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About Capital press. (Salem, OR) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 8, 2019)
Friday, February 8, 2019 CapitalPress.com 3 More payouts for elk damage proposed By DON JENKINS Capital Press OLYMPIA — Washing- ton farmers could be com- pensated for damage to irrigation equipment and pastures by elk and deer under legislation introduced Monday. Producers already are eligible for payments for ruined food crops. Besides expanding the basis for claims, House Bill 1875 would double the maximum payout to $20,000. The bill would not change an appli- cation process that farmers complain is cumbersome and discourages claims. More compensation would help, but won’t solve problems farmers and ranch- ers have in eastern Skagit County valleys overrun by elk, said Bill Schmidt, pres- ident of the county’s Farm Bureau chapter. Don Jenkins/Capital Press Elk gather in a field in Skagit County, Wash. A bill introduced in the Washington Legislature would double the amount of compensation farmers could receive for damage to their property caused by deer or elk. “To me, prevention is the ultimate goal,” he said. “But if it’s taking so long to fix the problem, you have to have more compensa- tion, or you’ll lose more farmers.” Elk and deer damage farmland across the state. Elk are particularly trou- blesome in Skagit County, where the Department of Fish and Wildlife and Native Indian tribes trucked elk captured from Mount St. Helens. Over the past 15 years, the herd has grown and migrated from hills onto valley farmland. Farmers say elk are breaking fences, tearing up hay bales, eating and con- taminating crops, breaking sprinklers, and eating live- stock forage. The county assessor’s office estimates that elk damage to farms may total $1.5 million a year. Applying for compensa- tion requires farmers to sub- mit an adjuster’s report, and business, insurance and tax records. and open land to hunters. No farmer in the eastern Skagit County val- leys occupied by elk has applied for compensation since 2016, according to Fish and Wildlife. HB 1875’s sponsor, Republican Rep. Carolyn Eslick, who represents east- ern Skagit County, said she’s working on making docu- menting losses simpler, but hasn’t developed a proposal yet. She also said she wants to get elk back in the hills. “I hear them (farmers) loud and clear,” she said. Efforts to obtain com- ment from Fish and Wildlife on Monday were unsuccess- ful. The department has said previously it is concerned about farmers filing frivo- lous claims. Randy Good, vice pres- ident of the Skagit County Cattlemen’s Association, said farmers and ranch- ers have asked for changes to the compensation to allow producers to recover actual losses. “I’m hoping they’ll get something together,” he said. “So far, that hasn’t happened.” Eslick’s bill, co-spon- sored by Rep. Tom Dent, R-Moses Lake, would require Fish and Wildlife to pay for an adjuster to assess damage. The Fish and Wild- life Commission adopted a rule in 2015 that requires farmers to split the cost with the state. The bill calls for dou- bling a pot of money to com- pensate farmers statewide to $240,000, though lawmak- ers would have to put the money in the state’s general fund. Dent sponsored a simi- lar bill in 2017, but it did not pass. The legislation was assigned to the House Rural Development, Agricul- ture and Natural Resources Committee. Ditch-cleaning bill encounters Treasure Valley reload center planners make progress environmental objections SALEM — A proposal to allow Oregon farmers to clean more sediment from ditches without a permit has encountered opposi- tion from environmentalists who warn of unintended consequences. Under House Bill 2437, farmers could dig out up to 3,000 cubic yards of dirt per mile of drainage ditch in wetland areas over five years without a state fill-re- moval permit, up from the current limit of 50 cubic yards per year. The work could be con- ducted only when the channels are dry unless the landowner obtains a variance from the Oregon Department of Agriculture, which would oversee the program. Farmers argue that removing 50 cubic yards per year isn’t enough to pre- vent ditches from clogging, interfering with field drain- age while filling channels inhabited by fish with dirt. “Both farmers and fish suffer if people can’t get in to do this work as often as it’s needed,” said Mary Anne Cooper, vice pres- ident of public policy for the Oregon Farm Bureau, during a Jan. 31 legislative hearing. Several environmen- tal groups urged the House Committee on Agricul- ture and Land Use against recommending the bill for approval, claiming that allowing an “exponential” increase in the amount of dirt removed from ditches could adversely affect fish. Ditches can serve as important winter habitat for salmon and steelhead as well as a “nursery” for juvenile fish but HB 2437 would let farmers dredge these channels with scant oversight from wildlife reg- ulators, said Brian McLach- lan, a volunteer with the Association of Northwest Steelheaders. “These habitats are part of what used to be a vast off-channel floodplain complex,” he said. While the bill would require Oregon State Uni- versity to complete a study of dredging effects over five years, that may encourage farmers to remove as much sediment from ditches as possible before the report is complete, McLachlan said. “We think that’s putting the cart before the horse,” he said. The Nature Conser- vancy would prefer if the bill recognized that ditches in certain geographies and landscapes may need to be treated differently, such as coastal streams occupied by coho salmon. Other streams can be cleared aggres- sively without detriment to fish, said Jena Carter, the group’s Oregon coast and marine director. The organization recom- mends that “essential sal- monid habitat” be excluded from the increased removal limit and requiring a “wait- ing period” during which the state government can review planned ditch-clean- ing activities, she said. Trout Unlimited believes the volume cap under HB 2437 should be reduced to 300 cubic yards per linear mile, which could be mod- ified once the study of the law’s impacts was finished, said Chandra Ferrari, senior policy advisor with the group. Under current rules, only about 20 farmers have actu- ally sought fill-removal per- mits to dig out more than 50 cubic yards of dirt from ditches, which indicates growers are not using the permit process and the state isn’t enforcing the rules, said Rep. Susan McLain, D-Hillsboro, who led a work group that developed the proposal. By BRAD CARLSON Capital Press ONTARIO, Ore. — Treasure Valley Reload Cen- ter could be operating within two years if work on the truck-to-rail shipping facility north of Nyssa, Ore., stays on track, Malheur County Eco- nomic Development Director Greg Smith told a meeting of onion growers Feb. 5. He said Union Pacific Railroad recently instructed TVRC officials to complete 30 percent of the design for the rail portion of the facility, up from the earlier 10 percent. This indicates Union Pacific will enter the reload center into its database of planned projects and con- tinue working with the group. The parties are nego- tiating a potential rail service agreement. The Oregon Transporta- tion Commission last Septem- ber accepted the reload cen- ter’s market-feasibility study, advancing the project for fur- ther review. Smith said that if the commission grants final approval — the panel is slated to meet Feb. 21 and March 21 — remaining state-pledged funding would be released. The Oregon Legisla- ture authorized a $26 million grant for the project, from lot- tery-backed bonds, as part of the state’s 2017 transportation funding package. Up to 5 percent became available last year for devel- oping a proposal when the Malheur Economic Devel- opment Corp. signed an ini- tial contract with the Oregon Department of Transporta- tion. The nonprofit corpo- ration is spearheading the project and will oversee the planned industrial park it would anchor. “ Tw e n t y - s i x - m i l l i o n (dollars) is a lot, and it takes time to go through the pub- lic process,” Smith told the group. 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