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approved by members of the
Capital Press Editorial Board.
February 19, 2016
All other commentary pieces are
the opinions of the authors but
not necessarily this newspaper.
Opinion
Editorial Board
Publisher
Editor
Managing Editor
Mike O’Brien
Joe Beach
Carl Sampson
opinions@capitalpress.com Online: www.capitalpress.com/opinion
O ur V iew
Communication
allows farmers
to breathe easy
G
Rik Dalvit/For the Capital Press
O ur V iew
T
It’s time to tell story
of Western public lands
he occupation of the Malheur
National Wildlife Refuge in
Oregon’s Harney County is over.
Had it not cost a man’s life and
divided a good community, this
ridiculous farce could be written off
as a comic diversion from the blustery
Eastern Oregon winter. Instead, it was
a tragedy.
The greater tragedy would be for
responsible stakeholders to allow
this story to focus on the “yeehadist”
protesters and not the legitimate
issues surrounding the management
of public land and the over reach of
the federal government.
Self-styled, armed militia members
supposedly came to town to support
Dwight and Steven Hammond, two
local ranchers recently given new,
stiffer sentences for having set ire
to federal land. Protesters tried to
convince them to hold up under the
protection of the militia rather than
report to prison.
Failing to whip the ranchers and
the townspeople into a revolutionary
frenzy, protesters took over the refuge
as a larger protest against federal
control of Western lands.
The protesters justiied their
actions with a mix of Mormon
theology and an alternative
interpretation of both the Constitution
and the duties of local oficials. They
backed it all with guns. It was their
guns that got the most attention.
We support every citizen’s
prerogative to exercise their Second
Amendment rights, and see some
validity to the notion that those rights
safeguard the First Amendment rights
to free speech. But the guns did
more to coerce locals and provoke
confrontation than to convince
anyone of the legitimacy of their
arguments.
Their strategic goal of seeing the
Hammonds released and public lands
turned over to local control could
never be met.
In the end, the hubris of the
occupation’s leaders facilitated their
capture and the death of one of their
own. To the wider world, that could
well be the end of the story.
Now is the time for stakeholders
to educate America about what’s
happening in the West.
The federal government holds title
to massive parcels of public lands
throughout the West. That’s settled
law. The scale of these holdings, and
their impact on local economies,
is dificult for those in the East to
comprehend.
They need to be told how that land
should be managed and how grazing
and natural resource extraction
must remain viable and part of the
multiple-use doctrine that historically
governed public lands.
Many Westerners don’t think their
government listens to them and say
their concerns are given short shrift.
Their livelihoods and lifestyles
are in the hands of bureaucrats
controlled by interests outside their
communities.
They have seen the government’s
heavy-handed enforcement of
regulations, and ham-handed
management of wildire. They
have been subjected to endless
environmental litigation bent on
driving even the most conservation-
minded producers off public lands.
They have watched the
government aggressively add to
its empire at the expense of local
taxpayers and private opportunity.
They want to be good stewards,
but want a fair shake.
It’s time we tell this story. We
think good people everywhere will
empathize when given the facts.
ood communication Health, which approves
is a wonderful
and classiies them; the
thing. In the case
Environmental Protection
of the federal government,
Agency, which assigns
that goes double. In
them to pesticide labels;
the case of protecting
and the Occupational
farmworkers’ health, that
Safety and Health
goes triple.
Administration, which
Consider the TC-21C
enforces their proper use.
respirator. Because of a
Unfortunately, when the
irst agency changed the
lack of communication
numbering system used to
between federal agencies,
categorize respirators, it
pesticide applicators could
didn’t adequately inform
be needlessly exposed
the second
to harmful
chemicals or
An example of agency, which
in turn didn’t
directed to
how important update the
buy protective
helmets costing
communication labels on several
pesticides.
hundreds of
What they
dollars more than is to protect the
is needed.
had
was a failure
safety — and
The reason:
to communicate.
pocketbooks — Cooke, the
a lack of
communication.
of farmers and Oregon OSHA
Enter Garnet
expert, has
Cooke, a pesticide farmworkers. been talking
coordinator for
with pesticide
Oregon’s Occupational
manufacturers and the
agencies in an attempt
Safety and Health
Administration, the
to correct and update the
agency that helps protect
labels.
To its credit, the EPA
farmworkers and others
from injuries on the job.
has set up a task force
to address the label
She noticed that the
problem.
label on a pesticide that
In the meantime, Cooke
formerly required only a
simple face mask had been has also come up with a
guide to help farmers and
changed to require a TC-
others determine which
21C respirator, which is
type of respirators are
a helmet or enclosed face
appropriate.
mask with a powered air
Pesticide manufacturers
puriier.
are also working to fix the
As an expert on
problem.
respirators, she believed
This is most assuredly
that type was overkill.
not the only failure to
At a price of more than
communicate that even
$800 compared with the
happened in the federal
$18 it costs for simpler
government. It is, however,
respirators, the added
an example of how
expense was a factor, too.
important communication
Three agencies address
is to protect the safety —
respirators and their use
— the National Institute of and pocketbooks — of
farmers and farmworkers.
Occupational Safety and
Readers’ views
Arguments
were simplistic
I’m unsure whether “En-
vironmental laws primarily
benefit lawyers” reflects
benign sloppiness or a ma-
lignant disregard for the
value your readers place on
intelligent discussion.
Focusing narrowly on
the benefits to lawyers and
nonprofits, the editorial
notes that 30 percent of en-
vironmental lawsuits filed
in federal courts were filed
in the 9th Circuit, suggest-
ing that litigants “believe
the 9th Circuit offers the
most friendly judges to
hear their cases.”
Unless your purpose is
to mislead us into thinking
that environmental lawsuits
are vastly overweighted in
the 9th Circuit, it is worth
noting that the 9th Circuit
includes over 38 percent of
the U.S. and its territories
by square miles and over
20 percent of the popula-
tion.
You note that the Cen-
ter for Biological Diversity
had expenses of $10.2 mil-
lion and revenue of $14.1
million, of which all but
$1.2 million came from
charitable donations. “Any
business executive would
be pleased to have that sort
of balance sheet,” you say.
Your readers know better
than you that revenue and
expense are not part of a
balance sheet.
More importantly, do
you really mean to say your
business would be pleased
take a chance in court to
get reimbursement of less
than 12 percent of your ex-
penses, requiring you to go
hat in hand seeking chari-
ty to cover your remaining
costs?
A
letter
headlined
“Walden torpedoes Klam-
ath deal” illustrates how
resolving disputes is long,
hard work that can end in
futility despite best efforts
of the parties at interest.
If people feel that “litiga-
tion is the best tool to ad-
vance their environmental
views,” explore whether
there are reasons beyond
lawyers’ fees and expense
reimbursement. I want your
thoughtful perspective, not
what appears to be slipshod
pandering to a simplistic
viewpoint.
Barbara Bailey
White Salmon, Wash.
Editorial got
it wrong
Boy when you get it
wrong, you really get it
wrong! Your editorial, “It’s
time for Western politicians
to speak up,” is an angry di-
atribe based on falsehood,
wrong-headed assumptions
about who is responsible
for the rural economy in our
land and about who rural
folks’ friends (and enemies)
really are. You sound angry.
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You have no right to such
anger.
The recent “occupation”
of the Malheur Wildlife
Reservation by a group of
armed thugs led by the kook
Ammon Bundy and his now
wrongly martyred buddy
Robert Finicum is an event
you seem to approve of.
Shame on you for this. You
are using your newspaper to
fan the lames of vigilantism
and you are supporting the
actions of people who fully
intend to violate the law. Our
law, the laws of civilization.
Your editorial excoriates
the federal government for
the way it has managed pub-
licly owned lands, and then
belittles our elected oficials
who are in charge of setting
policies to see to the preser-
vation and conservation of
these lands. To the best of
my knowledge, both from
irst-hand experience and
from what research I have
done, the truth is that our
government has made every
effort possible to see to its
charge, to protect the land
and keep it well. To keep it
as well as it can be kept, for
all people, for all of us.
Your words of kindness
and approbation of U.S.
Rep. Greg Walden are in-
appropriate. Walden may
have spoken about “oppres-
sion” of the West, but it’s
not because it’s something
he believes. It’s also not
because it’s something he’s
heard from his constituents.
For a lot of years I lived in
Baker County, Ore., and not
once had Walden ever held
a town meeting there. He
doesn’t answer his email or
his phone either, at least not
about the issues I have con-
tacted his ofice about. He
doesn’t care what the people
of these rural areas think.
He does, however, talk to
the editorial boards of all of
the rural newspapers, people
like you....
To the best of my knowl-
edge, he has never held a
town hall meeting in these
places. Sens. Ron Wyden
and Jeff Merkley have,
though. Why did you omit
mentioning them?
The mess in Harney
County has been an em-
barrassment for me and for
every other right-thinking
American. The FBI and all
other related law enforce-
ment should have jumped
on those boys from the get
go. Put them in the hoose-
gow one by one. ...
Those boys bullied and
harassed all of the people in
Harney County and Burns,
and I agree with the edi-
torial cartoon that showed
what would have happened
if President Teddy Roos-
evelt, the man who saw to
the creation of the refuge in
the irst place, had been in
charge. Teddy would have
jerked the slack out of those
thugs irst thing, and I would
have been proud of him for
doing so.
Our problems in the rural
West are many, but the way
the government is managing
the land is not one of them.
That the economic condi-
tions have deteriorated is
quite true. My communi-
ty in Burnt River, Oregon
(south Baker County) has
only 35 kids in the school
system, it had 180 when I
was growing up there. Land
has become so expensive
only the extremely wealthy
can afford to buy it, and the
ones who have bought the
farms have made them into
private game reserves and
posted guards to protect the
boundaries.
These people aren’t con-
cerned with building up the
community. What they are
concerned with is amalgam-
ating all the wealth they can
and then keeping in power
the politicians who will see
to their continued ability to
do so. ...
You want to speak for
the rural population? The
people who actually to do
live in rural areas and make
the effort to try to live off
the land? Stop complaining
about the government, and
start supporting policies
that will let ordinary people
once again prosper for their
effort. For a broad and sim-
ple statement to begin with,
start getting rid of econom-
ic policies that began with
Ronald Reagan and start
putting into place laws that
will begin building up the
middle class again. And
start championing those
who support the laws of civ-
ilization. Supporting those
who live by the laws of the
jungle is likely to lead to i-
nally being judged by them. I
might even be among them.
John Aschim
Oakland, Ore.