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CapitalPress.com
Friday, November 29, 2019
Judge declares Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument expansion invalid
Cascade-Siskiyou National
Monument expansion
Original monument boundary
Newly expanded boundary
Medford
238
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
JACKSON
99
140
KLAMATH
Aspen
Lake
5
Range
Ashland
66
Calif.
Siskiy
t
ou M
n s.
ive
Ore.
r
CASCADE-
SISKIYOU
NAT’L MON.
10 miles
R
th
A federal judge in Wash-
ington, D.C., has determined
the 2017 expansion of Ore-
gon’s
Cascade-Siskiyou
National Monument was
largely invalid, contradicting
an earlier ruling by a federal
judge in Oregon.
U.S. District Judge Rich-
ard Leon of the District
of Columbia has ruled the
Obama Administration vio-
lated federal law by expand-
ing the monument’s logging
restrictions onto roughly
40,000 acres of so-called
O&C Lands, which must be
managed for sustained tim-
ber production.
“Put simply, there is no
way to manage land for sus-
tained timber production,
while simultaneously deem-
ing the land unsuited for tim-
ber production and exempt
Area in
detail
Ca s ca d e
Ruling contradicts
earlier decision
about expansion’s
lawfulness
5
Ore.
Calif.
Kl a m a
Alan Kenaga/Capital Press
from any calculation of the
land’s sustained yield of tim-
ber,” Leon said.
The judge’s invalidation
of the monument’s expan-
sion was part of a broader
opinion that determined
there’s “no doubt” the U.S.
Bureau of Land Manage-
ment’s 2016 resource man-
agement plans for O&C
Lands have reduced logging
to unlawful levels.
“This Court must, there-
fore, conclude that the 2016
RMPs violate the O&C Act
by setting aside timberland
in reserves where the land is
not managed for permanent
forest production and the
timber is not sold, cut and
removed in conformity with
the principle of sustained
yield,” Leon said.
So-called O&C Lands are
governed by a 1937 statute
under which roughly 2 mil-
lion acres of property were
retaken from the Oregon and
California Railroad by the
federal government and ded-
icated to timber production.
In 2017, the Obama
administration enlarged the
66,000-acre Cascade-Sis-
kiyou National Monument
by 48,000 acres, most of
which were located on O&C
Lands, prompting several
lawsuits by timber industry
organizations.
Earlier this year, a fed-
eral judge in Oregon held
the expansion was lawful
because President Obama
had the authority under the
Antiquities Act to add acre-
age to the monument.
The judge also held that
logging within the monu-
ment’s O&C Lands didn’t
have to be maximized to
comply with the require-
ment of sustained timber
production.
The more recent Wash-
ington,
D.C.,
decision
that invalidates the monu-
ment’s 40,000-acre expan-
sion and declares unlawful
the resource management
plans for O&C Lands will
be appealed by the Klam-
ath-Siskiyou Wildlands Cen-
ter, Oregon Wild and Soda
Mountain Wilderness Coun-
cil, said Kristen Boyles,
attorney for the environmen-
tal groups, which intervened
in the lawsuit.
“They’re directly contra-
dictory because they even
address the same claims,”
Boyles said of the two
rulings.
Boyles said the judge in
Washington, D.C., has been
the first to adopt a hard-line
interpretation of the 1937
O&C Lands Act that has
been pushed by the timber
industry for about 30 years
and which doesn’t take into
account environmental pro-
tections from the more
recent Clean Water Act and
Endangered Species Act.
“It’s an extreme view of
the O&C Act, very broad,”
she said. “Regardless of the
monument, that’s going to
be an important decision to
clarify and appeal. It doesn’t
exist alone in a vacuum of
laws.”
Coby Howell, an attorney
for the BLM, said he could
not comment on the ruling.
If both the rulings from
Oregon and Washington,
D.C. are upheld on appeal,
that could set up a fight
before the U.S. Supreme
Court, but that process
would still be a lengthy
one, according to attorneys
involved in the case.
Environmental
groups
will urge the BLM not to take
any action that would endan-
ger the monument while the
timber industry considers the
expansion’s invalidation to be
effective until further notice.
“It’s a big first step, but it’s
going to to take a while,” said
Lawson Fite, attorney for the
American Forest Resource
Council, a plaintiff in the
litigation.
The ruling out of Wash-
ington, D.C. is a great devel-
opment for the communities
and environment of Oregon
and the Northwest, Fite said.
“The court has basically
directed that the O&C Act
means what it says, and we’re
grateful for that,” he said.
The timber industry
plaintiffs will now ask the
judge to order the BLM to
revise its resource manage-
ment plans for O&C Lands
so they’re consistent with his
ruling, Fite said. “Figuring
out a timeline for a new plan
is probably one of the big
things that’s going to hap-
pen there.”
State, national groups
defer to local leaders on
Owyhee wilderness bill
Environmentalists want stronger
Oregon species protections
By BRAD CARLSON
Capital Press
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
Ore.
Idaho
BAKER
84
30
26
Bully
Ore.
C r eek Vale
95
Ontario
52
84
30
Nyssa
20
201
Sna
ke
R.
95
MALHEUR
78
78
Jordan
Valley
Idaho
Ore.
R ive
Burns r
Junction
20 miles
95
Ore. Idaho
Nev.
Alan Kenaga/Capital Press
men’s Association mem-
bers who presented the
plan to state and national
policy
representatives
during OCA’s annual con-
vention Nov. 21-23 in
Bend.
Rosa said the national
PLC, by not opposing the
legislation and remain-
ing neutral, left the mat-
ter to the state association.
OCA’s Public Lands Com-
mittee “took the same neu-
tral position on the bill.”
OCA typically fol-
lows PLC policy, which
opposes wilderness desig-
nations “because generally
that designation removes
cattle from being able to
graze in these areas,” he
said.
The difference in the
current legislation is it
calls for adaptive man-
agement, meaning graz-
ing, roads and vehicles
will be allowed in wil-
derness-designated areas,
Rosa said.
SECRETARY OF STATE NOTICE
OF PERMANENT RULEMAKING
Oregon Department of Agriculture, Natural
Resources Program, Administrative Rules Chapter
#603, Amy Bingham, Rules Coordinator, (503) 986-
4583. NOTICE: OAR 603-074-0010-0020. NOTICE
OF INTENT TO AMEND PERMANENT RULE. RULE
SUMMARY: The proposed rule increases application,
transfer, and annual license fees for the Confined
Animal Feeding Operations. Application fees and
annual license fees are based on the size of the
operation in numbers of animals and are also based
on whether the operation is registered to a general
or individual permit. The transfer fee is the same
regardless of the size of operation and permit type.
Additional definitions have been added. Full rule
text available at https://secure.sos.state.or.us/oard.
Last Day for comment December 20, 2019 at 5:00
pm. Public Hearing will be held December 12, 2019
beginning at 10:00 am in the 3 rd floor conference
room at the Oregon Department of Agriculture
located at 635 Capitol St NE, Salem, Or. 97301.
Contact the Department of Agriculture at least 5
business days prior to the hearing if auxiliary aids and
services (assistive listening devices, sign language
interpreters, etc.) will be needed.
S155592-1
Environmentalists have
called on state lawmak-
ers to strengthen Oregon’s
wildlife protection statutes
in the wake of revised fed-
eral Endangered Species Act
regulations.
Farm and ranch organi-
zations, meanwhile, believe
the rule changes won’t fun-
damentally alter the ESA
and will actually increase
opportunities for habit col-
laboration with the federal
government.
Last month, the Trump
administration
enacted
updated ESA regulations that
environmentalists decried as
weakening species protec-
tions, prompting Oregon and
numerous other state gov-
ernments to sue to block the
changes.
Representatives of sev-
eral environmental groups
recently testified before the
House Natural Resources
Committee, urging height-
ened state safeguards for
species to make up for
the “assault” on federal
protections.
“Our concern is deep-
ened because Oregon is not
well-positioned to compen-
sate for these changes,” said
Bob Sallinger, conservation
director for the Audubon
Society of Portland.
Specifically, the Trump
administration’s regulatory
changes will prevent federal
agencies from considering
long-term challenges, such as
climate change, when decid-
ing whether to list species as
Shelter defended the federal
revisions as being aligned
with the language of the
Endangered Species Act and
allowing for more flexibility
to the benefit of landowners
and species.
By prioritizing the pro-
tection of occupied habitat,
the regulations prevent fed-
eral agencies from establish-
ing unnecessarily large “buf-
fers” of unoccupied habitat
that complicate management
without helping species, said
Kathy Hadley, a Willamette
National Park Service Valley farmer.
The streaked horned lark was once abundant in parts
“It lends to the credibil-
of the Northwest. Revisions to the Endangered Species ity of the rules and the trust
Act have spurred debate about protections for this pro- the landowner has that the
tected species and others.
process will work, instead of
overreach,” Hadley said.
threatened or endangered, the
For example, the environ-
Instead of automatically
mental representatives said implementing endangered
environmental groups said.
The revisions will also Oregon should expand Sen- species restrictions for threat-
weaken protections for crit- ate Bill 2250, which requires ened species, the rules will
ical habitat that’s not yet state agencies to monitor for allow federal official to tailor
occupied by threatened and federal reductions to Clean management practices spe-
endangered species, and Air Act and Clean Water Act cific to threatened species,
remove the “blanket” pro- standards and recommend she said.
tections for species that have state-level compensations.
For example, the streaked
been declared threatened,
Oregon should “step into horned lark actually prefers
among other problems, the the void” for wildlife by areas that are cultivated for
groups claimed.
adopting this approach for agriculture, so the stricter
Oregon lawmakers scored the Endangered Species Act level of regulation would be
several environmental “vic- as well, Sallinger said.
counterproductive, Hadley
tories” during the most recent
“As it has in other con- said. “Our doing our daily
legislative session, such as texts, the state of Oregon jobs is what helps that bird.”
Out in the field, some cur-
shielding data about spe- should push back against
cies location and encourag- these rollbacks and look to rent requirements for unoc-
ing habitat “connectivity,” strengthen its own laws to cupied critical fish habitat
which could be broadened, conserve biological diver- have ranchers going to great
said Sristi Kamal, senior rep- sity,” said Dan Rohlf, an expense without actually
resentative of the Defenders environmental law profes- helping the species, said Todd
sor at Lewis and Clark Law Nash, treasurer of the Oregon
of Wildlife.
Cattlemen’s Association.
“We need to build more School.
“We’re going to run these
Representatives of the
on these policies to act as a
backstop to the current weak- Oregon Farm Bureau, Ore- guys out of business with
ening at the federal level,” gon Cattlemen’s Association that much to maintain,” he
Kamal said.
and Oregonians for Food and said.
Consolidation continues in the tree fruit industry
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
SEATTLE — The sale
of a tree fruit and berry
processor in Grandview,
Wash., to a Richmond, Va.,
tobacco company is the lat-
est example of the continu-
ing financial squeeze of
the Washington tree fruit
industry, a Seattle invest-
ment banker says.
Michael Butler, CEO of
LEGAL
CHERRY AVENUE
STORAGE/ADELL
LANE STORAGE
2680 Cherry Ave. NE
Salem, OR 97301
(503) 399-7454
AUCTION
SATURDAY, DECEMBER
7TH, 2019 AT 10 AM
Unit AS-41 - Desiree Wells
Unit AS-61 - Alena Virgilio
Unit AS-93 - Dallas Wilson
Unit 41 - Jean Maxwell
Unit 96 - Christopher Phillips
Unit 196 - Kenneth Kish
Unit 222C - Ashley Bailey
Unit 237P - Krista Woods
Cherry Avenue Storage reserves the
right to refuse any and all bids.
S154489-1
Proposed for
designation as
wilderness
Ow y h e e
The Oregon Cattle-
men’s Association Pub-
lic Lands Committee and
the national Public Lands
Council are deferring to
local ranchers and will not
oppose federal legislation
that places a more flexible
type of wilderness desig-
nation on several parts of
Malheur County.
The designation allows
cattle grazing to continue.
“We support what our
local members feel is best
for their local areas, so
we did not oppose that,”
OCA Executive Director
Jerome Rosa said. “That is
what our local cattlemen
wanted. So even though
we follow national PLC
policy, we are not going to
oppose it. National PLC is
the same way.”
U.S. Sens. Ron Wyden
and Jeff Merkley, both
D-Ore., on Nov. 7 intro-
duced the Malheur County
Community
Empower-
ment for the Owyhee
Act, which would desig-
nate more than 1.1 million
acres of the Owyhee River
Canyonlands in Malheur
County as wilderness.
The senators said col-
laboration among ranch-
ers, conservation groups,
researchers, business peo-
ple and others was instru-
mental in the proposal.
The bill supports efficient
ranching as a conservation
tool, and an adaptive-man-
agement approach that
allows for adjustments
based on results.
The Owyhee Basin
Stewardship
Coalition,
which includes ranchers
and business owners, for
more than three years has
played a key role in dis-
cussions that led to the
legislation. The coalition
includes Oregon Cattle-
Area in
detail
Cascadia Capital in Seat-
tle, represented the seller,
FruitSmart Inc., in the
transaction. He told Capi-
tal Press that he’s working
on two other deals involv-
ing vertically integrated
Washington tree fruit com-
panies, one likely to be
announced in January and
another in the second quar-
ter of 2020.
A vertically integrated
company is one that grows,
stores, packs and sells its
own fruit.
“I expect a real robust
year next year,” Butler
said. “Commercial banks
have been calling us that
lend to these companies,
saying they can’t lend any-
more and that the compa-
nies need help by a merger
or investment capital.”
Commercial banks are
forcing these companies to
raise equity capital or sell
to pay loans to be able to
continue as viable organi-
zations, he said.
The problem is exacer-
bated by this season’s large
apple crop and declining
prices, he said.
Universal Corp., of
Richmond, Va., announced
its purchase of FruitSmart
on Nov. 20. FruitSmart pro-
duces juices, purees, con-
centrates and dried ingre-
dients of fruits and berries
and has a 128,000-square-
foot facility in Grandview
and a 335,000-square-foot
outside storage facility in
Prosser.
FruitSmart has about
200 employees. Family
members of the previous
owners, Jim Gauley and
Jim Early, will remain in
management, said Scott
Porter, a Cascadia Capital
senior vice president.
Universal Corp. is a $2
billion company looking
to invest outside tobacco
and has the capital to grow
FruitSmart, Butler said.
Two years ago at the
Washington State Tree
Fruit Association annual
meeting in Kennewick,
Butler spoke to more than
1,000 growers and said
more industry consolida-
tion was likely because
companies were running
new, expensive packing
lines too far below capac-
ity to pay debt.
Individual companies
needed more fruit for their
packing lines but collec-
tively the industry has too
much fruit and too many
packing facilities, he said.
He said some attend-
ees did not believe him
but that several mid-sized
companies had already
approached
him
for
investments.
Mid-size
companies
of less than 1,500 acres
of orchard, running at or
under 30% packing capac-
ity and not vertically inte-
grated are most at risk, he
said. Only companies con-
trolling 10% of industry
sales would be long-term
competitors, he said.
Chelan Fresh Marketing
of Chelan, Stemilt Growers
of Wenatchee, Zirkle-Rain-
ier of Selah, Washington
Fruit & Produce of Yakima
and Domex Superfresh
Growers of Yakima are all
in that top tier. Two large
companies raised signifi-
cant outside capital by late
2018, Butler said.