UNBEARABLE DAMAGE: FORESTERS LOOK TO PROTECT TREES FROM BLACK BEARS Page 7
Capital Press
A g
The West’s
FRIDAY, APRIL 6, 2018
Weekly
VOLUME 91, NUMBER 14
WWW.CAPITALPRESS.COM
$2.00
EXPORT
WORRIES
Photos by E.J. Harris/EO Media Group
Farmer Jeff Newtson plants barley in a field March 30 northwest of
Helix, Ore. Newtson says he is currently working 20-hour days to
get his crops in the ground. TOP PHOTO: Kuper Bracher, 12, loads
a trailer with soft white wheat from a bank-out wagon on July 25,
2017, in a field outside Helix, Ore.
Trade uncertainty hits home for Oregon wheat farmers
N
By GEORGE PLAVEN
T
221
Col u m bia
10 miles
Capital Press
he beginning of spring ushers a flurry of activity on the vast, rolling
wheat fields of Umatilla and Morrow counties in northeast Oregon.
Farmers drive large sprayer rigs over still-green plants to
control weeds and pests, while crossing their fingers for make-
or-break rainstorms that can turn otherwise average yields into
a bumper crop.
This year, however, a new layer of uncertainty has emerged for the North-
west wheat industry. Since the U.S. pulled out of the Trans-Pacific Partner-
ship, or TPP, growers are worried about maintaining strong relationships with
longtime foreign customers in countries such as Japan, which signed on to a
revised version of the trade deal March 8 in Santiago, Chile, along with 10
other nations.
Eric Orem,
Lexington, Ore., wheat farmer
82
r
Economic impact ripples into rural communities
Wash.
Ore.
iv e
“We’ve been
through tough
times before.
We’ll figure
these trade
deals out. It’s
a bump in the
road right now.”
R
Area in
detail Walla Walla
12
ORE.
730
h.
Was
Hermiston
84
Ore.
Helix
11
Pendleton
UMATILLA
395
207
74
204
84
Lexington
74
La Grande
206
MORROW
395
244
UNION
207
Capital Press graphic
Turn to TRADE, Page 12
Wolves move, but don’t follow Washington’s plan
While Eastern Washington now
has 13 breeding pairs, the North Cas-
cades recovery zone lost one of its
two breeding pairs from 2016. The
state’s third recovery zone, the South
Cascades, has no confirmed wolves.
“It (recovery) has taken a hit,” said
Tim Coleman, executive director of
the Kettle Range Conservation Group
in northeast Washington.
Coleman said that he suspects
wolves in northeast Washington will
disperse south when the population
thickens. The department has con-
firmed 28 wolf mortalities in the past
two years, some of them breeding
females. “That certainly has a signifi-
cant impact,” Coleman said.
The department killed three
wolves last year to stop depredations
on livestock, and the Colville tribe
legally harvested three wolves. Two
wolves were killed by vehicles, two
were lawfully shot while attacking
livestock and four were killed under
suspicious circumstances.
According to the department,
here’s where the nine dispersing
wolves went:
• Dirty Shirt pack: Three mem-
bers left this pack in Stevens Coun-
ty. A male went more than 100 miles
into British Columbia before being
killed. The report does not say how
the animal died. Efforts to reach the
department for more information
were unsuccessful.
A female also went into British
Columbia, but returned to the pack af-
ter eight days and traveling 300 miles.
Another adult female went 30 miles
north and established the territory of
the new Leadpoint pack, also in Ste-
vens County.
• Smackout pack: A male traveled
at least 1,700 miles from Stevens
Turn to WOLVES, Page 12
High-fiber, gene-edited wheat cleared for commercialization
Cultivar not subject to USDA’s deregulatory process for GMOs
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
A new wheat cultivar that’s been gene-edit-
ed to boost fiber content can be commercialized
without undergoing USDA’s deregulatory process
for genetically modified crops.
The agency has decided the wheat variety,
which was developed by the Calyxt biotech com-
pany, isn’t subject to USDA regulations for trans-
genic crops because it’s not a potential plant pest.
While genetically modified organisms regu-
lated by USDA have traditionally incorporated
foreign genes, Calyxt’s “nutritionally-enhanced
wheat” is altered by knocking out a gene through
Capital Press file photo
a proprietary “targeted mutagenesis” process.
The company intends to “potentially commer- The USDA has determined a wheat cultivar that’s
cialize” the wheat variety, which would involve gene-edited for higher fiber content doesn’t need to under-
go the deregulatory process for GMOs because it’s not a
Turn to WHEAT, Page 12 potential plant pest.
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