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About Capital press. (Salem, OR) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (May 6, 2016)
May 6, 2016 CapitalPress.com 5 Water outlook in E. Oregon still improving By SEAN ELLIS Capital Press Courtesy of ODFW The Imnaha wolf pack’s alpha male after being refitted with a work- ing GPS collar on May 19, 2011. It’s one of four wolves recently killed by wildlife officials because of livestock depredation. Complaint claims lawmakers misled Legislature on wolf bill By GEORGE PLAVEN EO Media Group The environmental group Cascadia Wildlands is accus- ing three Oregon lawmakers of knowingly misrepresenting a bill that ratified the state’s decision to remove gray wolves from the endangered species list. The complaint was filed Monday with the Oregon Government Ethics Commis- sion against Rep. Brad Witt, D-Clatskanie; Rep. Sal Es- quivel, R-Medford; and Rep. Greg Barreto, R-Cove. Barreto introduced House Bill 4040 during the short legislative session earlier this year. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife had pre- viously determined wolves no longer need endangered spe- cies protections, and the Fish and Wildlife Commission fol- lowed through with delisting wolves in November 2015. HB 4040 effectively gave the Legislature’s stamp of ap- proval, and Gov. Kate Brown signed off on the bill in March. Cascadia Wildlands argues that in order to secure votes for the bill Witt, Esquivel and Barreto made false statements that HB 4040 would not affect a judicial review of the wolf delisting decision. “There’s a real concern this bill passed through the House with a fundamental misunder- standing of what it does,” said Nick Cady, legal director for Cascadia Wildlands. “Salem can be somewhat of a black box ... We perceived this as pretty egregious.” Cascadia Wildlands, Or- egon Wild and the Center for Biological Diversity had all requested a judicial review of the delisting decision. The case was tossed by the Oregon Court of Appeals on April 22, which cited HB 4040. Cady claims the bill’s sole purpose was to block their re- view, despite claims from Bar- reto, Witt and Esquivel. According to the com- plaint, Barreto said during a Feb. 4 hearing that the bill “does nothing more than shore up the decision by the Fish and Wildlife Commission,” and “Our objective in this is not to usurp the authority of the commission. It is only to shore up the decision that they have made and to make the (wolf) plan a workable plan as was written.” He also sent a written document to colleagues stating the bill had no language pre- cluding judicial review. However, on Feb. 16, the Legislative Counsel Com- mittee issued a report to Sen. Michael Dembrow, D-Port- land, stating that the only le- gal effect of HB 4040 was to “validate any real or perceived irregularities” in ODFW’s de- cision under state law. “In essence, the only effect of the bill was to preclude ju- dicial review of the commis- sion’s delisting decision,” the complaint reads. HB 4040 passed the House 33-23, and the Senate 17-11. Since then, ODFW shot and killed four wolves from the Imnaha Pack in northeast Oregon for frequently attack- ing livestock in the area. There is still no legal hunting of wolves allowed in Oregon. ONTARIO, Ore. — Farmers who depend on the Owyhee Reservoir will re- ceive more irrigation water in 2016 than they have the past two years combined. As a result, they are planting more high-water — and more lucrative — crops such as corn, sugar beets and onions, which they cut back on the past three years because of the drought. Land that was left idle because of the lack of water is now being put back into production. A good snowpack year in the Owyhee Basin has caused the water supply sit- uation to go from good to better. The Owyhee Irrigation District has increased the 2016 allotment for its pa- trons to 3.8 acre-feet. It had been tentatively set at 3 acre-feet in March. The 1,800 farms in East- ern Oregon and part of Ida- ho that depend on the res- ervoir received 1.7 and 1.6 acre-feet the past two years. The OID system has been running for more than three weeks now but the reservoir level is still rising a little bit each day. It held 430,000 acre-feet of storage water on April 27. “There is a hair more water coming in to the res- ervoir than is going out. We’re doing pretty good,” said Malheur County dairy- man and farmer Frank Aus- man, a member of the OID board of directors. He said there’s a good chance patrons will end up with their full 4 acre-foot allotment this year. “We think we’ll be able to tweak it again and get to 4 acre-feet but at this point we don’t want to give some- thing away that we don’t have yet,” he said. Reservoir in-flows were above 1,500 cubic feet per second on April 27, well ahead of last year, when they were near 200 cubic feet per second, said OID board mem- ber and farmer Bruce Corn. “I’m very optimistic we’ll have a full 4-foot al- lotment this year,” Corn said. Farmers and Oregon Sean Ellis/Capital Press file A sugar beet field near Ontario, Ore., is irrigated in this file photo from June 11, 2015.Irrigators this year hope to get their full allotment of water because reservoirs are filling. Sean Ellis/Capital Press A winter wheat field near Ontario, Ore., is irrigated April 26. Farmers in this area who depend on the Owyhee Reservoir will receive more irrigation water this year than the past two seasons combined. State University Extension agents say corn and sug- ar beet acres, which were down by about half the past two seasons, are up substan- tially this year, and onion acres will also increase. “There definitely seems to be a lot more sugar beets and corn than there has been the last couple of years,” said Stuart Reitz, an OSU Exten- sion cropping systems agent in Ontario. “I think things are getting back to a more Washington FFA members gear up for convention By MATTHEW WEAVER Online Capital Press http://www.washingtonffa.org/ Matthew Weaver/Capital Press Rosalia High School sopho- more Collin Pittmann practices for the prepared public speak- ing competition the morning of April 27 in the high school shop. Pittmann is one of more than 2,000 FFA members who will attend the Washington FFA state convention May 12-14 in Pullman, Wash. both introduced last year. Keynote speakers will in- clude barrel racer and motiva- tional speaker Amberley Sny- der, who continues to ride horses after being paralyzed from the waist down in an automobile ac- cident; Judson Laipply, creator of the popular “Evolution of Dance” video on YouTube; and National FFA Western Region Vice President Sarah Draper. DeMeerleer hopes FFA members will leave the key- note presentations “inspired, motivated and excited about what they can do.” Past state officers will also be recognized during the May 14 evening session. DeMeerleer aims to keep cultivating relationships with industry leaders by having state officers visit them, and having them attend career de- velopment events. Rosalia’s Pittmann ad- vanced to nationals last year in BITTENBENDER RETIREMENT ANTIQUE AUCTION 2 DAY AUCTION – 2 RINGS – 1000’S OF ITEMS! Fri. & Sat. 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Great quality products! Service you expect and trust! ROP-32-52-2/#17 ROSALIA, Wash. — Ro- salia High School sophomore Collin Pittmann’s hard work all comes down to this. Pittmann will compete against other students from across the state in the prepared public speaking career devel- opment event at the Washing- ton FFA state convention May 12-14 in Pullman, Wash. He will speak about wolves in the state, including the prob- lems they cause for livestock producers. Pittmann devotes every weekend to working on his speech and finding new news- paper articles on the topic. He’s spent more than 30 hours on the speech, which is about seven minutes long. “When I get to convention they’re also going to ask me questions, so I need to be in- formed on anything happening with wolves in the state,” he said. Pittmann is one of more than 2,000 FFA members who will make their way to the annual convention on the Washington State University campus in Pullman, said Ab- bie DeMeerleer, executive di- rector of the Washington FFA. About 400 advisers and chap- erones and 300 guests are also pre-registered. This year’s theme is “Come Together.” DeMeerleer said FFA will announce a new record mem- bership number at the conven- tion. “We’re still growing,” she said. The event will include an expanded education expo, at which industry partners and FFA members can discuss ca- reer and education opportuni- ties, and an educational pro- gram for elementary students, normal routine and farmers are starting to get their rota- tions back in order.” Ausman, who likes to grow as much of his own animal feed as possible, said he left a lot of ground idle the past two years. “Now I’m farming every drop of land I’ve got,” he said. Ausman said that in his area, “A lot of ground that was setting empty these past few years has been planted to corn this year.” Corn said farmers in the area who get their irriga- tion water from the Mal- heur Basin are also in a much better situation this year. “The whole Malheur County area is significantly better than we were the last couple of years,” he said. • Halsey, Oregon: 541-369-2850 • Eastern Washington, Ed Kropf: 509-936-2652 or ed@smith-packaging.com www.smithpackagingservices.com 19-4/#5