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