16 CapitalPress.com
February 2, 2018
ODA doubles down on efforts
to eradicate Japanese beetles
Insects pose
significant economic
risk to crops
Mateusz Perkowski/Capital Press
A lawsuit over alleged racketeering by marijuana growers has
been settled, but a similar complaint was recently filed else-
where in Oregon.
Pot racketeering
lawsuit settled
Controversy likely
to continue with
new marijuana
complaint
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
Rural landowners in Or-
egon have settled a lawsuit
filed that accused their mar-
ijuana-growing neighbors of
violating federal anti-rack-
eteering law and reducing
property values.
However, the question of
whether Oregon marijuana
growers can be successfully
sued under the Rackeeter In-
fluenced and Corrupt Orga-
nization Act may still be an-
swered, as a similar lawsuit
was recently filed against
another cannabis operation.
Last year, Rachel and
Erin McCart of Beaver-
creek, Ore., filed a RICO
complaint against more than
40 defendants involved in
medical marijuana produc-
tion, including landown-
ers, growers, retailers and a
bank.
Apart from lowering the
value of their 11-acre prop-
erty, the McCarts claimed
that two nearby marijuana
operations attracted unwant-
ed visitors, increased traffic
and generated foul odors,
among other problems.
While medical and rec-
reational marijuana were
legalized by Oregon voters,
the plaintiffs claimed their
neighbors were still subject
to RICO because the sub-
stance is illegal under fed-
eral law.
“Given the strict federal
prohibitions against each of
those purposes, defendants
knew these purposes could
only be accomplished via
a pattern of racketeering.
In furtherance of that goal,
defendants pooled their re-
sources and achieved en-
terprise efficiency that no
one defendant could have
achieved individually,” the
complaint said.
The complaint was filed
on the heels of a ruling by
the 10th U.S. Circuit Court
of Appeals, which ruled that
RICO claims should be al-
lowed to proceed against a
Colorado marijuana opera-
tion.
With the large number
of defendants in the Oregon
case, initial procedural steps
took several months before
the defendants filed motions
to dismiss the complaint.
U.S. Magistrate Judge
John Acosta in Portland had
planned to take those re-
quests under advisement in
early 2018, but then stayed
proceedings in the case
when the parties notified
him of a pending settlement.
On Jan. 26, the judge dis-
missed the case with prej-
udice, meaning it can’t be
refiled, at the request of the
plaintiffs, “without an award
of fees or costs to any par-
ty.”
Rachel McCart, who is
an attorney, did not respond
to requests to comment on
the settlement deal.
Cliff Davidson, an attor-
ney for a landowner defen-
dant, said the dispute has
been resolved but he can-
not discuss the terms of the
agreement.
In light of uncertainty
about marijuana enforce-
ment from the Trump ad-
ministration, controversies
over the crop are bound to
continue, he said.
Under the Obama admin-
istration, the U.S. Justice
Department issued a mem-
orandum allowing states to
regulate legalized marijua-
na as long as they followed
certain parameters, such as
keeping it out of interstate
commerce.
However, the memoran-
dum was withdrawn by cur-
rent U.S. Attorney General
Jeff Sessions, who has in-
stead directed federal prose-
cutors to use their discretion
in pursuing criminal cases
against marijuana producers
in states where it’s legal.
Alleging violations of the
federal RICO statute is an
attractive strategy for plain-
tiffs, since it allows them to
recover triple the amount of
damages as well as attorney
fees, said Davidson.
“If you’re a plaintiff, it’s
a good way to maximize the
damages you can recover,”
he said. “It’s troubling. It’s
just another form of shake-
down.”
Ten rural landowners
near Lebanon, Ore., filed a
lawsuit last month alleging
RICO violations against
seven neighboring marijua-
na growers and a mortgage
company that had loaned
them money to buy property.
The complaint claims the
defendants built a green-
house on the property and
converted other buildings to
grow and process the psy-
choactive crop, in addition
to cultivating it outdoors in
2017.
Aside from odors, traffic
and noise, the marijuana op-
eration has reduced property
values due to concerns about
the potential for armed rob-
beries and other crime, the
complaint said.
Neighbors also fear for
their safety due to pit bull
guard dogs roaming loose
and an uncontrolled fire that
resulted from the burning of
marijuana debris, the plain-
tiffs claim.
Rachel McCart is repre-
senting the plaintiffs in the
new lawsuit, which has been
assigned to U.S. District
Judge Michael McShane in
Eugene, Ore.
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
Looking to gain a handle
on the state’s largest-ever Jap-
anese beetle outbreak, the Or-
egon Department of Agricul-
ture has proposed doubling its
treatment area around the Ce-
dar Mill and Bethany neigh-
borhoods in unincorporated
Washington County.
ODA will host a pair of
public meetings in February
to discuss the effort, which
would include applying a
granular insecticide over
1,900 acres beginning in April
and finishing at the end of
May.
The Japanese beetle is a
voracious pest that feeds on
a variety of plants and crops,
including grapes, berries and
orchard fruit. ODA estimates
the beetles would cost Ore-
gon agriculture $43 million
per year if they became estab-
lished and dispersed through-
out the state.
Clint Burfitt, insect pest
program manager for the
department, said Japanese
beetles have historically ar-
rived in Oregon from infected
states via air cargo at Portland
International Airport. That is
where officials concentrated
most of their attention.
However, with budget cuts
to the Japanese beetle mon-
itoring program, Burfitt said
they left their flank unguard-
U.S. Forest Service
The Oregon Department of Agriculture is increasing its eradication efforts aimed at ridding a portion of
Washington County of Japanese beetles.
Online
www.japanesebeetlepdx.info
ed. In 2016, ODA detected
369 beetles in Cedar Mill and
Bethany, adjacent to North-
west Portland. Burfitt does
not know where exactly the
beetles came from, but sus-
pects it may have been from
potted plants brought in by a
homeowner.
It was, at the time, the most
beetles found during a single
field season in Oregon.
In 2017, ODA kicked off
a five-year project to wipe
out the beetles, treating 2,121
homes on roughly 1,000 acres.
Yard debris was quarantined
and disposed of separately to
prevent the insects from get-
ting loose.
Still, the department de-
tected more than 23,000 bee-
tles later that summer, includ-
ing 750 — about 3 percent
— outside the treatment area.
“We were anticipating
thousands of beetles, not
tens of thousands of beetles,”
Burfitt said.
Increased
monitoring
statewide also led to the dis-
covery of 11 Japanese beetles
175 miles south in Douglas
County, including Oakland
and Green. Another 11 beetles
were found at the Portland air-
port and five at Swan Island in
Portland.
Heading into year two of
the eradication project, ODA
would expand treatment to
1,900 acres around Cedar Mill
and Bethany, 150 acres at the
Portland airport and 34 acres
in Douglas County. Officials
would place traps at Swan Is-
land, but are not planning any
treatment of the area.
It will take ODA about six
weeks to apply the product
known as Acelepryn on all
grass and ornamental plant
beds in the treatment area.
Applications are free for
property owners, though they
need to give permission for
ODA to enter their properties.
The department is hoping for
100 percent cooperation.
Meetings about the pro-
posed 2018 project will be
Tuesday, Feb. 6, from 5:30 to
7 p.m. at Sunset High School,
13840 NW Cornell Road,
Portland, and Tuesday, Feb.
13, from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30
p.m. at the Leedy Grange, 835
NW Saltzman Road, Portland.
Experts including ODA staff,
public health officials and
partner agencies will be on
hand to answer questions and
address concerns.
A final decision on the
2018 project is expected by
March.
Munger Bros. pledges to
Oregon ag director
marks one-year milestone battle Washington lawsuit
By DON JENKINS
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
KENNEWICK, Wash.
— When Alexis Taylor be-
came director of the Oregon
Department of Agriculture,
she set a goal of visiting all
36 counties in the state in
her first year.
She marked her one-year
anniversary Jan. 23 and vis-
ited her final county two
weeks before.
“I was just new enough
and probably naive enough
to take that on when I first
started,” she said, speaking
at the Washington-Oregon
Potato Conference in Kenne-
wick, Wash. “It was a big in-
vestment of time, but a really
great one.”
In her first year, Taylor
visited more than 40 farms
and ranches, held more than
11 roundtable discussions,
toured 23 businesses and 15
natural resource projects and
spoke to “countless” county
and state agricultural meet-
ings.
The No. 1 topic she heard
about was the next genera-
tion, including children tak-
ing over a family farm or
ranch or a beginning farmer
or rancher accessing land
or capital. She also heard
about labor, immigration and
workforce challenges and the
disconnect between rural and
urban Oregon.
“Farming and ranching is
the second-largest sector in
the state, and many did not
feel that’s really acknowl-
edged, particularly by a lot
of the urban sectors of the
state,” she said.
ODA will also work to
boost aware-
ness of ag-
ricultural
career op-
portunities
among Ore-
gon’s youth.
Alexis Taylor C u r r e n t l y,
the number
of graduates fill only about
61 percent of the job oppor-
tunities available each year,
she said.
“Yes, we need farmers
and ranchers, but we also
need scientists, journalists,
people with a whole host
of different types of back-
grounds thinking that they’re
going into agriculture today,”
she said. “I grew up outside a
town of 300 people in Iowa. I
did not know at that time that
I could work in agriculture
and have a career that took
me all over the world.”
Before joining ODA,
Taylor was USDA undersec-
retary for farm and foreign
agriculture services. She
visited nearly 30 countries
during that time, she said.
“There are lots of exciting
opportunities and we need
young people to really con-
nect with that, whether they
grew up on a farm or grew up
in Portland,” she said.
Taylor said the depart-
ment’s mission is to help
farmers, ranchers and agri-
businesses find local, do-
mestic and international
markets for their products.
More than 225 commodities
are grown in Oregon.
“ODA is pretty unique in
Oregon state government,
where we regulate but we
also promote for an indus-
try,” she said.
Capital Press
California-based Munger
Bros. denies allegations that
foreign workers were mistreat-
ed at its blueberry farm in Su-
mas, Wash,, and vows to fight
a class-action lawsuit filed Jan.
25 in U.S. District Court in Se-
attle.
The suit claims that Mex-
ican nationals last summer at
Sarbanand Farms, owned by
Munger, were underfed and
overworked and that about
60 of them were illegally
fired after staging a one-day
strike in response to a work-
er’s death.
“The companies (Munger
and Sarbanand) will vigor-
ously fight the allegations in
the complaint, which will be
shown to be untrue and with-
out merit,” according to a
Munger statement.
The lawsuit stems from
events last August at Sarba-
nand, including the death of
farmworker Honesto Ibarra.
He was taken away by am-
bulance Aug. 2 and died four
days later at a Seattle hospital.
Some workers refused to pick
Aug. 4 and were fired the next
day.
Labor activists alleged an
ailing Ibarra was ordered back
to work, though the company
said it learned from a relative
that Ibarra was diabetic and
immediately called the ambu-
lance.
The Washington Depart-
ment of Labor and Industries
will complete an investigation
in early February into work-
place conditions at the farm,
department spokesman Tim
Church said Jan. 26. A separate
probe into whether the farm
Columbia Legal Services
Columbia Legal Services
attorney Joe Morrison speaks
Jan. 25 in Seattle about a
lawsuit against the Munger
Bros.-owned blueberry farm in
followed employment laws is
also underway, but the depart-
ment does not have a deadline
for finishing it, he said.
The lawsuit was filed by
Columbia Legal Services and
a Seattle law firm, Schroeter
Goldmark & Bender. It names
workers Barbano Rosas and
Guadalupe Tapia as lead plain-
tiffs, but seeks unspecified
monetary damages for about
600 H-2A workers recruited
to pick last summer at Sar-
banand. The suit also names
CSI Visa Processing, a Mex-
ico-based labor contractor, as
a defendant. Efforts to contact
CSI were unsuccessful.
Munger Bros., based in
Delano, Calif., calls itself
North America’s largest fresh
blueberry producer, with more
than 3,000 acres in Washing-
ton, Oregon, California, Brit-
ish Columbia and Mexico.
Columbia Legal Services
attorney Joe Morrison said Fri-
day that the lawsuit doesn’t de-
pend on the circumstances of
Ibarra’s death, but rather how
workers were treated before
and after his death.
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Director resigns post
Unsworth leaving
Feb. 7
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
Washington Department
of Fish and Wildlife Direc-
tor Jim Unsworth gave two-
weeks notice Jan. 24, saying
in a resignation letter that he
was leaving to “pursue oth-
er professional and personal
goals in wildlife and natural
resources management.”
Unsworth, 60, said in an in-
terview Thurs-
day with the
Capital Press
that he wasn’t
ready to retire,
but he declined
to
elaborate
Jim
on what he
Unsworth
planned to do
next.
“It is a difficult job,” he
said. “Washington is a tough
state. ... It’s difficult to please
folks.”
Unsworth’s last day will
be Feb. 7. Fish and Wildlife
Commission Chairman Brad
Smith said the commission
will name an interim director
as soon as possible and con-
duct a national search for a
permanent director.
Smith said in a written
statement that Unsworth has
“done an outstanding job
of guiding the department
through the complex chal-
lenges that come with manag-
ing natural resources in Wash-
ington.”
“We greatly appreciate his
contributions to the depart-
ment and wish him well in his
future endeavors,” Smith said.
Unsworth, in his resigna-
tion letter, recommended the
commission appoint Deputy
Director Joe Stohr as interim
director.
Prior coming to WDFW,
Unsworth was deputy direc-
tor of the Idaho Department
of Fish and Game. He worked
in that agency for more than
30 years. His other manage-
ment positions included wild-
life bureau chief and state big
game manager.
Unsworth said that salm-
on recovery in Washington
proved to be the most chal-
lenging issue he has faced in
his career. “People are look-
ing for simple solutions, and
there aren’t any,” he said.
As director, Unsworth au-
thorized the killing of wolves
to stop chronic attacks on
livestock three times. Un-
sworth said that was another
source of criticism.
“You get all kinds of
emails, with the ability of
people to rally people on the
internet. I sometimes received
hundreds of those kinds of re-
sponses,” he said.
Wolves will continue
to be an issue as the popu-
lation grows, and the state
will have to find a way to
balance interests, Unsworth
said. “You have to maintain
tolerance,” he said. “They
are not benign animals on
the landscape.”
He said several people
inside the department with
experience in Washington
would be good choices for the
director.
“Washington is a tough
place to learn,” he said. “I
had a steep learning curve
here.”