FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2017
VOLUME 90, NUMBER 38
WWW.CAPITALPRESS.COM
A GROWING
$2.00
Jose Orosco and David Flores move
ladders to pick d’Anjou pears Sept.
11 in McCoy Orchard near Cash-
mere, Wash.
PROBLEM
Washington growers asked for 43 percent more foreign guestworkers to
work crops this year, indicative of a continuing shortage of domestic labor
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
U
Photos by Dan Wheat/Capital Press
Anna Lemus picks d’Anjou pears at McCoy Orchard
near Cashmere, Wash., on Sept. 11. The picker short-
age appears less acute in the Wenatchee Valley this
fall, but most growers say they need more pickers.
.S. farmers are increasingly relying on
foreign guestworkers to tend and harvest
their crops as the number of domestic
farmworkers continues to shrink.
In Washington state, farmers, or-
chardists and others who raise labor-intensive crops
this year asked for 18,796 guestworkers — 43 per-
cent more than last year and the most ever.
The growing number of H-2A-visa foreign guest-
workers is evidence of what growers describe as an
alarming shortage of workers to handle tree fruit,
berries, vegetables, hops, wine grapes and any crops
that require lots of workers.
“People not using H-2A think they can just raise
wages and get more workers. In the past, that worked.
It no longer does. There’s just not the workers out
there,” said Dan Fazio, executive director of the
Olympia-based farm labor association WAFLA. The
association recruits the vast majority of H-2A workers
hired in the state, mostly for tree fruit growers.
Turn to LABOR, Page 12
H-2A visas issued for
Northwest, California
28,548:
Up 198%
from 2012
(Workers certified by U.S. Dept. of Labor)
23,366
Oregon
Idaho
17,386
California
Washington
12,161
Source: U.S.
Dept. of Labor
9,576
Dan Wheat and
Alan Kenaga/
Capital Press
State
2012
’13
’14
’15
2016
Washington
California
Idaho
Oregon
4,443
2,862
1,980
291
6,349
4,199
1,539
74
9,064
6,043
2,080
199
11,844
8,591
2,356
575
13,689
11,106
2,994
759
Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument s future remains cloudy
Leaked report from Trump administration is ambiguous about details
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
The future of Oregon’s Cas-
cade-Siskiyou National Monument
remains cloudy despite the details
revealed in a recent leaked report
from the Trump administration.
The memorandum to President
Donald Trump from Interior Secre-
tary Ryan Zinke includes recommen-
dations for 10 national monuments,
including the Cascade-Siskiyou,
which was nearly doubled in size by
the Obama administration early this
year.
Originally, the monument consist-
ed of 53,000 acres, with private prop-
erty purchases incrementally adding
13,000 acres over the years. In 2017,
the monument expanded onto nearly
48,000 acres of public land.
While Zinke says the monu-
ment’s boundary “should be re-
vised” to remove so-called “O&C
Lands” that are dedicated to timber
production and “to reduce impacts
on private lands,” the report doesn’t
state exactly how many acres should
be cut, or where.
Critics and supporters of the ex-
pansion agree it’s unclear what ac-
tion Trump may take on the recom-
mendations, given the disputes over
management of 0&C Lands.
The federal government initially
granted those 2.4 million acres to
a railroad connecting Oregon and
California, but then repossessed the
property in 1937 when grant condi-
tions were breached.
The Oregon & California Revest-
ed Lands Act required that the prop-
erty be permanently managed for a
“sustained yield” of timber harvest.
For this reason, critics of the expan-
sion say O&C Lands can’t be includ-
ed in the monument, where commer-
cial logging is prohibited.
Turn to MONUMENT, Page 12
Drought spreads across three-quarters of Washington, half of Oregon
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
Drought conditions are spread-
ing rapidly across Washington and
Oregon, federal offi cials reported
Sept. 14, though cooler and wetter
weather is expected to settle over
the Northwest during the last half
of September.
A moderate drought prevails
over 77 percent of Washington, ac-
cording to the U.S. Drought Moni-
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tor, while the northern 43 percent of
Oregon has fallen into a moderate
drought.
“This is a snapshot of what’s
happening,” Washington State As-
sistant Climatologist Karin Bumba-
co said. “If the forecast of precip-
itation does happen, I imagine the
drought monitor won’t get worse,
but it will take some time to pull out
of the precipitation defi cit.”
Drought conditions have ap-
peared at the end of a hot and dry
summer in the Pacifi c Northwest.
Two weeks ago, less than 2 percent
of Washington was in a drought,
while no part of Oregon was in a
drought. The southern half of Ore-
gon remains untouched by drought.
Portions of Central Washington
also are not in drought. “That area
is above-normal (precipitation) as
opposed to the rest of the state,”
Bumbaco said.
Turn to DROUGHT, Page 12
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www.fbrealty.com
Don Jenkins/Capital Press
Corn grows in dry ground in southwest Washington.
A moderate drought now covers 77 percent of the
state, the U.S. Drought Monitor reported Sept. 14.
TWO BLAINE COUNTY FARMS/RANCHES
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38-1/102