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October 27, 2017 CapitalPress.com 3 Washington raspberry growers see red, feel blue Commission to hire legal help By DON JENKINS Capital Press The Washington Red Raspberry Commission has committed $150,000 to fur- ther investigate whether growers are the victims of unfair trade practices and if so what they can do. The market has worsened since the commission retained a law fi rm last spring to un- dertake a preliminary probe, the commission’s executive director, Henry Bierlink, said. “The alarm bells started to ring last spring. We wanted to see what happened in the summer and fall. The answer is, it’s turned in the wrong direction,” he said. “There are more concerns rather than fewer.” Courtesy of Jayson Korthius/Whatcom Family Farmers Raspberries are harvested in Whatcom County, Wash. The Washington Red Raspberry Commission will hire a law fi rm to look into whether berry growers are being undercut by unfair trade practices. Washington leads the U.S. in red raspberries grown for processing. The farmers, most of whom are in Whatcom County, compete for domestic customers with berries from many countries, including Mexico, Serbia, Peru, Chi- na and Chile. Imported fruit makes up about half the pro- cessed red raspberries sold in the U.S., according to the Na- tional Processed Raspberry Council, a commodity check- off program overseen by the USDA. The average price of processed red raspberries dropped to 97 cents a pound in 2016 from $1.45 the year before, according to the USDA. The value of a record harvest in Washington last year was less than the pre- vious year’s drought-dimin- ished crop, according to the USDA. Figures aren’t avail- able for this year, though prices are reportedly below the cost of production. Lynden farmer Marty Maberry, who’s on the rasp- berry commission board, said U.S. growers have differ- ent labor costs, food-safety standards and environmental regulations than their foreign competitors. All are putting domestic farmers at a disad- vantage, he said. “The long-term potential could be shifting these la- bor-intensive crops out of the country,” he said. “We’re try- ing to get a conversation go- ing. Are we OK with that?” The commission success- fully petitioned for relief in 2002 and 1985 from berries being dumped into the U.S. and driving prices below production costs. Those cas- es, however, involved just one other country, Canada in 1985 and Chile in 2002. This time, red raspberries are coming into the U.S. from many countries, potentially complicating an anti-dump- ing claim. The commission is also looking at the U.S. trade law that allows the president to impose tariffs to safeguard an industry threatened by an infl ux of imports. The law, however, has been rarely in- voked, and for much larger industries. The U.S. International Trade Commission is current- ly reviewing petitions from manufacturers of washing machines and solar technol- ogy. President George W. Bush used the law in 2002 to protect the steel industry. The World Trade Organization overturned the president’s or- der the following year. The commission is look- ing at forming alliances with growers in other states, such as Florida tomato farmers, who also report suffering from a disparity in labor costs, especially compared to Mex- ico. “The imports are gaining ground, and we’re losing it. NAFTA is not helping,” Bier- link said. The red raspberry commis- sion, a state body, must solicit proposals for legal services. Bierlink said he expects to have a fi rm retained by the middle of November. Ruling reinstates 23,000 acres as wild horse territory By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI Capital Press Nicolas Datiche/For the Capital Press Jun Mokudai, left, director of Oregon’s trade offi ce, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, center, and Director of Agriculture Alexis Taylor show off Oregon craft cider and beer ahead of a seminar on Japanese trade Oct. 13. TPP rejection overshadows Oregon trade trip to Japan Courtesy of Larisa Bogardus/BLM An appeals court has reinstated 23,000 acres as wild horse territory in the Modoc National Forest. Wild horse territory Tulelake Tule Lake TULE LAKE LAVA BEDS N.W.R. NAT’L MON. Clear Lake Ore. Calif. 395 Ore. Middle section CLEAR LAKE N.W.R. MODOC NAT’L FOR. Upper Big Sage Res. NATIONAL Canby Calif. 139 299 Alturas 299 N 395 10 miles s FOREST tain r Moun Area in detail MODOC Lake Nev. Calif. 139 MODOC Calif. Goose Lake S. WARNER WILDERNESS Alan Kenaga/Capital Press destroy fencing and migrate onto private property, the in- tervenors said. A federal judge dismissed the case in 2015, ruling that the boundary correction wasn’t “arbitrary and capri- cious” because the “middle section” was never formally incorporated into the wild horse territory. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has now reversed that decision and overturned the Forest Ser- vice’s exclusion of the 23,000 acres from the territory. “A 23,000 acre tract of land and two decades of agen- cy management cannot be swept under the rug as a mere administrative mistake,” the ruling said. According to the appeals court, the Forest Service vi- olated administrative law by failing to “adequately explain its change in policy” and not considering whether remov- ing the “middle section” re- quired a comprehensive envi- ronmental analysis. The agency’s defense that the 23,000 acres were never formally part of the wild horse territory is undermined by its forest management plan, of- fi cial statements and two de- cades of agency practice, the court said. “Blinders may work for horses, but they are no good for administrative agencies,” the ruling said. Reward in wolf poaching case jumps to $15,000 By ERIC MORTENSON Capital Press A coalition of fi ve con- servation groups said it added $10,500 to a reward offered for information about the shooting of a protected gray wolf in the Fremont-Wenema National Forest of Southern Oregon. Combined with a $5,000 reward previously offered by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Ser- vice, the fund now stands at $15,500. The federal agency and Oregon State Police are investigating. The carcass of a wolf des- ignated OR-33 by Oregon De- partment of Fish and Wildlife was discovered in April 2017 and taken to a USFWS lab in Ashland, Ore., for a nec- ropsy. The results were not announced until Oct. 11. The animal had one or more gun- shot wounds, according to USFWS. It’s not clear when the wolf was shot. Another wolf, OR-28, was found dead in the forest in October 2016. It also was ex- amined at the Ashland lab, but the cause of death hasn’t been disclosed. Activist groups have warned that wolves are being poached in Oregon and have called upon state offi cials to take action to protect the animals. Oregon Wild, Defenders of Wildlife, Center for Biological Diversity, Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center and Humane Society of the United States jointly an- nounced the additional reward contribution. According to ODFW re- ports, 2015 was particularly deadly for wolves. OR-13 in- gested a chemical that is deadly to animals; OR-34 and OR-31 were shot and the investiga- tions are open; OR-22 was shot by a man who reported it to state police and said he’d been hunting coyotes; the Sled Springs pair were found dead of unknown cause. An un- collared sub-adult wolf was shot in 2016. Earlier in 2017, wolf OR-48 died when it bit a spring-loaded cyanide pow- der trap set by USDA Wildlife Services in an attempt to kill coyotes. Gray wolves are listed as endangered in the western two- thirds of Oregon, and under the Endangered Species Act it is a crime to kill them. Anyone with information about the cases should call U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at 503-682-6131, or the Oregon State Police Tip Line at 800- 452-7888. Callers may re- main anonymous. By RICHARD SMITH For the Capital Press TOKYO — Gov. Kate Brown recently led an Or- egon delegation to Japan focused on doing business with the state’s top export market for agricultural prod- ucts, but she said the Trump administration’s rejection of the Trans-Pacifi c Partnership has put a damper on any new business. Brown told the Capital Press the delegation of Ore- gon businesses had conver- sations about the TPP with the Japanese business leaders it met, as well as with the U.S. embassy. “We are clearly right now in a no-person’s-land, where there’s a lack of clarity about federal policy,” Brown said of the TPP. One of President Donald Trump’s fi rst acts after he entered offi ce was to reject the TPP, a trade agreement among 12 Pacif- ic Rim nations, including Japan and U.S. He said he intends to negotiate one-on- one treaties with the nations involved. Brown said her role as Oregon governor is to make sure that exporters are con- tinuing to build relationships to ensure that the state’s products fi nd lucrative mar- kets. But she said uncertainty over tariffs hinders trade on both sides. “I certainly raised this is- sue when I was speaking to (U.S. ambassador to Japan William) Haggerty, letting him know that our agricul- tural products are very reliant on the markets in Asia, par- ticularly in Japan, and that we need to make sure that we can get our products to mar- ket in a cost-effi cient man- ner,” Brown said. Headed by Oregon Di- rector of Agriculture Alex- is Taylor, the contingent of eight food and beverage exporters included Willa- mette Valley Fruit Co. of Sa- lem, OFD Foods of Albany, Northwest Hazelnut Co. of Hubbard, Ponzi Vineyards of Sherwood, 2 Towns Cider of Corvallis, Bossco Trading Co. of Tangent, Weaver Seed Processing of Scio and Pacif- ic Seafood of Clackamas. One of the things the agribusiness side of the tour focused on was helping com- panies build additional rela- tionships with importers if they are already exporters, or helping introduce them to the market if they are fi rst-time exporters here, Taylor said. LIVESTOCK & HORSE SPECIAL SECTION December 1st, 2017 SAGE Fact #146 Tillamook cheese aging. Medium cheddar Aged 60 days Sharp Cheddar Aged 9 months Extra Sharp Cheddar Aged 15 months Vintage White Sharp Cheddar Aged 2 years Ad Space Deadline is rd. November 3 The West is one of the most productive regions for livestock in the United States. This creates a lucrative market for businesses whose products and services include: • Animal Health • Feed • Livestock • Trucks • Trailers • And Much More! • ATV’s • Haying Equipment Get ahead of your competition by advertising in this special section, reaching Capital Press Ag Weekly print and online readers. Contact Your Sales Rep Today or Call 800-882-6789. 43-3/101 43-3/106 www.capitalpress.com ROP-40-4-1/HOU 39 Wa r n e A federal court ruling has effectively reinstated about 23,000 acres as wild horse ter- ritory in California’s Modoc National Forest despite local ranchers’ objections. When the Devil’s Garden Wild Horse Territory was originally created by the U.S. Forest Service in 1975, it con- sisted of 236,000 acres divid- ed into two tracts. However, in the 1980s, an agency map connected those two swaths of land with a 23,000-acre “middle section” that was later included in a forest management plan. In 2013, the Forest Service decided that including the “middle section” in the map was an “administrative error” and excluded that area from the wild horse territory. The American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign, a nonprofi t group, fi led a law- suit alleging the change vio- lated horse protection, forest management and environ- mental laws. The California Cattlemen’s Association and other groups intervened in the litigation on behalf of local ranchers who have grazing allotments in the area. Rangeland in the “middle section” has been “rendered nearly unusable by wild hors- es,” which overgraze vege- tation, trample waterways,
