6
CapitalPress.com
December 8, 2017
Editorials are written by or
approved by members of the
Capital Press Editorial Board.
All other commentary pieces are
the opinions of the authors but
not necessarily this newspaper.
Opinion
Editorial Board
Editor & Publisher
Managing Editor
Joe Beach
Carl Sampson
opinions@capitalpress.com Online: www.capitalpress.com/opinion
O ur V iew
State must resolve conflicting solar, farmland policies
O
regon has long held itself
out as a “progressive”
state, quick to seize on
public policies meant to enhance
the lives of Oregonians and
improve their environment.
It passed the first bottle deposit
law in the nation in 1971. As
early as 1913 the Legislature laid
claim to the entire Oregon coast
and in 1967 enshrined public
access in the Beach Bill. If it
involves conserving, preserving
or recycling, Oregon has been in
the forefront.
What happens when two of
those progressive priorities clash?
That’s what’s happening across
the state, but particularly in the
Willamette Valley, and we’re
watching with interest to see how
it plays out.
Capital Press File
Solar panels installed in Oregon’s Willamette Valley.
Oregon has strict land use
laws and policies meant to
preserve farmland. In 2007
Oregon adopted a renewable
energy standard that requires
25 percent of the state’s energy
to be produced by renewable
sources by 2025. As a result, the
state offers tax credits and other
incentives for the construction of
solar energy facilities.
It turns out that flat farmland
is ideal for such installations.
Several outfits, including a
few Capital Press advertisers,
have approached farmers in the
Willamette Valley offering money
for long-term leases to host solar
arrays. They’ve found more than
a few takers.
Yamhill and Marion county
governments are considering
barring such development on
several higher-quality farmland
soil classes. The restrictions
would go beyond the current
rules established by Oregon’s
Land Conservation and
Development Commission, which
limit solar development on prime
farmland to 12 acres.
Down in Jackson County the
O ur V iew
Call the fire department —
there’s a cow pie on your farm
he phone rings at the fire station.
“Hello, fire department, how can I help you?”
“Yes, I’d like to report a cow pie.”
“A cow what?”
“A cow pie. You know — it’s
what cows produce. Feed goes
in one end, and cow pies
come out the other.”
“Sir, why on
earth would we at
the fire department
care what your
cows do? Unless
there’s a fire or
an immediate
threat to public
safety, please
don’t call. We
have important
things to do.”
“Didn’t you
hear? We’re
required to report
dangerous emissions
to the fire department.
Cows poop — and they
burp and pass gas — and we
need to inform emergency
responders like you and the
police.”
While this fictitious
exchange between a farmer
and the fire department
seems more than a little
crazy, an environmental
group argues that it’s important to “inform the public”
about the emissions cows produce. They say that’s the law
and, by golly, that’s what farmers should do — in spite the
fact that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency sees
no reason for it.
The EPA maintains that the purpose of the law is to
alert communities to dangerous chemicals that can cause
an imminent threat to public safety. According to the EPA,
T
that would not include cow manure or
flatulence.
We agree. No one in his, or her,
right mind would
require such a
thing.
“It seems
to be silliness
run amok,”
Washington State
Dairy Federation
policy director Jay
Gordon said. He hopes an
appeals court in Washington,
D.C., will reject the effort
by the New-York-based
Waterkeeper Alliance to
force farmers, ranchers
and other livestock owners
to report to fire departments
and police the fact that cows
poop. The Alliance says it’s part of the
Emergency Planning and Community
Right to Know Act.
It’s bad enough the circuit court
will require some larger feed lots and
ranches to report gas emissions under the
Superfund law. This will cost them nearly
$15 million and accomplish approximately
nothing.
The EPA argues the right to know law is
not aimed at farm-related substances such as
manure. Rather, it was aimed at protecting
communities against massive chemical leaks
such as the one that occurred in 1984 in Bhopal,
India, killing thousands of people.
“Any substance to the extent it is used in routine
agricultural operations or is a fertilizer held for sale by a
retailer to the ultimate customer” is exempt, according to
the law. By our lights, that includes cow manure.
We assume the appeals court will come to understand
that, too. After all, judges are used to dealing with that sort
of substance, especially in this case.
Open Campus opens doors to receiving high school diploma
By DIDGETTE MCCRACKEN
For the Capital Press
Guest
comment
O
Didgette
McCracken
regon State University
Open Campus in Grant
County is starting a
new venture in education,
making a high school diploma
more accessible to residents
of rural Eastern Oregon and
beyond.
Having taught in public
schools for 20 years in rural
Eastern Oregon I have seen
students drop out, as well as
met many parents who would
like to finish up their high
school diploma.
A high school diploma is
the basis for other educational
doors to open. My goal is to
make sure if someone wants
to attain that diploma it is ac-
cessible.
I had a colleague ask me
if an adult had the option of
finishing a high school diplo-
ma rather than getting a Gen-
eral Equivalency Diploma, or
GED. I honestly didn’t know
the answer to that question, so
I decided to find out and did
some research.
After talking to folks in
education and friends that
were in K-12 administration I
found out there was no reason
this program couldn’t work.
I found that community col-
leges focused on the GED,
rather than finishing a diplo-
ma. Therefore, my focus is on
those wanting to finish their
high school diploma.
Letters policy
Write to us: Capital Press welcomes letters to the
editor on issues of interest to farmers, ranchers and the
agribusiness community.
Letters policy: Please limit letters to 300 words and
By partnering with a local
school district I am now able
to look at a student’s tran-
scripts and determine the path
to a diploma. Adults have the
option to finish the require-
ments and graduate.
In the U.S., according to
the Constitution under the
Full Faith and Credit Clause,
Article 4 Section 1, as a pub-
lic document any high school
diploma offered in the United
States is recognized by the
other states in the union.
This is an exciting oppor-
tunity for adults, as we can
admit anyone anywhere. I
know there are many out
there that, for whatever rea-
son, did not finish their di-
ploma. Now they can. This
is a program made to be
accessible and flexible for
anyone.
include your home address and a daytime telephone
number with your submission. Longer pieces, 500-750
words, may be considered as guest commentary pieces
for use on the opinion pages. Guest commentary sub-
missions should also include a photograph of the author.
Now is a great time to start.
If you know someone who is
ready to finish, have them
check with me. This could be
a life changer for many people
of all ages. This is a program
that people can work on from
home and at their own pace.
It is accessible for people in
any state.
The Open Campus pro-
gram is under the extension
division of Oregon State Uni-
versity. It is a program dedi-
cated to degree completion,
community development and
college and career readiness.
For more information please
give a call at the Grant Coun-
ty Extension Office 541-575-
1911.
Didgette McCracken is the
Open Campus coordinator
for Oregon State University
in John Day, Ore.
Send letters via email to opinions@capitalpress.com.
Emailed letters are preferred and require less time to
process, which could result in quicker publication. Letters
also may be sent to P.O. Box 2048, Salem, OR 97308; or
by fax to 503-370-4383.
county commission approved an
80-acre solar facility on high-
value farmland by excepting it
from Oregon’s land use goal of
preserving agricultural land. That
project was nixed by the Oregon
Land Use Board of Appeals.
We admit to being conflicted.
We believe that private
property owners should generally
be allowed to use their land for the
purpose that provides the highest
return. For some, that’s leasing their
land to solar energy developers.
At the same time, we know
that once farmland is used for
something other than farming
the soil is often lost forever to
agricultural production. Which
suggests that all concerned move
carefully and the state work out
the conflicts in policy.
Rescued by a rancher
on public land
By STEWART TRUELSEN
For the Capital Press
I
n October a Utah rancher
was driving a utility terrain
vehicle to check on his cat-
tle in the Grand Staircase-Es-
calante National Monument
when he came upon an elderly
woman lying on a rocky, re-
mote road. She was confused
and dehydrated after being
stranded for six days in one of
the least explored areas of the
continental United States.
Her husband was found
a half mile away in an aban-
doned trailer near a corral.
Gerald Byler, 76, and his
wife, Helena, 78, of Texas
were driving a rental car from
Kanab, Utah, to Lake Pow-
ell on the border of Utah and
Arizona. Somehow their GPS
took them off course.
The Grand Staircase-Es-
calante National Monument
is nearly 3,000 square miles
of Utah backcountry with
sandstone cliffs, slot canyons,
hoodoos, arches, slickrock
and washes. In nearby Zion
or Bryce Canyon National
Parks, the couple might have
been found a lot sooner. But,
the Grand Staircase is more
remote, less-visited, and this
was at the end of the tourist
season.
The rental car they were
driving did not have four-
wheel drive, and when the
road became impassable they
set out on foot, spending the
first night outside in cold rain.
They had no water or provi-
sions, and no idea where they
were going. Mrs. Byler went
on ahead for help leaving
her husband behind when he
could go no farther. He craft-
ed an “SOS” out of rocks and
flowers and awaited his fate.
Dell LeFevre, the ranch-
er who found Mrs. Byler,
is quoted as saying, “It was
just lucky I went that way
that morning.” In fact, it was
lucky that any rancher was
even on that public land. En-
vironmental activists have
been crusading against graz-
ing allotments on the Grand
Staircase ever since it was
designated a monument in
1996.
At the time, President Bill
Clinton said, “Nothing in this
Guest
comment
Stewart Truelsen
proclamation shall be deemed
to affect existing permits or
leases for, or levels of, live-
stock grazing within federal
lands within the monument.”
Twenty years before in
1976 the Federal Land Poli-
cy and Management Act re-
quired that federal rangelands
be managed for multiple-use,
including livestock grazing,
other economic interests, rec-
reation and scientific purpos-
es, so long as there was not
significant degradation of the
natural resources.
Not long after that, envi-
ronmental activists pledged
to make the West cattle-free.
They haven’t succeeded yet,
but they have managed to put
a lot of ranchers through the
wringer with lawsuits against
federal agencies and general
harassment. They complain
constantly to the Bureau of
Land Management.
If you think cattle must
be roaming all over southern
Utah, you are wrong: they are
not. You’d be lucky to notice
more than a few cows and
calves on a typical vacation
within any of the red-rock
parks of southern Utah. While
European visitors especially
love the West and the ranch-
ing way of life, Americans
sometimes identify with the
groups trying to shut down
this business and lifestyle.
A study by Utah State
University published in 2015
concluded that livestock graz-
ing on the Grand Staircase Es-
calante National Monument
provides “significant econom-
ic benefits” to the region. The
value was in the tens of mil-
lions of dollars.
The Bylers were grateful
that a rancher found them be-
fore it was too late. If the cat-
tle-free crowd had their way,
he wouldn’t have come along
at all.
Stewart Truelsen is a food
and agriculture freelance
writer and a regular contrib-
utor to the Focus on Agricul-
ture series from the American
Farm Bureau Federation.
Readers’ views
How much water does ag use now?
The editorial “Agricul-
ture the most important
use of water” explained
the importance of Willa-
mette Valley agriculture to
our economy and the re-
cent study done by the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers
and the Oregon Water Re-
sources Department. They
state that 16 percent of the
water stored by the 13 fed-
eral dams in the Willamette
Valley would be used for
agriculture.
The editorial does not
state the percent of water
currently used. Without that
figure, we cannot determine
if the study is proposing a
decrease, status quo, or in-
crease in available water
for irrigation. I agree that
agriculture is the most im-
portant use of water, after
all “no crops, no food,” but
we need all the facts or we
can’t make an intelligent
comment to the Corps of
Engineers.
Dianne Wood
Salem, Ore.