January 27, 2017
CapitalPress.com
Oregon producers urged
to pay attention, speak up
By ERIC MORTENSON
Capital Press
PORTLAND — Produc-
ers should watch for localized
efforts to restrict genetically
engineered crops and pesti-
cide use at the county and city
level, while in the upcoming
session of the Oregon Legis-
lature, the concern is “budget,
budget, budget,” the policy
director for Oregonians for
Food and Shelter said.
Speaking at the annual
Northwest Agricultural Show,
Scott Dahlman said he ex-
pects legislation regarding
GMO crops, pesticides, fertil-
izer, labor, water and other ag
concerns.
“When the Legislature’s in
town, that’s when we get wor-
ried,” Dahlman said.
He said a “wild card” in
the upcoming session is the
state’s new agriculture depart-
ment director. Alexis Taylor
replaced Katy Coba, who was
“absolutely wonderful for us”
and maintained good relations
with legislators, he said.
Taylor has a strong ag
background, “But it’s fair to
say she will have a lot to learn
Eric Mortenson/Capital Press
Scott Dahlman, policy director with Oregonians for Food and Shel-
ter, said crop regulations, pesticides and “budget, budget, budget”
issues will dominate the Oregon Legislature’s session this year.
about Oregon ag,” Dahlman
said.
One bill already proposed,
Senate Bill 499, would re-
move pesticide applications
from the activities protect-
ed under Oregon’s “right to
farm” law and forestry prac-
tices. Traditionally, the state
has held producers can’t be
sued for noise, dust and oth-
er normal practices, but the
bill would remove pesticides
from protected activities.
“We’re very worried about
anything that would roll that
back and open up farmers
and foresters to nuisance law-
suits,” Dahlman said.
He said producers need to
be careful.
When applying pesticides,
for example, producers must
follow label instructions ex-
actly, Dahlman said.
“There is no room for er-
ror,” he said. “Activists are
out there looking for mis-
takes.
“Agency investigations
are becoming front page
news,” he added. “All it takes
is one bad apple out there and
it’s on the front page of the
Oregonian.”
He said confl icts within
agriculture — a recent exam-
ple would include herbicide
drift from farm operations
harming vineyards — should
be handled among produc-
ers. “We’re seeing a disturb-
ing trend of certain groups
running to the Legislature”
instead of sitting down with
their neighbors to resolve
problems, he said.
To make themselves heard,
producers should call up their
legislators, introduce them-
selves and be willing to tell
their story. The latter involves
being willing to testify before
legislative committees that
are considering bills.
Dahlman said legislators
tire of hearing from lobbying
groups such as OFS.
“They listen to constitu-
ents,” he said. “The best ex-
pert on what you do is you.”
Judge orders destruction of radio collar data from wolves, elk
Helicopter landings
and data collection
in Idaho violated
environmental laws
Frank Church-
River of No Return
Wilderness
95
14
Elk City
IDAHO
Mo
nt.
Ida
ho
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
McCall
A federal judge has or-
dered Idaho wildlife offi cials
to destroy radio collar data
collected on wolves and elk
in the Frank Church Wilder-
ness.
The U.S. Forest Service
violated federal environmen-
tal laws by allowing the Ida-
ho Department of Fish and
Game to land helicopters and
collar wildlife within the 2.4
million-acre wilderness area,
according to U.S. District
Judge Lynn Winmill.
Winmill has prohibited
Idaho offi cials from using
data collected from 57 elk
and three wolves outfi tted
with radio collars early last
year because the Forest Ser-
vice permitted the project
contrary to the National En-
vironmental Policy Act and
the Wilderness Act.
Though the helicopter
missions are now over, “this
is the rare or extreme case”
where the destruction of data
is warranted to prevent IDFG
from justifying future incur-
sions into the wilderness,
Winmill said.
“The only remedy that will
directly address the ongoing
harm is an order requiring
destruction of the data — no
monetary award or other such
sanction will alleviate the on-
LEMHI
VALLEY
Cascade
55
CUSTER
Area in
detail
BOISE
21
Boise
84
N
Alan Kenaga/Capital Press
going harm,” he said.
Based on aerial surveys,
Idaho wildlife offi cials be-
lieved that elk populations
in the wilderness area were
plummeting due to predation
by wolves. This conclusion
led them to draft a plan to
eliminate roughly 60 percent
of the resident wolves in the
area.
Initially, IDFG wanted to
tranquilize and collar wolves
and elk in the course of more
than 1,000 helicopter land-
ings over 10 years to “con-
fi rm their suspicions,” the
ruling said.
However, the agency kept
scaling back the project until
it required only 120 helicop-
ter landings to collar 60 elk
— and no wolves — over two
days in January 2016.
Though the permit issued
by the Forest Service only al-
lowed elk to be collared, an
IDFG crew leader “wrongly
assumed” that “opportunistic
collaring of wolves” would
be in line with the agency’s
“common practice” during
past helicopter fl ights, ac-
cording to an agency offi -
cial’s affi davit.
“IDFG uses monitoring
data to make informed wild-
life management decisions,
including appropriate hunt-
ing seasons, and to provide
technical information and
recommendations to USFS
on wildlife habitat issues,”
the offi cial said. “Requiring
the destruction of data would
diminish our knowledge of
how elk and wolves use this
unique landscape and how
they interact.”
Three
environmental
groups — Wilderness Watch,
Friends of the Clearwater and
Western Watersheds Proj-
ect — sought an injunction
against the project, but it was
completed before any court
hearings could be held.
The Forest Service and
IDFG argued the lawsuit was
moot, but Winmill disagreed,
ruling that Idaho offi cials are
likely to undertake similar
short-duration projects in the
future.
The judge also agreed that
the Forest Service circum-
vented a NEPA requirement
to analyze long-term effects
of the helicopter expeditions.
The federal government
allowed IDFG “to get away
with slicing its long-term he-
licopter collaring project into
a one-year sliver of a project
to mitigate the cumulative im-
pacts,” he said.
The
Forest
Service
couldn’t make an informed
decision about the “necessi-
ty” of collaring because IDFG
had divided its project “into a
smaller proposal that hid the
true nature of the impacts,”
which also violated the Wil-
derness Act, Winmill said.
12-month waiver
TRACTORS
7
IDWR issues water right
curtailment notices
as measured by spring fl ows
from the Thousand Springs
area.
“It may be there is always
some level of curtailment.
That factor of the equation
could always generate some
level of curtailment,” Cefalo
said.
Cefalo added that the cur-
tailment order didn’t differ-
entiate between consumptive
and non-consumptive uses
so some water users who re-
ceived a notice may not need
to curtail. For example, he
said the Idaho Falls School
District received notice to
curtail water rights used in
its heating and cooling sys-
tem, but won’t actually be re-
quired to curtail because the
same amount of water that
enters the system is pumped
out.
Lynn Tominaga, execu-
tive director of Idaho Ground
Water Appropriators Inc.,
said some groundwater dis-
tricts are compiling lists of
wells that are not partici-
pating in a mitigation plan
to give to IDWR. Tominaga
said an exceptionally dry
year could result in more
water users seeking to join
IGWA for safe harbor from
the call, but they would also
expected to contribute fi -
nancially for past mitigation
efforts.
“The department is shoot-
ing across the bow,” Tomi-
naga said of the recent cur-
tailment order. “They want
people to know they’re going
to be curtailing if they don’t
have a mitigation plan or join
a groundwater district.”
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
BOISE — The Idaho De-
partment of Water Resources
has sent notices ordering the
curtailment of about 70 ju-
nior water rights on the East-
ern Snake Plain, effective
Feb. 2.
The notices, dated Jan.
17, apply only to water us-
ers junior to June 20, 1989,
who are not participating in
a mitigation program grant-
ing them safe harbor from
the Surface Water Coalition’s
water call.
James Cefalo, IDWR’s
water resource program man-
ager for the Eastern Region,
explained the curtailment
orders were made to ensure
senior coalition members re-
ceive “reasonable carryover”
of last storage water and
don’t take current snowpack
and projected streamfl ows
into account. Though some
irrigation rights are included
in the curtailment order, Ce-
falo explained IDWR Direc-
tor Gary Spackman will issue
a new order at the start of the
irrigation season in April that
will factor in the current out-
standing snowpack and re-
place the recent curtailment
order.
Spackman will update the
water outlook for the purpos-
es of water users who haven’t
participated in a mitigation
plan three times during the ir-
rigation season. Cefalo said a
recent Idaho Supreme Court
ruling requires that aquifer
health be taken into account
in Spackman’s calculations,
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