WSU WOLF RESEARCHER DEFENDS REMARKS AS SCHOOL PROBES HOW HE MADE THEM
Wolf group
charts a
quicker path
to lethal
control
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
OLYMPIA — Washing-
ton’s Wolf Advisory Group
settled on a lethal-control pol-
icy March 30 that if in place
last year would have allowed
wildlife managers to shoot
wolves in the Profanity Peak
pack nearly three weeks ear-
lier to stop attacks on cattle
in the Colville
National For-
est.
The new
policy lowers
the
thresh-
old for lethal
removal and
gives the De-
partment
of
Donny
Fish and Wild- Martorello
life more lee-
way to act as a
pack shows signs of habitual-
ly targeting livestock.
WDFW hopes earlier in-
tervention will mean shooting
fewer wolves to change the
pack’s behavior, the depart-
ment’s wolf policy coordina-
tor Donny Martorello said.
“This could save the lives
of livestock and wolves,” he
said.
The group represents pro-
ducers,
environmentalists,
hunters and animal-rights ad-
vocates. Members accepted
the lethal-removal protocol
to end a two-day meeting to
review last year’s policy and
to revise it for the upcoming
grazing season. WDFW will
issue a written protocol in the
coming weeks.
Martorello said he called
WDFW Director Jim Un-
sworth during a break and got
the director’s support. Ulti-
mately, the decision rests with
Unsworth whether to shoot
wolves to stop depredations.
Following a policy ap-
proved by the advisory group
a year ago, Unsworth ordered
wolves in the Profanity Peak
to be culled after the fourth
confi rmed attack on livestock.
The fourth depredation was
confi rmed 26 days after the
fi rst. WDFW eventually shot
seven wolves, leaving four
survivors in the pack.
Under the new policy,
WDFW will consider lethal
removal after three depreda-
tions within 30 days. Signifi -
cantly, one depredation could
be classifi ed as “probable.”
Previously, only confi rmed
depredations counted toward
triggering lethal removal. To
confi rm a wolf attack, WDFW
investigators look for wounds
to the fl esh, but in some sus-
pected cases only bones re-
main.
Turn to WOLF, Page 12

VOLUME 90, NUMBER 14
WWW.CAPITALPRESS.COM
Success
in
growing
a
Medical Lake, Wash.,
farmer Dan Sproule and
LINC Foods co-founder
Beth Robinette look over
pea shoots that Sproule
brought to the co-op
warehouse for delivery
to customers March 14
in Spokane.
Carrots sit in the back
of Latah, Wash., farm-
er Bruce Hogan’s car
as he delivers them to
LINC Foods March 14
in Spokane.
co-op
LINC Foods
connects farmers
with new markets
around region
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
S
POKANE — The
atmosphere
is
busy but light on
a recent March
morning at the
new LINC Foods warehouse
in north Spokane.
Delivery truck driver Kyle Merritt
gathers produce for an order inside the
walk-in cooler.
Founder Beth Robinette puts beef
cuts from her family ranch
in gift boxes for cus-
tomers.
Medical
Lake,
Wash., farmer Dan
Sproule chats with Rob-
inette and Merritt as he drops off beets
and pea shoots, among other items.
Latah, Wash., farmer Bruce Ho-
gan has bags of oversize carrots in the
back of his car when he pulls up to the
entrance. The carrots will be cut into
bite-size coins for public school chil-
dren’s lunches.
They are members of a cooperative
of 49 farmer-owners, LINC Foods —
the acronym stands for Local Inland
Northwest Cooperative — that con-
nects them with new markets around
the region.
The co-op now handles sev-
eral thousand pounds of produce
each
week,
Robinette said.
Turn to CO-OP, Page 12
Photos by Matthew Weaver/Capital Press
Delivery truck driver and malting assistant Kyle Merritt gathers up produce to deliver orders March 14 in the LINC
Foods walk-in cooler in Spokane.
$2.00
Tim Hearden/Capital Press
John Purcell, Monsanto’s research and de-
velopment and Hawaii business lead, stands
in one of the greenhouses at the company’s
vegetable seed R&D facility in Woodland,
Calif., on March 28. He says the company is
placing a greater emphasis on outreach.
Outreach key
to improving
Monsanto’s
image,
offi cial says
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
WOODLAND, Calif. — Better out-
reach to consumers and efforts to ed-
ucate the public are keys to improving
Monsanto’s image amid controversies
over genetically-modified crops and an
impending acquisition by fellow giant
Bayer, a top company official said.
In the last few years, Monsanto has
stepped up public and media tours of its
facilities and made greater use of social
media to explain
its work, said John “We have to
Purcell, who runs
the
company’s pay attention to
vegetable
seed
research and de- the 98 percent
velopment lab in (of Americans
Woodland.
who don’t
“It leads to
some interesting farm). Not just
conversations,”
Purcell said of the with GMOs, but
company’s “Big
Ag” image. “I everything.”
think for certain
John Purcell,
folks within the Monsanto’s research
organization, it is
a challenge. For and development and
those of us who’ve Hawaii business lead
been in it awhile,
there’s a lot of
pride in what we do.
“Spending the time I have working
with people who feed the world ... has
been an amazing experience,” he said.
Purcell’s remarks during a ques-
tion-and-answer session came as com-
pany officials gave reporters a tour of
the Woodland facility, which develops
seeds for tomatoes, onions and other
vegetables, and put on presentations on
agricultural technology advances. The
lab accelerates the natural plant breeding
process but does not use GMO technol-
ogy.
The tour was similar to one held last
summer for journalists at Monsanto’s
Chesterfield Village Research Facility
outside St. Louis, where company lead-
ers acknowledged that they have been
slow to engage GMO critics and were
surprised by the vitriolic reaction to
Monsanto’s work.
In the last few years, the company has
been “intentional” about becoming more
transparent and explaining its role in ag-
riculture, Purcell said. As part of that, the
Woodland lab holds an open house each
summer.
“It’s the model we have to embrace
in agriculture,” Purcell said. “We have to
pay attention to the 98 percent (of Amer-
icans who don’t farm). Not just with
GMOs, but everything.”
The push proceeds as regulators in
the U.S. and Europe are reviewing the
$57 billion acquisition of Monsanto by
Bayer, the German pharmaceutical and
chemical company. Purcell said compa-
ny leaders expect the deal to close by the
end of this year.
“The one thing that gets people excit-
ed is that the two companies are defi nite-
ly committed to innovation,” he said.
Turn to MONSANTO, Page 12
EVER WONDERED WHAT TO DO WITH THAT OLD, WORN OUT COMMODITY TRAILER?
Our Rebin Program can turn your old
trailer into a new trailer! We will
remove all working mechanical parts,
and replace the bin with a new Stainless
Steel STC Bin on your existing running
gear. All parts deemed reusable are
reinstalled on the new bin. All of this at
the fraction of the cost of a new trailer!
WWW.STCTRAILERS.COM
494 W. Hwy 39
Blackfoot, ID 83321
208-785-1364
14-1/#16
FRIDAY, APRIL 7, 2017
Page 5