September 22, 2017
CapitalPress.com
5
Lawsuit opposes wild horse birth control Stormy blossom leads to
smaller navel orange crop
Animal rights group
cites negative
side effects
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
An animal rights group has
filed a lawsuit seeking to stop
the federal government from
administering birth control to
wild horses in the West.
Friends of Animals, a non-
profit, claims the U.S. Envi-
ronmental Protection Agency
approved the birth control
agent — porcine zona pelluci-
da or PZP — without properly
researching its impact on wild
horses.
In its complaint, the group
has asked a federal judge to
order EPA to suspend regis-
tration of PZP until it con-
ducts a special review of the
substance, which would effec-
tively halt birth control treat-
ments for wild horses.
Western rangelands are
inhabited by roughly 60,000
wild horses, which are pro-
tected by federal law and
managed by the U.S. Bureau
of Land Management in cases
of overpopulation.
The BLM occasionally
rounds up wild horses, re-
moving some from the range-
land while treating mares with
PZP.
According to Friends of
Animals, the EPA waived re-
quirements that PZP be ana-
lyzed for toxicity, ecological
effects and environmental im-
Larisa Bogardus/BLM
A gather of wild horses from the Beaty Butte Management Area, adjacent to the Hart Mountain Na-
tional Wildlife Refuge in Southern Oregon, in this November 2015 photo. An animal rights organization
has filed a lawsuit seeking to stop birth control treatments of wild horses on public land. Wild horses
compete with cattle for grazing resources on rangeland.
pact when the substance was
registered in 2012.
Since then, new informa-
tion has come to light show-
ing that treating mares re-
peatedly with PZP can impair
their ovarian function and po-
tentially cause infertility, the
plaintiff claims.
Even after its effects have
worn off, PZP disrupts a
mare’s reproductive cycle,
making it more likely she will
give birth during a seasonally
inopportune time, the lawsuit
said.
Foals born in wintertime
are more likely to die from
low temperatures and lack of
food than those born during
the spring and summer.
Friends of Animals peti-
tioned the EPA to consider
these and other impacts as
part of a special review of
PZP, but the agency decided it
wasn’t warranted and referred
the matter to BLM.
The plaintiff argues this
decision was made “arbitrari-
ly and capriciously” in viola-
tion of federal pesticide law.
Any action that would
boost wild horse populations
in the West — such as a sus-
pension of birth control — is
of concern to ranchers whose
cattle compete for grazing re-
sources.
“The problem with fe-
ral horses out on the range
is they double in population
every four years if left un-
checked,” said Tom Sharp, a
rancher near Burns, Ore., and
chairman of the Oregon Cat-
tlemen’s Association’s endan-
gered species committee.
Treating the horses with
birth control is more humane
than allowing their popula-
tions to become excessive, he
said.
“We know the feral horses
are suffering on the range,”
Sharp said. “They don’t have
enough food or water and a lot
of them just die.”
When horses consume too
much grass, it leads the BLM
to reduce the number of cattle
in the area, he said.
“As you have less food and
forage available, something
has to give,” Sharp said.
Horses are also more ad-
ept than livestock at jumping
over fences that are intended
to protect riparian areas from
trampling, which can harm
sensitive fish species, he said.
“The government is in des-
perate need to have some tool
to manage the wild horse and
burro program,” Sharp said.
Oregon wildfire fighting costs hit $340 million
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
SALEM — Fighting Ore-
gon wildfires this year so far
has cost state, federal, local,
tribal and private entities more
than $340 million and con-
sumed 678,000 acres, state au-
thorities said Monday.
All of that activity was
manifested in smoke-filled air
and limited visibility for many
Oregonians.
The “sheer volume of fires
all at the same time and con-
tinuous days of growth up
through Washington and Ida-
ho” created the oppressive
conditions, said Doug Grafe,
fire protection division chief
at the Oregon Department of
Forestry.
More than 8,000 personnel
from different agencies have
been deployed to fight 1,903
separate wildland fires across
the state. That’s more than
one-third of the personnel de-
ployed to combat wildfires na-
tionwide, Grafe said.
The most dangerous fires
started in late July and early
August. The region has been
dry since mid-June, with no
significant rainfall until Sun-
day. Tens of thousands of
lightning strikes contributed to
the severity of the fire season.
Smoke had already cap-
tured the attention of most
Oregon Dept. of Forestry
A firefighter works on wildfires
in Southern Oregon. Fighting
wildfires in Oregon this season
has already cost $340 million,
state officials said on Monday.
of the state, when the hu-
man-caused Eagle Creek fire
sparked in the state’s scenic
gem, the Columbia Gorge,
Sept. 15, trapped 150 hikers
and threatened the City of
Portland’s water supply, the
Bull Run Watershed.
Fire crews kept the fire
from that crucial water supply
and from the Multnomah Falls
Lodge, where flames came
within 40 feet of the historic
structure.
“A lot of what this fire was
doing was spotting out ahead
of itself within communities,
and they were just having to go
after it, and catch it,” said Or-
egon Fire Marshal Jim Walker.
“They did that hand-in-hand
with all of the resources, part-
nering together.”
Rain on Sunday evoked
widespread excitement in the
Gorge, where firefighters con-
tinued to battle flames visible
from Interstate 84.
“I think we are in a good
place with the rain and the con-
ditions,” Grafe said.
Gov. Kate Brown deployed
the Oregon National Guard
Aug. 2 to respond to several
severe fires. National Guard
helicopters assisted with the
rescue of trapped hikers and
poured 1.3 million gallons
of water on burning land and
structures. ODF has released
the helicopters after 45 days
of duty.
The conditions on air per-
sonnel are as bad, if not worse,
than combat, said Dave Stuck-
ey, deputy director of the Ore-
gon Military Department.
The state placed 950 Na-
tional Guardsmen on state ac-
tive duty, a high for any year
since Hurricane Katrina in
2005, when 1,979 Oregon Na-
tional Guard personnel were
deployed, Stuckey said.
Fire crews have suffered no
fatalities, but there have been
about 34 injuries among Na-
tional Guard personnel and 23
among ODF personnel.
More water bonds may be put
before California voters in 2018
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
SACRAMENTO — Vot-
ers in California may see two
more water-related bond mea-
sures on their ballots next year
as proponents try to build on
the success of Proposition 1.
Gerald Meral, a former
deputy secretary of the state
Natural Resources Agency,
is about to begin gathering
signatures for an $8.9 billion
measure for such water-relat-
ed projects as repairs to the
sinking Friant-Kern Canal in
Tulare and Kern counties.
Meral told the Capital
Press his initiative is “a fol-
low-up” to Proposition 1, the
$7.5 billion water bond vot-
ers overwhelmingly passed in
2014.
“Those of us who’ve been
working on this felt that four
years would be a reasonable
time to think about another
water bond,” Meral said.
By 2018, except for the
storage component, all the
money will be spent from
Prop. 1, he said.
“We pretty much modeled
this on Prop.
1,” he said. “It’s
very heavy on
groundwater
(restoration),
waste water re-
cycling and wa-
Gerald
ter for fish and
Meral
wildlife.”
Meral’s ini-
tiative would appear on the
November 2018 ballot.
Meanwhile, the Legislature
approved a bill by state Senate
Leader Kevin de Leon, D-Los
Angeles, to place a $3.5 billion
bond measure for flood protec-
tion, water supply reliability
and new parks and open space
before voters in June.
“California’s aging infra-
structure is in dire need of
new investment, from our
parks to our dams and res-
ervoirs,” de Leon said in a
statement.
If passed by voters, de Le-
on’s measure would provide
$750 million for flood pro-
tection and prevention and
$500 million for such proj-
ects as safe drinking water
and groundwater sustainabil-
ity efforts.
In all, the measure — Sen-
ate Bill 5 — would include
22 percent of the projects ad-
dressed in Meral’s initiative,
according to an analysis by
California Citrus Mutual. The
bill does not include funding
for the Friant-Kern Canal, and
its safe drinking water fund-
ing would be less than half as
much as in Meral’s proposal,
CCM asserts.
Citrus Mutual has not tak-
en a formal position on either
initiative, the organization
said.
The proposal comes as
the California Water Com-
mission is considering 12
applications for portions of
$2.5 billion in Proposition 1
funding for storage projects.
The commission expects to
decide by next June.
The Legislature initial-
ly approved a bill in 2009
to put an $11.1 billion water
bond before voters, but that
measure was delayed twice
and then downsized as lead-
ers feared its defeat amid a
sluggish economy. Brown and
lawmakers agreed to set it at
$7.5 billion in 2014.
The governor’s order to de-
ploy the National Guard cov-
ered four fires: Eagle Creek,
Nena Springs, Milli and Chet-
co Bar.
Those four fires alone
threatened 19,978 residenc-
es and destroyed 10. Nearly
8,000 people were evacuat-
ed in those areas. The cost
of fighting the fire was about
$15.3 million, said Oregon
Fire Marshal Jim Walker.
SACRAMENTO
—
Stormy weather during the
bloom last spring will lead to
a smaller overall navel orange
crop but with larger fruit in
2017-18, government and in-
dustry insiders predict.
Growers are expected to
harvest 70 million cartons
this season, down from the 75
million produced in 2016-17,
according to a National Agri-
cultural Statistics Service ob-
jective measurement survey.
The survey found a fruit
set per tree of 273, below the
five-year average of 348. But
the average Sept. 1 diame-
ter of 2.34 inches was above
the five-year average of 2.24
inches, according to NASS.
“We’re pretty much in
agreement with” the esti-
mate, said Bob Blakely, vice
president of California Citrus
Mutual. “There’s really a lot
of variability as you drive
through the Central Valley. …
The crop seems to be the same
or a little better in the south
but much lighter in the north.
The other thing is there’s a lot
of variability from tree to tree
and grove to grove.”
Storms that capped off
one of the wettest winters in
history complicated the navel
orange bloom in late March
and April, affecting some
orchards more than others
depending on how far along
the trees were in the bloom,
Blakely said.
“It’s making it a hard crop
to estimate,” he said. “In gen-
eral, everyone thinks that it’s
down and that number (from
NASS) is probably a good
place to start.”
Last season’s crop fell
short of the 81 million car-
tons projected by NASS and
was down considerably from
the 91.4 million utilized car-
tons recorded in 2015-16. A
smaller crop in 2016-17 was
expected considering the pre-
vious season’s big crop and
drought-related water short-
ages during last year’s bloom.
Tim Hearden/Capital Press
Navel oranges grown in the
San Joaquin Valley. Stormy
weather during the blossom
last spring is expected to lead
to a smaller navel orange crop
this season, according to the
National Agricultural Statistics
Service.
Another small crop with
larger fruit sizes could put
positive pressure on prices,
which are already some of the
best that growers have seen
in recent years. Prices for
mid-size navels, which make
up the bulk of the crop, rose
to between $15 and $17 per
40-pound carton by the end
of last season, up from $10 to
$11 in December, Blakely has
said.
Growers are getting be-
tween $18 and $21 per carton
for peak sizes of Valencias as
they’re wrapping up their har-
vest of a projected 15.6-mil-
lion-carton crop.
“Those are probably the
best prices we’ve seen in the
last 10 years,” Blakely said.
The price rally is fueled by
a continued healthy demand
for oranges, and it’s needed
by growers whose labor and
other input costs keep rising,
he said.
“Even though the prices
growers are receiving are up,
I’m not sure they’re keeping
pace with costs,” Blakely
said. “Their margins are not
increasing as prices go up.”
The navel orange harvest
typically starts in mid-au-
tumn and continues until
the following summer. This
year’s harvest is expected to
start in mid-October, Blake-
ly said.
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