WOLF SHOOTINGS: Criminal charges for Oregon man; No charges filed in Washington case
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2015
Mateusz Perkowski/Capital Press File
VOLUME 88, NUMBER 47
Page 4
WWW.CAPITALPRESS.COM
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FIREFIGHTING
Cargo containers are shown
being loaded on ships at the
Port of Portland.
FUNDING
Shippers
haven’t
abandoned
hopes
for port
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
Severely diminished con-
tainer service at the Port of
Portland hasn’t yet irrevers-
ibly changed shipping strat-
egies, but that pattern won’t
hold forever, according to a
freight expert.
Importers and exporters
largely hope that ocean car-
riers will eventually return
to the port’s container ter-
minal after Hanjin and Ha-
pag-Lloyd pulled out earlier
this year, eliminating almost
all container service, said Dan
Smith, principal of the Tioga
Group transportation consul-
tancy fi rm.
So far, those hopes have
prevented shippers from
closing distribution centers
or making other changes un-
likely to be reversed if ocean
carrier service returned to the
container terminal, Smith said
during a Nov. 17 legislative
hearing in Salem.
Hanjin and Hapag-Lloyd,
which represented more than
90 percent of container traffi c
at the port, said their decision
was based on low produc-
tivity, which the container
terminal operator — ICTSI
Oregon — blamed on work
slowdowns by the longshore-
men’s union.
The International Long-
shore and Warehouse Union,
on the other hand, faulted in-
adequate equipment and safe-
ty practices as the cause of
slowed container movements.
A broader labor contract
dispute between ILWU and
terminal operators aggravated
the situation, with West Coast
slowdowns occurring in late
2014 and early 2015 before
the issue was settled earlier
this year.
Companies that buy from
importers and exporters are
now using the unpredictabil-
ity caused by the slowdowns
as a negotiating lever, which
may lead to some distribution
centers becoming uneconom-
ical — thus prompting ship-
pers to close them and divert
traffi c to other areas, said
Smith of Tioga Group.
Turn to PORT, Page 12
Courtesy of Jeremy Smith/USFS
Tunk Block fi re northeast of Okanogan, Wash., burned to a road on Aug. 25. Thicker timber stands than this
provide greater fi re fuels.
Bill offers hope for
forest fuel reduction
Measure would change funding for fi refi ghting,
and ease rules on logging and thinning
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
A
Courtesy of Roy Maglesson/USFS
First Creek Fire fi eld work above Lake Chelan,
Wash., in September. Wildfi res burned millions of
acres in the West this year. A bill in Congress seeks
to reduce forest fuel loads on federal lands.
s ranchers throughout the West deal with the
aftermath of catastrophic summer wildfi res,
proponents of legislation to reduce fuel loads
in federal forests say there’s a good chance
it will pass Congress before the end of the year as part
of funding the federal budget.
The Resilient Federal Forest Act of 2015, HR
2647, was introduced by Rep. Bruce Westerman,
R-Ark., a professional forester and engineer, on June
4. It was passed by 243 Republicans and 19 Demo-
crats on July 9 and awaits a hearing before the Senate
Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry.
In short, the bill, at the urging of the Obama ad-
ministration, allows the U.S. Forest Service to access
funds through the Federal Emergency Management
Agency for fi ghting fi res instead of depleting non-fi re-
fi ghting funds within the Forest Service budget. The
bill also allows the USFS and Bureau of Land Man-
agement expedited environmental review of forest
management projects — including logging, thinning
and prescribed burns — in public forests at imminent
risk of major wildfi re, insects and disease.
“I probably give the bill in its current form a
low chance of passing out of the Senate, but that
Turn to FUNDING, Page 12
FDA produce safety rule
introduces new standards
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
FDA’s new produce safety
rule contains a slew of new
standards and record-keep-
ing requirements for fruit and
vegetable farmers and will re-
quire them to test their irriga-
tion water regularly and make
an effort to keep animals away
from their fi elds.
But people familiar with
the rule say a lot of groups
are gearing up to help farmers
understand and comply with
the standards and they will be
manageable for most produc-
ers.
“There are lots of different
private and public support sys-
tems out there to help” grow-
ers comply with the rules, said
Trevor Suslow, an extension
research specialist on produce
safety at University of Cali-
fornia, Davis.
He said the standards are
largely based on good ag-
ricultural practices many
farmers are already operating
under.
David Gombas, senior vice
president of food safety for
United Fresh, said that while
some of the requirements
could be burdensome and pro-
vide an economic disadvan-
tage to some operations if not
changed, “I think long term it
will be good for the produce
industry. It’s just going to take
some getting used to.”
The rule includes pro-
visions that require many
farmers to regularly test their
water, make an effort to keep
wild and domesticated ani-
mals away from fi elds, train
Turn to FDA, Page 12
USFS photo
Firefi ghter on Carpenter Road fi re in north-
eastern Washington on Aug. 29.