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WYOMING, IDAHO GRIZZLY HUNTS STAY ON HOLD Page 9 Capital Press A g The West’s FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2018 Weekly VOLUME 91, NUMBER 38 WWW.CAPITALPRESS.COM TRADE WARS $2.00 Associated Press File A Chinese container ship in the Long Beach, Calif., harbor. Casualties contin- ue to mount in the trade war that includes the U.S., China and Mexico. Casualties add up for U.S. ag From apples to milk and from almonds to wheat, ongoing disputes take a multi-billion-dollar bite out of revenue By DAN WHEAT Capital Press O Dan Wheat/Capital Press Ray Norwood, sales and marketing director of Auvil Fruit Co., Orondo, Wash., with bins of the last Gala apples of the season, picked on Sept. 14. Auvil lost 20 percent of its sales volume and price in cherries exported to China because of retaliatory tariffs and figures its apple exports to China will also be down. RONDO, Wash. — Though smaller than some of its Washington state competitors, Auvil Fruit Co. exports 80 percent of the cherries it grows. Because of that dependence on exports, when China slapped tariffs on U.S. fruit as re- taliation for Trump administration tariffs, Auvil Fruit felt it. “It was a very big hit. I don’t want to say a dollar loss, but it was a 20 percent decrease in price and volume,” said Ray Norwood, Auvil Fruit director of sales and marketing. Northwest cherries were an early trade war victim, with losses estimated at $86 million in China, the only country to impose a tariff on cherries. Though the dollar impact of the tariffs are estimates, ag- ricultural exports are suffering losses that will top $4 billion this year and are projected to increase next year. The hit to apples sold in Mexico, India and China is esti- mated at $129 million for the coming year. Dairy losses may be about $115 million this year and $415 million in 2019, but when oversupply to the domestic market and downward pressure on prices are considered, the cost to dairy produc- ers and processors will be closer to $1.9 billion this year and $3 billion next year. Other commodities that will sustain big hits this year in- clude almonds at $1.6 billion and pork at $1.14 billion. Turn to TRADE, Page 10 Washington judge lets Fish and Wildlife target wolfpack Hearings coming on broader claim By DON JENKINS Capital Press OLYMPIA — The Washing- ton Department of Fish and Wild- life can move ahead with killing one or two wolves in the Colville National Forest after a judge de- clined Sept. 14 to intervene at the request of environmental groups. Thurston County Superior Court Judge Carol Murphy said she would not interfere with Fish and Wildlife’s attempts to bal- ance wolf recovery and social tol- erance in northeast Washington. She added, however, that she was eager to take up the broader claim that the department’s pol- icy on culling wolfpacks hasn’t gone through required scientific and public review. “This is a very difficult and controversial situation, she said. The Center for Biological Di- versity and Cascadia Wildlands sought a temporary restraining order to block Fish and Wildlife from targeting a pack in north- ern Ferry County. The pack has attacked at least six calves since Sept. 4. Department guidelines call for it to consider removing one or two wolves after three at- tacks in 30 days. The unnamed pack has three or four adults and likely two pups, according to Fish and Wildlife. In the same territory, the department shot seven wolves in 2016 and one in 2017. The hearing Sept. 14 replayed some of the issues aired when the two environmental groups obtained a restraining order Aug. 20 from another judge blocking the department from shooting a wolf in the Togo pack, also in Ferry County. Murphy lifted the restraining order Aug. 31, and the department shot the wolf Sept. 2. Murphy said she wanted to hear arguments before the end of the year on whether Fish and Wildlife’s lethal-control policy for wolves violates the State En- vironmental Policy Act and Ad- ministrative Procedure Act. Turn to WOLVES, Page 10 Don Jenkins/Capital Press Kettle Range Conservation Group Executive Director Tim Coleman speaks at a rally Sept. 14 in Olympia to protest plans by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife to shoot one or two wolves in northeast Washington. Coleman is on the department’s Wolf Advisory Group. Funding available to curb sudden oak death in Southwest Oregon Quarantine established in Curry County By GEORGE PLAVEN Capital Press The Oregon Department of Forestry and USDA Natural Resources Conserva- tion Service are partnering to help private landowners in southwest Oregon slow the spread of an invasive tree-killing dis- ease known as “sudden oak death.” Since the mid-1990s, the disease has devastated millions of susceptible trees in California, including tanoak, coast live oak, Shreve’s oak and California black oak. The disease was first discovered in Curry County, Ore., in 2001. The Oregon Department of Agriculture immediately quarantined a 9-square-mile area, which has since grown to 525 square miles, roughly one-third of the county. NRCS Oregon has requested up to $500,000 through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program to reimburse landowners for removing infected trees. Priority will be given to landowners within the quarantine area, which stretch- es from Brookings north to Gold Beach, though anyone who has the disease on their property is eligible to apply for as- sistance. Known by the initials SOD, the dis- ease is caused by the fungus-like patho- gen Phytophthora ramorum. The disease thrives in wet forest environments, and spreads via airborne and waterborne spores. Symptoms include bleeding can- kers on the tree’s trunk and dieback of foliage, eventually killing the tree. Randy Wiese, the lead forester work- ing on SOD for the Oregon Department of Forestry, said there is no cure for the disease. Infected tanoaks are cut down, piled and burned, along with all tanoaks in a 300-foot radius. While SOD can infect adjacent Doug- las-fir trees, Wiese said the disease is generally non-lethal in conifers. “Most species, it will get into them and it’s just sort of there,” he said. Turn to FUNDING, Page 10 SOD quarantine area Ore. Area in detail 101 Port Orford COOS CURRY r ive e R Roug Gold Beach JOSEPHINE SISKIYOU NATIONAL FOREST Brookings N 10 miles 101 Crescent City 199 REDWOOD NATIONAL PARK Capital Press graphic