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
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the creed career development
event.
“You’re with a lot of
like-minded people — they’re
nervous, they want to make a
difference in their local com-
munities and FFA chapters,”
he said. “They all want to do
well. It’s a really exciting time
for all FFA members.”
DeMeerleer recommends
stopping by the Cougar
Lounge at Beasley Colise-
um before 5 p.m. each day to
purchase tickets to attend ses-
sions. They are $5.
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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:
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