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6 CapitalPress.com Editorials are written by or approved by members of the Capital Press Editorial Board. March 3, 2017 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 Oregon’s wetlands system full of surprises J esse Bounds thought the worst was over after a fi re destroyed two barns, his machinery and $500,000 worth of straw last summer. In all, it was a loss of about $1 million. Then he tried to rebuild, and found his troubles had only begun. He dealt with the insurance company and got the necessary county building permits. But then a neighbor complained, and Bounds was told by the Oregon Department of State Lands that the 12 acres that had been farmed for years was actually a wetlands — a wetlands that didn’t appear on the State Wetland Inventory and had gone unnoticed. A permit to mitigate the damage to the Mateusz Perkowski/Capital Press File Jesse Bounds of Junction City, Ore., was caught up in the state wetlands system when he sought to rebuild two barns after a fi re. wetlands would cost $57,000 per acre, a $684,000 extra bill to restore the family’s livelihood. Oregon landowners don’t have a simple, reliable method to fi nd out whether their property is considered a wetland. House Bill 2785 takes the narrow approach, by exempting the replacement of a farm building “destroyed by fi re or other act of God” from state wetlands mitigation laws. House Bill 2786 is more expansive, creating an exemption for any property that’s not designated as a wetland under the State Wetland Inventory. We think Bounds should be excused, and HB 2785 is clearly written to remedy his situation. Requiring mitigation of previously undeclared wetlands to restore what had been a going concern could easily put a farm out of business. Let’s give them a break. We understand where some people might think HB 2786 goes too far, but the legislation begs a legitimate question: If wetlands are so important, why haven’t they been identifi ed and mapped? The Department of State Lands doesn’t actively seek out uncharted wetlands. Its enforcement actions are based on complaints. If neighbors hadn’t complained, Bounds would have rebuilt blissfully unaware of his real trouble. There is no defi nitive list for county building offi cials to consult. If a parcel is on the State Wetland Inventory it’s a wetland, but if it’s not it still could be? O UR V IEW THE FACE OF STARVATION U.S. has an obligation to do more in fi ght against hunger T his is the face of hunger. It’s The United States of America is save millions of lives. hard to look at, yet if you have uniquely able to step forward and help. Congress and the White House a heart you should not be able The U.S. already buys some food need to recognize our nation’s to look away. for overseas aid programs, but it needs obligation to help the millions of The little boy in the photo, Udai to do more. According to USAID, people who are facing starvation. Faisal, died last year, and 1.4 million the federal agency that provides food There is nothing we’d rather see than other children like him in far-away aid, 795 million people worldwide U.S. Marines delivering shiploads of places such as Yemen, Somalia, suffer from chronic hunger. Although wheat directly to the hungry people South Sudan and Nigeria of sub-Saharan Africa and face the same awful fate. We have been at war 15 years. In Afghanistan Yemen. On each bag should Some 20.4 million people and Iraq, we have sent our young men or be printed a U.S. fl ag and are caught up in famine the words: “From the People women into harm’s way and spent more than across the region. of the United States of $4 trillion. We can certainly afford to spend a America.” They need our help. tiny fraction of that to save millions of lives. We know the reasons An additional outcome — war, drought, political of feeding people is they corruption — but none of will ultimately be able to the victims were at fault. fend for themselves and grow their USAID already sends $2.5 billion Last week, United Nations own food, stemming the massive in food aid to those in need, we as a Secretary-General Antonio Guterres number of refugees flooding nation can and should do more. held out his hand and asked for neighboring countries and the rest It’s our obligation to humanity. help. “We are already facing a of the world. We live in a land of plenty. Silos tragedy; we must avoid it becoming We have been at war 15 years. In across the U.S. are bulging with a catastrophe,” he said at a press Afghanistan and Iraq, we have sent excess wheat. According to the conference. He said the U.N. needs our young men or women into harm’s USDA, 2.07 billion bushels of wheat $4.4 billion by the end of March were in storage as of December. Last way and spent more than $4 trillion. to avoid that catastrophe. He has We can certainly afford to spend a year, U.S. farmers grew 2.3 billion received $90 million. tiny fraction of that to save millions of bushels. In Ethiopia alone, 10.2 million The huge stockpile drags on wheat lives. people are in need and about 2.1 Nobody, regardless of race prices, which continue to hover at or million are acutely malnourished, or religion, deserves to die of below farmers’ cost of production, Challiss McDonough, a spokeswoman threatening their livelihoods and malnutrition, especially when we have for the World Food Program, told the the food and the resources readily well-being. Economists estimate that Los Angeles Times. She estimates her if nothing changes, wheat prices will available to help them get through this nonprofi t has only 5 percent of the crisis. remain low for up to fi ve years. resources it needs in that nation alone. Our hope is that Congress and In a silo, that wheat is helping no The U.N. and charities such as the President Trump will work together one. World Food Program are fi ghting a If the U.S. Congress and the Trump to provide more food aid for those in losing battle. They need food, and they need. administration were to step forward, need it now, to rescue men, women and It’s the right thing to do, but it buy that wheat and send it to sub- children whose only mistake was to live Saharan Africa and other corners of needs to be done now. Every minute, in the wrong place at the wrong time. the world gripped by hunger, it will and every life, counts. And determining whether a piece of ground is a wetland isn’t as easy as it might sound. In many cases, a wetland can be bone dry and is only identifi ed by expensive soil tests. That’s why DSL operates on a complaint basis, and then places the onus on the property owner to prove the land is not a wetland. It’s an insidious system. It seems an understatement that this system adds a certain amount of uncertainty to the unsuspecting property owner. It’s a mess the state needs to fi x so that there are no questions, no surprises. Until then, Oregon property owners are advised to keep peace with their neighbors. Readers’ views Flood nonsense ers’ Views, Feb 17). I agree with both about in Klamath area labor, trade impacting ag On Feb. 8, the Oregon Water Resources Depart- ment, OWRD, issued a post card to our farm/ranch lift- ing water restriction in ar- eas of the Upper Klamath Basin. The irony of this notice is so obvious. The rivers are at fl ood stage or very near it, and OWRD fi nally lifts the Tribal Call on the water. As the notice indicates, “This applies to all uses on the listed water right, in- cluding stock water, and do- mestic.” This includes sur- face water, (rivers, creeks and springs), and ground water (wells). Most all of the rights list irrigation as a listed use. I guess this means that those affected are now al- lowed to also irrigate their crops. In other words, irriga- tors, go forward, start your pumps and irrigate your crops, that is, if you can fi nd them under all the fl ood wa- ter. Timing is everything. This is further evidence of how one sided and dam- aging the Klamath Adjudi- cation currently is. The local court still has the fi nal say whether the state’s “administrative law judge” was correct in set- ting such high, required in- stream fl ows. (The admin- istrative law judge is not in fact a “real” judge.) Even more recently, a judge ordered the Bureau of Reclamation to “fl ush” additional amounts of water out of Klamath Lake and down the Klamath River to help coho salmon. This was being implemented as some downstream roads were al- ready under water. At the last minute, this amount of extra water was reduced, only because of phone calls from downstream residents and representatives from Congressman Doug LaMal- fa’s offi ce. This example is just an- other case that defi es all logic. A single judge and our federal government send extra water down the Klamath River for fi sh in the middle of a fl ood event. You would certainly think a fl ood event would contain enough water for any fi sh needs, including fl ush or pulse fl ows. It is absolutely necessary that logic and true science drive the decisions critical to the survival of our local economies. Tom Mallams Beatty, Ore. Keep up the good work, Capital Press Thanks for printing Barry Flinchbaugh’s piece (Trump a Mixed Bag for Ag) as a response to Rebec- ca Lampman’s letter (Read- and share concerns that the new administration’s pol- icies may not align with agriculture’s needs. During the campaign the adminis- tration was very clear about what it wished to accom- plish. So it is ironic that agriculture, which voted strongly for this adminis- tration, is having second thoughts. In the Feb 17 issue of the Capital Press, I learned that the U.S. Department of Labor estimates 70 percent of agricultural laborers in the U.S. are illegal. Wow! Ag could be seriously hurt by immigration policy! But that statistic, 70 percent, speaks to what the Capital Press provides to the agri- cultural community, name- ly knowledge. So keep up the good work bringing the agricul- tural news to us. It is our job, the reader’s job, to extract what we fi nd mean- ingful. We need that knowl- edge, unbiased facts, to make informed decisions. So keep it coming, guys. And thank you! David Duncan Mount Angel, Ore. Anti-GMO commentary reveals double standard The guest commentary by Patricia Michl (“Studies cast doubt on GMO food” 2/10/2017) exposes the dou- ble standard that activists continue to use in arguments against good science and re- search. Michl states, “… that GMO research results from any university accepting bio-corporate money are suspect. Corporations with a stake in biotechnology pour copious amounts of money into university programs.” What the author fails to realize is that without cor- porate grants for research, many universities would not sustain their research pro- grams, even to the benefi t of activist causes, which many universities openly support. And, conversely, the au- thor’s statement also implies that any money for research that comes from any an- ti-GMO activist organiza- tion is untainted. This is at best a double standard, and many in farm- ing and ranching would ar- gue the same point about ac- tivist organization research dollars being suspect in a similar manner. Michl spews the same rhetoric that all activists against GMOs spew, in that only their research is valu- able and should be treated as gospel. Norm Groot Executive Director Monterey Farm Bureau Salinas Calif.
