4
CapitalPress.com
April 6, 2018
Ex-governor:
State’s appeal
of culvert
order incites
‘social unrest’
Dates set for this year’s ‘Cowgirl Camps’
Third session
added for male and
female participants
Online
rootsofresilience.org
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
After the first “Cowgirl
Camp” last year, a participant
returned home and the next
night she called instructor
Sandy Matheson with a prob-
lem.
One of her cows had wan-
dered a mile from her small
ranch and was now calving.
With coaching, she and
her husband were able to
lead the animal home and de-
termine that the calf needed
help, which was provided by
a local veterinarian.
“The calf would have died
and the cow would have had
problems if they had not rec-
ognized (the situation) right
away,” Matheson said. “So
she got a chance to use what
she learned.”
Matthew Weaver/Capital Press
Cheney, Wash., rancher Beth Robinette, left, talks about man-
aged grazing during last year’s first “Cowgirl Camp.” Three camps
are planned for this year.
Matheson and co-facil-
itators Beth Robinette and
Doug Warnock are offer-
ing three intensive five-day
camps this year, two “Cow-
girl Camps” for women and
one New Rancher Camp for
men and women.
The “Cowgirl Camps”
taught by Matheson and Rob-
inette are May 28-June 1 and
Aug. 27-31 at Robinette’s
Lazy R Ranch in Cheney,
Wash. The New Rancher
Camp, taught by Matheson
and Warnock, is July 9-13 at
Matheson’s farm in Belling-
ham, Wash.
Matheson is president of
Roots of Resilience, a non-
profit organization dedicated
to regenerating grazing lands,
increasing ranch profits and
enhancing the quality of life
for ranch families.
The response to the first
“Cowgirl Camp” was great,
Robinette said.
“People were so excit-
ed,” she said. “Lots of peo-
ple wanted to know when
the next camp was going to
be, and lots of interest from
guys, too.”
Several of last year’s camp
participants told Matheson
and Robinette they consid-
ered it a safe and “empower-
ing” environment, Matheson
said.
“Not only did we chal-
lenge them, but we also had
a lot of fun as well,” Mathe-
son said. Robinette said each
camp will include 10 to 15
participants.
Matheson said the camps
provide an opportunity for
participants to become im-
mersed in the topic of run-
ning a ranch and practice the
skills they learn.
The coordinators learned
to keep the schedule flexible
to meet the needs of partici-
pants and appeal to different
learning styles, Matheson
said.
“We packed a lot in for the
amount of time we had,” she
said. “I think we actually did
pretty well considering it was
our first time — both sitting
and listening and watching
and doing, being inside and
outside.”
Robinette said the camps
are designed to inspire confi-
dence in participants’ ability
to get started in agriculture.
“We really wanted to cre-
ate a place that feels welcom-
ing, safe and celebratory,”
she said. “Especially women,
who don’t have as many role
models, can see it is totally
possible for a woman to op-
erate her own farm or ranch.”
Early bird price for each
five-day camp is $997.
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
Anxiety mounts over China’s retaliatory tariffs
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
Farmers and ranchers are becom-
ing increasingly concerned over a
growing trade war with China.
Tension escalated between the
U.S. and Chinese governments on
Tuesday after the Chinese Min-
istry of Commerce announced
plans to impose a 25 percent tar-
iff on $50 billion worth of U.S.
goods.
Those tariffs on 106 items would
target more than 30 agricultural
goods — including soybeans, beef,
corn and wheat — and expand Chi-
na’s retaliatory tariffs announced
Monday that increased tariffs on
pork, fruit, tree nuts, wine, ginseng
and ethanol.
China’s latest tariffs followed the
U.S. government’s announcement
that it will impose tariffs on $50 bil-
lion worth of Chinese goods coming
into the U.S.
The U.S. tariffs are in response to
China’s unfair trade practices related
to the forced transfer of U.S. technol-
ogy and intellectual property, accord-
ing to the U.S. Trade Representative’s
office.
They follow recent tariffs on im-
ports of steel and aluminum in Pres-
ident Trump’s efforts to address the
U.S. $375 billion trade deficit with
China.
Numerous farm groups on
Wednesday issued press statements
on the severity of the situation and
urged resolve.
China’s threatened retaliation is
testing both the patience and opti-
mism of farm and ranch families
who are facing the worst agricultural
economy in 16 years, Zippy Duvall,
American Farm Bureau Federation
president, said.
“This has to stop. Growing trade
disputes have placed farmers and
ranchers in a precarious position,” he
said.
They have bills to pay and debts
to settle and cannot afford to lose any
markets, much less one as important
as China, he said.
The American Soybean Associa-
tion reiterated its extreme frustration
Marrk Schiefelbein/Associated Press
A representative of a U.S. produce company helps a customer shop for apples March 23 at a supermarket in Beijing. The
escalating trade war between the U.S. and China is alarming folks in farm country, who are already struggling with economic
hardship.
about the escalation of a trade war
with China.
China purchases 61 percent of
total U.S. soybean exports and more
than 30 percent of U.S. soybean pro-
duction.
“We have been warning the ad-
ministration and members of Con-
gress that this would happen since the
prospect for tariffs was raised,” John
Heisdorffer, ASA president, said.
“This is no longer hypothetical,
and a 25 percent tariff on U.S. soy-
beans into China will have a devastat-
ing effect on every soybean farmer in
America,” he said.
Kent Baucus, director of interna-
tional trade and market access for Na-
tional Cattlemen’s Beef Association,
said it is unsettling to see U.S. beef as
a target for retaliation but, sadly, not
surprising.
“This is an inevitable outcome of
any trade war. This is a battle between
two governments, and the unfortunate
casualties will be American cattlemen
and women and our consumers in
China,” he said.
“We believe in trade enforcement,
but endless retaliation is not a good
path forward for either side,” he said.
China’s market just reopened to
U.S. beef last year, and U.S. beef ex-
ports there totaled $31 million in the
second half of 2017. U.S. pork ex-
ports to China were more than $1 bil-
lion in 2017, according to U.S. Meat
Export Federation.
“We are extremely alarmed about
rapidly escalating trade tensions oc-
Congratulations
curring between the U.S. and China,”
Barry Carpenter, president and CEO
of the North American Meat Institute,
said.
There are no winners in trade dis-
putes, and the stakes are particularly
high in the current situation, he said.
U.S. Wheat Associates and Na-
tional Association of Wheat Growers
issued a joint statement saying the tar-
iffs would further erode the incomes
of farm families who strongly support
addressing the real concerns about
China’s trade policies.
They would prefer to see the U.S.
government do that within the pro-
cess already in place, as it has done by
challenging China’s domestic support
and tariff rate quota policies through
the World Trade Organization.
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Former Washington Gov.
Dan Evans accused the state
in a court document Monday
of stirring up social unrest by
appealing an order to replace
fish-blocking culverts.
Seattle lawyer Joe Mentor
Jr. submitted a brief to the U.S.
Supreme Court on behalf of the
92-year-old Evans. The brief
supports 21 Western Washing-
ton Indian tribes that sued to
remove the culverts and restore
salmon habitat.
It claims Washington has a
“long history of intransigence”
on treaty rights and in the 1970s
fomented resistance by non-In-
dians to enforcing treaties.
“This tension is an under-
standable result of conflict over
a dwindling resource. But con-
flicts between these two groups
lead to serious racial tension
that the state should strive to
avoid,” Evans stated.
Evans’ brief is one of near-
ly a dozen filed by third par-
ties weighing in on a case that
will further interpret treaties
signed in 1854 and 1855. Farm
groups are among those that ar-
gue forcing the state to replace
culverts will bolster lawsuits to
remove dams, restrict irrigation
and challenge anything else po-
tentially harmful to fish.
Attorney General Bob Fer-
guson, a Democrat, appealed
the order by the 9th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals to upgrade
more than 800 culverts by 2030
at a cost of nearly $2 billion.
The Supreme Court will hear
oral arguments April 18.
The attorney general’s of-
fice declined to comment on
Evans’ brief.
The Washington Farm Bu-
reau is among the organizations
asking the Supreme Court to
overturn the order. The group’s
associate director of govern-
ment relations, Evan Sheffels,
called the accusation that the
appeal was fomenting social
unrest “a little over the top.”
“That’s clearly not the way
we look at it. We look at it as
trying to get clarity about what
the treaties mean so we can
move forward and work with
sovereign nations on problems
we share,” he said.
Evans was governor from
1965 to 1977 and U.S. senator
from 1983 to 1989. As gov-
ernor, according to the brief,
he “experienced first-hand the
tensions between Indian and
non-Indian fishers.”
Although the treaties were
between political groups, “ra-
cial tension is unavoidable
since one group shares a racial
characteristic that the other
group does not,” according to
Evans’ brief.
Mentor was Evans’ legisla-
tive counsel when Evans was
in the Senate. Efforts to reach
him for further comment were
unsuccessful.
The appeal is the latest in a
long chain of court cases stem-
ming from a 1970 lawsuit filed
by the tribes and the Justice De-
partment against Washington.
Previous decisions have allo-
cated up to half the harvestable
fish to the tribes. The case now
before the Supreme Court asks
whether the treaties obligate
the state to ensure tribal mem-
bers have enough fish to earn a
“moderate” living.
Only eight justices will hear
the case. Justice Anthony Ken-
nedy recused himself, citing a
1985 decision on Washington
tribal treaty rights that he partic-
ipated in as a circuit court judge.
If the court splits 4-4, the order
to remove the culvert will stay
in place, but may leave unclear
whether tribes are guaranteed a
moderate living from fishing.
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