8
CapitalPress.com
October 23, 2015
Oregon
Malheur County farmers say they would love to be part of Idaho
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
ONTARIO, Ore. — A re-
cent effort to create a forum
where people can discuss the
idea of eastern Oregon and
Washington counties join-
ing Idaho was welcomed by
farmers in Oregon’s Malheur
County.
If any county in the two
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it’s Malheur County, farm-
ers and agribusiness owners
in that county told Capital
Press.
“I guarantee you we’d
be all for it,” said Kay Ri-
ley, manager of Snake Riv-
er Produce, an onion ship-
ping-packing facility in
Nyssa, Ore., a few hundred
yards from Idaho. “We don’t
have anything in common
with the western part of Or-
egon.”
Farmers in this area grow
the same crops, are in the
same time zone and many of
the Oregon farmers have Ida-
ho cell phone numbers.
Malheur County farmers
and ranchers are more con-
servative and identify more
New Idaho: Re-drawing the map
A La Grande, Ore. farmer is seeking comment on the idea of eastern portions of Washington and
Oregon joining Idaho. The new, supersized Idaho would see a 125 percent population increase.
Online:
Online discussion groups have
been set up on Facebook and
Yahoo.
Proposed state of Idaho
Area in detail
Spokane
Seattle
Olympia
WASHINGTON
Yakima
Oregonian research
Pendleton
Portland
Alan Kenaga/
Capital Press
La Grande
Salem
OREGON
IDAHO
Eugene
Burns
Boise
Malheur
County
Idaho Falls
Pocatello
Twin Falls
Medford
politically with their Ida-
ho counterparts, said Shay
Myers, general manager of
Owyhee Produce, an onion
shipper-packer in Nyssa.
“Everything about Mal-
heur County is more identi-
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wish I knew how to actually
make this happen. I wouldn’t
mind trying to help.”
The major crops grown
in this area — onions, sug-
ar beets, mint, seed — are
grown by farmers on both
sides of the border and the
industries are closely linked.
An onion processing fa-
cility in Parma, Idaho, for
example, uses onions from
farmers in both states and
sugar beets grown in Malheur
County end up at a process-
ing facility in Nampa, Idaho.
“With the kind of agricul-
tural industry they have over
there, we’d take them in a
heart beat,” said Rep. Gayle
Batt, R-Wilder.
If Idaho annexed Mal-
heur County, it would make
life easier for Oregon farm-
ers who have to deal with
tougher state regulations than
Idaho growers do, said Paul
Skeen, president of Malheur
County Onion Growers As-
sociation.
“We would love to be in
Idaho,” he said. “Idaho is an
agriculture-friendly state and
Idaho has a governor that is
looking to help agriculture in
any way possible.”
Oregon State University
researcher Bill Buhrig, who
has farmed in Malheur Coun-
ty all his life, said growers
here have talked about join-
ing Idaho for as long as he
can remember.
While it’s a nice idea, the
logistics of accomplishing
that are formidable and in-
credibly complex, he said.
“There is absolutely no
way that would ever happen,
but it’s fun to talk about,” he
said.
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representatives of the state’s
congressional delegation said
the effort has to originate
on the Oregon side but they
would be willing to help once
it got going.
Ken Parsons, a retired
farmer from La Grande, Ore.,
recently made news for cre-
ating a Yahoo forum where
people can seriously discuss
the idea of counties in eastern
Oregon and Washington join-
ing Idaho.
“I don’t have any of those
answers but there are people
out there with that knowl-
edge,” Parsons said about
the logistical hurdles. “I’m
trying to get people sitting
around this big Internet table
and start building a consen-
sus on how to do it.”
Wolf that hadn’t been seen in four Walden backs forest management bill
years turns up in Klamath County
chair Ways and
Means and re-
write the coun-
SUNRIVER, Ore. — U.S.
try’s tax code
Rep. Greg Walden spoke of
and deal with
frustration with the U.S. Sen-
trade issues. He
ate’s unwillingness to address
doesn’t want
Walden
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to do manage-
questions on the uncertainty
ment, especial-
surrounding the House speak- ly big ego management. And
ership during a presentation at there is a lot of that in (Wash-
the Oregon Forest Industries ington) D.C. right now,”
Council’s annual meeting Walden said.
here Oct. 12.
“I don’t know if he’ll
Asked who is going to do it,” Walden said. “If he
be the next Speaker of the doesn’t I don’t know who can
House, Walden, R-Ore., said: bridge the gap.”
“I hope it is Paul Ryan, but I
“Why don’t you do it?” a
don’t know if he’ll do it.”
participant asked.
Walden said he talked to
“You need 218 votes,” he
Ryan, R-Wis., on Oct. 9 about said. “I’m supporting Paul
replacing Speaker John Boeh- Ryan.”
ner, who has announced he
Outside the questions
plans to leave his seat Oct. 29. on the House speakership,
“There is a lot of pressure Walden focused on forest pol-
being put on Paul Ryan to step icy during his luncheon pre-
into this vacuum or void, and VHQWDWLRQ VSHFL¿FDOO\ RQ WKH
it is the last thing he wants unwillingness of the Senate to
to do. He is a policy guy,” revise federal forest manage-
Walden said.
ment.
“He’s always wanted to
“Three years in a row, in the
By MITCH LIES
For the Capital Press
Capital Press
A radio-collared wolf
that dispersed from North-
east Oregon and hadn’t
been heard from for four
years has turned up the Cas-
cade Mountains in northern
Klamath County.
OR-3, as the wolf is des-
ignated, was identified from
a photograph taken this sum-
mer by a trail camera set up
by a private individual.
Like OR-7, Oregon’s fa-
mous wandering wolf, OR-3
dispersed from the Imnaha
Pack, leaving that group in
May 2011. He appears to
have cut a diagonal south by
southwest across the state to
the Cascades, also like OR-7
did.
OR-3’s radio signal was
picked up in the Fossil wild-
life management unit in the
summer of 2011 and near
Prineville in September that
year. He hadn’t been located
since.
Some Oregon wolves
wear GPS collars that emit
location information at set
periods and are picked up
computer. OR-3 wore a VHF
radio collar, which requires
wildlife biologists to locate
it in the field with telem-
etry equipment, according
to ODFW. The wolf’s radio
collar probably isn’t work-
ing at this point, the depart-
ment said in a news release.
The department had no
other information about
OR-3. The unidentified per-
Courtesy of ODFW
OR-3, a 3-year-old male wolf from the Imnaha pack, is shown in
this image captured from video taken by an ODFW employee in
2011 in Wallowa County, Ore.
Online
http: //www.dfw.state.or.us/Wolves/wolf_program_updates.asp
son whose trail camera took
the photo asked ODFW not
to share it with the public.
It’s not yet known wheth-
er OR-3 is part of a pack.
OR-7, which wandered into
Northern California before
returning to Southwest Or-
egon’s Cascades, is paired
with a female and has pro-
duced pups.
Locating OR-3 bolsters
the department’s findings
that Oregon’s wolf popula-
tion is increasing in num-
ber and range distribution.
Wolves migrated into Ore-
gon from Idaho, where they
were released as part of a
national wolf recovery pro-
gram, and biologists have
long expected they would
spread from Northeastern
Oregon to the Cascades.
The first Oregon pack
was detected and designat-
ed in 2008, and the state
now has a minimum of 83
wolves. The minimum total
stood at 85 until the Sled
Springs pair were found
dead of an unknown cause
the week of Aug. 24. Russ
Morgan, ODFW wolf pro-
gram coordinator, has esti-
mated Oregon has 90 to 100
wolves; the minimum popu-
lation is based on confirmed
counts.
ODFW biologists will at-
tempt to gather more infor-
mation about OR-3.
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By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
An Oregon agricultural
aviation company has agreed
to stop spraying pesticides for
the next month while it turns
over application records to
farm regulators.
The Oregon Department
of Agriculture sought an in-
junction against Applebee
Aviation of Banks, Ore., be-
cause the company allegedly
continued to spray pesticides
despite a suspension of its ap-
plicator’s license.
Applebee Aviation also
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yearlong revocation of its
license for these alleged ac-
tions.
Rob Ireland, the company’s
attorney, said he could not yet
speak about the allegations but
said Applebee Aviation agreed
to a stipulated injunction on
Oct. 19 not to spray pesticides
for 30 days.
The company is cooperating
43-7/#18
By ERIC MORTENSON
U.S. House, bipartisan legisla-
tion has been passed to try and
give us active management of
federal forests to improve their
health, to protect their water-
sheds,” Walden said.
“It provides larger categor-
ical exclusions to move quick-
ly on projects that reduce fuel
loads,” he said. “And when
WKHUHLVD¿UHWKHUHLVUHDOO\QR
funding stream to replant after
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“This legislation, through
expediting recovery opera-
tions, would require 75 percent
of burn lands to be reforested
and paid for with salvage,” he
said.
“Also, just like you are af-
fected in our rural communi-
ties, every time a forest project
is halted, the outside groups
that sue on forest projects
should have to have a little
skin in the game,” he said. “So
under this bill, they would be
required to post a bond before
litigating on collaborative, or
FRPPXQLW\ ZLOG¿UH SURWHF
tion plans.”
with ODA and is still perform-
ing non-pesticide services, such
as Christmas tree harvesting
and fertilizer applications, he
said.
“The other agricultural sup-
port activities are still going
on,” said Ireland.
Pesticide regulators at ODA
spoke with Applebee Aviation
about its safety concerns over
the spring and summer but sus-
pended the company’s appli-
cator license on Sept. 25 after
learning “these pesticide-relat-
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were continuing,” according to
an agency document.
Workers did not wear all
the protective gear required
to apply several herbicides
and weren’t properly trained,
among other problems, accord-
ing to ODA.
Despite this suspension, the
company sprayed pesticides
four times on timber tracts in
Clatsop County and on 800
acres of U.S. Bureau of Land
Management property near
Christmas Valley, Ore., with
each violation warranting a
$10,000 penalty, according to
ODA.
“Applebee Aviation demon-
strated that it will ignore or fail
to comply with any or all pesti-
cide application requirements if
compliance will cost it money,”
the agency said in a civil pen-
alty order.
The ODA claims that the
company’s owner, Michael Ap-
plebee, asked the agency for an
exception to the license suspen-
sion because the BLM contract
was worth $3 million but was
told such exceptions aren’t pos-
sible.
By disregarding the sus-
pension order, Applebee Avia-
tion has undermined the “level
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plicators who follow the rules,
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severe consequences,” ODA
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