OREGON: APRIL HEAT DID A NUMBER ON SNOWPACK Page 4
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FRIDAY, APRIL 29, 2016
“At what point did (the
EPA) become aware of
the misuse of the EPA
funds for the What’s
Upstream campaign and
what role did EPA have
in reviewing that bill-
board and website?”
— Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb.
VOLUME 89, NUMBER 18
The Environmental
Protection Agency
was “distressed by the
use of the money and
the tone of that cam-
paign.”
— Environmental Protec-
tion Agency Administrator
Gina McCarthy
“I have never seen any-
thing this bad. This is
really amazing. To fund
a program that tries
to infl uence the state
Legislature, that I fi nd
totally shocking.”
WWW.CAPITALPRESS.COM
“The truth hurts some-
times.”
— Puget Soundkeeper
Executive Director
Chris Wilke
$2.00
“This is just a new low.
It’s shocking to me our
tax dollars went for
that.”
“I can’t believe two bill-
boards got that much
attention. We didn’t see
that coming at all.”
— Washington state
agriculture lawyer
Toni Meacham
— Swinomish tribal
Chairman
Brian Cladoosby
— Karen Budd-Falen, a Wyo-
ming property-rights lawyer
WHAT’S UP WITH
‘WHAT’S UPSTREAM?’
EPA’s involvement in anti-farm campaign ran deep, documents show
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
A
little more than a month ago, What’s Upstream was an obscure
political advocacy campaign backed by Environmental Pro-
tection Agency money, a Washington state Indian tribe and a
handful of environmental groups.
Today, the campaign has been condemned by one-third of
the U.S. House as an attack on agriculture, and the inspector general of the
EPA has promised to investigate whether it is a misuse of taxpayer money.
If it is, the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission may have to repay
the money and could be cut off from receiving future grants. The commis-
sion funneled the EPA money to the Swinomish tribe to fund an advertising
and letter-writing campaign aimed at the Washington Legislature seeking
mandatory 100-foot buffer zones between farms and rivers.
The website features a photograph — not taken in Washington — of cat-
tle standing in a river and salmon that apparently had died after spawning,
a natural occurrence. The implication was that farming in Washington state
is not adequately regulated.
Turn to EPA, Page 12
This photograph from a stock agency appears on the What’s Upstream website. It
shows dairy cattle standing in a stream. The photo was not taken in Washington state.
What’s Upstream.com
Grazing limits sought for unoccupied bull trout habitat
Environmentalists ask judge to invalidate grazing plans
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
MEDFORD, Ore. — En-
vironmentalists want to limit
cattle grazing along Oregon’s
Sprague and Sycan rivers to
protect bull trout habitat that
the threatened species doesn’t
actually occupy.
Despite the fi sh’s absence,
environmentalists have asked
a federal judge to invalidate
grazing plans for 10 federal
land allotments because live-
stock unlawfully degrade its
“critical habitat.”
“What we have here is un-
occupied habitat and the rea-
son it’s unoccupied is because
it’s not suitable for bull trout,”
said Lauren Rule, attorney
for the environmental groups
during oral arguments April
26 in Medford, Ore.
Oregon Wild, Friends of
Living Oregon Waters and
the Western Watersheds Proj-
ect claim in a lawsuit that the
U.S. Forest Service and U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service vio-
lated the Endangered Species
Act by wrongly concluding
that grazing won’t adversely
affect the bull trout’s habitat.
That conclusion was “ir-
rational” and ignored water
quality problems caused by
cattle, such as higher water
temperatures from denud-
ed vegetation and trampled
streams, the plaintiffs claim.
Any activity that occurs
within the bill trout’s “critical
habitat” — as designated by
federal regulators — cannot
slow the species’ recovery,
Rule said. “It needs to expand
to areas it’s not currently oc-
cupying.”
The plaintiffs argue that
mitigation measures intended
to reduce impacts from cattle
are insuffi ciently enforced, so
the federal agencies should
Area in
detail
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La Pine
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Ongoing
lawsuit over
grazing
rights on
public land
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Capital Press graphic
not have taken them into ac-
count in deciding that grazing
won’t hurt the species.
“They’re not certain to oc-
cur at any regular frequency,”
Rule said.
The federal government is
also accused of violating the
Clean Water Act by failing
to ensure that streams in the
allotments met water quali-
ty standards for temperature.
Environmentalists argue that
cattle widen stream channels,
raising temperatures to the
detriment of fi sh.
Grazing was permitted
despite numerous stream
temperature “exceedances”
across the landscape, said
Elizabeth Zultoski, attorney
for the plaintiffs.
“This is simply not an iso-
lated problem,” Zultoski said,
adding that federal regulators
largely ignored the problem
when re-authorizing grazing.
“This court cannot defer to a
void.”
Several ranching families
that rely on grazing allotments
in Oregon’s Fremont-Winema
National Forest have inter-
vened in the case as defen-
dants and joined the federal
government in asking the
judge to reject the environ-
mentalist arguments.
“This is their livelihood,”
said Scott Horngren, attorney
for the ranchers. “They’re not
out there year after year to get
Turn to GRAZING, Page 11
H-2A delays cause worker shortages in 20 states
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
Federal agency delays in
processing visas for foreign
guestworkers who tend and
harvest America’s food crops
are fast approaching crisis
proportions, all but guaran-
teeing crops will rot in fi elds
this year, the American Farm
Bureau Federation says.
INSIDE
Study: Fewer farmworkers migrate, aggravating
PAGE 3
labor shortage
Delays are causing work-
er shortages in more than 20
states, Zippy Duvall, AFBF
president, said in an April 21
press release.
“Many farmer members
have called us and state Farm
Bureaus asking for help. They
Turn to H-2A, Page 11
H-2A workers from
Mexico pick late
blossoms off Lady Alice
apple trees to control
fi re blight at Zirkle Fruit
Co.’s CRO Orchard
south of Rock Island,
Wash., April 26.
Dan Wheat
Capital Press
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