Friday, December 21, 2018
CapitalPress.com
3
Even after Farm Bill, hemp needs help from lawmakers
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
Federal lawmakers have
lightened up on hemp, but
the non-intoxicating plant
still needs an assist from
Washington’s
marijua-
na-embracing legislators.
The new Farm Bill takes
hemp off the federal list of
illicit drugs, but it does not
change state hemp laws.
In Washington, hemp
can’t be grown within 4
miles of marijuana. That
regulation helps explain
why Washington has lagged
behind other states in grow-
ing and processing hemp.
Washington has more
than 1,200 licensed mari-
juana growers, according to
the State Liquor and Canna-
bis Board. A large portion of
the state is closed to hemp.
Furthermore, a mari-
juana producer can displace
a hemp farmer. Even if the
hemp farmer plants fi rst,
the later-arriving marijuana
grower takes precedent.
“Why would you start
a 1,000-acre hemp farm in
Washington, when a mari-
juana farmer with one lousy
greenhouse can come along,
and you have to move?”
asked Joy Beckerman, pres-
ident of the Hemp Indus-
tries Association, a national
advocacy group.
Hemp Northwest, a food
maker based in Hood River,
Ore., wants to press Wash-
ington-grown hemp seeds
into vegetable oil and pro-
tein powder, but its only
Washington supplier is
the Colville Confederated
Tribes, which raises hemp
on its reservation.
“That 4-mile rule is defi -
nitely a big hinderance,”
the company’s CEO, Tonia
Farman, said. “I keep hear-
ing from farmers that that’s
a huge barrier that keeps
people from wanting to
get into industrial hemp in
Washington.”
The state Department
of Agriculture adopted the
4-mile rule in 2017 to pre-
Oregon’s sage grouse
population drops 10%
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
Oregon’s sage grouse
population was down 10
percent in 2018, which
refl ects
unfavorable
weather conditions rather
than the effi cacy of recov-
ery efforts, according to
state wildlife regulators.
Aerial and ground sur-
veys of breeding sites, or
leks, conducted by the Ore-
gon Department of Fish
and Wildlife pegged the
number of sage grouse at
18,421, down from 20,510
the previous year.
The change in popula-
tions wasn’t uniform across
the state, ranging from a 6
percent increase in the U.S.
Bureau of Land Manage-
ment’s Prineville District
in Central Oregon to a 14
percent decline in the Vale
District in Eastern Oregon.
The greater sage grouse
was long a candidate for
Endangered Species Act
protection, which ranch-
ers fear would lead to fur-
ther grazing restrictions,
but the federal government
decided against listing the
bird in 2015 partly due
to habitat conservation
agreements by the live-
stock industry.
Reproductive success
was lower than average
due to dry weather, with
such fl uctuations not
unusual in the sage grouse
population,
testifi ed
Kevin Blakely, ODFW’s
wildlife division dep-
uty administrator, before
the Senate Committee on
Environment and Natural
Resources on Dec. 12.
Specifi cally, soil mois-
ture must be recharged
during winter and spring
rains must ensure the
growth of forbs that
attract insects, which the
sage grouse eats, Blakely
said.
Drought
in
2017
caused fewer chicks to
survive and reduced the
bird’s population this
year, he said.
Blakely’s presentation
Jerret Raff ety/Associated Press
Drought appears to be a
factor in the number of
greater sage grouse in
Eastern Oregon, according
to the Oregon Department
of Fish and Wildlife.
was part of an update for
lawmakers on the status
of sage grouse recovery
efforts, but a partnership
dedicated to the bird’s
conservation, SageCon,
also plans to seek more
than $1 million in addi-
tional state funds for
preservation
activities
next year.
One of the main strat-
egies of sage grouse con-
servation — rangeland
wildfi re suppression —
was successful in 2018,
with 20,000 acres of the
bird’s habitat burned
compared to 100,000
acres in 2017, Blakely
said.
Rural fi re protection
associations, which are
operated by ranchers and
other volunteers across
16 million acres in Ore-
gon, were instrumen-
tal in limiting the spread
of rangeland fi res, tes-
tifi ed John O’Keefe, a
Lake County rancher
and past president of
the Oregon Cattlemen’s
Association.
Despite having the
same number of fi re igni-
tions in 2018, fewer acres
burned due to the dili-
gence of RFPAs, whose
volunteers are familiar
with local terrain, fi re
fuel sources and travel
routes, O’Keefe said.
“These are a signif-
icant force,” he said.
“These are the things that
can make an ignition a
small event.”
Don Jenkins/Capital Press File
Hemp consultant Joy Beckerman watches hemp being
planted in a fi eld near Moses Lake in Central Washington.
The legislature will have to improve the state law on hemp
cultivation before the crop can thrive in the state, she says.
vent hemp from cross-pol-
linating with Washington’s
lucrative marijuana plants.
The department originally
proposed a 3-mile buffer.
Marijuana advocates report-
edly asked for a buffer as big
as 10 miles. It wasn’t a horri-
ble outcome for hemp, con-
sidering marijuana’s abil-
ity to generate government
revenue.
The state collected $319
million in taxes and license
fees from the marijuana
industry in the most-recent
fi scal year. Meanwhile, the
state lost money regulating
hemp.
The state now has nine
licensed hemp farmers or
processors. That doesn’t
refl ect the level of interest,
Hemp Industries of Wash-
ington lobbyist Bonny Jo
Peterson said. “A lot of it is
waiting for the state to get its
act together,” she said.
Agriculture department
spokesman Hector Castro
said the department has no
plans to propose changing
the 4-mile rule or any other
of its hemp rules.
“It just doesn’t make
sense for us to get ahead of
the Legislature,” he said.
“We’re aware the 4-mile
buffer is something the
hemp industry has had some
frustrations with.”
The state agriculture
department wrote the rules
based on the 2014 Farm
Bill. The bill allowed hemp
farming under state super-
vision, but did not change
hemp’s status as a con-
trolled substance. As a
result, Washington controls
the seed supply and prohib-
its the manufacture of can-
nabidiol, or CBD.
CBD has operated in
a gray area. It’s a big part
of the hemp industry and
accepted in many states,
even though the Drug
Enforcement Administration
has maintained it’s illegal.
The U.S. Hemp Roundtable,
a trade group, said in a legal
analysis that the Farm Bill
erases any doubt that CBD is
legal. Efforts to obtain com-
ment from the DEA were
unsuccessful.
Peterson said she thinks
legislators will lift the CBD
restriction. She said Peterson
said she expects opposition
from some marijuana grow-
ers, but predicted the 4-mile
buffer will be dropped or
reduced. “I’m very confi -
dent our legislators want to
see (hemp) move forward,”
she said.
Efforts to obtain com-
ment from the Washing-
ton CannaBusiness Associ-
ation, a trade group, were
unsuccessful.
Beckerman was a leading
advocate for allowing hemp
to be grown in Washington.
She has since moved to New
York, but remains in con-
tact with Northwest hemp
organizations.
Inslee orca plan includes look at breaching dams
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
OLYMPIA — A $1.1 bil-
lion orca-rescue plan rolled
out Thursday by Washing-
ton Gov. Jay Inslee includes
$750,000 for another look at
breaching four dams on the
Lower Snake River.
The dams in southeast
Washington generate elec-
tricity and allow farmers to
move grain by barge down
the Columbia River’s main
tributary. Inslee said a task
force would study whether
wind and solar power could
replace hydropower and
whether trucks and trains
could replace river traffi c.
“We need a really thor-
ough evaluation of that, and
I’m pleased that we’re start-
ing that serious discussion
because we need to have
it,” Inslee said at a press
conference on a two-year,
$54.3 billion spending plan
he will present to the 2019
Legislature.
It would be a 21 per-
cent increase over the oper-
ating budget lawmakers
enacted in 2017. Inslee pro-
posed nearly $4 billion in
new or higher taxes, some of
which would go to the sepa-
rate transportation budget to
remove culverts.
Inslee based his orca plan
on recommendations from
a task force he created last
spring. The population of
South Resident orcas, three
pods of killer whales in
Puget Sound and off Wash-
ington’s coast, has declined
to 74 from a peak of 98 in
1995. Experts attribute the
drop to a lack of fi sh, pollu-
tion and noisy vessels.
The Washington Farm
Bureau was on the task force,
but declined to endorse the
report sent to Inslee. The
Farm Bureau said it backed
many of the recommenda-
tions, but could not sup-
port another look at breach-
ing Ice Harbor, Little Goose,
Lower Granite and Lower
Monumental dams.
Some 40 percent of
the nation’s wheat moves
through the Lower Snake
River’s systems of dams and
locks, according to the Army
Weekly
Fieldwork
Report
Don Jenkins/Capital Press
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee talks at a press conference Dec. 13 in Olympia about his $1.1 billion
proposal to help the health of orcas. The plan includes studying whether to breach four dams
on the Lower Snake River in southeast Washington.
Corps of Engineers, the
dams’ operator. The corps
has studied and rejected
breaching the dams. A fed-
eral judge in 2016 ordered
another review that may be
fi nished by 2020.
“By forming this work
group, we will have a good
state voice in that federal
decision-making process,”
Inslee said.
Environmental groups
pushed for a state-level look
at breaching the dams. Orca
task force co-chairwoman
Stephanie Solien said the
task force heard more about
the dams than other issues.
“I think we need to bring
people to the table to talk.
They’re talking over each
other,” she said. “My hope
is we can help with that.”
Inslee said humans and
orcas were having a “shared
moment.”
“We share so much with
the orcas. We share about
the same body tempera-
ture. We share about the
same heartbeat rate. We
share close familiar social
interactions and bonds, and
we share the need to defeat
environmental
degrada-
tion,” he said. “When we
save the orcas from toxins,
we save ourselves; when
we save them from cli-
mate change, we save our-
selves; when we save them
from pollution, we save
ourselves.”
Pillars of the orca plan
include $363 million in the
capital budget for salmon
recovery and $296 million
in the transportation bud-
get to remove culverts. The
state was already under
a federal court order to
remove fi sh barriers. Other
parts of the plan include
$75.7 million to improve
hatcheries, $19 million to
pay landowners to protect
habitat and $6.2 million for
enforcement of water-qual-
ity laws.
Inslee’s budget proposal
includes a new capital gains
tax projected to raise $975
million the fi rst year. The 9
percent tax would apply to
the sale of stocks bonds and
other assets of more than
$25,000 for individuals and
$50,000 for married cou-
ples. Sales of homes, timber
and farms would be exempt
from the tax.
Inslee also proposes
to raise revenue by rais-
ing taxes on some home
sales and business taxes on
services.
Presented by
For December 28 th Issue:
®
News Display & Legal Ads - Friday, Dec. 21st @ Noon
CLASSIFIED REMAINS THE SAME
Class Display - Wednesday, Dec. 26th @ 10 am
Class Liners - Wednesday, Dec. 26th @ Noon
Ore.
Wash.
Idaho
Calif.
For January 4 th Issue:
87.4%
79.6%
Normal/
33% below
81.8%
65.7%
• Precipitation, 6-10 day outlook
74.8%
100%
Normal/
33% below
92.1%
92.2%
Normal/
33% below
50-70% above
50-60% above
60-70% above
50-70% above
News Display & Legal Ads - Friday, Dec. 28th @ Noon
CLASSIFIED REMAINS THE SAME
Class Display - Wednesday, Jan. 2nd @ 10 am
Class Liners - Wednesday, Jan. 2nd @ Noon
• Soil moisture anomaly
Below normal
Below normal
Normal/
Below normal
Below normal
Item/description (Source: USDA, NASS; NOAA)
• Snow water equivalent *
• Percent area in drought
• Avg. temperature, 6-10 day outlook
(Percent chance deviation from normal)
(Percent chance deviation from normal)
(Monthly deviation from normal)
*Aggregate average percent of median as of Dec. 19. Medians calculated for the period from 1981-2010.
33% below
Sources: USDA, NRCS; NOAA, www.ca.gov/; www.drought.gov/
www.capitalpress.com
51-2/HOU