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