March 25, 2016
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CapitalPress.com
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Sharp disagreements mark path as
Oregon begins wolf plan review
By ERIC MORTENSON
Capital Press
SALEM — Opposing sides
in Oregon’s continuing wolf
argument both believe some
aspects of the state’s manage-
ment plan should be reviewed
by independent parties.
Speaking March 18 to the
Oregon Department of Fish &
Wildlife Commission, conser-
vationists repeated their view
that an external scientiic re-
view should have been done
before the commission took
wolves off the state endan-
gered species list last Novem-
ber.
Livestock, hunting and
farming interests, meanwhile,
suggested a third-party should
make the call on whether live-
stock attacks are listed as con-
irmed wolf depredation or
only “probable,” which don’t
count toward lethal control de-
cisions.
On just about every other
aspect of wolves in Oregon,
however, the two sides dis-
agree. Panelists representing
both sides were invited to meet
with the ODFW Commission
and stake out their positions as
the state begins what is expect-
ed to be a nine-month review
of the wolf management plan.
The review begins as cattle
and sheep producers, hunters
and the Oregon Farm Bureau
have scored a couple of key
victories. First was the com-
mission’s delisting decision
in November, and the Oregon
Legislature followed that up
by passing a bill that protects
the decision from legal chal-
lenge. Since then, the state’s
annual wolf survey showed
the state population grew 36
percent in 2015. Wildlife biol-
ogist Russ Morgan, ODFW’s
wolf recovery manager, said
the numbers represent a con-
tinuing success story as wolves
expand in number and range.
Panelists from Oregon
Wild, Center for Biological
Diversity, Defenders of Wild-
life and Cascadia Wildlands
repeated their view that del-
Eric Mortenson/Capital Press
Michael Finley, right, chair of the ODFW Commission, discusses
wolf management with Rob Klavins, left, of Oregon Wild and Ama-
roq Weiss, second from left, of the Center for Biological Diversity.
isting was premature and not
supported by independent
scientiic review. Representa-
tives said they oppose a state
population cap or range limits
on wolves. They also oppose
sport hunting of wolves, which
some think could be an even-
tual result of delisting and plan
revision.
Amaroq Weiss, of the Cen-
ter for Biological Diversity,
said some Oregon actions un-
dermine wolf protection. The
Legislature passed a bill in-
creasing the ines for poaching,
she said, but excused “uninten-
tional take.”
“The law provides an ab-
solute defense for someone
who shoots a wolf and claims
he thought it was a coyote,”
she said, noting the case of an
Oregon hunter who was prose-
cuted for a 2015 incident. “The
state is saying, claim it was
an accident and we’ll turn our
back.”
Rob Klavins, Northeast Or-
egon ield coordinator for Ore-
gon Wild, said wolf poaching
has increased, the delisting and
legislative action was “unfair
and unethical” and discussions
are marked by “renewed con-
lict and controversy” even as
a majority of Oregonians favor
wolf protections.
“We’re skeptical, but we
are here again,” he told the
commission.
The other side had points to
make as well.
Mary Anne Nash, an at-
torney with the Oregon Farm
Bureau, said conservationists’
complaints about transparency
and scientiic review are “in
the eye of the beholder.”
“They mean their preferred
outcomes, and their science,”
she said.
Dave Wiley, with the
Rocky Mountain Elk Founda-
tion, said ODFW must protect
Oregon’s deer and elk herds as
wolf packs expand.
Jim Akenson, conservation
director for the Oregon Hunt-
ers Association, said it’s “won-
derful” to restore wolves to the
ecosystem, “But at some point
there needs to be management.
We’ve reached that point,” he
said.
Wallowa County rancher
Todd Nash, head of the Oregon
Cattlemen’s Association wolf
task force, said ODFW has too
high a bar for conirming wolf
attacks and an outside party
ought to do it instead. He and
others also favor establishing
geographic management zones
in which wolves could be con-
trolled on a more local basis.
Morgan, the ODFW biolo-
gist, said Oregon’s minimum
wolf population at the close of
2015 was 110, with 12 packs
and 11 breeding pairs. A re-
cently updated count showed
35 pups survived through the
year.
Courtesy of Owyhee Irrigation District
Snowpack in the Owyhee Basin, which feeds water into the Owyhee Reservoir, is shown in this
aerial photo taken Feb. 26. che OID’s 2016 water supply outlook is good, irrigators were told March
22 during the district’s annual meeting.
Owyhee water allotment get
3 acre-feet, could go to 4
Reservoir filling after
two years of drought
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
ONTARIO, Ore. — The
Owyhee Irrigation District
board of directors has set the
2016 allotment for OID pa-
trons at 3 acre-feet.
That’s signiicantly more
than irrigators have received
the past three years and the
allotment is expected to in-
crease as more water lows
into the Owyhee Reservoir.
Board members opted to
be conservative and set the
allotment based only on what
is currently in the reservoir,
OID Manager Jay Chamber-
lin said March 22 during the
group’s annual meeting.
“We know there is 3 acre-
feet in the reservoir today and
we can deliver that to you,”
he said.
The reservoir provides ir-
rigation water for 1,800 farms
and 118,000 acres in Malheur
County in Eastern Oregon and
around Homedale and Mars-
ing in southwestern Idaho.
Signiicantly more water
is forecast to low into the
reservoir and “as that water
becomes available, that al-
lotment will be increased,”
Chamberlin said. “I feel very
comfortable saying the allot-
ment is going to go up from
that 3 acre-feet. How far, we
can’t say.”
OID patrons are entitled to
up to 4 acre-feet in a normal
water year but only received
1.7 acre-feet in 2015 and 1.6
acre-feet in 2014 because of
lingering drought conditions.
Based on the past 30
years, total reservoir in-lows
average 534,000 acre-feet a
year, but only 96,000 acre-
feet reached the reservoir in
2015 and 106,000 in 2014,
said Brian Sauer, a water op-
erations manager for the U.S.
Bureau of Reclamation.
But the bureau is fore-
casting that total Owyhee
Reservoir in-lows will reach
862,000 acre-feet this year,
“Things look a lot better
than where they were last
year,” Sauer said. “There’s a
fair amount of snow still up
in the basin (to) come into the
reservoir.”
Snowpack levels were up
signiicantly this year, said
Chamberlin, who lew over
the basin on Feb. 26.
“It was refreshing to see
how much snow we had
over the whole basin,” he
said. “We’ve got a good start
here.”
Based on the snowpack
levels and the Bureau of Rec-
lamation total reservoir in-
low forecast for 2016, a lot
more water is headed for the
reservoir, Chamberlin said.
He said he is conident
OID patrons will end up with
their full 4 acre-foot allot-
ment this year.
“But until we get that,
we’re going to be very cau-
tious,” he said.
The target date to start
the OID system is April 11
but the board will meet again
next week and that could
change depending on weather
conditions, Chamberlin said.
There was no storage wa-
ter left in the reservoir at the
end of the 2015 season, the
fourth straight year that hap-
pened. That was the longest
such stretch since at least
1966, Sauer said.
Oregon FFA convention offers students view of future
By ERIC MORTENSON
Capital Press
CORVALLIS, Ore. — If
the 1,400 students attending
the Oregon FFA state conven-
tion had some questions about
career prospects, Alexzandra
“Alex” Murphy was offering
some answers.
Murphy teaches a new
precision irrigated agriculture
program at Blue Mountain
Community College in Pend-
leton, and she said ag employ-
ers are clamoring to hire peo-
ple trained in new technology.
“People have been ask-
ing me for students,” she said
while stationed at a college
information booth. “There is a
huge demand for workers. Ev-
erywhere I go, they say, ‘We
want more good workers.’”
Students with FFA experi-
ence are particularly attractive
to employers, she said, because
they’re already tuned into mul-
tiple facets of agriculture. And
it hasn’t been dificult recruit-
ing students to study precision
ag applications, Murphy add-
ed.
“I don’t know too many
kids who don’t get excited
about technology,” she said
with a laugh. “Turning off
your (irrigation) pivot with a
cell phone is awesome.”
Blue Mountain Community
College was among the career
vendors participating in the
convention, held March 18-21
at Oregon State University. Stu-
dents from FFA chapters across
the state attended. Among many
activities, they took part in pub-
lic speaking and parliamentary
procedure competitions, heard
from guest speakers and had a
little fun on the side, such as a
session on western dancing.
State oficers for 2016-17
were selected as well. They are:
President Shea Booster, of Bend;
Vice President Hailee Patterson,
of Imbler; Secretary Liberty
Greenlund, of Yamhill-Carlton;
Treasurer Raymond Seal, of Jo-
seph; Reporter Zanden Unger,
of Dallas; and Sentinel Bryson
Price, of Sutherlin.
While advisers such as Mur-
phy of BMCC were available to
offer career advice, other con-
vention speakers had something
to say about life in general.
Kelly Barnes, a motivational
speaker from Oklahoma, used a
fast-paced presentation to sug-
gest students should examine
their lives and make changes.
We are a volunteer organization supporting:
• Roadside Crop Identification Signs
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• Oregon Agriculture in the Classroom Foundation
• Summer Ag Institute
• Ag Fest
Tickets are
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before April 8 th
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importance of agriculture on
the economy and environment
• Unite all phases of Oregon agriculture having
mutual concerns
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benefit agriculture
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