August 12, 2016
CapitalPress.com
3
Threatened species policy challenged
Federal agency asserts too much power, petition claims
Analysis
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
The federal government
has got it backwards when it
comes to rules for killing or
harming threatened species,
according to a prominent
property rights group.
Under the Endangered Spe-
cies Act, it’s illegal to “take”
any species that has been listed
as “endangered,” which means
they’re protected from being
shot, captured or otherwise ha-
rassed.
However, the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service also ap-
plies that “take” prohibition
to species that are classifi ed as
“threatened,” which generally
face a lower risk of extinction.
According to the Pacifi c
Legal Foundation, a nonprofi t
that defends farmers, ranchers
and other property owners in
court, the federal agency has
gone too far with its policy for
threatened species, which in-
clude the northern spotted owl
and Oregon spotted frog.
The government should
be evaluating each threatened
species on a case-by-case basis
to see if the “take” prohibition
should apply to it, according to
PLF.
Instead, the Fish and Wild-
life Service applies a blanket
prohibition against “take” of
all such species, and then oc-
casionally exempts some from
the rule, the group argues.
Pacifi c Legal Foundation is
now trying to reverse the agen-
cy’s approach with a petition
fi led on behalf of the Washing-
ton Cattlemen’s Association,
whose members face civil or
criminal penalties if they run
astray of the “take” prohibition.
Eliminating the “take” pro-
hibition for threatened species
would give the government
more fl exibility in crafting con-
servation plans with private
landowners, PLF claims.
Meanwhile, they wouldn’t
face severe restrictions on agri-
cultural activities similar to the
drastic reduction in logging due
to the spotted owl’s listing, the
petition argues.
If the Fish and Wildlife Ser-
vice ignores or denies the pe-
tition, the Pacifi c Legal Foun-
dation is likely to fi le a lawsuit
against the agency.
The Center for Biological
Diversity, an environmental
nonprofi t, believes the petition
is a “ridiculous action,” said
Noah Greenwald, the group’s
endangered species director.
“It has very little legal ba-
sis,” he said.
The PLF may face an uphill
battle, since previous litigation
agency’s interpretation is “rea-
sonable and permissible,” the
ruling said.
Since then, though, the
U.S. Supreme Court has is-
sued two rulings that give
the Pacifi c Legal Founda-
tion hope for a different out-
come, said Damien Schiff, the
group’s principal attorney.
In those cases, the nation’s
highest court held the feder-
al government doesn’t have
“unrestricted power” in in-
terpreting the Clean Air Act,
which may lead to the same
conclusion regarding the En-
dangered Species Act, said
Schiff.
“That degree of discretion,
we believe, is just not sup-
portable,” he said.
that attempted to overturn the
“take” policy failed more than
two decades ago.
In 1993, the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
rejected similar arguments
against the regulation by a co-
alition of Oregon timber and
community groups.
The appellate court held the
Fish and Wildlife Service has
the “discretion to extend max-
imum protection to all threat-
ened species at once if, guided
by its expertise in the fi eld of
wildlife protection, it fi nds it
expeditious to do so.”
The language of the Endan-
gered Species Act is ambig-
uous as to whether the “take”
prohibition must be evaluat-
ed species-by-species, so the
Larger apple crop causes price worries
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
WENATCHEE, Wash. —
Growers have begun picking
Washington’s 2016 fresh ap-
ple crop, which is forecast
at 132.9 million, 40-pound
boxes, up 15 percent from
last year’s crop. The in-
crease could cause strong
prices to slip.
“I’m working on price
forecasts. I see Gala coming
in at $21 (per box wholesale)
which is $3 below last year,
so it could be 10 percent or
more drop in Gala prices,”
said Desmond O’Rourke,
owner of the consulting firm
Belrose Inc. He is a retired
Washington State University
agricultural economist and
longtime student of the apple
industry.
He predicts $21 as the
average price for Gala for
the coming sales year, down
from $24 for the 2015-2016
sales season soon ending.
Gala is forecast up 27 per-
cent in volume at 30.3 mil-
lion boxes just behind Red
Delicious, at 33.7 million,
up 15.7 percent.
Fuji is forecast up 20 per-
cent at 18.3 million boxes
and O’Rourke expects an
annual average price of $21
per box, down from $27.
The anticipated price
slippage is nothing like the
industry experienced two
years ago with the record
141.8-million-box crop.
“Guys with mainstream
varieties will be hit more
than guys with premium
Washington fresh apple crop
(Millions of 40-pound boxes)
Variety
2015*
Red Delicious
Gala
Fuji
Granny Smith
Honeycrisp
Golden Delicious
Cripps Pink
Braeburn
Jonagold
Cameo
Other
Total
29.1
23.8
15.3
17
7.3
8.1
5.4
1.7
0.8
0.4
6.1
114.9
*Close to final (8/1/2016) **Forecast
Dan Wheat/Capital Press
varieties with a bigger crop
like this,” he said. Honey-
crisp and newer varieties
will keep average prices up,
he said.
Honeycrisp is up 31 per-
cent at 9.6 million boxes
in the crop forecast by the
Washington State Tree Fruit
Association, in Yakima.
The forecast breaks out 10
varieties and groups “other
varieties” as up almost one-
third, from 6.1 million to 8
million boxes.
Most of that is club vari-
eties not open to growing by
all producers.
“The big question is will
the club varieties cannibal-
ize the mainstream varieties
or will they eat each other’s
lunch or a little of both?
They are certainly getting
big enough to shake up the
market,” O’Rourke said.
There isn’t great concern
about prices within the in-
dustry as Honeycrisp and
club varieties are increasing
33.7
30.3
18.3
16.8
9.6
7.8
5.6
1.4
0.7
0.4
8
132.9
Percent
change
15.8
27.3
19.6
-1.2
31.5
-3.7
3.7
-17.6
-3.9
16.7
31.1
15.7
NOTE: Totals may not equal 100 due to rounding.
Source: Washington State Tree Fruit Association
Eva Maria Sanchez thins Gala apples at Zirkle Fruit Co.’s CRO Orchard near Rock Island, Wash., on
July 14. Gala is estimated to be 23 percent of the 132.9 million-box 2016 Washington apple crop.
2016**
and “people are willing to
pay good prices for them,”
said Bruce Grim, manag-
er of the Washington Apple
Growers Marketing Associa-
tion in Wenatchee.
“I’m optimistic prices
will hold,” he said.
The Gala harvest start-
ed around Aug. 1 in Matta-
wa and other early districts
and runs to early Novem-
ber. There are orchards and
spots within orchards where
the crop is light, Grim said.
Weather can play a major
role and warm days and cool
nights could enlarge fruit
making a larger crop, he said.
Capital Press graphic
“Cooler weather in July for
Gala is giving better color de-
velopment this year than last
and we are earlier which is
helpful getting into markets,”
Grim said.
East Coast apple grow-
ers are dealing with drought
and could have smaller fruit
which would give Washington
an advantage, he said.
The European apple crop
is forecast to be down 3 per-
cent, but that is insignifi cant,
O’Rourke said, because the
crop is still very large, the
Polish crop is huge and the
Russian embargo remains in
place.
Immigration: How organization would improve system
Online
http://www.renewoureconomy.
org/front/
By ERIC MORTENSON
Capital Press
A New York-based group
that released state-by-state re-
ports on immigrants’ econom-
ic contributions said it favors
a broad range of immigration
reforms.
In an email, Executive Di-
rector Jeremy Robbins of the
group Partnership for a New
American Economy, said the
organization wants secure
borders and a simplifi ed sys-
tem for supplying seasonal
labor and verifying employ-
ment eligibility.
It also favors establish-
ing a path to legal status for
undocumented immigrants
now in the U.S., and making
it easier for foreign students
to stay and work so the coun-
try will “attract and keep the
best, the brightest and the
hardest-working, who will
strengthen our economy,”
Robbins said.
Partnership for a New
American Economy describes
itself as a bipartisan organi-
zation made up of 500 CEOs
and mayors. It hopes to fi nd
middle ground on the immi-
gration question by framing it
as an economic issue, includ-
ing the need for agricultural
labor.
Robbins, the executive
director, was an adviser and
Eric Mortenson/Capital Press
Oregon House Speaker Tina Kotek said national immigration
reform is necessary to fi x a “disjointed” system that hurts families
and hampers the economy.
legal counsel in the offi ce of
former New York Mayor Mi-
chael Bloomberg.
In various venues, includ-
ing a 2013 YouTube video,
Robbins said the country’s
political left wing viewed im-
migration reform as a matter
of reuniting families, while
the right wing talked about
law and order and “What part
of illegal don’t you under-
stand?”
The conversations weren’t
meshing, Robbins said, but
people do agree when the is-
sues are posed as economic
questions. They agree that
immigrants who start compa-
nies here and hire Americans
should be supported, and
agree it’s “crazy” to train top
scientists and engineers and
send them back home instead
of allowing them to stay and
work.
They also agree it’s a prob-
lem that America’s food crops
are harvested and processed
by a workforce that’s 75 per-
cent undocumented, he said.
“What are the economic
solutions? That’s where you
fi nd middle ground,” he said.
Establishing a path to legal
status for the undocumented
immigrants could include re-
quirements such as registering
with the federal government,
learning English, paying tax-
es and following all laws, he
said.
Partnership for a New
American Economy also fa-
vors strengthening federal,
state, local and employer pro-
grams that offer English lan-
guage, civics and educational
classes to immigrants, Rob-
bins said.
The group’s report on the
economic impact of immi-
grants in Oregon showed that
nearly 390,000 Oregon resi-
dents were born outside the
U.S., and 14,599 people im-
migrated to Oregon between
2010 and 2014.
Immigrants make up 10
percent of the state’s pop-
33-1/#8
ulation, the report showed,
but 13 percent of the overall
workforce and an estimated
56 percent of the workers who
hand-harvest crops. About
73 percent of immigrants are
working age, between 25 and
64, compared with 51 percent
of the native-born population.
In 2014, undocumented
immigrants earned an estimat-
ed $1.6 billion in wages and
paid $61 million in state and
local taxes and $104 million
in federal taxes, according to
the report.
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Reform group also
favors streamlined
approval for
seasonal workers