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About Capital press. (Salem, OR) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (July 13, 2018)
Capital Press A g The West’s FRIDAY, JULY 13, 2018 Weekly VOLUME 91, NUMBER 28 WWW.CAPITALPRESS.COM $2.00 Dwight, Steven Hammond given full pardons by Trump Supporters, critics take different view of action. By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI Capital Press President Donald Trump’s par- don of two Eastern Oregon ranchers convicted of arson for starting grass fires is thought by some to signify a reversal of what they say are hostile federal policies to industries reliant on public lands. Others think it conveys a cavalier approach to protecting natural re- sources. Trump’s pardon of Dwight Hammond, 76, and his son Ste- ven Hammond, 49, on Tuesday means they’ll be released from prison with- Dwight out serving their full Hammond mandatory minimum five-year sentences for setting fire to public rangeland. To their supporters, the reprieve indicates the Trump administration is turning away from an antagonistic approach toward cattle grazing on federal allotments. “I think this is a positive sign for ranchers across the entire country. They will be treated fairly and there will be a change in philosophy that we welcome and respect,” said Jerome Steven Rosa, executive direc- Hammond tor of the Oregon Cat- tlemen’s Association. However, others worry the par- dons will embolden extremists who want to end or drastically reduce the federal government’s control over vast swaths of the West. “They now think they have a friend in the White House who does not value public lands,” said Aaron Weiss, media director for the Center for Western Priorities, a nonprofit that advocates protecting public land. Originally, federal prosecutors charged the Hammonds in 2010 with burning more than 45,000 acres of federal land near their ranch in Dia- mond, Ore., in blazes dating back to the 1980s. Dwight and Steven Hammond were ultimately convicted of setting a fire in 2001 that consumed 139 acres of federal property, while the young- er rancher was also found guilty of lighting a “back burn” that spread onto an acre of public land in 2006. A federal judge originally im- posed prison terms of three months for Dwight Hammond and a year for Steven Hammond after finding the five-year mandatory terms required under federal law “really would shock the conscience.” The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Ap- peals overturned that decision and the ranchers were required to serve the full five years behind bars. Their return to prison in early 2016 sparked protests that led to the armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge near Burns, Ore. Turn to HAMMONDS, Page 9 Dan Wheat/Capital Press Bruce Grim at his favorite spot over- looking his former orchard in Entiat, Wash. After leading four tree fruit marketing associations for 17 years, he plans to retire next month. THE FRUITS OF HIS LABOR Bruce Grim plans to retire after working most of his professional life on behalf of the tree fruit industry By DAN WHEAT Capital Press ENATCHEE, Wash. — He grew up on the orchard his parents started on just 5 acres in 1950. He became an attorney, increased the size of the family orchard and as a small-scale grower rose to key leadership positions in the Washington tree fruit industry. During his career, Bruce Grim served on W the board of Skookum Inc., a Wenatchee tree fruit cooperative, and became board chairman of the Washington Apple Commission and the U.S. Apple Association. He was also execu- tive director of the Washington State Horti- cultural Association for seven years. But perhaps the most important role he played was out of the public spotlight. He was the first manager of four marketing associa- tions aimed at increasing grower, packer and marketer returns by allowing marketers to le- gally discuss supply and price issues and set voluntary price ranges for different varieties and grades of fruit. Grim has been doing that for 17 years and now, at age 70, he plans to retire in August. “We took an idea that the marketing side of the industry felt would never work, that they couldn’t agree on anything. And quite frankly when we started, we weren’t certain we could,” Grim says. The Washington Apple Growers Market- ing Association, Washington Pear Marketing Turn to GRIM, Page 9 Bruce Grim • Age: 70 • Born: Wenatchee, Wash. Raised on an Entiat orchard • Family: Wife, Lynn, retired medical specialist; first wife, Candace, special education teacher, died of cancer 2009; two daughters; one grandchild • Education: Bachelor’s degree in economics, Washington State University, 1969; graduate of Willamette University College of Law, 1972 • Occupations: Practiced law, Salem, 8.5 years; operated family orchard, Entiat, 32 years; executive director, Washington State Horticultural Association, 6 years; manager of marketing associations, 17 years • Other: Skookum Inc., board of directors, 1981-89; Washington Apple Commission board, 1992- 2001; U.S. Apple Associa- tion board, 2001-10 Capital Press graphic Trump administration defends Cascade-Siskiyou expansion Obama-era national monument expansion faces several lawsuits By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI Capital Press Attorneys for the Trump adminis- tration are siding with environmen- talists in defending the legality of the Obama administration’s expansion of Oregon’s Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument. Shortly before leaving office in early 2017, former President Barack Obama increased the monument’s size by more than 70 percent to about 114,000 acres. The decision was met with law- suits by representatives of timber companies and county governments, who claimed a prohibition on com- mercial logging within the monu- ment violated the Oregon & Califor- nia Revested Lands Act. The monument’s enlarged bound- ary includes nearly 40,000 acres of “O&C Lands” that must be managed for timber harvest under that statute, according to their complaints. While the legal arguments pri- marily concern logging, ranchers who operate within the monument also fear they’ll be subject to grazing curtailments. As part of a wide-ranging review of national monument designa- tions, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke recommended shrinking the Cas- cade-Siskiyou National Monument without specifying how the boundar- ies should be adjusted. Litigation over the expansion was delayed several times to allow the Trump administration to implement Zinke’s recommendation but was re- activated earlier this year when the government didn’t take action. Plaintiffs in three complaints against the federal government — the American Forest Resource Coun- cil, Association of O&C Counties and Murphy Co. — have filed mo- tions seeking to invalidate the mon- ument’s expansion onto those 40,000 acres. Turn to TRUMP, Page 9
