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14 CapitalPress.com June 17, 2016 Ranch’s Petition asks DEA to quit treating industrial hemp like pot losses to wolves continue to mount By ERIC MORTENSON Capital Press By MATTHEW WEAVER Capital Press LAURIER, Wash. — Owners of the Diamond M Ranch in northeastern Wash- ington state estimate wolves have cost their operation close to $200,000 over the last sev- en to eight years. The ranch lost half of that total in 2012, said Jus- tin Hedrick, a partner in the ranch with his grandfather, Len McIrvin, and uncle, Bill McIrvin. The state killed seven wolves in the Wedge Pack in 2012 to stop attacks on the Di- amond M’s cattle. Hedrick is also president of the Stevens County Cattle- men’s Association. He expects wolf problems to continue to be an issue for northeastern Washington ranchers. The losses include more than the deaths of cattle to depredation, he said. “Wherever there’s wolves and cattle in the same pas- tures, there will be problems, no way around it,” he said. On pastures where there are no wolves, about 1 per- cent of cows fail to get preg- nant, Len McIrvin said. On pastures where wolves harass the cattle, 15 to 20 percent are not getting preg- nant, he said. “It’s one of those hid- den losses people don’t talk about,” Len McIrvin said. “The wolves chase these cows and they’re so stressed out they keep the bulls away. They just aren’t breeding.” The family has declined to accept compensation from the state for their losses. “Compensation isn’t al- ways received as goodwill,” said Donny Martorello, wolf policy lead at the Washington Department of Fish and Wild- life. “There are producers out there who would rather not have compensation. They don’t raise their livestock to be depredated or losses by wolves or other large carni- vores. We completely respect that and understand it.” Martorello said the depart- ment would appreciate a call to document direct losses — livestock deaths or injuries. It’s “just so we know that event is occurring,” he said. Martorello said loss esti- mates can vary depending on the operation, the livestock and timing when the producer goes to market. “There can be several thousand dollars tied up in a single animal,” he said. “That accumulates quickly.” “Hidden” or “indirect” losses are included in the state’s compensation, Mar- torello said. The state ish and wildlife commission has rules for sit- uations resulting in “greater than normal” losses, including the unknown fate of animals lost on the landscape believed to be killed by wolves and reduced pregnancy rates or weight loss caused by wolves. An advisory panel of ive citizens, including people with livestock and environ- mental backgrounds and a range expert, reviews claims for indirect losses and makes a recommendation to the de- partment for payment or de- nial. An independent livestock assessor works with the de- partment to determine the val- ue of the loss. If a rancher was found to be eligible for a $200,000 loss payment, Martorello said he would receive reimbursement — eventually. The state receives $50,000 per year for compensation from a $10 surcharge on per- sonalized license plates. Whatever is unspent rolls into the next year and car- ries forward, Martorello said. Under state law, claims that exceed that amount can also roll over into the next year as more money becomes avail- able. A Portland attorney and a Southern Oregon environ- mentalist are asking the U.S. Drug Enforcement Adminis- tration to take industrial hemp off the federal government’s list of controlled substances. The petition, iled June 13, is the latest move by people who believe industrial hemp could be a viable agricultural crop if the federal government didn’t classify it as an illegal drug. They have long con- tended hemp can be used to make food, medicine, cloth- ing, lotions, construction ma- terial, oils and other products. Some states, Oregon among them, allow licensed hemp cultivation but keep it tightly controlled. The peti- tion notes that 30 other coun- tries allow hemp cultivation, including Canada. The peti- tion letter says state econo- Capital Press ile This ile photo shows hemp growing in Oregon’s Willamette Valley in 2015. A Portland attorney and a Southern Oregon environ- mentalist are asking the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to take industrial hemp off the federal government’s list of controlled substances. mies, the environment and na- tional security “would greatly beneit from the re-commer- cialization of industrial hemp in domestic agriculture and manufacturing.” Industrial hemp is a va- riety of cannabis, but lacks the THC level that makes pot smokers high. The petition asks the DEA to declare a cannabis plant is industrial hemp, not marijua- na, if its THC level does not exceed 1 percent. THC is the substance that gives users a buzz. Industrial hemp is low in THC but has higher levels of Cannabidiol, or CBD, which some advocates say can be used to treat seizures. West Virginia uses the 1 percent THC content level as its hemp deinition, while oth- er states, such as Oregon, say THC in hemp cannot exceed 0.3 percent. The petitioners maintain that keeping the THC limit so low limits the number of cannabis varieties that can be bred and cultivated for traits that may be desirable in cer- tain uses or products. In an attempt to steer around controversy, the peti- tioners’ letter to the DEA says they take no position on the legalization or decriminaliza- tion of medical or recreation- al marijuana, or on whether CBD has medical uses. The petition from Oregon residents is the second to hit the DEA in June. Earlier, the Kentucky Hemp Industries Council filed a petition to remove hemp plants from the Controlled Substances Act. The chief petitioners are attorney Courtney Moran, of Portland, and Andy Kerr, a figure from Oregon’s spot- ted owl timber wars who now heads an Ashland con- servation entity called the Larch Company. Others among the two dozen co-pe- titioners include the North American Industrial Hemp Council, Oregon state Rep. Floyd Prozanski of Eugene, and Anndrea Hermann, a Ca- nadian cannabis and hemp technologies consultant who also teaches an industrial hemp course in the College of Forestry’s Wood Science Engineering Department at Oregon State University. Washington teen eager to become a farmer By DAN WHEAT Capital Press EAST WENATCHEE, Wash. — Time’s a-wastin’ for Ian McGregor. At 12 years old he was dabbling in corn. Now, at the ripe old age of 15, he’s in his second summer of his own ield trials. On three different small plots in East Wenatchee, he’s comparing various character- istics such as insect resistance and yields in hybrid ield corn from seed producers Kuss- maul, DeKalb and Pioneer. He’s anxious to ind 20 acres of irrigated row crop ground near Quincy that he can rent next year and put what he’s learning to work. Af- ter all, he’ll be 16 in October, able to drive and can make the 30 miles to Quincy in half an hour. And, his grandpa started farming pears in Wenatchee when he was 14. Time’s a-wastin’. McGregor is busy in the mornings, right now, ield sorting doubles out of his dad’s cherries in their East Wenatchee orchard. But his heart is in corn and potatoes which he tends in afternoons. “Grain corn is the biggest crop in the United States and I wanted to ind out what it was all about,” he says. It’s sort of the same with potatoes. Washington grows a lot, second only to Idaho. He needed to ind out what that’s all about. He called the Washington Potato Commission. Chris Voight, executive director, put him in contact with Com- missioner Rex Calloway, a Dan Wheat/Capital Press Augie Kooistra, a Kussmaul seed dealer, and Ian McGregor, 15, are shown in McGregor’s Kussmaul corn planting near East Wenatchee, Wash., on June 8. Quincy grower who showed him his operation and gave him some seed. The Callo- ways took McGregor to the Washington-Oregon Potato Conference in Kennewick in January. “I got real interested so I started planting them at my mom’s house,” he says. That’s close to Town Ford and Costco in East Wenatchee. He dug trenches and planted seed by hand. Residents at an assist- ed-living facility next door get a kick out of watching McGregor work his potatoes and corn near the heart of town. “One guy from Ohio rec- ognized my DeKalb sign and gave me some weed control advice,” McGregor says. Some of his biggest help has come from Augie Koois- tra, 66, owner of Augie’s Ag Sales in Ephrata. It was early 2015. Mc- Gregor was online looking for corn seed. He contacted Eureka Seeds in Woodland, Calif., which referred him to Kooistra, who sells LG and Kussmaul seeds. Kooistra gave him a plot bag of 20,000 seeds. This year he gave him plot bags of four LG hybrids and sold him, at a discount, a full, 80,000-seed bag of Kussmaul, enough to plant 2.5 acres of ield corn. “He’s a real sharp kid,” Kooistra says. “In a letter of thanks to me, he said he would set the world on ire and plant corn and potatoes from here to the Oregon border. “Most boys have their heads in their iPhones, whil- ing time away and he’s al- ready working at being a farmer. It’s pretty inspiring.” McGregor say he may at- tend Washington State Uni- versity in agronomy. Right now, he’s inishing Eastmont Junior High, where his FFA teacher, Jeff DeJarnett, calls him the “corn guru.” Groups petition state to address predatory ish in Delta By TIM HEARDEN Capital Press SACRAMENTO — Two farm groups have joined a broad coalition that wants the state Fish and Game Commission to address the problem of non-native, pred- atory fish in the Sacramen- to-San Joaquin River Delta. The California Farm Bu- reau Federation and Western Growers have teamed with water districts and conser- vation groups to petition the state body, asking that fish- ing controls for several types of bass be loosened or lifted. The groups say invasive black bass, striped bass and other predators are feeding on threatened and endan- gered salmon and smelt, which are native to the Del- ta region. From the farm groups’ perspective, solv- ing the predation problem could lead to the easing of pumping restrictions that have deprived growers of needed surface water in re- cent years, said Cory Lunde, Western Growers’ director of strategic initiatives and communications. “Obviously our primary interest is seeing that our farmers in the San Joaquin Valley receive adequate sup- plies of water to water their crops,” Lunde said. “We’re asking that the government consider other stresses im- Courtesy of West Coast Advisors A striped bass emerges from water. Farm groups have joined conservation groups in petitioning California’s Fish and Game Commission to address the problem of non-native bass feeding on endan- gered ish in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, further imperiling the smaller ish and leading to more pumping restrictions. pacting the health of smelt and salmon populations and not just resort to turning down the pumps.” Other petitioners include the Coalition for a Sustain- able Delta, the California Chamber of Commerce, the Metropolitan Water Dis- trict of Southern California, the San Joaquin Tributaries Authority, the State Water Contractors and other water agencies and organizations. Fish and Game Commis- sion officials did not return a call from the Capital Press seeking comment about the petition. Michael Boccadoro, a spokesman for the Coalition for a Sustainable Delta, said he expects the commission to take up the petition at a future meeting and direct employees to study alterna- tives. “This is a process that the commission has put in place to address these sorts of is- sues,” Boccadoro said. “Ul- timately, it’s up to the com- mission.” Predation has been named as a factor in the continued decline of imperiled fish such as winter-run chinook salmon and Delta smelt. De- spite the tiny fish’s federal listing in 1993, a key index for smelt abundance hit zero last year for the first time since the survey began in 1959. Surveys for the smelt this year have found fewer than a dozen fish. The smelt and salmon have been at the center of bitter water fights among farmers, cities, fishing groups and environmental- ists for two decades. The discord escalated during the drought, as no federal water was made available to south- of-Delta farms lacking se- nior water rights in 2014 and 2015. The petitioners point to efforts that are already in place to protect endangered salmon and steelhead pop- ulations in the Columbia River from being preyed on by non-native bass, walleye and catfish. The Washington and Oregon fish and wildlife agencies removed size and bag limits of the predators. The groups want Califor- nia to take a similar measure while also implementing a comprehensive monitoring program to learn more about the predation problem and make adjustments as needed. “They have to,” Boc- cadoro said. “All the other Western states, at the peak of the drought last year, took action to address predation. As native species are in de- cline, if the state isn’t taking all the steps they need to take to protect species, we’re going to have issues.”