June 1, 2018
CapitalPress.com
3
Klamath Tribes sue to
protect endangered fish
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
File Photo
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown has signed a drought declaration for
Harney County.
Governor declares
drought in third
Oregon county
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown
declared a drought emer-
gency last week in Harney
County, bringing to three the
total number of counties to
receive a drought declaration
in 2018.
The governor previously
declared droughts in Klamath
County in March, and Grant
County in April.
According to the U.S.
Drought Monitor, nearly all
of southeast Oregon is expe-
riencing moderate to severe
drought. Winter snowpack
has completely vanished in
the Harney Basin, and is rap-
idly diminishing across the
rest of the state.
Drought conditions in
Harney County are expected
to get worse in the months
ahead, Brown said.
“To minimize the impacts
of drought on the local econ-
omy and community, I’m
directing state agencies to
work with local and federal
partners to provide assistance
to Harney County,” she said.
By declaring drought in
Harney County, the Oregon
Water Resources Department
may be able to issue tempo-
rary relief for agricultural
producers such as emergen-
cy water use permits, water
exchanges, substitutions and
in-stream leases.
County officials request-
ed a drought declaration on
May 14, citing the potential
for widespread and severe
damage to farming, ranching,
natural resources and tour-
ism. The extended weather
forecast also calls for high-
er-than-normal temperatures,
and less-than-normal precip-
itation heading into summer.
The Klamath Tribes are
suing three federal agencies
over management of endan-
gered shortnose and Lost Riv-
er suckers in Upper Klamath
Lake.
The tribes filed the lawsuit
May 24 against the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service, Bureau
of Reclamation and National
Marine Fisheries Service, ar-
guing conditions in the lake
have led to plummeting fish
populations.
Don Gentry, chairman of
the Klamath tribal council,
said the suckers are vital to
the tribes’ culture and subsis-
tence. However, fish harvests
decreased from more than
10,000 to just 687 between
1968 and 1985, prompting the
tribes to voluntarily suspend
fishing to avoid pushing the
species into extinction. Today,
just two fish are harvested ev-
ery year for ceremonial pur-
poses.
Both the shortnose and
Lost River suckers were list-
ed as endangered in 1988.
The fish are managed under a
2013 joint biological opinion
that also regulates flows down
the Klamath River for coho
and chinook salmon, and wa-
ter for irrigation to the Klam-
ath Project.
According to the lawsuit,
the Bureau of Reclamation
has allowed water level in
Upper Klamath Lake to dip
below minimum conserva-
tion levels for fish on several
occasions in violation of the
Endangered Species Act.
The tribes are asking the
court for an immediate injunc-
tion both to provide enough
water for the sucker fisheries,
and correct deficiencies in the
2013 biological opinion.
“The science makes it
clear that this was the only
option left to us to address the
water and fish emergency in
the lake,” Gentry said.
This year is already pos-
ing several challenges in
the Klamath Basin. Oregon
Gov. Kate Brown declared a
drought emergency in March,
while regulators are also send-
ing more water downstream
to keep a parasite known as C.
shasta from infecting juvenile
salmon.
The bureau still has not
announced a water allocation
for irrigators in the Klamath
Project, which has farmers
and ranchers on edge.
In a statement released
by the Klamath Water Users
Association, Brad Kirby, gen-
eral manager of the Tulelake
Irrigation District and KWUA
president, said the lawsuit
shows the tribes have chosen
“a strategy of isolation from
the irrigation community.”
“We will intervene and op-
pose any action that could af-
fect the already limited Klam-
ath Project water supply,”
Kirby said. “Consultation is
already happening.”
Mark Buettner, a fish biol-
ogist for the Klamath Tribes,
said 2018 may very well
prove a tipping point for Up-
per Klamath Lake suckers.
“Too many fish are dying
before they’re old enough to
reproduce,” Buettner said.
“Most of the younger fish are
offspring of older fish that are
nearing the end of their lifes-
pans. We’re basically looking
at a biological bottleneck.”
Yet Mark Johnson, deputy
director for KWUA and a for-
mer fisheries biologist for the
U.S. Geological Survey, said
higher lake levels have not
helped to protect sucker fish
over the last 25 years.
Scott White, executive di-
rector of the KWUA, said the
lawsuit could have “devastat-
ing impacts on good and hon-
est people and our regional
economy.”
The lawsuit, filed in U.S.
District Court for Northern
California, outlines conser-
vation levels for suckers in
Upper Klamath Lake at dif-
ferent times of the year, tak-
ing into account factors such
as spawning habitat, water
quality and protection from
predators.
The Klamath Tribes have a
responsibility to protect their
treaty resources for current
members and future genera-
tions, Gentry said.
“The Klamath Tribes look
forward to continuing the
valuable work we’re doing
in partnership with state and
federal officials, ranchers and
others toward water quality
improvements, water con-
servation and habitat resto-
ration,” he said.
WESTERN CHERRY FRUIT FLY
APPEARS IN REGION
Judge dismisses lawsuit over
synthetic organic inputs
USDA’s change in
voting procedure isn’t
‘final agency action’
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
A federal judge has dis-
missed a lawsuit that argued
the USDA made it easier for
synthetic materials to con-
tinue being used by organic
farmers.
The USDA has changed
how it evaluates synthetic
organic inputs but this isn’t a
“final agency action” that can
be challenged under the Ad-
ministrative Procedure Act, so
U.S. District Judge Haywood
Gilliam Jr. has ruled that he
lacks jurisdiction in the case.
The complaint was filed by
14 organic and environmen-
tal groups, which claimed the
USDA had effectively made it
harder for synthetic substanc-
es to be excluded from organ-
ic production.
Synthetic substances in or-
ganic farming undergo a “sun-
set” process every five years
under which the National Or-
ganic Standards Board recom-
mends they either be retained
or excluded.
Traditionally, the NOSB
would automatically recom-
mend eliminating a synthetic
substance unless two-thirds of
its 15 members voted to keep
it on the organic materials list.
In 2013, however, the
USDA switched the voting
procedure so that a synthet-
ic substance stayed on the
list unless two-thirds of the
NOSB voted to remove it.
Due to this change, a syn-
thetic substance would not be
recommended for elimination
from organic farming even if
a nine-person majority of the
board favored its removal.
The Center for Food Safe-
ty and other plaintiffs worried
the new procedure would un-
dermine the integrity of the
USDA’s organic program and
discourage the development
of natural alternatives to syn-
thetic inputs.
Their lawsuit claimed that
USDA didn’t follow the prop-
er “open and transparent”
rulemaking process by failing
to notify the public and accept
comments about the new vot-
ing procedure, thereby violat-
ing the Administrative Proce-
dure Act.
However, the judge has de-
cided the new procedure isn’t
subject to these full rulemak-
ing requirements because the
USDA can ultimately over-
ride the board’s recommenda-
tion to remove or keep a syn-
thetic substance.
The new procedure has
“no binding outcome or de-
finitive result” and thus isn’t
a final agency action, so con-
cerns about synthetic materi-
als in organic food “may nev-
er materialize” regardless of
the NOSB’s recommendation,
Gilliam said.
“These scenarios illustrate
that it would be premature for
the court to intervene at this
stage,” he said.
If they file a lawsuit
against the “wrongful renew-
al” of a synthetic substance,
the plaintiffs can still object to
the “procedural harms” of the
USDA’s new process, he said.
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Idaho Farm Bureau
he Pacific Northwest Pest Alert
Network reports the Western
Cherry Fruit Fly has appeared
in southwest Idaho and the Mid-
Columbia River region in Oregon.
On May 22 the first report of a
Western Cherry Fruit Fly captured in
a Idaho State Department of Agricul-
ture species-specific trap in Canyon
County. Network officials said that
historically, the fly appears in Gem
County about a week after the first
specimen is found in Canyon County.
T
The fly was also found May 20 at
the Oregon State University Mid-Co-
lumbia Agricultural Research and
Extension Center station in Hood
River.
Growers should start treating for
the flies immediately, the recent alert
said. White maggots infest cherries,
and the mature maggot makes a hole
in the cherry as it exits.
Online phenology and growing
degree-day models for the Western
Cherry Fruit Fly predicted the first
flight on May 21 in Ontario, Ore.,
and Parma, Idaho; and also in Idaho
May 24 in Caldwell, May 25 in Em-
mett, May 29 in Boise and May 31 in
Nampa, the network said.
Recommended strategies for
growers include spraying one of
about seven selected chemicals
through harvest, at seven- to 10-day
intervals, and growing early-matur-
ing varieties.
Recommendations:
https://bit.
ly/2LGJEJV
Weekly fieldwork report
Ore.
Item/description (Source: USDA, NASS; NOAA)
• Days suitable for fieldwork (As of May 22)
6.2
• Topsoil moisture, surplus
1%
• Topsoil moisture, percent short
36%
• Subsoil moisture, surplus
1%
• Subsoil moisture, percent short
38%
• Precipitation probability
33-50% below/
(6-10 day outlook as of May 22)
Normal
Wash.
5.1
5%
9%
5%
5%
33-50% below
Idaho
Calif.
5.3
20%
14%
14%
17%
Normal/
33-40% above
7
0
75%
0
45%
Normal