12 CapitalPress.com
November 10, 2017
District attorney’s offi ce decided not to press charges
WOLF from Page 1
“I take no pride in this at
all,” he said. “The only thing
I’m happy about is I made it
home to my wife and children.”
Scott, 38, lives in Clacka-
mas, Ore., a suburb of Portland.
He and his wife have two ele-
mentary school-age children
and he owns a small business.
He said he has hunted since
he was a boy in Texas and
described himself as a “meat
hunter,” someone who eats
what they kill. On Oct. 27 he
was on his third day of hunting
elk in ODFW’s Starkey Wild-
life Management Unit west of
La Grande, in Northeast Ore-
gon.
Scott said he was in
fog-shrouded timber and inter-
mittently saw animals moving
around him, but wasn’t sure if
he was seeing a cougar, coyotes
or something else. He made his
way out of the fog to a ridge
top and sat for perhaps 25 min-
utes, then walked out into a
meadow. Two wolves emerged
from the fog to his left, looked
at him, then headed in what he
described as a fl anking move
behind him. A third wolf came
running directly at him.
“I screamed, got it in my
(scope) crosshairs, saw fur and
pulled the trigger,” Scott said.
He said he whirled around,
fearing the other two would
attack, but saw them running
away. He heard a fourth wolf
howl nearby, and believes a
pack was around him. ODFW
has not offi cially designated a
pack in that area; instead refer-
ring to it as territory of a col-
lared wolf known as OR-30 and
his mate. The wolf Scott shot,
an 83-pound female, might be
their offspring.
Badly shaken, Scott returned
to his hunting camp about a
mile away and told companions
what had happened. They went
to the site, confi rmed it was a
wolf and Scott called Oregon
State Police and ODFW.
A casing from Scott’s 30.06
rifl e was found 27 yards from
the carcass. The Union County
district attorney’s offi ce in La
Grande reviewed the case and
decided not to press charges.
An Oregon State Police spokes-
man said evidence at the scene
backed Scott’s story and said
the fact that he self-reported
killing the wolf was “compel-
ling.”
Scott, who was hunting
alone at the time, said he could
have hidden the wolf’s carcass
and told his companions back
at camp that the gunshot they
heard was him fi ring at an elk
and missing.
“I feel like I did the right
thing,” he said. “I reported it
immediately and was ready to
face public scrutiny.”
That has surely been the
‘We’re in limbo
right now’
GMOS from Page 1
“We’re in limbo right now, and
Trump’s USDA wants to keep up in this
state of limbo,” said Bill Freese, science
policy analyst for the Center of Food
Safety, a nonprofi t that’s been involved
in litigation over biotechnology.
Biotech developers, meanwhile, were
cheered by the rescission because they
think USDA should take additional time
to refi ne the regulations, which contained
both positive and negative elements for
the industry.
“We don’t think they should throw the
whole baby out with the bathwater,” but
some aspects of the Obama-era propos-
al bear closer scrutiny, said Karen Batra,
food and agriculture communications
director for the Biotechnology Industry
Organization.
Biotech critics were hoping the new
regulations would be interpreted broadly,
potentially allowing the USDA to restrict
genetically modifi ed organisms that dis-
rupt international markets and accelerate
the weediness of other plants.
“We’ve argued all along that herbi-
cide-resistant crop systems are promoters
of herbicide-resistant weeds,” said Fre-
ese of the Center for Food Safety.
When glyphosate is sprayed on crops
that have been genetically engineered to
withstand the chemical, for example, the
process inadvertently selects for weeds
that can withstand it as well.
Over time, those resistant weeds re-
produce and render glyphosate less ef-
fective overall.
“Our regulators have done absolutely
nothing,” said Freese.
The organization also believed that
USDA could also invoke its noxious
weed authority against GMOs that hinder
exports of U.S. crops to foreign coun-
tries.
The agency already bars importation
of certain conventional crops because
they have the potential to harbor noxious
weed seeds, Freese said.
While the Center for Food Safety dis-
agreed with aspects of the rules — such
as the exclusion of gene-edited crops
from regulation — it thought they should
be enacted and strengthened over time,
he said.
Biotech developers, conversely,
applauded the USDA’s approach to
gene-edited crops, in which the genet-
ic code is altered without incorporating
DNA from other organisms.
“We thought that was a positive step,”
Batra said.
Nonetheless, BIO was dissatisfi ed
with USDA’s proposed risk assessment
approach for GMOs, under which re-
lease into the environment wouldn’t be
allowed until a crop is determined not to
be a plant pest or noxious weed.
Currently, biotech developers can
obtain permits to test GMOs in the
field and transport them between states
until the crops are fully deregulated by
USDA.
The new “up front” approach would
serve as a barrier to developing GMOs,
particularly for public universities and
small companies with limited resources
who would face uncertain regulation, ac-
cording to BIO.
“That type of ambiguity would hinder
people trying to bring things into the pro-
cess,” Batra said.
Known wolf activity, OR30
395
84
204
ORE. Elgin
UMATILLA
NATIONAL
FOREST
Pilot Rock
74
Area in
detail
82
UMATILLA
Female wolf
shot within
this area
Ukiah
Gr
ande
Ro
244
n de
La Grande
r
Riv e
Union
WALLOWA
ALLOWA
A
WHITMAN
NATIONAL
TIONAL
FOREST
UMATILLA
NATIONAL
FOREST
Cove
203
UNION
237
North
Powder
N. Fk. Jo h n D ay R i ve
r
395
GRANT
NORTH FORK
JOHN DAY
WILDERNESS
Source: Oregon Dept. of Fish and Wildlife
84
10 miles
30
Alan Kenaga/Capital Press
case. On social media and in
comments to on-line news arti-
cles, posters have called Scott a
liar, coward and an irresponsible
hunter.
Carter Niemeyer, a retired
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
biologist who is considered one
of the nation’s top wolf experts,
said he didn’t believe Scott’s
story because of the bullet’s
path. “That’s a broadside shot,”
he told the Capital Press.
He and others said wolves
are afraid of humans. People
in such situations should make
their presence known, shout,
throw things or, if armed, fi re a
shot into the ground. Niemeyer
said people venturing into the
forest should carry bear repel-
lent spray, which would work
on wolves, cougars or coyotes.
Activists point out that
wolves have not harmed any-
one since they re-entered Ore-
gon and the state established a
management plan. At the end
of 2016, ODFW confi rmed 112
wolves in Oregon; the actual
number is presumed to be high-
er.
Rob Klavins, Northeast Or-
egon representative for the con-
servation group Oregon Wild,
said he’s encountered wolves
several times in Wallowa Coun-
ty without harm to his hiking
party or his dogs, which he
keeps on leash in wolf territory.
“This person may have felt
fear, but since wolves returned
to Oregon no one has so much
as been licked by a wolf, and
that’s still true today,” he said.
Derek Broman, an ODFW
carnivore biologist, said wolves
often travel in pairs or packs,
and seeing several together does
not necessarily mean they were
in a hunting formation.
He said wolves are “cours-
ing” hunters, meaning they take
down prey by chasing, repeat-
edly biting and wearing down
elk, deer or cattle. They will
approach stealthily and charge,
seeking to attack in habitat that
allows them to move easily,
Broman said.
Broman said animals in the
wild usually avoid people, and
wolf attacks on humans are ex-
tremely rare. People faced with
a wolf should not run, he said,
because that would trigger an
innate, evolutionary chase re-
sponse.
Animals have evolved to rec-
ognize certain prey, and humans
are “something completely dif-
ferent” to predators, he said.
“On a minute-by-minute
basis, wildlife is trying to sur-
vive,” Broman said. “If they
don’t have a 90 percent chance
of success, they’re not going
to give it a go. Cougars are so
powerful they could do any-
thing, but they don’t.
“For a wolf to come near is
not totally unheard of, and it’s
not necessarily concerning,” he
said. “We don’t know what the
animal was keying in on, or if
it was keying in on anything at
all.”
Scott said critics should put
themselves in his shoes.
“I felt I had run out of time,”
he said. “I’m a dog owner, I
grew up on a ranch, I know how
fast dogs are. Twenty-seven
yards gave me seconds to react.”
Scott said he doesn’t de-
monize wolves; he considers
them majestic animals. He said
hunters and others going into
the wild should be aware they
are more likely now to encoun-
ter wolves. He thinks ODFW
should do more to educate the
public, an effort that could in-
clude posting warning signs at
the approaches to known pack
territory.
In the meantime, he’s endur-
ing ridicule and doubt about his
account.
“This isn’t me sitting there
watching a wolf, taking a pot
shot, then panicking, calling
up Oregon State Police and
making up an absurd story,”
he said.
“I was being charged by a
wolf,” he said. “The wolf is
now dead and I got to come
home. Whether people want to
buy that or not, I don’t care.”
Coalition issues competitive grants through its Fellowship Fund
VETERANS from Page 1
Thousands of veterans
Paddock is one of thousands
of veterans across the country
who’ve either taken up, or re-
turned to, farming or a related
fi eld in recent years. Some seek a
new identity after their years in the
military. Others just need to make
a living.
And many fi nd a form of thera-
py in working with nature.
“There is a peace to being out
in your orchard,” Paddock said.
“There’s a oneness with God be-
cause you’re working in his cre-
ation. It’s all around you. You just
can’t ignore it.”
Paddock and many other veter-
ans who entered farming did so with
the help of the Davis, Calif.-based
Farmer Veteran Coalition, whose
nearly 10,000 veteran members
nationwide include 1,191 in Cali-
fornia, 194 in Oregon, 277 in Wash-
ington and 69 in Idaho, spokesman
Evan Eagan said.
Started by long-time organic
farmer Michael O’Gorman, the co-
alition has given out $1.5 million
in small grants since 2011 to buy
equipment for beginning farmers
and created the Home Grown By
Heroes label, which veteran farmers
can use to market their goods.
O’Gorman worked in agriculture
some 40 years, developing a special-
ty in farm management in vegetable
production, and never served in
the military. But his oldest daugh-
ter worked in a building facing the
World Trade Center during the ter-
rorist attack on Sept. 11, 2001, he
said.
“She escaped only with the
trauma that people get when they
go into combat,” O’Gorman said.
“My son joined the
military a week later
and served two tours
overseas.”
O’Gorman point-
ed to a 2007 study by
the Carsay Institute
of the University
Michael
of New Hampshire
O’Gorman
fi nding that rural
areas bore a disproportionate share
of military fatalities in Iraq and Af-
ghanistan, meaning many service
members are from farming commu-
nities.
“I was wanting to do something
for veterans because my son was
soon to be one, and it hit me,” he
said. “We need some new people in
agriculture, so we put the two things
together.”
The coalition issues competitive
grants through its Fellowship Fund
with the help of companies such as
Kubota Tractor Corp., which do-
nates four tractors a year to mem-
bers, O’Gorman said.
One of those tractors last month
went to Cherri Marin, a 21-year Air
Force veteran, who owns Sunshine
and Reins farm in Sweet Home,
Ore.
New chapter
The Farmer Veteran Coalition
may soon have an Oregon chapter.
Marin and more than a dozen oth-
ers were scheduled to attend a Nov.
8 organizational meeting in Salem.
Wendy Knopp, an employee of
Northwest Farm Credit Services
in Spokane, Wash., and who heads
the Coalition program in that state,
was invited to speak to the Oregon
group.
Knopp directs the FCS “Ag
Vision” program, which supports
young and beginning producers.
She and others believe veterans
and farmers share common traits,
including work ethic, a sense of re-
sponsibility and attention to detail.
Other groups help veterans start
in agriculture, too. One is the San
Rafael, Calif.-based Ranchin’ Vets,
which was started fi ve years ago
by Kevin and Cory Downs after
Kevin’s brother, U.S. Marine Corps
Capt. Phil Downs, came home from
tours in Iraq.
With assistance from the Cali-
fornia Cattlemen’s Association and
private fundraisers, Ranchin’ Vets
works with agricultural employers
to place veterans in jobs and gives
them a 6-month stipend to augment
their income, Cory Downs said.
Kevin was working on a cat-
tle ranch in Marin County when
his brother and his fellow Marines
came home and were “very much
thrown into the civilian world,” and
it wasn’t an easy transition, she said.
“One day while Kevin was
working on the ranch, there was a
particular moment when he came up
with the idea,” she said. “It was right
along the coast, the sun was going
down and the fog was rolling in over
the hills, and it was just incredibly
peaceful. All he could hear was the
sound of cows ripping grass out of
the ground, and he thought, ‘This is
what veterans should be doing.’”
Back to school
Other veterans fi nd their own
way into agriculture after going
back to school. Clayton Churchill,
27, of Weaverville, Calif., served
four years in the Army and spent
13 months in Baghdad, Iraq, before
getting out in 2012. He then spent
a year and a half in the National
Guard.
Afterward, he started working
in construction in Washington state
but found that “the excavator op-
erator was making four times as
much as I was” swinging a ham-
mer, he said.
That brought him to the heavy
equipment program at Shasta Col-
lege in Redding, Calif., where he
has earned a certifi cate in diesel
mechanics and is earning another
one in welding. His goal is to work
in logging, he said.
“I like being out in the woods,
and having a vocational skill and a
technical skill will help me in the
long run,” Churchill said. “With
being a veteran, it’ll help me out
because (employers) know I can do
the hard work.”
Paddock, the Esparto almond
grower, hasn’t needed a degree to
make it in agriculture, although
he’s relied on help from the Farmer
Veteran Coalition and others. His
Capay Hills Orchard is just now
turning profi table after seven years
of bringing his trees along and
building a brand.
He said he values the help he’s
received.
“This is a family operation, and
I’ve had infl uence from many dif-
ferent groups,” he said. “Military,
civilian, government, neighbors —
all have played a role in it.
“If it weren’t for them, I really
couldn’t have done it,” he said.
“I’ve been associated with some
pretty brilliant people. The smart-
est people I’ve ever met have
been farmers, hands down.”
Jill Knittel: Veterans are a natural fi t to take over when farmers retire
COUPLE from Page 1
Jill had wanted a pig farm since
she was 10 years old, growing up
in West Seattle.
“And all of a sudden, here I was
in my 40s going, ‘You know what?
Let’s raise pigs,” she remembered
with a laugh.
Paul grew up on a farm in
Aumsville, Ore., and his father
was a meatcutter.
Paul said he believes pigs re-
quire a bit more involvement than
raising cattle. Throw cattle some
hay and water, and that’s it, he
said.
“Pigs, if they can break it,
they’ll break it,” he said. “If they
can get out of the fence, they’ll get
out of the fence. It’s challenging.”
The irregular hours and the
work ethic developed in the Navy
helped train them for the farm.
“There are some days that are
easy, you just do feeding and what-
ever and nothing goes wrong,”
Jill said. “And when it gets crazy,
working crazy long hours in the
Navy was good. Because no mat-
ter how bad it gets here, we still go
to bed at some point.”
Online
https://www.facebook.com/Scab-
landFarm/
Matthew Weaver/Capital Press
Jill Knittel leads a group of hogs on the farm she runs with her husband near
Davenport, Wash.
Paul Knittel maintains a day
job as a Grand Coulee Dam power
plant operator. The couple hopes
the farm will break even this year.
They sell hogs at a Wenatchee
farmers’ market, through the
LINC Foods Cooperative in Spo-
kane, to individual customers and
to restaurants in Seattle.
Jill hopes to get into sever-
al more restaurants, to the point
where it makes up the majority of
their sales.
The Knittels have a fan in Paul
Shewchuk, executive chef at the
Fairmont Olympic Hotel in Seat-
tle. Shewchuk started using a hog
a month over the summer, incor-
porating the entire animal into his
menu, including prosciutto, sala-
mi, head cheeses, pork chops and
the fat.
“Their fat content on their an-
imals is insane — I’ve actually
never worked with a pig that had
so much fat on it,” Shewchuk said.
Chefs like fat because it pro-
vides fl avor and richness, Shew-
chuk said.
Shewchuk hopes to see the
farm become sustainable for the
Knittels, and hopes to support
them in building a foundation.
“I look forward to when they
come and drop a pig off,” he said.
“That conversation we have, that’s
the most important part to me. The
pig’s great, but it’s that interaction
between chef and farmer. I hope
they never lose that.”
Jill believes veterans are a nat-
ural fi t to take over when farmers
retire.
“In the morning or at night,
after we’ve done all our chores
and all the animals are peaceful-
ly eating, you get a good feeling
from that and just a sense of ac-
complishment,” she said. “Even
though you have to do the same
thing 12 hours later, there’s some-
thing very satisfying. Much more
than an offi ce job.”