December 23, 2016
Port director optimistic despite
TPP, loss of container business
By MITCH LIES
For the Capital Press
SALEM — Port of Port-
land Executive Director Bill
Wyatt told participants at the
76th annual meeting of the
Oregon Seed Growers League
in Salem on Dec. 12 that he
is disappointed by the fail-
ure of the Trans-Pacific Part-
nership, but is optimistic the
new administration will be
trade-friendly.
“I am disap-
pointed about
the TPP, but I
don’t think that
is going to be
the last chapter
in that story,”
Bill
Wyatt said.
Wyatt
The TPP, a
trade agreement among 12 Pa-
cific Rim countries, has been
all but abandoned in recent
months after failing to gen-
erate congressional support.
It also is opposed by Presi-
dent-elect Donald Trump.
Still, Wyatt said: “If you
look at some of the folks who
are going to be involved (in
the Trump administration),
these are thoughtful global
players. I do have some opti-
mism on that front.”
Wyatt’s presentation was a
highlight of the first day of the
two-day meeting that drew
upwards of 500 participants.
In addition to talking
about the potential effects of
the Trump administration on
trade and transportation, Wy-
att touched on issues affecting
the port’s abilities to attract a
new container shipping com-
pany, and spoke on conditions
that led to the demise of the
South Korean shipping line
Hanjin.
Hanjin, once the third big-
gest trans-Pacific shipper, and
one of the last container ship-
ping lines to call on Portland,
filed for bankruptcy Aug. 31
and is now in liquidation.
Wyatt said much of Han-
jin’s demise can be traced
to an oversupply of con-
tainer shippers competing
for limited business, add-
ing that at least some of the
oversupply is a result of a
reliance on ship building
in countries such as China,
Japan and South Korea.
When ship orders expire,
these countries tend to offer
shipping companies huge
discounts on new ships in an
attempt to preserve jobs and
income, Wyatt said, and many
companies accept.
“We have had way too
many ocean carriers, and they
have done what happens in a
world with unlimited supply
and limited demand,” Wyatt
said. “They have pretty much
killed themselves.”
Wyatt also said ship build-
ers are constructing container
ships to handle huge volumes,
and that the average container
capacity today is 7,500 twen-
ty-foot equivalent units, or
1,000 TEUs greater than the
Port of Portland is equipped to
handle, both because of crane
size and the channel depth of
the Columbia River.
That limitation, he noted,
is part of the challenge of at-
tracting a new shipping line to
call on Portland.
“Having said all of that,”
he said, “we have pretty good
business in Portland. We have
reasonable cargo available at
a reasonable price.
“I feel good, actually,
about the quality of business
that is available here,” he said.
Wyatt noted that Port of
Portland officials are working
daily on attracting new con-
tainer service to Portland.
On another positive note,
Wyatt said the new admin-
istration “seems focused on
transportation
infrastruc-
ture,” which could benefit
efforts in Oregon to improve
the state’s infrastructure.
“Let’s take advantage of
the energy that I think we are
going to be seeing in the na-
tion’s capital to leverage that
in the state of Oregon,” he
said.
He said Washington, Cali-
fornia and Idaho are spending
considerable sums on trans-
portation infrastructure, leav-
ing Oregon alone among West
Coast states not doing so.
“It has been a long time
since we spent new money on
transportation infrastructure
here in this state,” Wyatt said,
“and all of our neighbors are
doing it, including Idaho.”
CapitalPress.com
5
Murrelet questions block logging project
Judge issues preliminary
injunction for private parcel
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
A federal judge has prohibited log-
ging on private property owned by a
timber company due to the possibility
of harm to threatened marbled mur-
relets.
U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken has
issued a preliminary injunction against
the harvest of a 50-acre parcel owned
by Roseburg Forest Products and its
Scott Timber subsidiary.
The tract was part of Oregon’s El-
liott State Forest until the timber com-
panies bought the property in 2014, to
the alarm of environmental groups.
Three nonprofits — Cascadia Wild-
lands, Center for Biological Diversity
and the Audubon Society of Portland
— filed a lawsuit seeking to block log-
ging on the parcel, arguing it was occu-
pied by marbled murrelets and harvest
would violate the Endangered Species
Act.
The property, known as the Benson
Snake Unit, is important to the species
for life-cycle behaviors beyond just
nesting, said Dan Kruse, attorney for
the environmental plaintiffs, during
oral arguments last month.
“Fragmentation has significant im-
pacts on marbled murrelets,” he said.
The timber companies countered
that they’d hired an internationally
known consulting firm to specifically
pick a logging site that wasn’t occupied
by the birds, which will be out to sea
when the harvest occurs.
“They don’t have the facts or the ev-
idence to show there will be death or
File Photo
A federal judge has issued a preliminary injunction against logging on a parcel of private land
that was once part of the Elliott State Forest in Oregon. At issue is whether the logging would
impact marbled murrelets, which are protected under the Endangered Species Act.
injury to the marbled murrelet,” said
Dominic Carollo, attorney for the tim-
ber defendants.
In her ruling, Aiken said the two sides
have offered competing versions of the
facts.
“Since both plaintiffs and defendants
make compelling arguments, the issue
here, as with many environmental cases,
boils down to which scientific approach
is best,” she said.
While the timber companies relied
on newer data to determine that marbled
murrelets don’t occupy the site, the envi-
ronmental groups’ protocol showing the
site is occupied is “widely accepted with-
in the scientific community,” Aiken said.
At this point, though, Aiken said she
doesn’t have to decide which method is
better.
It’s enough that the environmental
groups have raised serious questions
about the presence of marbled mur-
relets and shown the bird would suffer
irreparable injury from logging, she
said.
“If the project proceeds, marbled
murrelets will not be able to nest in the
clear-cut parcel for nearly a century
while the forest regrows,” said Aiken.
Judge sides with R-CALF in checkoff suit against Montana Beef Council
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
GREAT FALLS, Mont. — A federal
magistrate judge has issued a recommen-
dation that the Montana Beef Council be
barred from keeping beef checkoff dollars
collected from unwilling ranchers, agree-
ing that the practice violates their constitu-
tionally protected free speech.
The Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal
Fund, United Stockgrowers of America
brought the suit against USDA alleging
the council is a private organization, and
a campaign it conducted with the Wendy’s
fast-food chain ran contrary to the inter-
ests of ranchers in the state, as the chain
promotes North American beef rather than
U.S. or Montana beef.
Because of a heavy caseload in the
Montana federal court system, the case
was heard by U.S. Magistrate Judge John
Johnston. His Dec. 12 ruling must still
be affirmed by a district judge. The fed-
eral government will have 14 days to file
objections to the ruling, and R-CALF at-
torneys will be allowed additional time to
address the government’s response, before
the district judge will render a decision.
The council collects the $1-per-head
checkoff fee on state cattle sales, keeping
50 cents and sending the remainder to the
government-controlled Cattlemen’s Beef
Promotion Board. If the ruling is affirmed,
Montana’s council will be required to ob-
tain permission from ranchers to retain its
portion of the fee, said David Muraskin of
the public interest law firm Public Justice
who represents R-CALF. Muraskin hopes
USDA would then change its fee collec-
tion policies.
“Our hope is the ruling in Montana will
force the federal government to recognize
it can’t just turn over money to private
entities to finance multinational corpora-
tions’ speech,” Muraskin said.
The federal government established
a provision for producers to opt out of
paying fees to qualifying beef councils
following the filing of R-CALF’s lawsuit.
Muraskin argued the opt-out policy undu-
ly places the onus on producers to make
the request and is overly burdensome,
forcing them to file the request every
month, among other problems.
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