4
CapitalPress.com
July 28, 2017
Lawmakers exit Olympia with U.S. House looks at
neither Hirst fix nor capital budget ESA, wolf measures
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
Washington Farm
Bureau a fan of
playing hardball
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
OLYMPIA — The Legis-
lature adjourned indefinitely
July 20 without a capital bud-
get or a bill to reopen rural
Washington to well drilling.
Senate Republicans made
passing a $4 billion capital
budget contingent on coun-
teracting the state Supreme
Court’s Hirst ruling, which
will force landowners to
prove their new household
wells won’t diminish stream
flows.
Gov. Jay Inslee said late in
the day that Republicans were
being unreasonable, but GOP
leaders said playing hardball
was the only way to get Dem-
ocrats to take the issue seri-
ously.
The Washington Farm Bu-
reau stood by the Republican
stance, even though the cap-
ital budget includes funding
for agriculture-related proj-
ects.
“We support their position
100 percent. This is import-
Courtesy TVW
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee speaks at a press conference July 21 in Olympia after the Legislature
adjourned without passing a capital budget or a bill to reopen the drilling of household wells in rural
areas. Inslee blamed the impasse on Republican hardball tactics.
ant,” Farm Bureau associate
director for government rela-
tions Evan Sheffels said. “A
lot of folks miss the scope and
significance of the issue.”
The court’s 6-3 Hirst rul-
ing in October threatens to
shut down rural homebuild-
ing, reshaping not only wa-
ter law but also rural econo-
mies, tax bases and who gets
to control land.
For months, Senate lead-
LEGAL
Applications sought for the Oregon Forest Resources Institute
(OFRI) Board of Directors.
Pursuant to OAR 629-065-0400, the purpose of this notice is to
solicit applications for the Oregon Forest Resources Institute
(OFRI) Board of Directors. Applicants meeting all the
qualifications will be maintained on a list to be used by the State
Forester for filling existing vacancies and to fill vacancies caused
by expiration of an existing member’s term. Each applicant must
certify in the application that he/she meets the qualifications for
the position.
Each “producer” applicant for the board of directors shall have
the following qualifications: 1) be a citizen of the United States;
2) be a bona fide resident of this state; 3) be a “producer” in this
state, an employee of such a producer or own between 100 and
2,000 acres of forestland in this state on which harvest taxes are
paid, but have no direct financial interest in any forest products
processing activity; 4) have been actively engaged in producing
forest products for a period of at least five years; 5) derive a
substantial portion of income from the production of forest
products (“substantial portion of income” means that 50 percent
or more of the gross income of a member of the board of
directors is derived from timber or timber products ownership or
affiliation); 6) have demonstrated, through membership in
producers’ organizations or organizations representing
landowners who meet the requirements of ORS 526.610(4), a
profound interest in the development of Oregon’s forest
products industry; 7) is available to fulfill the duties and
responsibilities of the OFRI Board of Directors; and 8) meets the
producer class eligibility requirements for the position to which
nominated. Each “employee” applicant shall be: 1) a citizen of
the United States; 2) a bona fide resident of this state; and 3) an
hourly wage employee of a producer or a person who represents
such employees.
ers have said lawmakers
must “fix Hirst” this session.
Meanwhile, Inslee, a
Democrat, said the issue
shouldn’t distract lawmakers
from passing spending plans
for the 2017-19 biennium.
In the end, House Dem-
ocrats offered landown-
ers a 24-month window to
drill wells while lawmakers
worked on a permanent pol-
icy. Senate Republicans said
rural families and communi-
ties need more than a two-
year reprieve and questioned
whether a short-term fix was
workable for property own-
ers, counties and lenders.
Senate Agriculture Com-
mittee Chairwoman Judy
Warnick said July 21 that
Republicans had met the pre-
vious day and had no regrets
about drawing a line. “We all
decided what we did was the
right thing,” she said.
A Hirst bill acceptable
to the House and Senate
appeared to be within reach
several weeks ago. Reps.
David Taylor, R-Moxee, and
Brian Blake, D-Aberdeen,
proposed allowing wells, but
while charging new drill-
ing fees to raise money for
stream-enhancement proj-
ects.
Warnick said the propos-
al was acceptable to her,
but said House Democrats
wanted to give tribes too
much control over nixing
mitigation projects, possibly
The “producer” class eligibility requirements are:
Class 2 Producers having paid forest products harvest tax on
more than 20 million board feet but less than 100 million board
feet per year in the most recent year preceding the
appointment.
Class 3 Producers having paid forest products harvest tax on
100 million board feet or more per year in the most recent year
preceding the appointment.
Small Woodland Owner
An owner of between 100 and
2,000 acres of forestland in this state on which harvest taxes
were paid in at least one of the five years preceding the
appointment, and who has no direct financial interest in any
forest products processing activity.
Persons wanting to apply for the OFRI Board of Directors must
request application materials from Kathy Storm at OFRI,
storm@ofri.org or 971-673-2953. Send completed application
packets to the State Forester: Attention Stacy Miller, 2600 State
Street, Bldg. B, Salem, Oregon 97310, or via email at
stacy.miller@oregon.gov. Applications must be received no later
than 5:00 p.m. on August 31, 2017.
30-3/#4
Courtesy Office of Rep. Newhouse
U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., testifies on his Endangered
Species Act reform bill before the House Natural Resources Com-
mittee in Washington, D.C., on July 19.
LEGAL
The USDA Natural Resources
Conservation Service (NRCS)
announces a meeting for the
Washington State Technical
Advisory Committee (STAC) and
Washington Tribal Advisory
Council (WATCAC) on Thursday,
August 24, 2017. This meeting is
from 9:30am - 3:30pm at 316 W.
Boone Ave., Suite 450, Spokane
NRCS Conference Room.
Remote access is also available.
For future reference, the
schedule has changed from six
webinars a year, to two webinars
and two face-to-face meetings a
year. The next face-to-face is
scheduled November 7, 2017, in
the Spokane NRCS State Office.
For more information, contact
Bonda Habets, (509) 323-2961.
30-3/#4
Class 1 Producers having paid forest products harvest tax on
20 million board feet or less per year in the most recent year
preceding the appointment.
cornering the Department of
Ecology into closing some
watersheds to development.
“To give tribes veto pow-
er over our water resources
was just not acceptable,”
Warnick said.
As originally proposed,
the Taylor-Blake amendment
called for Ecology to “con-
sult” with tribes.
“That became the thing
that blew it up in the House
Democratic caucus — con-
sult vs. consent,” said Blake,
chairman of the House Ag-
riculture Committee. “That
blew it up, and we didn’t
have majority support in the
House Democratic caucus.”
One of the House’s lead-
ers on the issue, Rep. Der-
ek Stanford, D-Bothell,
said Democrats want peo-
ple to be able to drill wells,
but Ecology must be made
accountable for prevent-
ing in advance new wells
from harming senior water
rights.
“Obviously, having the
tribes do that wasn’t accept-
able to the other side,” he
said. “We’re open to ideas. If
you don’t want the tribes, fine.
... We’re all ears.”
While talks continue, Re-
publicans should have accept-
ed the 24-month delay to help
landowners poised to build,
Stanford said. “I think we
have made it clear we’re not
going to be bullied by holding
the capital budget hostage,”
he said.
Endangered Species Act re-
form, removing the gray wolf
from the list of protected spe-
cies and several other issues
championed by U.S. Rep. Dan
Newhouse have received re-
cent congressional attention.
The Washington Repub-
lican testified July 19 before
the House Natural Resourc-
es Committee on his bill, HR
1274, which would amend the
ESA to require federal agen-
cies to use the best available
scientific and commercial data;
include information from af-
fected states, tribes and local
governments; and disclose all
data before any species is listed
as threatened or endangered.
An earlier version of the bill
passed the House in the last
Congress.
Federal agencies are not
now required to share data
and too often overlook local
conservation plans, Newhouse
testified.
The National Park Service
and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Ser-
vice released a draft plan earlier
this year to re-introduce grizzly
bears to the North Cascades,
claiming the bears will join
an existing population even
though the last confirmed sight-
ing of a grizzly in the region
was in 1996, Newhouse said.
People deserve to know
what data the agencies are us-
ing, he said.
USFWS proposed remov-
ing the gray wolf from the list
of protected species more than
four years ago and the best
scientific information supports
that, yet the wolf remains list-
ed, he said.
The House Appropriations
Committee on July 18 ap-
proved an Interior Department
appropriations bill including
Newhouse measures:
• Encouraging USFWS to
delist the gray wolf and prohib-
iting the agency from using any
funds to continuing treating the
wolf as endangered.
• Continuing funding for the
Wolf-Livestock Loss Demon-
stration Program to assist pro-
ducers using non-lethal means
to reduce wolf predation.
• Reiterating prohibition of
the Environmental Protection
Agency funding for anti-ag-
riculture “What’s Upstream”
lobbying.
• Requesting the U.S. Forest
Service to increase transpar-
ency on how grazing is moni-
tored.
• Directing the USFS to re-
port on the needs of the North
Cascades Smokejumper Base
at Winthrop and other smoke-
jumper bases and describe
their economic and disaster
preparedness
effectiveness.
USFS is considering closing
the North Cascades base.
Also July 18, the House
Appropriations Committee ap-
proved a Homeland Security
appropriations bill including a
Newhouse measure directing
the Federal Emergency Man-
agement Agency to address an
imbalance in public assistance
to rural communities of states
with large metropolitan areas.
The House unanimously ap-
proved HR 2828, a Newhouse
bill extending a deadline for the
start of construction of the En-
loe Dam Hydroelectric Project
by the Okanogan County Pub-
lic Utility District. The dam,
near the Canadian border and
3.5 miles northwest of Oro-
ville, was constructed by Eu-
gene Enloe in 1920 to generate
electricity.
It was decommissioned in
1958 when a Bonneville Pow-
er Administration high-voltage
transmission line provided less
expensive electricity into the
Okanogan Valley.
DOL inspects Okanogan growers
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
OKANOGAN,
Wash.
— The U.S. Department of
Labor conducted surprise in-
spections of at least four tree
fruit growers in Okanogan
County the week of July 9.
“It’s a repeat of what oc-
curred three to four years ago
when DOL was inspecting
farms and farm labor camps
and wrote quite a few frivo-
30-1/#7
lous citations and hefty fines,”
said Dan McCarthy, secretary
of the Okanogan Horticultural
Association and a Tonasket
grower.
It’s typical for DOL Wage
and Hour Division compre-
hensive investigations to take
up to two months and usually
cover compliance with laws
and regulations concerning
wages and hours, housing,
transportation, sanitation and
worker rights, said Dan Fazio,
director of WAFLA farm la-
bor association in Olympia.
“If we know of four of
them, there probably are
eight,” he said.
Wage and Hour investiga-
tors choose a different area of
the state to inspect each year,
he said. Last year it was Ya-
kima and previously it’s been
the Columbia Basin, south-
west Washington and Okano-
gan, he said.
All four growers being in-
vestigated are WAFLA mem-
bers and are being advised by
WAFLA, he said.
The growers are in Okan-
ogan, Omak and Pateros, Mc-
Carthy said.
“In the last go-around, they
would inspect and then all but
threaten you to sign a state-
ment saying you were in vio-
lation of some area but would
not tell you what. Then later
they would send you a notice
of what you were in violation
of and a fine. So there was no
due process,” McCarthy said.
“These tactics are not pop-
ular with growers,” he said.
McCarthy said he has
contacted U.S. Rep. Dan Ne-
whouse, R-Wash., who rep-
resents the Okanogan, and
hopes the new Trump admin-
istration changes things.
It’s too soon to know if that
will happen because the new
administration doesn’t have
its policy people in DOL yet
except at the very top, Fazio
said.
Fazio and McCarthy
scheduled a meeting for
growers in Okanogan to ad-
vise them on what to do and
not do if contacted by DOL.
They invited DOL to the
meeting.
Meanwhile, Ernie del
Rosario, an Ellisforde grow-
er, said DOL issued find-
ings against him a couple of
months ago from a 2013 audit
and want him to pay $186,000
in back wages he says he
doesn’t owe. DOL will not
give his attorney the rationale
for the findings, he said.
He said growers are an-
gered by the new DOL inves-
tigations.
Leo Kay, DOL spokesman
in San Francisco, would not
say how many DOL inspec-
tions or investigations are oc-
curring in Okanogan County.
He said DOL does not discuss
current investigations.
“Investigators strive to
treat employers and workers
alike with respect and fairness
when looking into potential
wage violations,” he said.
In May 2016, DOL sought
to distribute $385,318 to more
than 1,000 workers that it re-
ceived in a court judgment
against Blue Mountain Farms
near Walla Walla for alleged
violation of minimum wage
and overtime laws in 2013.
In August 2015, a Mesa,
Wash., grower said he felt
manipulated and unfairly
fined $16,000 to lift a DOL
seizure of his apples on alle-
gations of children working in
his orchard. The grower said
he never tried to employ chil-
dren but that sometime pick-
ers can’t find day care.