August 5, 2016
CapitalPress.com
5
Study says cougars, wolves save human lives
Rancher, losing calves,
can’t see the upside
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
A new study by university
scientists seeks to foster rural
acceptance of large carnivores
by showing that cougars save
lives by reducing the number
of deadly collisions between
vehicles and deer.
Researchers afiliated with
colleges in Washington, Idaho,
Alaska and Alberta, Canada,
compared data from 19 states
in the East, South and Mid-
west. The scientists concluded
that recolonizing cougars in
those states would thin deer
populations and prevent ive
trafic fatalities and more than
700 injuries a year.
The paper’s lead author,
University of Idaho profes-
sor Sophie Gilbert, said the
Courtesy of Washington Dept. of Fish and Wildlife/Brian Kertson
A new study by university researchers found that cougars prevent
trafic fatalities by reducing deer populations.
indings would apply to other
areas and that she wanted to
show there are beneits to rein-
troducing large carnivores.
“It’s not all costs,” she said.
“I think that hitting a deer is
something most people have
either experienced or they
know someone who has hit a
deer. It can be anywhere from
traumatic to deadly.
“This might be something
new for people to consider and
make them feel better about
living near large carnivores.”
The study acknowledges
that reintroducing predators,
such as cougars and wolves, is
a “highly polarizing” issue and
that ranchers, hunters and rural
residents “bear the brunt of the
costs.”
Conservation efforts, how-
ever, depend on large carni-
vores thriving outside protect-
ed wildernesses, according to
the study.
“Societal acceptance of
large carnivores living in
proximity to humans is there-
fore a critical yet daunting
conservation goal,” the study
states.
“Public perceptions of car-
nivores may become more
positive knowing that these
predators reduce their odds of
crashing into an ungulate.”
Central Washington ranch-
er Keith Kreps said he hasn’t
seen beneits from what he
says is an increasing number
of cougars around his cattle in
Klickitat County.
He said he lost about 18
calves to the big cats last
summer and two more were
injured. He said he fears a hu-
man will be attacked.
“They’re trying to convince
John Q. Public that the cats are
beneicial. I don’t feel they’re
beneicial to our area. They’re
detrimental,” he said.
“Don’t get me wrong. I’ve
never wanted to see all the
cougars gone, but they’re too
thick,” Kreps said. “The deer
are gone, and they’ve started
in on my cattle.”
According to the study,
efforts to control deer by oth-
er means, including hunting,
have had limited success.
“Recolonization by large car-
nivores could provide an efi-
cient solution to the problem
of deer overabundance,” the
study states.
Mark Pidgeon, president of
the Hunters Heritage Council
in Washington, said hunters
could thin deer herds if given
a chance.
“The obvious solution here
is to have more hunter har-
vests,” he said. “One of the
reasons the number of hunters
is going down is because peo-
ple don’t feel they have the op-
portunity.”
Pidgeon warned that using
a species to suppress another
could have unintended envi-
ronmental consequences.
“An ecosystem needs to be
managed as a whole,” he said.
“The eradication of predators
would not be good either.”
Another researcher, Lau-
ra Prugh of the University of
Washington’s School of Envi-
ronmental and Forest Services,
told a university publication
that the authors hoped to “help
people become more accept-
ing of living” with large car-
nivores.
Rapidly changing industry
Oregon State scores USDA grant to expand hazelnut research
complicates hazelnut forecast
generated by large-scale pro-
By ERIC MORTENSON
Capital Press
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
ALBANY, Ore. — Crews
hired by USDA are being extra
careful this year as they collect
data from hazelnut orchards
across Oregon for the annual
crop forecast.
Last year, the agency’s Na-
tional Agricultural Statistics
Service overestimated Oregon’s
hazelnut production by more
than 25 percent, catching farm-
ers and packers off guard when
the harvest came up short.
While NASS hasn’t pin-
pointed exactly what went
wrong in 2015, the rapidly
changing landscape of Ore-
gon’s hazelnut industry com-
bined with an early maturing
crop likely contributed to the
skewed results, said Dave
Losh, the agency’s state stat-
istician.
“It was an abnormal year
for a lot of reasons,” Losh said,
noting that the early spring
caused nuts to develop more
quickly last year.
Farmers are planting new
acreage of cultivars resistant to
eastern ilbert blight while old-
er orchards are gradually suc-
cumbing to the fungal disease,
he said.
The new orchards are be-
ing planted in various densities
while older trees have been
heavily pruned to slow the dis-
ease’s progression, further com-
plicating the scenario, he said.
Until the mid-2000s, the
main change that NASS had to
track was the hazelnut industry’s
declining acreage, said Gene
Pierce, an agricultural statisti-
cian with the agency.
With new growers and trees
now coming online, it’s more
challenging for NASS to deter-
mine the size of the “universe”
it uses for statistical analysis,
Pierce said.
For now, however, NASS is
focused on ensuring its crews
are accurately following the
model for collecting data, rather
than trying to change the mod-
el itself, said Chris Mertz, the
agency’s regional director for
the Northwest.
“Before we make any huge
tweaks, we want to make sure
we’re covering all of our bases,”
he said.
The annual forecast is con-
ducted by NASS but the Oregon
Hazelnut Marketing Board cov-
ers the $93,000 cost.
Although NASS forecast
that Oregon would produce
39,000 tons of hazelnuts last
year — 8,000 tons more than
were actually harvested —
many farmers considered the es-
timate conservative at the time,
said Larry George, president of
the George Packing Co.
A survey of farmers conduct-
ed by George Packing last year
pegged their average forecast
at 41,000 tons. One estimate of
35,000 tons was considered a far
outlier, he said.
“The trees looked loaded last
year. It looked like a good crop,”
George said.
Trees may have appeared
to be brimming with hazelnuts,
but many had shrunk as eastern
ilbert blight killed their upper
branches, he said.
The impact of blight is dif-
icult to account for, since the
roughly hazelnut 700 farmers
in Oregon have 700 unique
methods of ighting the disease,
George said.
“How do you poll something
that has no consistency?” he
said.
Growers are reluctant to re-
move blight-infested orchards
due to high prices in recent
years, but the old orchards are
nonetheless quickly losing pro-
ductivity, said Mike McDaniel,
proprietor of Paciic Agricultur-
al Survey, a geographical data
irm that’s assisting NASS.
“The new wave coming on-
line is not quite compensating
for the loss of mature produc-
tion,” McDaniel said.
Oregon State University’s
hazelnut research program
was awarded $3.1 million in
a round of USDA grants an-
nounced Aug. 2.
The five-year grant will
be used to continue ha-
zelnut research at OSU,
where breeder Shawn Me-
hlenbacher is credited with
saving the industry by de-
veloping varieties resistant
to eastern filbert blight. Me-
hlenbacher, who submitted
the grant application, could
not be immediately reached
for comment.
OSU’s grant proposal in-
dicated the money would be
used to expand commercial
hazelnut production in the
U.S. The work will focus on
the Paciic Northwest, where
Oregon accounts for nearly all
of U.S. production and grow-
ers have added 3,000 acres
since 2009; the temperate
“fruit belt” region of the east-
ern U.S., where new blight-re-
sistant cultivars are expect-
ed to be released in three to
four years; and the Midwest
and Great Plains, where new
hybrids are being identiied
that have superior nut quality,
yield, and adaptation to de-
manding climates, according
to a news release.
OSU’s application de-
scribes hazelnuts as a “prof-
itable, high-value, low input,
sustainable crop for which
steadily increasing world de-
mand now exceeds supply.”
Producers and consum-
ers are enthusiastic about in-
creased U.S. production, the
grant application says, but
susceptibility to eastern ilbert
blight remains a problem. In
addition, existing cultivars
lack climatic adaptability,
which severely limits produc-
tion in the East and Midwest
and threatens the sustainabil-
ity of production in Oregon,
according to the application.
Eric Mortenson/Capital Press
Hazelnuts raked up during harvest await cleaning in this 2014 pho-
to. Oregon State University has received a $3.1 million to continue
hazelnut research.
OSU’s grant application
said there is a $3.26 billion
national and internation-
12-month waiver
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WE S P E CIA LIZE IN B U LK B AG S!
al market for hazelnuts and
“powerful environmental and
economic beneits” would be
duction of hazelnut hybrids.
“Hazelnuts are an ide-
al choice to integrate into
proitable, sustainable ag-
ricultural or agro-forestry
production systems, and are
family-friendly for small
producers focused on local
food issues,” the application
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corn and soybeans, and would
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