6
CapitalPress.com
January 20, 2017
Editorials are written by or
approved by members of the
Capital Press Editorial Board.
All other commentary pieces are
the opinions of the authors but
not necessarily this newspaper.
Opinion
Editorial Board
Publisher
Editor
Managing Editor
John Perry
Joe Beach
Carl Sampson
opinions@capitalpress.com Online: www.capitalpress.com/opinion
O UR V IEW
Owyhee monument plan shelved?
the monument proposal.
We don’t know why the
proposal has been shelved, or
if it really has been shelved.
It could be the administration
thinks the designation would
be too inflammatory, given the
area’s proximity to the Malheur
National Wildlife Refuge,
the site of last year’s armed
occupation by followers of the
Bundy clan.
It could be Obama chose an
easier target, instead expanding
the Cascade-Siskiyou National
Monument in Southern Oregon
earlier this month.
If the president doesn’t
proclaim the Owyhee
Canyonlands a national
monument, it’s a near certainty
that such a designation won’t
be made during the Trump
administration.
The president has the sole
authority under the Antiquities
Act of 1906 to designate land
owned by the federal government
as a national monument.
We are encouraged that
Congress is considering curbing
executive authority under the
Antiquities Act, if not repealing
the law outright. Congress, the
affected states and local residents
should have more say over such
designations, and the restrictions
that accompany them.
O UR V IEW
Ore.
Idaho
26
Proposed national Ontario
conservation area
Nyssa
78
Jordan
Valley
Burns
Junction
Idaho
Ore.
and conservation area would
cover 40 percent of Malheur
County — about 2.5 million acres
of what is now controlled by the
Bureau of Land Management.
Residents believe the
designation would be
accompanied by restrictions and
regulations that would prohibit
or severely complicate grazing,
mining, hunting and recreation.
While proponents say
traditional uses of the land will
be allowed, local opponents
don’t believe them. When the
locals put it to a non-binding
vote — because locals really
don’t get a vote — 90 percent of
Malheur County voters opposed
Ore.
BAKER
O
O
regon Sen. Jeff Merkley
told OPB Sunday that
Secretary of the Interior
Sally Jewel told him the proposed
Owyhee Canyonlands National
Monument in Eastern Oregon’s
Malheur County has been
shelved.
Merkley says he doubts
President Obama will make the
proclamation before leaving
offi ce Friday.
That’s encouraging, but at this
writing Obama still has time to
make the proclamation.
Backed by the Oregon Natural
Desert Association and Portland’s
Keen Shoes, the proposed
Owyhee Canyonlands wilderness
Area in
detail
95
Ore. McDermitt
Nev.
N
95
20 miles
Alan Kenaga/Capital Press
O UR V IEW
Paleo diet just
another food fad
F
What Mother Nature takes
away, she can also restore
B
ig storms over the past few
weeks have dumped enough
snow and rain on California
to end drought conditions in 40
Percent of the historic average snow water
percent of the state, according to
equivalent for Jan. 11, measured in inches.
the U.S. Drought Monitor.
Mother Nature is fi ckle. What
Northern Sierra/Trinity:
she takes away she can restore with
131% of normal
Redding
a fury.
5
As of Jan. 13, California’s snow-
Central Sierra:
156% of normal
water content had vaulted to 163
Sacramento
percent of normal statewide after
80
Southern
being just 70 percent of normal two
Sierra:
San
Francisco
weeks earlier.
187% of
normal
Fresno
The snow water equivalent
N
in the Northern Sierra was 132
50 miles
5
percent of normal, 163 percent in
15
Bakersfield
40
the Central Sierra and 197 percent
Statewide
Los
Angeles
average:
158%
in the South.
10
Many of California’s reservoirs
Source: California Dept.
of Water Resources
are well above historical averages
8
Alan Kenaga/Capital Press
for this time of year. Shasta Lake,
the Central Valley Project’s main
reservoir, was at 81 percent of
It’s too early to entirely call an
capacity as of Jan. 15 and 126 percent end to California’s six years of
of average, while Lake Oroville,
drought. Winters can start wet and
the chief reservoir for the State
end dry. But in the short run it’s
Water Project, was at 80 percent of
good news for just about everyone
capacity, or 126 percent of average,
in a state that’s been parched.
according to the Department of Water
We’re told that the recent
Resources.
intense storms are something of
California snow
water equivalents
an anomaly, described as an
atmospheric river.
Because you never know
when it’s going to rain and
snow, it only makes sense to
bank as much as you can — a
little something for a non-rainy
day.
In 2014 California voters
approved Proposition 1, a $7.5
billion water bond to pay for
water infrastructure projects.
The bond sets aside $2.7 billion
for large storage projects.
The $3.6 billion Sites
Reservoir project is one
of several around the state
that have been identified
for potential funding under
Proposition 1. Another project
expected to seek funding is the
$2.5 billion Temperance Flat
Reservoir near Fresno.
One way to manage our water
resources is to make sure excess
runoff during the wet winters is
stored either in reservoirs or in
aquifers. That’s obvious when it’s
bone dry. While water appears now
to be more plentiful, the exigency
for more water storage still exists.
ads come and go, and diet fads are no different. Just
as poodle skirts and Bobby socks gained popularity
and disappeared during the 1950s, new diet fads will
come and go — as long as there’s money to be made.
In a sense, diet fads are indicators of two conditions.
One, people want to take good care of themselves, and
will do the strangest things to do that. And two, ours is a
society rich enough so we can eat anything, and as much
of it, as we want. People in a Third World nation gripped
by famine do not worry about whether they need to go
gluten-free.
In the U.S., if people want to eat a diet of possum and
grits, good for them. If they want to eat non-fat, non-GMO
and non-everything else, that’s fi ne, too.
Just don’t try to argue that everyone else must follow
the same regimen.
Diet fads are nothing knew. A quick search of the
Amazon online bookstore turned up more than 1,000 diet
books of various types. They ranged from the Water Diet
to the Clean Food Diet to the Bone Broth Diet — and
almost everything else you can imagine. The “Badass
Body Diet” was one that caught our eye.
It’s clear there’s no limit to the creativity of those who
cook up diets. It’s the American way: to come up with a
shtick and try to make money from it.
One fad that has gained attention on talk shows and
blogs is the Paleolithic diet. It is patterned after what was
eaten during the Paleolithic period, which was between
2.5 million and 10,000 years ago. Followers of this
diet forsake such foods as dairy, potatoes and grains —
anything that the typical caveman would not have eaten.
It should be noted that the Paleo diet also leaves out
mice, insects, tree bark and other nutrient sources that
Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble may have eaten to hold
them over during the long winter, when berries and other
foods were not available.
Some farmers and others in the food industry rankle at
the thought of someone targeting their crop as a way to
sell books. We completely understand that. A dietitian will
tell you that a well-rounded diet that includes all the major
food groups offers the best overall health.
We agree. One problem with the fad all-or-nothing diets
is they don’t teach good eating habits. If a person loads
up on proteins but neglects other foods, he or she will
ultimately become less healthy.
It’s also ironic that some food faddists pick on potatoes,
which possess all of the nutrients a person needs to stay
healthy. In fact, some people have lived exclusively on
potatoes for years.
Food fads will continue to come and go. Today’s Paleo
diet will be replaced by some other diet, and that will in
turn give way to something else.
As long as there’s money to be made with diet and
recipe books, that’s the way it will go. The best diet,
though, includes advice mothers have offered for
millennia: All foods in moderation.
No one will ever come up with a better diet.
Readers’ views
Share the joy of
having wolves
around
The way the state of Wash-
ington is handling wolves,
people like John Browne of
Vashon Island have no skin
in the game.
Why don’t they petition
the state of Washington to
import a breeding pair of
wolves to Vashon Island
and every county in Western
Washington? That way they
could share the joy and fun
that farmers and ranchers
are experiencing in Eastern
Washington.
Maybe it would be cheap-
er for the state of Washington
to just sell hunting tags for
wolves. Let hunters control
the number of wolves killing
livestock.
That way the state and
communities affected by
wolves would reap some eco-
nomic benefi ts.
Laurence C. Pederson
Carson City, Nev.
EPA protects
environment
I just don’t hold the same
view as you regarding the
EPA.
You continue to harangue
about the abuses of the EPA
“going overboard” and
“trying to put the screws to
farmers, ranchers and for-
esters across the West” as
per your recent editorial
(“Another environmental
pipe dream”, Dec. 23).
In the same editorial you
applaud how, when a farm-
er is found to be polluting,
he “will do his level best
to rectify it” (Cow Palace,
Sunnyside, Wash.)
The inference is that the
EPA wouldn’t be needed
to tell the farmer to do the
right thing.
It needs to be pointed
out, however, that the dairy
farmer didn’t decide on his
own to install the double
liners in his storage lagoons,
but rather as a result of a
lawsuit settlement involv-
ing himself and an environ-
mental group and the EPA,
whose studies identified his
operation to be contributing
to the polluting of neigh-
boring residents’ drinking
water.
I’m sure the EPA does
go overboard, but I per-
sonally view many of their
rules and regulations more
as “protections” for our
environment and the pub-
lic rather than “regula-
tions” to put the screws to
anybody.
Bruce Schwartz
The Dalles, Ore.