MONARCH LAWSUIT HAS GMO IMPLICATIONS
FRIDAY, MARCH 25, 2016
VOLUME 89, NUMBER 13
Page 7
WWW.CAPITALPRESS.COM
$2.00
Potentially impacted by
a preliminary injunction
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126
126
Sisters
242
Riv
e
r
20
THREE
SISTERS
WILDERNESS
Lava Lake
Crane
Prairie
Reservoir
Wickiup
Reservoir
58
Crescent
Lake
Deschu
tes
R o ad
Bend
97
CATTLE
La Pine
31
97
N
10 miles
Capital Press graphic
Judge
denies
injunction
to protect
spotted frog
“It’s a signifi cant amount of land. It’s the heart-and-soul
of the whole tri-county economy. It’s a big deal.”
COLVILLE
C
“It seems (the Forest Service is) very accommodating
to livestock, and we need better protection.”
Randi Spivak, public lands director for the Center for Biological Diversity
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
31
25
Curlew
OKANOGAN
21
R
bia
395
PEND
OREILLE
Republic
21
COLVILLE
NAT’L
FOR.
COLVILLE
NAT’L FOR.
20
N
r
ve
Colville
FERRY
10 miles
Proposed U.S.
Forest Service
plan area
395
ver
Ri
Turn to COLVILLE, Page 12
Photos courtesy of Colville National Forest
ille
attle have grazed in the Colville Na-
tional Forest in northeast Washing-
ton state for more than a century, but
ranchers fear their livestock could
soon be forced off the land.
Coming their way is a new plan to guide forest
managers for the next 15 years. Though it doesn’t
cancel specifi c activities such as grazing, the direc-
tives under consideration include broad mandates
to protect streams, plants and trails from cattle.
The agency asserts that grazing may continue
at current levels, but the plan says that in some
areas grazing may be less intense and increase
ranchers’ operating costs.
Members of the Stevens County Cattlemen’s
Association, whose members graze cattle in the
national forest, describe the plan’s layers of reg-
ulations as “confusing and arbitrary” and would
make grazing there impractical. The group says
the proposed requirements are unnecessary and
unrealistic, including those that would keep cat-
tle away from water.
“You’d have to keep pushing cows out of every
little draw,” said the association’s president, Jus-
tin Hedrick, whose family has grazed cattle in the
national forest since World War II. “It’s unattain-
able.”
The Forest Service has adopted a policy of only
responding in writing to submitted questions about
the plan, citing the need to keep the plan from be-
ing mischaracterized.
However, Colville National Forest spokesman
Franklin Pemberton did say the plan will not end
grazing and that forest offi cials plan to meet soon
with ranchers to discuss their concerns.
At stake is the viability of cattle ranching in
this region of Washington state and other parts of
the West, where management and transportation
plans are under revision for millions of acres of
national forests and other federally owned lands.
P
Turn to FROG, Page 12
Ranchers fear national
forest could become
off-limits to grazing
i
Capital Press
lum
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
EUGENE, Ore. — A fed-
eral judge has rejected a re-
quest by environmentalists to
drastically modify how water
in several Central Oregon res-
ervoirs is managed.
U.S. District Judge Ann
Aiken said the environmental
groups failed to show that such
a preliminary injunction was
justifi ed to protect the threat-
ened Oregon spotted frog.
“It was a very diffi cult
burden for you and I don’t be-
lieve you’ve met it,” she said
at the end of an oral argument
hearing here March 22.
At the outset of the hear-
ing, Aiken warned an overfl ow
crowd “right off the bat” that
she planned to deny the request.
While holding oral argu-
ments is appropriate in a case
of this magnitude, Aiken told
environmentalists not to ex-
pect a “big surprise” at the
conclusion of the hearing.
“You have a long way to
go to persuade me,” she said.
The Center for Biological
Diversity and Waterwatch of
Oregon claim that water man-
agement at the Crane Prairie,
Wickiup and Crescent Lake
dams must be drastically al-
tered to protect the threatened
Oregon spotted frogs from
further population declines.
“You have a long way to
go to persuade me,” she said.
During oral arguments the
two groups asked Aiken for
a preliminary injunction that
would restore fl ows in the
streams and rivers on which
the dams are located to more
natural levels.
However, the U.S. Bureau
of Reclamation and several
irrigation districts countered
that the frogs have adapted
to water conditions in the 70
years since the dams were
built, so a sudden disruption
in how they’re operated will
likely injure the species.
IN THE
Justin Hedrick, Stevens County Cattlemen’s Association president
COLVILLE
NAT’L FOR.
211
STEVENS
Colville Forest Plan Revision
20
2
231
The U.S. Forest Service will take comments on the plan until July 5.
• To learn more, go to: www.fs.usda.gov/goto/colville/plan-revision (or)
colvilleplanrevision.publicmeeting.info/
• Submit a comment electronically: 1.usa.gov/1pxhiFq
• By email: colvilleplanrevision@fs.fed.us
Area in
• By mail: Colville Forest Plan Revision Team,
WASH. detail
765 S. Main St., Colville, Wash. 99114
Source: USDA Forest Service
Alan Kenaga/Capital Press
ABOVE: Cows
graze in the
Colville National
Forest in north-
east Washington.
A cattlemen’s
association
says proposed
changes to how
the Forest Service
manages the 1.1
million-acre forest
will effectively end
grazing.
TOP PHOTO: The
proposed plan
says in some ar-
eas of the Colville
National Forest
grazing may be
less intense and
increase ranchers’
operating costs.
Food companies bend to GMO labeling pressure
Farm groups fear consumer alarm, added costs of labeling
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
Recent decisions by food man-
ufacturers to label genetically
engineered ingredients indicate
the industry is bending to activ-
ist pressure regardless of political
and legal battles, experts say.
General Mills, which sells
about $17.6 billion worth of food
items globally, recently said it
will begin labeling U.S. products
containing genetically modifi ed
organisms, or GMOs.
Earlier this year, the Campbell
Soup Co., which has worldwide
sales of $8 billion, said it sup-
ported mandatory GMO labeling
in the U.S. and would label such
ingredients even if such a federal
standard is not established.
These announcements have
come despite the failure of ballot
initiatives requiring GMO food
labels in Oregon, Washington,
California and Colorado. A label-
ing law passed in Vermont, set to
take effect this year, is facing a
challenge in the 2nd U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals.
“Campbell’s and General
Mills are saying, ‘It’s hopeless to
fi ght this. Let’s get ahead of the
curve,’” said Tom Gillpatrick, ex-
ecutive director of the Food Indus-
Courtesy of General Mills
try Leadership Center at Portland
General Mills headquarters, in Minneapolis, Minn., is
State University.
Turn to GMO, Page 12 seen June 2014.
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