WATER SPECIAL SECTION
INSIDE
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2016
VOLUME 89, NUMBER 6
WWW.CAPITALPRESS.COM
$2.00
Task force
recommended
for recurring
drought
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
WOLVES
Washington advisory group softens
rhetoric to face hard questions
By DON JENKINS
Wolf Advisory
Group
membership
Capital Press
W
ashington state wildlife
managers have commit-
ted nearly $1 million in
the past year to tame the
passions humans have
about wolves.
The investment refl ects the Department
of Fish and Wildlife’s position that when it
comes to wolves, humans are the biggest
challenge.
Most of the money has been spent on
a “third-party neutral,” Francine Madden,
whose conciliatory counseling services are
costing the state up to $8,000 a day.
For nearly a year,
Madden has led meet-
ings of WDFW’s Wolf
Advisory Group, a pan-
el without policy-set-
ting authority that will
make wolf policy rec-
ommendations to state
managers. The group
ranchers,
Donny Martorello, represents
hunters, conservation-
Washington
ists and animal-rights
Department of
activists. Besides hiring
Fish and Wild-
life’s point man Madden, WDFW in the
past year nearly doubled
on wolf policy.
the WAG’s membership
from nine to 17.
The department’s managers are betting
that this group can set aside the acrimony
of the past and reach a consensus on how
wolves should be managed in Washington.
That was always WDFW’s hope, but
meetings of the old WAG were “destruc-
tive,” said Donny Martorello, WDFW’s
point man on wolf recovery. Members dug
in their heels and weren’t moving toward a
consensus, he said.
Turn to WOLVES, Page 12
Following are the members
of the Washington Depart-
ment of Fish and Wildlife
Wolf Advisory Group and
their affi liations:
• Bob Aegeter: Sierra Club
• Shawn Cantrell: Defend-
ers of Wildlife
Don Jenkins/Capital Press
Francine Madden’s conciliatory counseling services cost the state up to $8,000
a day to work with the Wolf Advisory Group. She was brought in after the state’s
fi rst advisory group was unable to work together.
As wolf wars in the West continue and lawsuits
fl y, the new WAG meetings are swaddled in
phrases such as “path to peace,” “capacity
building” and “confl ict transformation.”
• Tim Coleman: Kettle
Range Conservation Group
• Don Dashiell: Stevens
County commissioner
• Tom Davis: Washington
Farm Bureau
• Dave Duncan: Washingto-
nians for Wildlife Conser-
vation
• Tom Erskine: Hiker and
photographer
• Jack Field: Washington
State Cattlemen’s
Association
• Diane Gallegos: Wolf
Haven International
• Janey Howe: Science
teacher and part-time
range rider
• Molly Linville: Indepen-
dent cattle rancher
• Nick Martinez: Washing-
ton State Sheep Producers
• Dan McKinley: Mule Deer
Foundation
• Dan Paul: Humane Society
of the United States
• Mark Pidgeon: Hunters
Heritage Council
Stock image
WDFW’s policy is that it won’t consider lethal removal of wolves until at least four
cows or sheep have been killed and the rancher has exhausted other ways to
protect his animals.
• Lisa Stone: Hunter
• Paula Swedeen: Conser-
vation Northwest
SALEM — Despite gener-
ous amounts of snow and rain
this winter, Eastern Oregon is
expected to continue experi-
encing drought in 2016 based
on low soil moisture levels.
In light of this prediction
from the National Weather
Service, the state’s water reg-
ulators want to set up a “Task
Force on Drought Emergency
Response” to fi nd tools for alle-
viating drought impacts.
The idea recently won ap-
proval from Oregon lawmak-
ers on the House Committee on
Rural Communities, Land Use
and Water, which unanimously
referred a bill to create the task
force to the Joint Ways & Means
Committee with a “do pass” rec-
ommendation on Feb. 3.
Reservoir levels in Oregon
and across much of the West
are below average, which
means it’s too early to “declare
victory” over the drought that
affl icted farmers in 2015, said
Tom Byler, director of the Or-
egon Water Resources Depart-
ment.
“We’re still not where we
want to be, despite the good
year we’ve been having so far,”
he said, noting that the long-
term weather forecast for spring
anticipates above normal tem-
peratures and below average
precipitation in the Northwest.
The task force proposed in
House Bill 4113 would con-
sist of 11-15 members, with
the governor appointing up to
11 members and leaders in the
House and Senate appointing
four members, said Racquel
Rancier, senior policy coordi-
nator for OWRD.
Members would examine
short-term tools for dealing
with drought, such as emergen-
cy groundwater usage and tem-
porary transfer of water rights,
as well as longer-term solu-
tions, such as water storage, she
said. The task force would also
improve information sharing
among the diverse stakehold-
ers, Rancier said.
The Oregon Farm Bureau is
neutral on H.B. 4113 and would
like to see resources dedicated
to understanding the fi nancial
impact of drought across the
state, said Mary Anne Nash,
public policy counsel for the
organization.
April Snell, executive direct
of the Oregon Water Resources
Congress, said the task force is
a step in the right direction but
she agreed that Oregon State
University or the Oregon De-
partment of Agriculture should
be funded to better quantify
drought effects.
Weatherman: Warmer, wetter spring and summer ahead
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
SPOKANE — Pacifi c Northwest
farmers will see warmer and wetter
weather in the months ahead, meteorolo-
gist Art Douglas predicts.
Temperatures in February and March
will run slightly above normal in the re-
gion, Douglas said, which means winter-
kill in wheat will not be a problem.
Douglas, a fi xture at the Spokane Ag
Expo and Pacifi c Northwest Farm Forum
for decades, offered his annual forecast
on Feb. 2. He is a professor emeritus at
Creighton University in Omaha, Neb.
Spring rains will primarily occur in
the Southwestern U.S., but moisture will
also be slightly above normal in Eastern
Oregon and Eastern Washington and in
the Idaho panhandle. The Pacifi c North-
west will be “very warm” in May, but still
have moisture, he said.
Turn to WEATHER, Page 12
Creighton University’s
Art Douglas delivers his
weather forecast and
presentation on global
climate trends Feb. 2
during the Spokane Ag
Expo and Pacifi c North-
west Farm Forum.
Matthew Weaver/Capital Press
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