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July 13, 2018 CapitalPress.com 11 Washington’s wolf peacemaker ends her tenure Money runs out for contract By DON JENKINS Capital Press ELLENSBURG, Wash. — High-profile mediator Francine Madden this week wrapped up her three-year mission to corral the conflicts humans have over wolves in Washington. Madden succeeded in get- ting people with different views to collaborate, but mon- ey to fund her contract has run out, Department of Fish and Wildlife wolf manager Don- ny Martorello said. Madden teared up Tuesday after lead- ing a meeting of the depart- ment’s Wolf Advisory Group. “I’m going to miss the people in this state a lot,” she said. “They are passionate, hard-working and deeply com- Don Jenkins/Capital Press Meeting leader Francine Madden talks to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Wolf Advisory Group on July 10 in Ellensburg. mitted to their communities.” Madden’s departure comes as the department shifts the fo- cus of the advisory group from current policies to proposing a plan to manage a stable state- wide population of wolves. The department’s current han- dling of wolves continues to be criticized by cattlemen and conservationists. The department signed the Washington, D.C.-based Madden to a nearly $1.2 mil- lion contract in 2015 and to a $425,000 extension last year. Her in-person services cost $8,000 a day, plus travel ex- penses. She previously had an $82,000 contract to write a re- port for the department on so- cial conflicts over wolves. Madden’s work to rec- oncile opposing views was praised by people on different sides, though the Cattle Pro- ducers of Washington said the department should refocus on managing wolves, not people, and left the advisory group in 2015. The group, including its members from conservation organizations, agreed in 2017 on when wolves would be killed to stop attacks on live- stock. Environmentalists not on the panel, however, argue the policy violates the law be- cause it didn’t undergo a for- mal public review. Madden said conflicts will ebb and flow and cited her neutral status in declining to assess the state of discord over wolves. “It’s not for me to judge,” she said. Martorello said the depart- ment will look for money to hire another person to lead wolf meetings, though funding is uncertain. In any event, the agency is better able now to preside over contentious talks, he said. “At some point, we wanted to learn that skill set and take it upon ourselves,” Martorello said. “As (Madden) parts the system, we will carry on the strategies she has taught us.” If the department allo- cates money for a facilitator, the position will be put out to bid, Martorello said. Madden didn’t rule out seeking a new contract. “I can’t predict the future,” she said. The wolf advisory group spent Tuesday roughly outlin- ing steps toward submitting a plan to manage wolves af- ter they’ve been taken off the state’s endangered species list. Recovery appears to be at least several years away. “We are asking the (wolf advisory group) to focus at- tention on a post-delisting plan because it is such a high priori- ty for us,” Martorello said. Some wolf advisory group members said they wanted to also talk about current policies. “We can’t forget the people who are being affected as we discuss what we’re going to be doing in five years,” said Gar- field County rancher Samee Charriere. Kettle Range Conservation Group director Tim Coleman said the group should talk about topics such as how the department assigns depreda- tions to packs and applies the law that allows ranchers to shoot wolves caught attack- ing livestock. “I want to talk about what’s going on now,” Coleman said. “We need to understand each other.” Owyhee Irrigation District eyes its modernization opportunities By BRAD CARLSON Capital Press Matthew Weaver/Capital Press Washington State University wheat breeder Mike Pumphrey says the Hession fly is a growing problem in spring wheat varieties. Hessian flies on the rise in Washington spring wheat Pest damages spring wheat By MATTHEW WEAVER Capital Press Hessian fly is on the rise in spring wheat varieties, a Washington wheat breeder says. “This year I’ve seen it pret- ty much everywhere,” said Mike Pumphrey, Washington State University spring wheat breeder. The insects have continued to increase in recent years. They create abnormal growth in the wheat plant, Pumphrey said. “They’re basically tell- ing the wheat plant to feed it, instead of the wheat plant feeding itself,” he said. “You won’t see any chomping or typical sort of predation, but you will see abnormal growth, stunting and weak stems due to Hes- sian fly.” Hessian fly is almost ex- clusively a spring wheat pest, affecting 30 to 80 percent of farm income, although it can affect winter wheat, reducing yields by a bushel or two per acre. Some cropping systems or rotations favor Hessian fly, Pumphrey said. Seed treatments with sys- temic insecticides can have an early impact, but resistant wheat varieties are most use- ful. Certain market classes have some good varieties that are susceptible, Pumphrey said. “We have some really good varieties of spring club wheat,” he said as an exam- ple. “They get planted be- cause there may be a premi- um — they yield well, they have good disease resistance otherwise. Then all of a sud- den Hessian fly comes in and takes away any hope of a pre- mium or maximizing profit.” If primary weather pat- terns continue, Pumphrey said, Hessian fly resistance should be a primary con- sideration as farmers select wheat varieties. Pumphrey seeks resistance in his breeding program, screening materials to ensure resistance and using different types of resistance to avoid losing it down the road. New tariffs chill U.S. beef export potential By CAROL RYAN DUMAS Capital Press Import tariffs on U.S. beef to Canada and China are top of mind for the U.S. beef industry. Canada implemented a 10 percent tariff on some U.S. beef products on July 1 after the U.S. moved ahead with tariffs on U.S. imports of Canadian steel and aluminum. “Unfortunately we are the direct victims of trade retaliation,” Kent Bacus, director of international trade and market access for National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, said in the Beltway Beef podcast on Thurs- day. The tariff applies to prepared and pre- served beef, representing $170 million of the $800 million in U.S. beef sales to Can- ada in 2017. They were a small but signifi- cant part of sales to Canada, he said. “It’s a tough situation for us,” he said. A 10 percent tariff is not a lot but added to a strong U.S. dollar compared to the Ca- nadian dollar, it makes U.S. product more expensive and less competitive, he said. Associated Press File New tariffs on U.S. beef will impact trade with Canada and China, analysts say. “So there’s a disincentive to buy Ameri- can. If the whole point is to buy American, this is not really going about it the right way,” he said. While it might bring some short-term victories to the U.S. steel and aluminum in- dustries, beef producers are going to carry a big part of the retaliation, he said. Across the globe, China raised its 12 percent import tariff on U.S. beef to 37 per- cent on July 6. The tariff comes as the U.S. is just starting to make inroads into Chi- na’s grain-finished beef market after being banned for 13 years. It’s a small market, but U.S. beef was doing a good job in taking market share from competitors. U.S. exports grew at a steady pace from zero sales to $30 million in sales in just six months, he said. The U.S. Meat Export Federation was forecasting those sales to grow to $70 mil- lion in 2018 and reach up to $400 million in three or four years. “And that’s with all those restrictions on hormones, beta agonists, traceability,” he said. Without those restrictions, USMEF projects U.S. beef exports to China could reach $4 billion annually in the next five years, he said. “That’s huge. Last year, we exported $7 billion total, and now we’re talking about a market with that much potential. But we’re not going to be able to realize that as long as we’re going to be in the middle of this tit-for-tat tariffs,” he said. A study funded by a recent grant aims to help the Owyhee Irrigation District determine how and where to modernize. OID General Manager Jay Chamberlin said the ap- proximately $250,000 grant, through Energy Trust of Or- egon and Pacific Power & Light, is funding the evalu- ation by Hood River, Ore.- based Farmers Conservation Alliance. “They are looking at ev- ery aspect: hydro potential, gravity pressurized sprinkler potential, canal lining, water conservation. … Really, the project is being complete- ly evaluated and assessed,” Chamberlin said. “It’s almost an inventory of what we are doing now and what we can do to improve.” Farmers Conservation Al- liance spokeswoman Marla Keethler said Owyhee Irri- gation District enrolled in its Irrigation Modernization Program, “and we are current- ly working with them to un- derstand their district’s needs and goals as we work toward developing a system improve- ment plan and eventually a modernization strategy.” Chamberlin said the mod- ernization study will help identify the best opportuni- ties to maintain and improve function even as OID deals with current facility needs and some recent changes in how customers use water. After irrigation season ends each fall, the Nyssa, Ore.-based district starts proj- ects such as repairing or au- tomating infrastructure, and replacing some sections of open canal with pressurized pipeline. An upcoming major proj- ect aims to stabilize more than one-third of Malheur Siphon, an above-ground, 80- inch steel pipe that runs for more than four miles north to the Malheur River. Cham- berlin said the approximately $750,000 project is expect- ed to start in early October and conclude in early March, ahead of the 2019 irrigation season’s start. “This phase will complete the most difficult section of repairs,” he said. The pipe, whose foundation legs have been moving in unstable Jay clay soil, is Chamberlin wrinkled in three different locations, he said. Additional phases will be completed lat- er as OID builds its reserve funds. The Owyhee Irrigation District serves about 120,000 irrigated acres and more than 1,200 customers in Oregon and Idaho. Its annual budget is about $4 million, funded by a customer charge per acre of $65 — up from $62 last year and including $1.50 special assessment for the siphon project. Chamberlin said the dis- trict in the last decade has seen client farms become fewer in number, but larger overall. “It really changes the dis- tribution of water,” he said. Many of the larger farms grow one crop on 100 acres instead of three or four, and use pivot irrigation systems that in the long term can re- duce total water usage but in the short term run frequently, Chamberlin said. “With pivot and sprinkler irrigation, you can’t get behind because you don’t have the deep percola- tion.” Similarly, drip irrigation rarely shuts down altogether as it moves water across dif- ferent zones in large acreages. Chamberlin said this constant, level irrigation flow means peak demand periods are less pronounced and water can stay longer in Owyhee Res- ervoir. Owyhee Reservoir was about 60 percent full in mid-July, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation reported, in- cluding water left from the heavy snowmelt of 2016-17. OID customers this year re- ceived full allotments of wa- ter, Chamberlin said, but the district has tried to stay con- servative and leave as much in the reservoir as possible in the event low snowpack materializes again this year in the large Owyhee River drainage. Washington agency looked, didn’t find underfed farmworkers By DON JENKINS Capital Press A state agency was unable to verify complaints last sum- mer that meals served work- ers at Sarbanand Farms in northwest Washington were meager and poor, according to newly available records. The Employment Securi- ty Department started asking workers about food shortly before a worker’s death drew other agencies into probing conditions at the farm. The ESD records do not include a report summarizing the de- partment’s findings, but an of- ficial wrote that workers said that they had enough to eat. “We were unable to sub- stantiate the concern regard- ing the quality or quantity of the food provided,” ESD agricultural services direc- tor Craig Carroll wrote in an email sent last Aug. 7 to oth- ers in the department. Government agencies con- ducted multi-part investiga- tions at Sarbanand, a blueber- ry farm in Whatcom County owned by California brothers David and Kable Munger. The farm continues to be the target of activists, a lawsuit filed by Columbia Legal Services and critics of the seasonal H-2A guestworker program. The Department of Labor and Industries cleared the farm of any wrongdoing in the worker’s death and found no evidence to support claims that workers were exposed to pesticides. L&I did fine the farm for serving meals late and missing rest breaks. A judge last month ordered the fine be cut in half to $74,825 The ESD documents, re- leased in response to a pub- lic records request from the Capital Press, shed light on allegations that meals for the farm’s some 600 workers were inadequate. L&I record- ed complaints from workers about undercooked food and scant meals, and the pending lawsuit includes allegations that Sarbanand failed to pro- vide sufficient food. Sarba- nand denies the claim. “Sarbanand tries to take good care of all of its workers, and someone is always going to complain about food when you’re feeding 600 workers,” a farm representative, Tom Pedreira, said Monday. ESD received a sec- ond-hand complaint about the food at Sarbanand in late July, according to department re- cords. In response, ESD farm- worker outreach specialist Jennifer Lund talked to four H-2A workers walking on a road and all said they were re- ceiving enough food. “I talked with them inde- pendently, and all of them seemed confident in their re- ply that the meals being pro- vided were adequate,” she wrote in a July 31 email to colleagues. According to Carroll’s Aug. 7 email, Lund followed up and spoke with other work- ers, including many H-2A workers who were fired after going on strike. Lund wrote in another message to col- leagues, “I asked about the food and indicated that I was hearing concerns about not enough food, but that I could not find a worker that wanted to file a complaint.”
