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January 15, 2016
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O ur V iew
Speaking out
for rural Oregon
By GREG WALDEN
For the Capital Press
I
Rik Dalvit/For the Capital Press
It’s time for change in rural West
L
ast week Rep. Greg Walden,
R-Ore., took the floor of the
House and tried to explain
to his colleagues the frustrations
his constituents in Harney County,
and farmers, ranchers and loggers
throughout his sprawling Eastern
Oregon district, feel regarding the
federal government’s management of
public lands.
It was a powerful speech that has
given voice to rural Americans across
the West who feel oppressed “by
the government that they elect and
the government they certainly don’t
elect.”
For 17 years Walden has
represented Oregon’s 2nd
Congressional District. It includes
Harney County, where since Jan.
2 a group of armed protesters
has occupied the headquarters
compound of the Malheur National
Wildlife Refuge.
The protesters allegedly came
to town to support two local
ranchers recently resentenced to
five years in prison in connection
with fires that burned Bureau of
Land Management land. When
protesters couldn’t convince the
ranchers to hold up and resist their
incarceration, a splinter group took
over the compound as a larger
protest against federal control of
western lands.
That occupation, peaceful so far,
has managed to get the attention
of the mainstream media and East
Coast establishment. Unfortunately,
too much of the attention has
focused on the religious and
“anti-government” beliefs of the
protesters, and their guns.
Walden’s speech attempted to
focus the attention of Congress back
to the real issues — the problems
created by a “government that has
gone too far for too long.”
For Walden, Harney County is
representative of many in the West.
It has a land mass greater than
any of the eight smallest states.
But unlike those states, 72 percent
of Harney County is owned and
operated by the federal government.
The occupied refuge, only 4 percent
of the 4.7 million acres of federal
holdings in the county, is larger than
all the federal properties in New
Jersey combined.
Federal agencies hold 50 percent
of the land in the West. The real
issue isn’t that they own the land,
but that they too often administer it
poorly, and without regard to the local
community.
Decisions take too long because
the bureaucracy is paralyzed by
analysis required in futile attempts
to prevent environmental lawsuits.
Agency leadership too often ignores
the clear intent of legislation in favor
of political policy, and gives greater
consideration to the opinions of
distant interests than to local property
owners and lease holders who depend
on the best stewardship of these lands
to maintain their livelihoods.
The bureaucracy has become too
big, too unresponsive.
“You see, how do you have faith
in a government that doesn’t ever
listen to you?” Walden asked. “That
is what is breaking faith between
the American people and their
government, and that is what has to
change.”
Indeed.
It was a fine speech, but Walden
and other responsible leaders, in and
out of government, must use this
opportunity to affect that change.
Otherwise, the audience the
sideshow in Harney County has
attracted will be wasted.
Saving spotted frogs will mean healthy rivers for fish, birds, people
By NOAH GREENWALD
For the Capital Press
F
or eons, the Oregon
spotted frog bred and
thrived in the wetlands
that blanketed Oregon’s riv-
er valleys, including the De-
schutes River where some of
the last populations of this
once abundant, but now ex-
tremely rare, amphibian sur-
vive.
In the last hundred years,
we’ve lost the vast majority of
our wetlands to urban and ag-
ricultural sprawl and the dam-
ming and channelization of
rivers. And as go the wetlands,
so goes the Oregon spotted
frog, along with thousands of
other wildlife species, from
salmon to waterfowl.
That’s why last year
the frogs were protected as
“threatened” under the fed-
eral Endangered Species Act.
And that’s why the Center for
Guest
comment
Noah Greenwald
Biological Diversity, where I
work, filed a lawsuit against
the U.S. Bureau of Recla-
mation to spur much-needed
changes in the operation of
the Crane Prairie and Wick-
iup dams on the Deschutes
River.
The frog survives in the
shallow fringes of the reser-
voirs behind both dams and
in the river itself below the
dams, where in both cases it
is directly threatened by dam
management. The reality is
that these frogs have virtual-
ly no chance of survival if the
Bureau fails to change how it
operates these two dams.
The Bureau has turned the
Deschutes River on its head,
creating unnaturally high
flows in late summer and low
flows in winter — exactly the
opposite of how a natural riv-
er should flow. These changes
in flows often occur very rap-
idly, giving the frog and other
wildlife little time to adjust.
The frogs and their young are
alternately left high and dry or
flooded by high waters.
The need for change is
great. The Oregon spotted
frog is now known from fewer
than 100 sites, making the De-
schutes critical to its survival.
But the truth is, we can
save these frogs and the live-
lihoods of farmers, and every-
one who relies on the river to
make their living. Truly, we
can.
Needed changes in dam
management do not mean the
end of irrigation, nor will they
result in the shut-off of wa-
ter for a single farm. Instead,
it will require careful man-
agement to ensure the frog is
protected in the short-term,
movement towards more nat-
ural flows in the long-term,
and where needed, better wa-
ter conservation.
These changes will not
just benefit the frog, but also
salmon, steelhead and all of
us who depend on the health
of the river.
Compromising the long-
term health of our environ-
ment for short-term economic
interests, never pays in the
long-run, particularly where
wasteful water practices are
involved.
In reality, saving frogs and
the health of our rivers will
help to preserve the health of
the landscape farmers and the
rest of us depend on. Failing
to do so fails frogs, farmers
and future generations.
Noah Greenwald is the
Portland-based endangered
species director at the Center
for Biological Diversity.
Readers’ views
Protest needs
to take up
new banner
The cattle ranchers have
it all wrong in their protest-
ing against the Bureau of
Land Management and For-
est Service. It is against the
law to occupy public build-
ings, block traffic and cause
other disruptions claiming
governmental excessive au-
thority.
Instead, I think they
Letters policy
Write to us: Capital Press welcomes letters to the editor on issues
of interest to farmers, ranchers and the agribusiness community.
Letters policy: Please limit letters to 300 words and include your
home address and a daytime telephone number with your sub-
mission. Longer pieces, 500-750 words, may be considered as
should protest under the
banner, “Black Cows Mat-
ter” — as in Angus. That
would give them the au-
thority to occupy build-
ings, block traffic and even
engage in destruction of
public and private proper-
ty. They could disobey law
enforcement and cause all
kinds of havoc. They might
even get an endorsement
for their actions from Presi-
dent Obama.
Kelly C. Niemi
Kelso, Wash.
guest commentary pieces for use on the opinion pages. Guest
commentary submissions should also include a photograph of
the author.
Send letters via email to opinions@capitalpress.com. Emailed letters
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OR 97308; or by fax to 503-370-4383.
n recent weeks, the people
of Harney County have
become no stranger to na-
tional headlines. On Jan. 3,
a group of armed protesters
overtook a federal facility in
the Malheur National Wild-
life Refuge. And on Jan. 5,
Dwight and Steve Hammond,
father and son ranchers from
Harney County who were
convicted of arson for setting
a backfire that burned 139
acres of federal land, reported
to prison to serve the remain-
der of a mandatory five-year
sentence.
While these stories played
out across every major media
outlet, it’s important to un-
derstand what is driving this
anger and what steps we can
take to improve the situation.
The thread that ties the
Hammond family’s case to-
gether with the calls of those
who took over the Refuge is
decades of frustration, arro-
gance and betrayal that has
contributed to the mistrust of
the federal government.
Too many people often
don’t understand the culture
and the lifestyle of the great
American West — and how
much the ranchers and farm-
ers who live in this vast, beau-
tiful, harsh landscape care
about the environment, their
children’s futures, and about
America and the Constitution.
Nor do they realize how hard
they work to produce the food
we eat. We’re seeing now the
extent they will go to in order
to defend all that.
While I understand their
passion, I cannot condone
the actions of the armed pro-
testers, led largely by people
who are not from our state.
They’ve made their point loud
and clear, and local commu-
nity leaders, including many
ranchers, have asked them to
leave. They should do so.
The day after the Ham-
monds went to prison, I went
to the U.S. House floor in-
tending to give a five-minute
speech on what was unfolding
in Harney County. But when
decades of my own pent-up
frustration with the federal
government’s treatment of
rural Oregonians came to the
surface, I spoke before my
colleagues for nearly half
an hour. (You can watch my
full speech at www.walden.
house.gov/speech).
In my years representing
the people of Oregon’s 2nd
District, I have worked with
local ranchers and the citizens
of Eastern Oregon to resolve
disputes, to find solutions and
to create a more cooperative
spirit and partnership with
the federal agencies. After all,
more than half the 2nd Dis-
trict is under federal manage-
ment, or lack thereof.
The Steens Mountain Co-
operative Management and
Protection Act is a prime ex-
ample of those cumulative ef-
forts. But after it was signed
into law in 2000, little by lit-
tle, the agencies decided to
reinterpret it and follow it at
their own convenience, or ig-
nore the law altogether. At the
suggestion of local ranchers,
the law created the first cow-
free wilderness in the United
States, but the tradeoff was a
legal requirement for the fed-
eral government to provide
the fencing. And yet bureau-
crats within the Bureau of
Land Management wouldn’t
listen and wouldn’t follow
the law. They told ranchers
they had to build the fence.
When I pointed out their er-
ror, they basically told me
to stuff it. When I provided
them with the documenta-
tion from more than a decade
before that proved the intent
of Congress, they doubled
down. And finally, when I got
Congress to pass a restate-
ment of the original intent,
they said they’d review it.
I don’t get angry very of-
ten, but this arrogance really
got to me. And while there
are very good federal work-
ers in our communities who
do follow the law, and do
Guest
comment
Greg Walden
work cooperatively to find
solutions, it only takes a few
of the others to cause us to
lose faith.
A similar experience is
taking place across the West
through the so-called travel
management plans. Original-
ly intended to minimize dam-
age from off road vehicles, it
quickly became a powerful
tool to close roads and shut
people out of their forests.
What happened in the
Wallowa-Whitman Nation-
al Forest is a classic case in
point. After years of commu-
nity meetings, public work-
shops and incredible efforts
to update the government’s
faulty maps, a forest supervi-
sor decided she knew better.
Her choice of a management
plan was such an affront that
more than 900 people packed
a meeting in LaGrande in
protest. I, too, was incensed
and called upon the Forest
Service to withdraw the plan,
and they did. But the damage
was done. How can people
be expected to have faith in a
public process when they see
outcomes like these?
Meanwhile, other threats
loom on these same people.
From the onerous “waters of
the United States” rules, to
threats of more national mon-
uments, the federal govern-
ment is aggressively trying
to get cattle off the range and
people off their public lands.
Right now, it’s strong-
ly rumored that the Obama
administration will declare
more national monuments,
including one in Malheur
County, next to Harney
County. It could be up to
2.5 million acres — bigger
than Yellowstone National
Park. Ranchers and commu-
nity leaders are being told to
either agree to a big wilder-
ness area or plan on getting
a monument shoved down
your throat. Is it any won-
der we feel our way of life
is threatened by our own
government? If the president
wants to help reduce the ten-
sion, and try to restore a bit
of trust, he would publicly
back off this proposal.
The Hammonds made a
mistake and went to prison
for five years for lighting a
backfire that burned 139 acres
of federal land. We all know
fire is a tool on the range to
deal with invasive species
and to stop other fires. In
2012, more than a million
acres burned in Harney Coun-
ty alone. All too often, I’ve
met with ranchers who were
burned out by backfires they
say should never have been
set by the agencies. And while
I have the greatest respect for
the power of a fire, and the
courage and talent of firefight-
ers, they make mistakes, too.
The Hammonds were tried
and convicted under a law
written after the Oklahoma
City bombing. The presiding
judge in the case made clear
that its penalties when ap-
plied to a fire on the high des-
ert of Eastern Oregon didn’t
make sense. But a court
found he lacked the authority
to invoke a lesser sentence.
We need to revisit the
1996 law that landed the
Hammonds with a punish-
ment disproportionate to the
severity of the crime. I’m
working with my colleagues
to do just that.
We need to have the pres-
ident understand that more
monuments may bring cheers
from certain companies and
communities, but in reality
they leave behind more mis-
trust and mismanagement.
And those not familiar
with the high desert of the
West need to understand what
we face before they quickly
condemn the frustration and
anger that is so evident.
Greg Walden represents
Oregon’s 2nd District in the
U.S. House of Representa-
tives.