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CapitalPress.com
December 2, 2016
What’s Upstream ‘paused,’ but may resurface
Organizers say they
are ‘re-scoping’
their workplan
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
The lead organizer of
What’s Upstream hopes to re-
vive the campaign to further
regulate Washington farm-
ers, even as federal and state
watchdogs continue their
probes into allegations of il-
legal lobbying, according to a
report submitted to the Envi-
ronmental Protection Agency.
In an update filed this
month on the use of EPA
funds, Swinomish Indian tribe
environmental policy director
Larry Wasserman described
the campaign as “paused.”
Organizers, Wasserman
wrote, are “currently re-scop-
ing workplan to explore al-
ternative uses with sensitiv-
ity towards the end date of
6/30/17.”
Wasserman did not elab-
orate on what was planned.
Efforts to reach Wasserman
were unsuccessful.
The head of one of the en-
vironmental groups involved
in What’s Upstream said she
doesn’t know details, but that
she expects the campaign to
return. “I’m sure it will re-
sume,” Trish Rolfe, executive
director of the Center for En-
vironmental Law & Policy,
said Tuesday.
Wasserman’s report came
more than five months after
the EPA’s Office of Inspector
General announced it will au-
dit the tribe and the Northwest
Indian Fisheries Commission.
The audit, yet to be fin-
ished, responds to complaints
by federal lawmakers that
the fisheries commission and
tribe misused EPA funds to
lobby state lawmakers. Ef-
forts to reach a fisheries com-
mission spokesman were not
successful.
An EPA spokesman said in
an email that the agency will
not provide any future fund-
ing for What’s Upstream.
Even without EPA’s con-
tinuing support, What’s
Upstream has maintained a
website and Facebook page
featuring materials funded by
the EPA.
The tribe received some
$655,000 from the EPA over
five years and hired Seattle lob-
bying and PR firm Strategies
360 to link farmers with Puget
Sound water pollution. For sev-
eral years, EPA staff members
questioned the campaign’s tone
and factual basis, but the agen-
cy allowed it to proceed until
lawmakers complained.
Lawmakers are still wait-
ing for EPA to explain its role
in the campaign, a spokes-
man for Rep. Dan Newhouse,
R-Wash., said Tuesday.
“After seven months,
the EPA has yet to provide
much-needed answers on the
anti-farmer campaign’s legal
violations. What is already
clear is that in addition to the
EPA preventing future abus-
es, taxpayers should be reim-
bursed for improperly used
funds,” the spokesman said in
an email.
“Congressman Newhouse
believes it would be com-
pletely inappropriate for cam-
paign materials illegally paid
for using taxpayer dollars to
continue to be used.”
The fisheries commission,
tribe and the environmental
groups launched a revamped
What’s Upstream website last
year to lobby for mandato-
ry 100-foot buffers between
farm fields and waterways.
House Agriculture Com-
mittee Chairman Brian Blake,
D-Aberdeen, said Tuesday
that lawmakers have little in-
terest in requiring buffers. He
said that he thinks the What’s
Upstream advocacy campaign
has been ineffective.
“I think it’s been a foolish
use of taxpayer dollars,” he
said. “I think many legisla-
tors were just offended by the
campaign.”
What’s Upstream cur-
tailed its activities last spring
after the EPA abandoned the
campaign. What’s Upstream
billboards came down and a
letter-writing campaign facili-
tated by the website ended.
Save Family Farming di-
rector Gerald Baron said that
the What’s Upstream website
has been an ongoing source of
“irritation.”
The group was formed to
respond to claims by What’s
Upstream. If the campaign is
revived, “it’s going to infuri-
ate farmers that much more,”
Baron said. “If EPA funds that
in any way, it’s going to be a
real problem.”
The Washington Public
Disclosure Commission is
investigating whether What’s
Upstream violated state law
by failing to register its lobby-
ing activities.
Big wine company makes
a big move in Oregon
By ERIC MORTENSON
Capital Press
Jackson Family Wines, the
California-based
company
that has purchased four vine-
yards in Oregon since 2013, is
building a 68,000 square-foot
wine production facility in
McMinnville, in the heart of
the state’s Pinot noir region.
The company’s presence
in Oregon unsettles a few who
wonder about its potential
impact on the state’s unusual
wine sector. Jackson Family
is an international wine com-
pany with operations in Chile,
France, Italy and Australia in
addition to the U.S. In Ore-
gon, the company has bought
the Zena Crown, Gran Mo-
raine, Penner-Ash and Wil-
laKenzie vineyards and win-
LEGAL
Attorney:
DAVID B. BECKHAM
319 Sixth Avenue SW
Albany, OR 97321
legal-48-3-2/#4
IN THE CIRCUIT COURT
OF THE STATE OF OREGON
FOR THE COUNTY
OF MARION
Probate Department
IN THE MATTER OF THE
ESTATE OF
Fran Bledsoe, Deceased
No. 16PB07260
NOTICE TO
INTERESTED PERSONS
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN
that the undersigned has
been appointed Personal
Representative of the above
estate. All persons having
claims against the estate are
required to present them to
the undersigned Personal
Representative in care of the
undersigned attorney at: 319
Sixth Street SW, Albany, OR
97321 within four months
after the date of the first
publication of this notice, as
stated below, or such claims
may be barred.
All persons whose rights
may be affected by the
proceedings in this estate
may obtain additional infor-
mation from the records of
the Court, the Personal Rep-
resentative, or the attorney
for the Personal Represen-
tative.
DATED and first published
November 25, 2016.
Personal Representative:
KYLE B. DILL
2735 Gilbert St. S.
Salem, OR 97302
eries since 2013.
Gregory Jones, a Southern
Oregon University professor
who often writes about the
wine industry and viticulture
climatology, said larger com-
panies entering new territory
need to understand a region’s
culture.
“One would hope that the
new energy drives innovation,
bettering the overall health of
the industry,” Jones said by
email. “Only time will tell.”
Company officials were
not immediately available to
provide additional details of
the construction. Most who
are engaged in or follow Ore-
gon’s wine industry don’t ap-
pear overly concerned about
the company’s arrival.
Jackson Family purchased
two buildings that were part of
Evergreen International Avi-
ation’s campus and will use
them for offices and lab space,
according to the McMinnville
city planning department.
The production facility under
construction is adjacent to the
other buildings.
LEGAL
SECRETARY OF STATE
NOTICE OF PROPOSED
RULEMAKING
Oregon Department of Agri-
culture,
Administration,
Administrative Rules Chapter
#603, Sue Gooch, Rules
Coordinator, (503) 986-4583.
Adopt:
603-075-0005;
Amend: 603-175-0025, 603-
175-0050, 603-075-0100, 603-
075-0110, 603-075-0120, 603-
075-0130,
603-075-0140;
Repeal: 603-075-0015. RULE
SUMMARY:
The
2015
legislative assembly passed
HB 2444 which made changes
to ODA’s Farm Mediation
Program. The rule describes
the process for selection of
mediation services, fees to be
charged
for
mediation
services,
methods
of
advertising the availability of
mediation services, and the
processing of requests for
agricultural mediation, or
mediation of disputes directly
related to activities of the
department of mediations
pursuant to ORS 36.252 to
36.268.
Hearing
date:
December 15, 2016 at 10:00
a.m.
Location:
Oregon
Department of Agriculture,
635 Capitol St. Ne Salem, OR.
Last day for public comment
is December 30, 2016. 49-1/#4
The property is across the
street from the airplane muse-
um and water park Evergreen
formerly operated.
Jackson Family’s presence
in Oregon will bring more
national and international
exposure to the state’s wine
industry, said Jody Chris-
tensen, executive director of
the McMinnville Economic
Development
Partnership.
The organization represents
chamber of commerce, utility,
city government and business
interests.
“It’s a significant devel-
opment for our community,”
Christensen said. “This is a
company with a great reputa-
tion. They’re very engaged in
the Oregon sensibility — in-
clusive and collaborative. I’m
very impressed with the way
they approach their work.”
David Adelsheim, one of
Oregon’s pioneering grape
growers and winemakers, said
Jackson Family’s investment
isn’t likely to change the Wil-
lamette Valley’s reputation
for producing high-quality,
expensive wines, especially
Pinot noir. In the stores, bot-
tles of Oregon Pinot com-
monly carry $40 to $65 price
tags.
“I think we should not
plan on them changing the
landscape,” he said. “They’re
building a larger winery,
which Oregon desperately
needs because we don’t have
the capacity, but they’re not
going to make a $15 (per bot-
tle) Pinot noir.”
Adelsheim has a unique
perspective; in addition to
his own experience, his wife,
winemaker Eugenia Keegan,
was at Gran Moraine and now
is Jackson Family’s general
manager of operations.
Adelsheim said the valley
produces small crops per acre
and the resulting grapes are
expensive — costing $3,000 a
ton and more.
Those grapes have to be
sold as expensive wine to
be profitable. It’s an unusu-
al formula that nonetheless
has worked for 50 years, he
said.
Courtesy of Public Lands Council
Cattle and greater sage grouse share public land in Idaho. Grazing advocates are concerned about
the ramifications of proposed changes to the Bureau of Land Management planning process, which
are expected to be released in final form before the current administration leaves office.
Rural interests plan to fight
new BLM planning regs
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
A national livestock in-
dustry leader warns proposed
changes to the Bureau of Land
Management planning pro-
cess are on the fast track for
implementation and threaten
public lands grazing.
Ethan Lane, executive di-
rector of the Public Lands
Council, which represents
cattle and sheep ranchers with
public lands grazing permits,
said senior BLM officials
have assured him a final ver-
sion of the agency’s proposed
Planning 2.0 will be released
before the current administra-
tion leaves office.
“I think it’s incredibly dan-
gerous, and it’s going to take
Congress’ full attention to
protect the West and Western
states from this effort,” Lane
said. “The net effect is graz-
ing and any other multiple use
on BLM land will be threat-
ened.”
BLM sources couldn’t
be reached by press time for
comment on the time line for
Planning 2.0, which would
represent the first update
to agency planning rules in
about 30 years. The aim, ac-
cording to BLM literature,
is to “revise regulations that
implement (the Federal Land
Policy and Management
Act) to include best practices
learned over decades.”
BLM documents insist
the changes should improve
transparency and public in-
volvement while building
trust among stakeholders.
Critics, including rural county
leaders and industry officials,
note the proposed rule short-
ens public comment periods
from 90 days to 60 or 45 days,
depending on the stage.
Revised priorities in the
draft document remove lan-
guage requiring an assessment
of policy impacts on local
economies, replacing it with
“impacts of resource manage-
ment plans on resource, envi-
ronmental, ecological, social
and economic conditions.”
Lane believes the empha-
sis on the environment would
come at the expense of BLM’s
current mandate to manage
for “multiple use and sus-
tained yield.”
“It’s wholly inappropri-
ate for them to change their
mission unilaterally to plan
for intangibles like social and
environmental change,” Lane
said.
Written comments sub-
mitted on behalf of several
Western counties and orga-
nizations, including Custer
County, Idaho, and Baker
County, Ore., emphasize the
changes would remove FLP-
MA requirements for BLM to
make land-use decisions with
“meaningful involvement”
from state and local govern-
ments.
“Every other entity will
have the same opportunity as
the state and local govern-
ments to work with the federal
government at the same lev-
el,” said Kelly Aberasturi, an
Owyhee County, Idaho, com-
missioner. The county filed
separate comments against
the proposal. “The decisions
are not local anymore.”
Rep. Mike Simpson,
R-Idaho,
introduced
an
amendment to the House ver-
sion of the Interior and Envi-
ronmental Appropriations Bill
requesting implementation
of Planning 2.0 be delayed
90 days to gather additional
public comment from West-
ern states. Simpson expects
Interior funding will be ad-
dressed through a continuing
resolution that won’t include
his language, but he antici-
pates Congress will ultimately
block Planning 2.0.
“A rule of this size and
scope needs to be careful-
ly considered with adequate
time for local stakeholders
to add input,” Simpson said.
“I anticipate this rule will be
rolled back, along with many
other Obama administration
regulations that are simply
being rushed to the finish line
without going through the ap-
propriate process.”
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