12 CapitalPress.com
January 29, 2016
National attention may have boosted the protesters’ egos
CHANGE from Page 1
Federal land by state
The national attention may
have boosted the protester’s
egos, but it also created a
backlash against using the
threat of violence to infl u-
ence federal land policy,
Miller said.
“What they’ve done is
really hurt those with legit-
imate beefs with the federal
government about how the
land should be managed,” he
said.
In the public’s mind, the
protesters’ hostile tactics
have been confl ated with the
goal of increasing local con-
trol over federal property,
which weakens their case in
the political arena, he said.
“If they wanted an up-
rising in Congress, they just
made it that much harder,”
Miller said.
The protesters’ actions
won’t bolster attempts to
transfer federal land to the
states, which already had le-
gitimacy among conservative
lawmakers in multiple state
legislatures before the refuge
takeover, said Martin Nie, a
natural resource policy pro-
fessor at the University of
Montana.
“They’re less of a specta-
cle and should be taken more
Land area by percent of state
0-10%
11-30%
Mont.
31-50%
51-80%
> 80%
N.H.
N
N.H
H .
Idaho
Wyo.
Nev.
Calif.
Utah
Ariz.
Colo.
N.M.
Alaska
Hawaii
seriously,” Nie said.
The philosophy of Bun-
dy and his followers, mean-
while, is entangled with far-
right interpretations of the
U.S. Constitution and the
power of county sheriffs but
does not offer any serious
proposals for changing feder-
al land policy, he said.
“I don’t think this specta-
cle has helped that cause at
all,” he said.
Among people who were
uneasy about excessive fed-
eral authority, though, recent
events will likely reinforce
the notion that the govern-
ment is out-of-control, said
D.C.
Source:
Congressional
Research
Service
Fla. Alan Kenaga/
Capital Press
Mark Pollot, an attorney who
is fi ghting federal agencies in
court on behalf of deceased
Nevada rancher Wayne Hage.
Left-wing protests, such
as “Occupy Wall Street,” in-
vaded private property and
were more disruptive than
the refuge standoff but did
not elicit a similarly strong-
armed reaction from the fed-
eral government, he said.
Pollot said that distrust
of the government will par-
ticularly rise if there are in-
dications that federal agents
overreacted during the arrests
and did not have to shoot the
protesters’ spokesman, La-
Voy Finicum.
If nothing else, the con-
frontation will show that
Western land policy is more
than a minor issue and de-
serves Congressional atten-
tion, Pollot said.
“It will add some weight
to the debate,” he said.
On the other hand, there’s
the risk of a shift away from
the political and legal chan-
nels that critics such as
Wayne Hage have tradition-
ally used in the “Sagebrush
Rebellion” against federal
land policy, he said.
“I’m concerned there will
be people who will now think
that’s worthless,” Pollot said.
The restrictions placed on
ranchers have gained visi-
bility in Washington, D.C.,
Salem and Portland, but that
doesn’t mean they will be
changed, said Bruce Weber,
director of Oregon State Uni-
versity’s Rural Studies Pro-
gram.
It’s unclear how the exis-
tence of a perceived “martyr
for the cause” will change the
situation, Weber said.
“People who believe the
Constitution prohibits fed-
eral ownership and manage-
ment of those particular lands
won’t change their minds,”
he said.
Concerns about growing
federal restrictions on public
lands long predate the refuge
occupation and will likely
continue even if the current
confl ict is resolved.
Bob Skinner, a fi fth-gen-
eration cattle rancher in the
Jordan Valley area, heads a
group opposed to the pro-
posed Owyhee Canyonlands
wilderness and conservation
area, which would cover 2.5
million acres in Oreogn’s
Malheur County.
The designation would
severely regulate or prohibit
grazing and other activities
on an area that is bigger than
Yellowstone National Park
and covers 40 percent of
Malheur County.
Skinner said his worst
fear is that the arrests of sev-
eral protesters and the death
of Finicum will “activate”
people who hold similar an-
ti-government views.
Even so, the incident has
brought more visibility to
Western concerns over public
land.
“I can’t help but think it’s
brought some awareness to
government over-reach, that
might have some impact,”
Skinner said.
Rep.
Kurt
Schrader,
D-Ore., compared the stand-
off in southeast Oregon to the
“Black Lives Matter” move-
ment, which arose in reaction
to confl icts between law en-
forcement and the black com-
munity.
“Rural America faces the
same lack of recognition,”
Schrader said.
There’s a “palpable sense”
that government policy has
focused on the economic
welfare of urban areas while
overlooking rural areas, he
said.
As to the effect of the oc-
cupation on the federal land
debate, Schrader said the im-
pact is uncertain.
While people sympathize
with the hardships faced in
the rural West, the occupa-
tion has also shown they have
no appetite for lawlessness,
he said.
Schrader said he and other
members of Oregon’s Con-
gressional delegation are
pushing to reform overly re-
strictive rules on grazing and
logging while protecting the
environment on federal prop-
erty.
“The scales have tipped
so far to the left that you can
barely do anything there, it’s
so cost-prohibitive,” he said.
“We’ve got to change the fed-
eral policy.”
Supply of H-2A workers from Mexico won’t last, lobbyist says
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
YAKIMA, Wash. — Im-
migration reform is dead in
Congress, but agricultural
industry advocates are still
pushing the issue as they
foresee fewer farmwork-
ers coming from Mexico
on guestworker visas in the
years ahead.
Mexico’s birth rate is
declining, its economy is
improving and the Pew
Research Center reports 1
million Mexicans returned
to Mexico from the United
States between 2009 and
2014 while an estimated
870,000 came to the U.S.
That’s what Craig Regel-
brugge, senior vice president
of AmericanHort in Wash-
ington, D.C., told the Wash-
ington Growers League’s
annual meeting in Yakima
on Jan. 26.
A longtime leading agri-
cultural lobbyist on immi-
gration reform, Regelbrugge
said the working-age popu-
lations of advanced nations
are declining, China will be-
come a “fierce competitor”
for labor in Southeast Asia
and that “unless U.S. baby
boomers are able to work
beyond death,” immigration
reform must allow for more
permanent and transitory
workers.
“Mexico will continue to
Dan Wheat/Capital Press
Craig Regelbrugge, senior vice president of AmericanHort, prepares to speak in Yakima, Wash., on
Jan. 26. He says the supply of H-2A foreign farmworkers from Mexico will diminish.
be relevant for us for labor
for a number of years, but
the writing is on the wall,”
he said.
Regelbrugge is involved
in the Center for Global
Development, which be-
lieves labor mobility can lift
under-developed countries.
The group believes that in
the near term the U.S. and
Mexico have an interest in
a bilateral approach to labor
and that the administrations
of both countries could reach
an agreement solving issues
hampering the U.S. H-2A
agricultural foreign visa pro-
gram without action by Con-
gress.
“The politics around
labor have gotten so en-
trenched that we end up with
a left-right alliance that kills
us. Anti-immigration voices
on both sides say foreign-
ers are stealing our jobs and
employers just want cheap
labor,” he said.
Anything that is not
spelled out in the Immigra-
tion and Nationality Act is
subject to regulatory inter-
pretation for an administra-
tive agreement with Mexico,
Regelbrugge said. It could
include a housing allowance,
a pilot portable visa, inter-
pret seasonality and even
wages, he said.
However, rule-making is
not as stable as legislation,
he said.
Bush
administration
H-2A changes were thrown
out by the Obama admin-
istration, which has been
“very hostile” to H-2A, he
said.
U.S. H-2A employers
should look for workers
from other countries, such
as Guatemala, Honduras and
Nicaragua that have surplus
agrarian workers, he said.
Haiti is another possibil-
ity. Cooperatives there are
interested in sending work-
ers to the U.S. to earn money
and bring back expertise, he
said, adding that he visit-
ed those cooperatives with
some U.S. growers, includ-
ing Washington apple grow-
ers, last June.
It’s a “coin toss,” Regel-
brugge said, as to how the
Supreme Court will rule in
June on President Obama’s
executive action deferring
deportation of millions of
illegal aliens and granting
them work permits.
If the court upholds
Obama, the administration
will make a “mad dash”
to implement the action to
“box-in” the next adminis-
tration, he said. That could
force the next administration
to address immigration re-
form early, instead of wait-
ing for its second term, he
said.
Regelbrugge
credit-
ed Rep. Dan Newhouse,
R-Wash., for leading 60 of
his colleagues in signing a
letter a year ago that stopped
an E-verify and enforce-
ment-only bill that would
have been “devastating to
agriculture.”
House Judiciary Chair-
man Robert Goodlatte,
R-Va., has shown some
openness to improving visa
programs, he said.
“Our politics are very
divided. We can all pound
the table, but if we don’t
figure out how to thread
the bipartisan needle we
get nothing,” Regelbrugge
said.
“We have to keep edu-
cating and agitating. If we
sit back and wait to 2017, if
people don’t talk about this
issue and educate lawmak-
ers, we won’t have a basis
of support to get something
done,” he said.
‘Historically, every single solid time, it starts collapsing on the uses’
MONUMENT from Page 1
Skinner, a fi fth-generation
rancher who leads the oppo-
sition group, said one faction
believes ranchers and other
landowners should “settle”
with those pushing for estab-
lishment of the canyonlands.
But Skinner said agree-
ments with “radical environ-
mental groups” always turn
out bad. While they say tradi-
tional land uses such as cattle
grazing could continue, such
assurances soon fall apart,
Skinner said.
“Historically, every single
solid time,” he said. “It starts
collapsing on the uses. That’s
historic, I can tell you.”
Skinner said his contacts
among Oregon’s congressional
delegation and others in Wash-
ington, D.C. indicate Obama
will establish the wilderness
and conservation area under
the Antiquities Act, which can
be done by presidential order
and does not require approval
of Congress.
A White House media staff-
er said the administration has
“no announcement to make at
this time” and did not respond
to detailed questions.
Jessica Kershaw, senior ad-
viser and press secretary with
the Department of Interior,
said in an email that the depart-
ment has not made a recom-
mendation to the White House,
“but we know that this is an
important issue to many, and
we will carefully consider all
input about how to best man-
age these lands for current and
future generations.”
Brent Fenty, executive di-
rector of the Oregon Natural
Desert Association, did not re-
spond to a telephone call and
email seeking comment.
A press secretary for U.S.
Rep. Greg Walden, who rep-
resents Eastern Oregon in
Congress, said Walden has
repeatedly called upon the
administration to say what it
plans to do. Early in the wild-
life refuge occupation, Walden
said Obama could ease some
of the tension by backing away
from the canyonlands propos-
al.
“If they don’t plan to do it,
they should just come out and
say so,” press secretary Andrew
Malcolm said in an email.
Skinner, the rancher, con-
sistently distances his cause
from the case made by the ref-
uge occupiers.
“I don’t agree with the
Bundys at all, period,” he
said. “I don’t agree with their
methods, especially with
grazing issues. But nobody
can help but say, ‘I can under-
stand.’ “Greg Walden said it:
You understand why people
have reached the end of their
rope. That’s why they’ve got
followers.”
Washington Farm Bureau also has concerns about WDFW driving up land prices
LAND from Page 1
Comments
habitat in the Lake Creek
drainage. WDFW consid-
ers the land important for
sage grouse. The proper-
ty was a working ranch
until three years ago and
has been for sale for fi ve
years.
• Walla Walla County:
2,560 acres along and near
the Touchet River. The land
was once used for agricul-
ture and is now enrolled in
the federal Conservation Re-
serve Enhancement Program,
in which the owner takes land
out of farm production in ex-
change for yearly payments.
• Pacifi c County: 733
Written comments on the
proposed acquisitions may
be submitted via email to
Lands@dfw.wa.gov or by mail
to Lauri Vigue, Washington
Department of Fish and
Wildlife, 600 Capitol Way N.,
Olympia, WA 98501-1091.
acres around Willapa Bay.
The land has been used for
agriculture and shellfi sh
farming. WDFW would use
the land for recreation and
wildlife habitat.
• Thurston County: 343
acres of South Puget Sound
prairie. Current uses include
farming. The land would
be important habitat for the
Mazma pocket gopher, ac-
cording to WDFW.
• Snohomish County: 280
acres in the Snoqualmie Val-
ley. Current uses include ag-
riculture. The land would be-
come part of the Snoqualmie
Wildlife Area.
• Kittitas County: 215
acres in the Teanaway Valley.
Current uses of the land in-
clude irrigated hay fi elds and
logging. If bought by WDFW,
agriculture fi elds would be re-
stored to wildlife habitat.
• Klickitat County: 60
acres in the Bowman Creek
area. The land would become
part of the Klickitat Wildlife
Area. Grazing would continue
on part of the land, according
to WDFW.
• Lincoln County: 59 acres
in the Seven Springs area.
The land has been used for
grazing, according to WDFW.
The department intends
to use the property for the
Swanson Wildlife Area head-
quarters and fi re station. The
land would also provide sage
grouse habitat.
• Grays Harbor County:
15 acres near the Wynoochee
River. The property is now
private timberland. WDFW
says acquiring the property
would improve angler access
to the river and protect hatch-
ery steelhead.
• Snohomish County: 13
acres on Ebey Island. The
land is now controlled by the
state Department of Transpor-
tation to offset fi lling in wet-
lands elsewhere. WDFW says
it would improve access to the
island.
WDFW’s property acqui-
sitions have drawn criticism
for taking private property off
county tax rolls. Following a
formula set by the Legisla-
ture, WDFW makes payments
to counties in lieu of taxes,
but the payments are less than
the taxes a private landowner
would pay.
A bill introduced last year
in the Senate that would have
increased the payments didn’t
pass, nor did a bill that would
have required WDFW to sell
as much property as it bought
in a particular county.
The Washington Farm Bu-
reau also has concerns about
WDFW driving up land pric-
es and gradually taking land
out of agriculture production,
even if some remains grazing
and crop land.
“It’s death by a thousand
cuts,” the bureau’s govern-
ment relations director, Tom
Davis, said.
The Farm Bureau, never-
theless, respects a landown-
er’s right to sell, he said.
“We prefer that it not be to a
state agency, but if that hap-
pens, you have the right to
do so.”