioneered
many aspects of sustainable
production.
Yet the appointment of Myers
to the board has been criticized
in some quarters as a sellout to
“big ag.” The Friends of Family
Farmers group was particularly
vociferous in its complaints that
the state would somehow “take
agriculture in the direction of
industrialization.”
While we understand the group
sees itself as an advocate of small
farms, the appointment of a single
person who manages a large
farm cannot be characterized as
pushing one type of farming any
more than the appointment of
an urban farmer denotes a shift
toward plowing up the streets of
Portland to plant crops.
Decisions about the size and
scope of individual farms are
made by farmers, not in the
Capitol in Salem or by the state
board of agriculture. What other
groups think of those decisions is
beside the point.
Large or small, organic or
conventional, livestock or crops,
farming is rapidly evolving.
Many farms, large and small, are
adopting cropping systems that
involve a combination of crops
similar to how Threemile Canyon
operates.
The Board of Agriculture
met last week with Myers as its
newest member. He will provide
a needed voice on a diverse body
that will help the state navigate
the many issues facing agriculture
in the 21st century.
O ur V iew
If Walden were to speak up
for immigration reform ...
What if a politically secure Republican spoke
up for farmers who need migrant labor?
In this editorial, we
take the liberty of writing
a speech for Congressman
Greg Walden, who represents
Oregon’s sprawling Fourth
Congressional District in
Eastern Oregon.
M
Rik Dalvit/For the Capital Press
O ur V iew
Sage grouse decision: New paradigm
T
he U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
last week decided not to add
the greater sage grouse to the
endangered species list.
That’s good news for ranchers and
others in the western natural resources
community.
In making the announcement, U.S.
Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell
credited voluntary and collaborative
measures to protect and improve greater
sage grouse habitat on public and
private land across the West.
With Oregon ranchers providing
a key early model, producers, private
landowners and public agencies
adopted agreements most believe will
protect sage grouse habitat while still
allowing work on the land.
More than 100 Oregon ranchers
signed voluntary conservation
agreements with USFWS in which
they took steps to improve habitat in
exchange for 30 years protection from
additional regulation even if the bird
had been listed. Private landowners in
other states followed suit, and public
agencies such as the BLM revised their
management plans.
Those revisions added restrictions on
everyone who uses public lands. On the
whole, we think these new restrictions
are less intrusive than what would have
happened if the sage grouse were listed.
Some environmental groups say the
sage grouse can’t survive without the
more stringent protections provided by
the Endangered Species Act.
Oil and gas interests say the
voluntary conservation plans on private
lands and mandatory efforts on public
lands are too restrictive for energy
production. At the same time, there are
carve outs for a proposed transmission
line for electricity produced by wind
generators, a resource favored by the
administration.
Though for different ends, both sides
have threatened litigation.
It should be noted that it was a
lawsuit brought by environmentalists
to force the government to make
a decision on a sage grouse listing
that provided the impetus for the
collaborative efforts and reworked land
use plans now at issue.
Some members of Congress say the
Obama administration has successfully
put even private lands under the
government’s thumb, what some
believe was the goal from the start.
Litigation is an inevitable byproduct
of any decision on an environmental
issue. Congressional displeasure is also
a near certainty. All of this will play out
over time.
We would not suggest that voluntary
conservation plans and the government
efforts have not changed the West.
Clearly, there is a new paradigm.
But ranchers and other natural
resource advocates need to remember
that they have more options under the
current conditions than they would had
the sage grouse been listed. That would
change the West in ways that would
make grazing and other productive
use of public and private lands all but
impossible in many cases.
The challenge now is to ensure
measures taken thus far maintain sage
grouse habitat and lead to an increase in
the population. The only way to thwart
litigation or renewed political pressure
for a listing — and thus more onerous
restrictions — is to actually save the
sage grouse.
r. Speaker, I rise
today to speak
for a group of
Americans that we tend
to forget in this chamber.
These are farmers — farmers
who absolutely depend on
migrant labor. There are
many of these farmers in my
district. And I am sure the
same is true in many of your
districts.
The Capital Press,
a weekly agricultural
newspaper published in my
state of Oregon, reported
on September 18 that a
California grower of organic
figs lost $500,000 — that is
a half million dollars — in
figs he was unable to harvest
because he had difficulty
finding workers to harvest
his crops. The figs rotted on
the ground.
Not too long ago, I spent
part of a day listening to
orchardists in the Hood
River Valley, which is part
of my district. One of these
growers — named Mike
Omeg — described in
painful detail what he has to
do to make the federal H-2A
program work. Farmers use
that program to bring guest
workers to their land.
As Mr. Omeg and other
Hood River orchardists
told me, the H-2A program
whipsaws them between the
departments of Immigration
— inside Homeland Security
— Labor and
State.
They also
must comply
with housing
Walden
rules that are
different than those enforced
by the state of Oregon.
They must pay the
prevailing wage. And if a
worker does not perform, the
farmer cannot dismiss him.
The farmers in the Hood
River Valley are significant
to one of Oregon’s regional
economies, but most growers
are smaller operations. Mr.
Omeg told me that a large
grower can make H2-A
work, by gaining economies
of scale. But those are not
available to a small grower.
Mr. Speaker, we have
talked about immigration
reform for months and years.
Some of the biggest names
in both parties have broken
their picks on this topic.
Most recently, the Senate
passed a bipartisan reform
bill. But it has not come to a
vote in this House.
It is no secret that
farmers, across America, feel
betrayed by the Republican
party. That embarrasses me.
In taking the floor on
this issue today, I realize
that I may be jeopardizing
my standing in the House
majority leadership. But
I must speak up for these
farmers.
If breaking my silence
on this topic costs me my
leadership position, so be
it. The first obligation of
each of us is to represent our
constituents. That’s what I’m
doing today.
Federal forest management is not to blame for Washington state fires
By MITCH FRIEDMAN
For the Capital Press
L
ike
the
drought-
parched soils of our re-
gion, your claim (For-
est management, wildfires
and climate change, 9/24)
that “The poor management
of federal land … is the pri-
mary cause of the increasing
number of large wildfires”
doesn’t hold water.
Only a third of what
burned this year in Eastern
Washington was national for-
est. The rest was mostly pri-
vate and tribal lands. Here’s
Guest
comment
Mitch Friedman
a map: www.conservationnw.
org/news/scat/cnw-fire-land-
ownership-map.
Just as with the 2014
Carlton Complex Fire, most
of what burned in Wash-
ington in 2015 wasn’t even
forest, but grass and brush.
The Lime Belt, Tunk Block
and Twisp River fires, which
were the most devastating
in lost property and life as
well as suppression costs,
burned hot through mostly
open front-country including
ranches.
Of what was in forest,
most was in heavily managed
tribal and timber industry
land. The massive Carpenter
Road and North Star fires are
clear examples. Under the
conditions of this summer,
almost everything burns hot,
including the most heavily
managed timber and ranch
land.
There was one type of
land use that seemed to hold
up better than the rest: Plac-
es where the very best stew-
ardship efforts were used.
These are areas of generally
dry forest types that had been
not only recently thinned to
remove small trees, but then
burned with controlled fire
to remove remaining fuels,
leaving just the larger trees
and snags.
Examples of this include
the state’s Sinlahekin Wild-
life Area, where the Wash-
ington Department of Fish
and Wildlife’s forest resto-
ration units appear to have
been key to keeping the Lime
Belt Fire from raging to the
town of Loomis, and some
great Forest Service project
areas that kept the northern
parts of the Tunk Block and
North Star fires from linking
up.
Those projects were the
product of collaboration be-
tween timber and conserva-
tion interests, including my
group, Conservation North-
west. You can read more here:
www.conservationnw.org/
news/scat/cnw-fire-dispatch-
12-inside-the-fire-lines.
Those who want to exploit
the tragedy of these fires
to promote an agenda like
blaming the government and
pushing for more logging,
might be wise to first let the
smoke clear enough to give a
fair view of the facts.
Mitch Friedman is the
executive director of Conser-
vation Northwest, a nonprofit
organization working on
wildlife and wildlands con-
servation in Washington and
British Columbia. Conserva-
tion Northwest participates
in many collaborations with
forestry and natural resource
businesses, including the
Northeast Washington For-
estry Coalition.