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CapitalPress.com
February 9, 2018
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
Washington pesticide bill approach softens
W
e are happy that the
Washington Senate
Labor and Commerce
Committee has taken a softer
approach on a bill designed to
alert the public about pesticide
applications.
As originally introduced,
Senate Bill 6529 would have
been unworkable for farmers. The
bill would have required growers
to inform the state Health
Department four business days
before each pesticide application.
Health officials would have then
been required to give residents
and schools within a quarter-mile
a two-hour notice.
Depending on when a pest
providing that kind of
information could open them up
to lawsuits from environmental
organizations.
In its final form, the bill calls
for the formation of a task force
that will recommend a notification
protocol that will be considered by
the Legislature next year. It will
also take up the issue of making
pesticide application records
available to the public.
The task force would include
legislators and representatives
from Labor and Industries, the
Department of Natural Resources,
the Commission on Hispanic
Affairs and the state schools
office.
problem was discovered, the
requirement that the public
be given four business days
notice could have extended to a
week the actual time before an
application could begin.
Farmers reacting to an
immediate pest problem don’t
have that kind of time to wait.
Even routine applications can’t
be timed several days in advance
because of changing weather
conditions.
The bill also proposed
requiring farmers and pesticide
applicators to submit detailed
spraying records to the Health
Department each month.
Farmers were leery that
The agriculture director and
health secretary would appoint
10 other members. They would
draw from farmers, pesticide
applicators, labor groups,
environmental organizations,
farmworker and children’s
advocates and the Washington
State PTA.
All of this is speculative. The
bill still must pass the full Senate
and then the House.
If that happens, the work of
the task force will be watched
closely by farm organizations.
It’s hard to say what the task
force will come up with. But at
least in the short run, the original
requirement is off the table.
Capital Press File
The Washington Senate is considering
a bill that would require farmers to
notify neighbors before they apply
pesticides. The bill has been modified
to include a task force that will recom-
mend how best to do that.
O ur V iew
Detroit Lake project a ‘dam’ waste
A
U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers proposal to
build a $100 million to
$200 million, 300-foot-tall tower
at Detroit Dam east of Salem
leaves us, well, amazed.
The tower would be used
to adjust the temperature of
the water leaving the dam and
heading downstream in the North
Santiam River. The purpose of
the project is to increase the
returns of the native chinook
salmon and steelhead runs, which
are protected under the federal
Endangered Species Act.
The problem — and there
are many — is Detroit Lake will
have to be drained for up to two
years while the tower, called a
selective withdrawal structure, is
built. That not only means the lake
would be useless as a recreation
area but it means the water supply
downstream would be limited.
Of particular concern to us are
the 800 farmers downstream in the
Santiam Water Control District.
They farm 17,000 acres —
6 percent of the farmland in
Marion County, Oregon’s most
productive agricultural county.
If the river flow below Detroit
Selective Withdrawal Structure explained
The construction of a temperature control tower next to Detroit Dam would allow
for mixing water from various depths, resulting in optimal temperature flows
downstream for migrating fish.
Spil
Better water
temperatures for
migrating adult fish.
Temperature control tower
lwa
y
Dam
ock
Penst
voir
Reser
Floating intake
pulls warmer
water from the
surface in
summer, and
cooler water
from below in
the fall.
s
e
Turbin
tream
Warmer surface water or cooler water from
deeper within the reservoir mix in the penstock
and in Big Cliff Reservoir downstream.
Downs
Dam is reduced or becomes
unreliable, those farmers’
livelihoods would be put at
risk. They would have to find
alternative water sources, switch
to dryland or low-water crops, or
who-knows-what.
Another problem is the
reduction in the major source
of drinking water for 175,000
Oregonians who live in Salem, the
state capital, and Stayton, a small
town upriver.
Source: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Portland District
Alan Kenaga/Capital Press
Still another problem is the
cost. The federal government
spending upwards of $200
million on such a project is
stunning. During an era of
massive federal overspending,
such a project indicates to us that
the government’s priorities are
scrambled beyond all recognition.
In Fiscal Year 2017, Congress
spent $4 trillion. That’s $666
billion more than it collected in
taxes. Unbridled federal spending
sprees are nothing new. Since
2007, Congress has added nearly
$8.6 trillion to the federal deficit.
That’s an average of $778 billion
a year more than the government
collected. The overall federal debt
is now $21 trillion, more than the
entire 2017 U.S. gross domestic
product of $19.5 trillion.
The Corps of Engineers doesn’t
control the federal budget. The
water tower at Detroit Lake was
ordered in a 2008 biological
opinion when scientists found
the salmon and steelhead returns
were lower than expected. The
Corps is just doing its job.
But it should also be
mentioned that there is no
shortage of fish in the North
Santiam River. According to the
Oregon Department of Fish and
Wildlife, which counts fish at the
Upper and Lower Bennett Dams
near Stayton, last year there were
5,270 chinook salmon — 987 of
them are native run and the rest
were from a hatchery. Similarly,
there were 775 steelhead — 185
of them native run. And don’t
forget about 312 coho salmon.
The problem isn’t the people
in charge of the Corps. It’s
Congress. It can’t set priorities,
and it can’t balance the
federal budget. It did write the
Endangered Species Act, which
we have said many times before
wastes hundreds of millions of
dollars focusing on individual
populations of fish, not species.
Considering these many
problems, if the Corps is
looking for enthusiasm for this
project, it’s going to have to go
somewhere else.
Readers’ views
Organization
supports
family farms
A travesty is happening
in this country to the fam-
ily farmer. Family farmers
are being paid prices for the
food they produce that are the
same as 30 to 40 years ago,
with cost of inputs increasing
weekly, and all of this without
a cost-of-living raise.
If you like getting food
from other countries, where
their inspection standards
are subpar, then stop reading
this letter right now. There is
so much being imported that
we could produce here, if it
wasn’t for the multinational
corporations that want to get
rid of the family farm.
We are tired of some of
those in “officialdom” telling
us to get “more efficient.”
Farm Women United (FWU)
was formed to fight for the
family farms that normally do
not have a voice at the table.
You may say that there are
other organizations out there
that are fighting, and you are
right, there are a few, but there
are more that want to get rid
of the small to mid-size fami-
ly farms than keep them.
FWU is unique because
it is made up of women who
present the farm woman’s
point of view about the farm
and food crisis that threatens
our nation’s rural communi-
ties and, therefore, our food
supply. We stand beside our
family, our spouse, or signif-
icant other, doing the farm
work, only to see how the low
prices are making them de-
pressed, some to the point that
they take their own lives.
This needs to stop! Spread
the word about Farm Wom-
en United. We can use all
the members that we can get
to help us fight this fight. It
is not going to be easy. The
more voices we have making
the chatter, the more seriously
they will take us.
If you would like to help,
check out our website, www.
farmwomenunited.org. We
are currently running a “Green
Ribbon Campaign” to support
the family farms. If you would
like a ribbon, let us know and
we will send you one.
Stand with us in getting
fairer prices for our family
farms. Our co-ops aren’t do-
ing it. Our milk processors
aren’t doing it. Our food
handlers aren’t doing it. We
are no longer going to stand
by waiting for something to
be done or for a federal farm
bill to be drafted without any
input from us. Most Ameri-
cans do not realize how much
food we import or from what
countries we are importing.
Support your local farmers by
visiting and buying from local
farms or farm markets. They
are in most of the larger cit-
ies around the country and in
smaller towns, too.
The time is now for us to
take control of our food again.
Visit our website and check it
out. Feel free to contact FWU
through our website under
“Contact Us.” If you are not a
farm woman but would like to
support FWU, you can wear a
green ribbon to support fami-
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OR 97308; or by fax to 503-370-4383.
ly farms. We lose our family
farms, we lose our nation’s
domestic food supply.
Tina Carlin
FWU Director
of Communications
Meshoppen, Pa.
Carbonize
our farmland
Hear, hear, the heady heed-
ings of guest commentarian
Mark Turner.
As I was reading it, it was
as though he was writing the
words right out of my mouth.
I’ve been blessed to be able to
investigate the forests of the
Northwest, before fire, after
fire and after decades from
past fires, and I think the same
as Mark, that thinning and
removing “some” windfalls,
and “harvesting” some of the
carbon for the sake of carbon
sequestration, in our ag soils,
is worthy of further note.
We need to manage the
carbon of the forests some-
what similarly to the fruit of
an orchard. Management is
not a mean and nasty notion,
it’s stewarding our resources
in such a way as to have our
grandchildren alive, breathing
clean air, drinking water that’s
without toxins, and eating
food that’s been made by very
few dedicated souls.
Personally, I’m a lifelong
flatland farmer in the Skagit,
where the forest meets the
gentle bay bottom, seques-
tered from the Salish Sea
more than a hundred years
ago. Silty muck and clay with
thin strips of sand scattered in
layers, makes for high yield
potential. Without carbon,
the soil seizes up. Nutrients
get locked in clods of clay, so
dried and hard, like cement in
the field they lay. Please, dear
Lord, won’t you please help
us here, with a little rain?
Well looky here, you
struggling farmer friend, get
some carbon in them soils,
and they’ll come right around,
pretty soon you’ll feel a smile,
instead of a frown and a wor-
ried furrowed brow.
When prices are de-
pressed, maybe we should
give some ground a rest, grow
covers and carry carbon from
the forests to the farm, com-
posting it, so no pests infest
our fields. You’ll be surprised
by how much it helps the
healthy yield. Planting even
$5 wheat is a real threat to
your long-term security, espe-
cially where soils are sloped
and prone to erosion.
I think Burlington North-
ern could conveniently haul
carbon in their empty back-
haul from hauling coal. We
can’t just leave all that carbon
to go up in flames, especially
when a million acres could
use it, just a hundred miles
away! Carbon helps soften
clay, carbon helps microbes
milk minerals from particles
of sand, carbon sequesters
carbon, keeping it in the land,
carbon in your soils is like fu-
ture cash in your hand.
Letting it go up in smoke
is no joke, it could smoke the
red wine in the vats, it could
cancer your lungs, it could
water your eyes, and burn a
bear’s paws. Just cuz a few
folks say lightning strikes are
natural, then the next thing
that’s said, is that the size and
intensity of storms are not
natural, but man enhanced.
If we put a hundred thousand
firefighters to the task, there’d
still be more than enough fire
for the forests burn cycle.
The carbon that has burned
in our western forests in the
past several years would have
been worth at least $300 mil-
lion to our Columbia Basin
soils. Much of the carbon is
easily crushable, the least
costly method to make mi-
crobe food, which after all, is
the key that starts the engine
of the soil. Take some land
that has 1.5 percent organic
matter, add compost and car-
bon to 3.5 percent and you’ll
see what you’ve seldom seen
before. Feed the biological
processes that provide the
nutrients to the roots and rhi-
zosphere. We should all go
to lobby the DNR, DOE, and
governor’s office, to carbon-
ize our soils before any more
big fires burn up our grand-
kids’ futures.
Glen S. Johnson
Mt. Vernon, Wash.
Wolf chases bike
rider near
Mount Hood
Much has been written
lately about the wolves here in
the Northwest. I would like to
relate my friends’ experience
with a wolf in the recent past.
While driving on Highway
26 east of Mount Hood they
came upon a biker and along
side of the rider was a wolf
trying to attack him. The rider
was kicking at the wolf to ward
it off.
When my friends pulled
up, the wolf backed off. My
friends offered to take him and
his bike in their rig, but being
the wolf backed off, he said he
would try to keep going.
My friends backed off then,
but as soon as they were a
short distance away the wolf
took off after the biker again.
Our friends pulled up again.
This time he didn’t hesitate,
but took them up on their offer
and was thankful to be rescued
from a dangerous situation.
Roy H. Matson
Brush Prairie, Wash.