4 CapitalPress.com May 5, 2017 Snowpack big enough that glaciers may gain National Park Service receives 120,000 comments on grizzlies By DAN WHEAT Capital Press SEDRO WOOLLEY, Wash. — The National Park Service has received more than 120,000 public com- ments on its plans to rein- troduce grizzly bears in the North Cascades. A public comment period began in early January and was to end March 14 but was extended to April 28 at the re- quest of the public and local officials. More than 120,000 com- ments were received, and it will take three to six months for NPS to process them, said Denise Shultz, spokeswoman at the North Cascades Nation- al Park Service Complex in Sedro Woolley. An analysis of the com- ments won’t include how many were from out of state or how many are for rein- troduction, but will be more along the lines of identify- ing things or alternatives that NPS and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service may have missed that may need further data or study, Shultz said. The comments focus on a draft environmental im- pact statement that includes a no-action alternative and three alternatives to restore a reproducing population of about 200 bears by bringing them in from other areas. Restoring grizzlies would Chris Morgan, Grizzly Bear Outreach Project There are believed to be about 20 grizzly bears in the North Cas- cades of Washington. “enhance the probability of longterm survival and con- servation of grizzly bears in the contiguous United States, thereby contributing to over- all grizzly bear recovery and greater biodiversity of the ecosystem,” the agencies have said. Grizzlies were listed as a threatened species in the con- tiguous U.S. in 1975. They were listed as endangered in Washington state in 1980. A final environmental im- pact statement may come late this year or early next year, with a decision a month or so later, Shultz said. U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse, whose district includes part of the North Cascades, sent a let- ter to Karen Taylor-Goodrich, superintendent of the North Cascades National Park Ser- vice Complex, March 17 ex- pressing his “firm opposition” to the plan. The general consensus of people attending a March 2015 forum in Okanogan on the issue was “that their con- cerns were not being taken seriously by federal officials,” Newhouse wrote. He noted that the last con- By DAN WHEAT Capital Press firmed sighting of a grizzly in the North Cascades was in 1996 and that the agencies’ draft environmental impact statement found it “highly unlikely that the area contains a viable grizzly bear popula- tion.” That raises questions about the need for restoration, he wrote. On April 27, a Newhouse aide said the congressman is “continuing conversations” on the issue with new Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, a for- mer Montana congressman. Okanogan County ranch- ers already coping with coy- otes, cougars and wolves say they don’t need another apex predator killing and harassing their cattle. “At the public meeting, it was clear there’s a predeter- mined outcome and that NPS doesn’t care to hear from local people who will be impacted. The whole format of the meet- ing was to stifle public input and indoctrinate attendees on the benefits of grizzly bear,” said Nicole Kuchenbuch, an Okanogan rancher and pres- ident of the Okanogan Farm Bureau. “Congress needs to cut the funding. I don’t know the chances, but we do hold out hope, the way the Trump administration is rolling out executive orders, that it might save the day,” Kuchenbuch said. MOUNT VERNON, Wash. — This could be one of those rare years when glaciers in Washington’s Cascade Range gain a little. Statewide mountain snow- pack was 140 percent of nor- mal on May 2, up from 121 percent of normal on April 3, which was up from 112 percent of normal on March 6, according to Scott Pattee, water supply specialist of the Washington Snow Survey Of- fice of the USDA Natural Re- sources Conservation Service in Mount Vernon. Overall snow below 4,500 feet elevation is gone but higher elevation snowpack is melting slower than normal because of cool weather and has even been gaining around Mount St. Hel- ens and Mount Adams, Pattee said. It’s unusual enough that gla- ciers that have been receding for years might actually gain a little, he said. “Irrigation supply is going to be excellent this year and rafting on the Wenatchee River might go another several weeks be- yond July,” Pattee said. Temperatures are increasing this week but will be accompa- nied by rain and then tempera- tures will fall again, he said. With daytime high temperatures in the mountains still in the 30s, snow is staying longer, he said. “The weather guys all say we will have a summer, but I remember summers in the near past in Western Washing- ton when we really didn’t have much summer,” he said. The three-month outlook, May through July, calls for slightly above normal tem- peratures and equal chances of above or below normal on pre- cipitation, he said. So it doesn’t look like there will be any pro- longed heat wave to accelerate high mountain snowmelt, he said. Snow water equivalent snowpack in the Spokane ba- sin was 113 percent of normal on May 2. The upper Columbia (Okanogan and Methow rivers) was 148 percent. The central Columbia (Chelan, Entiat and Wenatchee) was 130, the upper Yakima was 105 and the lower Yakima 129. The lower Snake near Walla Walla was 125, Wal- la Walla was 182, and lower Columbia was 164. South Puget Sound (from the lowlands to the Cascade crest) was 129, central Puget Sound was 133, north Puget was 117, and the Olym- pics 127. All of those readings were up from a month ago. Streamflow forecasts for May 1 through September will be near the same percentages of normal as the snowpack read- ings, Pattee said. The five mountain reservoirs serving 464,000 irrigated acres (mostly farmland) in the Yaki- ma Basin were at 72 percent of their 1 million-acre-foot capaci- ty on May 2 and are at 97.8 per- cent of average storage for this time of year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. Precipitation in the basin is 108 percent of average. Blizzard worries western Kansas wheat farmers As Vance Ehmke woke up Monday morning, he thought his wheat crop might survive despite the spring blizzard that buried it overnight. But as he scouted his farm near the tiny town of Dighton in western Kansas, he mea- sured 10 to 12 inches of heavy LEGAL NOTICE OF BEEF COUNCIL PUBLIC BUDGET HEARING NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that a public meeting will be held pursuant to ORS 577, the Oregon Beef Council Statute, by Conference Call on Thursday, May 18, 2017, at 8:00 am upon a proposed budget for the operation of the Oregon Beef Council during Fiscal Year July 1, 2017 to June 30, 2018. At this meeting, any producer of beef in Oregon has the right to be heard with respect to the proposed budget, a copy of which is available for inspection, under reasonable circumstances in the Oregon Beef Council office in Portland. Any producer of beef in Oregon may join this conference call by calling toll free 1- 866-210-1669. Participant login number is 7980221. For further information, contact the Oregon Beef Council office at 1827 NE 44th Ave., Ste 315, Portland, Oregon 97213. The meeting location is accessible to persons with disabilities. A request for an interpreter for the hearing or for other accommodations for persons with disabilities should be made at least 48 hours before the meeting to the Oregon Beef Council at 503-274-2333. Dated this 24th day of April, 2017 ATTESTED: Jason Chamberlain, Chairman William N. Wise, CEO 18-1/#4 snow on top of his wheat, which is five to six weeks from harvest. “We may have a problem,” Ehmke told the Capital Press. “I’m not nearly as confident this afternoon as I was this morning.” Ehmke and other western Kansas wheat farmers were Press 9 l a t i Cap 882-678 - 1-800 a c e a n a d to pl renew my and ription! subsc blindsided by a weekend bliz- zard that blanketed the region, said Justin Gilpin, CEO of the Kansas Wheat Commission in Manhattan, Kan. “This is something none of us have ever seen before, snow this late on a wheat crop like this,” Gilpin said. “It started snowing Friday night and just continued all through Sunday.” The heavy snow bent over the wheat plants. “Where those stems are bent and broken, that wheat’s probably going not going to make it,” Gilpin said. Kansas grows 7.5 mil- lion acres of wheat, roughly 40 percent of which is in the western third of the state, Gil- pin said. Farmers will assess the damage in the next week to 10 days. The commission is advising farmers to work with their crop insurance adjusters. Ehmke said he’ll have to wait several weeks to deter- mine the extent of the dam- age. “Just like everybody else here in western Kansas, we’re waiting as fast as we can to see what the hell happened to us,” he said. Farther west, in Syracuse, Kan., Jason Ochs estimated he got 20-24 inches of snow in 12 hours on his 4,000 acres of wheat. “I’m a very optimistic per- son, but I’m not feeling very optimistic at this point,” Ochs said, noting he lost seven of the 10 trees in his yard. “If it’s doing that to trees, I can’t imagine that a wheat plant’s going to hold up at all.” “Where commodity pric- es are and the drought we’ve been through, I just really LEGAL LEGAL PURSUANT TO ORS CHAPTER 819 Notice is hereby given that the following vehicle will be sold, for cash to the highest bidder, on 5/08/2017. The sale will be held at 10:00am by WILTSE’S TOWING 3120 CHERRY AVE. SE, SALEM, OR 2006 HARLEY DAV HERITAGE VIN = 1HD1BWB146Y074151 Amount due on lien $800.00 Reputed owner(s) JERRY LEE RUNDGREN PURSUANT TO ORS CHAPTER 819 Notice is hereby given that the following vehicle will be sold, for cash to the highest bidder, on 5/9/2017. The sale will be held at 10:00am by SKYLINE FORD 2510 COMMERCIAL ST SE, SALEM, OR 2006 FORD F350 VIN = 1FTWW31P36EA89659 Amount due on lien $19,169.17 Reputed owner(s) TIMOTHY HAMMOND SELCO Comm CU legal-17-2-7/#4 Capital Press legal-17-2-7/#4 By MATTHEW WEAVER hope I can survive this,” he said. Dan Steiner, grain mer- chant for Morrow County Grain Growers in Boardman, Ore., said the market is trying to quantify the blizzard. He’s heard damage estimates in Kansas ranging from 50 mil- lion to 150 million bushels — up to half of the state’s crop. The snowstorm will affect the supply of high-quality hard red winter wheat. While cash prices in- creased 5 cents a bushel, wheat futures increased 25 cents a bushel. Steiner said a farmer may want to use the price rally to market some of the 2017 wheat crop. “I think the majority of the rally, we probably have seen it unless something further de- velops and the damage is go- ing to be way more extensive than the market is thinking,” Steiner said. Ochs, the Kansas farmer, said many farmers were look- ing forward to a good crop following a drought that has dried out the region. “When they thought we were going to have a pretty decent crop, they weren’t sure they were going to survive this year,” he said. “Now this happened.” WE SPECIALIZE IN BULK BAGS! BAGS: • Seed Bags • Fertilizer Bags • Feed Bags • Potato Bags • Printed Bags • Plain Bags • Bulk Bags • Totes • Woven Polypropylene • Bopp • Polyethylene • Pocket Bags • Roll Stock & More! HAY PRESS SUPPORT: • Hay Sleeves • Strap • Totes • Printed or Plain • Stretch Film (ALL GAUGES) WAREHOUSE PACKAGING: • Stretch Film • Pallet Sheets • Pallet Covers LOCATIONS: Albany, Oregon (MAIN OFFICE) Ellensburg, Washington CONTACT INFORMATION: Phone: 855-928-3856 Fax: 541-497-6262 info@westernpackaging.com ....................................................... CUSTOMER SERVICE IS OUR TOP PRIORITY! w w w. w e s t e r n p a c k a g i n g. c o m rop-16-3-7/#5 18-2/#5