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4 CapitalPress.com Friday, December 6, 2019 Oregon Court of Appeals upholds wolf delisting By GEORGE PLAVEN Capital Press SALEM — The Oregon Court of Appeals has dis- missed a lawsuit filed by three environmental groups challenging the state’s deci- sion to lift endangered spe- cies protections for gray wolves. The Oregon Depart- ment of Fish and Wildlife removed wolves from the state endangered species list in November 2015. Law- makers passed House Bill 4040 during the 2016 leg- islative session, which rat- ified the agency’s findings. Cascadia Wildlands, Oregon Wild and the Cen- ter for Biological Diversity sued to reverse the delist- ing, arguing it was prema- ture and not based on sound science. Though the case ODFW The Oregon Court of Ap- peals has tossed out an environmentalist lawsuit challenging the state’s de- cision to take the gray wolf off the list of protected species. was initially dismissed, it was later reinstated by the appeals court. On Nov. 27, judges again tossed out the complaint, ruling that HB 4040 ren- dered the environmental- ists’ petition moot. “In this case, the legisla- ture has ratified the delist- ing, thereby providing the delisting with the statutory effect of removing it from a rule challenge,” the court wrote in its dismissal. “Con- sequently, a decision on our part regarding the petition- ers’ challenge would have no practical effect, and the petition is therefore moot.” Wolves are still federally protected as an endangered species west of highways 395, 78 and 95 in Oregon. The Oregon Cattlemen’s Association and Oregon Farm Bureau intervened in the lawsuit to support del- isting the wolves. Ranchers have long argued they need to be able to kill wolves that make a habit of preying on livestock, despite using non-lethal deterrents such as electric fences and range riders. Killing wolves is allowed under certain strict require- ments in ODFW’s Wolf Conservation and Manage- ment Plan, which was last updated earlier this year. Jerome Rosa, executive director of the Oregon Cat- tlemen’s Association, said the court’s ruling was a long time coming. “We were glad to see that the appeal was dismissed,” Rosa said. “Justice was had.” In a statement, the Ore- gon Farm Bureau said the ruling “is a huge win for ranch families and the live- stock industry, which have long advocated for respon- sible wolf management in Oregon.” Nick Cady, legal direc- tor of Cascadia Wildlands based in Eugene, Ore., said the appeals court did not evaluate whether delist- ing wolves was scientifi- cally defensible, but simply based its decision on HB 4040, which was signed by Gov. Kate Brown. “That was the main grounds of the case,” Cady said. “We’re really dis- appointed that Oregon’s Democratic supermajor- ity is what threw Oregon’s wolves under the bus.” The number of wolves in Oregon has grown every year since population sur- veys began in 2009. As of the most recent count in 2018, Oregon had at least 137 wolves statewide — a 10% increase over the pre- vious year. Idaho grant aids cost-effective genetic testing of sheep A project to provide genetic test- ing for sheep to help producers min- imize diseases and improve valu- able traits will receive a grant from the Idaho Global Entrepreneurial Mission Council. The $209,595 grant to Univer- sity of Idaho animal science pro- fessor Brenda Murdoch and Merid- ian-based Rile Ag will help sheep producers employ an inexpensive test to reduce economic losses to diseases and enhance their flocks’ productivity, UI said in a news release. Idaho’s sheep industry ranks sixth nationally with 1,200 produc- ers and 255,000 head of breeding sheep and lambs. Rile is a subsidi- ary of Superior Farms, which works with sheep producers responsible for a third of the nation’s flocks. The Idaho producers are part of the Superior supply chain and are criti- cal to the American sheep industry. Murdoch said the grant will help producers capitalize on a low-cost USDA ARS genetic tool to make genetic and A recently awarded grant will help commercialize a genetic test for economic gains in their production sheep. systems. She is fine-tuning the Flock54 tor of Rile, said in the press release. their DNA samples and receive genomic test, which provides a “The opportunity to improve the their genetic report via this new broad picture of a sheep’s “cat- U.S. sheep flock with genetic online tool.” alog” of genes. Gene variants or improvement and Flock54 testing is Murdoch told Capital Press that mutations can improve an animal’s tremendous, and I am excited to be Flock54 looks at several traits, in weight gain and carcass quality, or part of this groundbreaking technol- contrast to single-gene tests. It is make it vulnerable to diseases such ogy for the sheep industry.” a 1,000-marker panel that “looks “This grant money will be a tre- at about 1,000 different spots in as Ovine Progressive Pneumonia — an example of a disease the test can mendous asset for further research the genome associated with dis- and development of Flock54,” ease traits we want to cull against, detect. “I am excited for Rile Ag and Murdoch said. “Specifically, it will or economically important traits Superior Farms to continue our allow her research team to increase we want to select for” like meat partnership with Dr. Murdoch at the number of genetic traits report- quality or wool production. “The the U of I to enhance and improve able and create indexes for pro- grant will help us validate more genetics within the American lamb duction traits that are so crucial to traits to deliver back to our Idaho industry,” Lesa Eidman, director of producers. The team will also cre- producers.” producer resources and sustainabil- ate a new online reporting tool so UI said at less than $20 per ani- ity for Superior Farms, and direc- that producers can submit data with mal, the test can identify parent- age, a broad range of genetic traits and susceptibility to major dis- eases like OPP. The disease can create major costs for sheep pro- ducers by reducing the number of lambs weaned by 8% and leav- ing survivors weighing 24% less. For a producer who markets 1,000 lambs a year at $1.50 a pound, the financial hit can total more than $37,000 a year — twice the cost of the testing. Murdoch, an assistant profes- sor of animal genomics at UI’s Moscow campus, helped develop the first genomic tests for cattle. She will monitor results from the sheep testing and use the informa- tion to identify other genetic traits of interest for producers. Idaho producers using Flock54 genetic testing to date have been able to enhance breeding flocks, and cull low-producing and dis- ease-susceptible animals, UI said. More than 10,000 samples have been submitted for testing within the first six months of the test becoming available, UI said. The collaborators anticipate producers will submit 150,000 test samples within the first three years, generating $2.25 million to $3 mil- lion in sales, UI said. Within five years, the business projects 500,000 samples will generate $10 million a year, leading Rile to expand its lab and hire additional employees. Idaho Commerce Director Tom Kealey said the IGEM funding will help advance the use of Flock54 genomic selection tool by Ida- ho’s sheep producers and others nationwide. “The genome research is for much better yield for sheep ranch- ers and processors, but at a lower cost,” Kealey said. Ex-ag secretary Vilsack on USMCA: ‘Get it done’ By MATTHEW WEAVER Capital Press A trade agreement between the U.S., Mexico and Canada is likely to pass Congress with little prob- lem if political leaders pur- sue it, agricultural leaders say. “Very, very few” unre- solved issues remain between members of Con- gress and the administra- tion in finalizing the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, said Tom Vil- sack, former U.S. Depart- ment of Agriculture Sec- retary and now president and CEO of the U.S. Dairy Council. USMCA is the renegoti- ation of the North American Free Trade Agreement. 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Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, is working to create the sense of a deadline and push the agreement forward, Vilsack said. “Congress works often- times when it is confronted with a deadline,” Vilsack said. “If it’s one or two issues, then get it done. No reason not to get it done today, no reason to wait for tomorrow, no reason to wait for 2020. Let’s get it done now.” Vilsack spoke during a Dec. 3 phone call hosted by the nonprofit organization Farmers for Free Trade. More than 2,200 farm- ers signed a letter ask- ing Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to quickly pass USMCA, according to the organization. “Farmers are hurting,” said Brian Kuehl, co-execu- tive director of Farmers for Free Trade. “The trade war, the trade disruption, the uncertainty of the last few years have really decimated the farm economy. Farm- ers are down and they’re down hard. Farmers are los- ing their farms, there are bankruptcies that are hap- pening, farm suicides have been increasing. Farmers are pushed to the brink.” Those who aren’t los- ing their farms aren’t able to buy new tractors or com- bines, Kuehl said. “That ripples through rural America,” he said. “The ag equipment dealer that can’t sell a combine, the Main Street business that isn’t selling equipment from their hardware store, the local schools that don’t have the sales tax revenue to support a bond initiative. Rural America is hurting because of the trade war and trade disruptions. ... Farm- ers need this win and they need this win now.” Passing the agreement in 2019 to provide trade certainty with Mexico and Canada is one of the “single biggest things” that would reverse the trend, Kuehl said. “Since it’s going to get done, why not get it done now?” Vilsack asked. “Why not just finish the work and get it done so the farmers and workers, the people out in the countryside whose livelihoods depend on this, have the confidence and reassurance that next year is going to be better than this year?” Farmers for Free Trade is a bipartisan nonprofit organi- zation formed in 2017 to tell people about the importance of free trade and helping farmers and ranchers sup- port free trade agreements. WDFW sticks with meetings outside law By DON JENKINS Capital Press Washington Fish and Wildlife commissioners plan to discuss wolves, cougars and other topics next month in committees that the depart- ment says aren’t subject to the state’s open-meetings law, even when a majority of the commission attends. The Habitat, Fish, Wolf and Wildlife committees will meet Dec. 12 in Bell- ingham, the day before the commission convenes for its on-the-record meeting. The commission has invited the public to attend committee meetings, but it reserves the right to withdraw the invita- tion and close meetings. Unlike regular meetings, committee meetings are not recorded and posted online for people unable to attend in person. The department does not keep written minutes. “Though the public is invited to attend the com- mission’s committee meet- ings, these meetings are not subject to the public meeting rules that would require the department to keep and main- tain public meeting notes or recordings,” a Fish and Wild- life spokeswoman said in an email. Over the past two years, commissioners have increasingly used committee meetings to talk about major issues. The talks precede regular meetings, which the public has a guaranteed right to attend. The com- mission closed a meeting of the Executive Committee in June. The department, cit- ing counsel from the attor- ney general’s office, said the Public Meetings Act doesn’t apply because each commit- tee has only four of the com- mission’s nine members. A majority of commission- ers, however, attended some committee meetings in Octo- ber, according to reports by the commissioners who led the meetings. “What they did was ille- gal,” said Rowland Thomp- son, executive director of Allied Daily Newspapers of Washington. “They should have told somebody to leave.” The department did not keep a record of which com- missioners attended the meet- ings. Committee chairmen verbally report to the full commission about what was discussed, but there are no written records. “It wouldn’t hurt us to spiff up the reporting of those meetings,” said Commis- sioner Barbara Baker, who chairs the Big Tent Commit- tee, a group whose topics include “strategic planning.” Baker said that she recalled at least a fifth commissioner at the committee’s meeting in October. She said she would “abso- lutely” continue to preside over committee meetings with a majority of commis- sioners in attendance. She said that she was shut out of a committee meeting three years ago. “I tried to attend the meet- ing and was told I couldn’t go,” she said. “My own per- sonal opinion is that the way we operate now is a definite improvement over where we used to be.” Washington plans to spray 1,300 acres for gypsy moths By DON JENKINS Capital Press About 1,300 acres in northwest Washington likely will be sprayed with an insecticide next spring to stop an outbreak of gypsy moths, including a type native to Asia never before detected in the U.S. The Washington State Depart- ment of Agriculture said it ten- tatively plans to release Bacillus thuringiensis var. kurstaki over Woodway, a small city on Puget Sound, and Boulevard Bluffs, an Everett neighborhood. Both places are in Snohomish County. An Hokkaido gypsy moth was trapped in Woodway this summer. It was the first Hokkaido moth caught in the U.S. It feeds predominantly on larch trees in its native habitat, according to the department. Three hybrid Asian gypsy moths were caught in Boulevard Bluffs. Gypsy moths native to Asia are more mobile than European vari- eties and are considered more of a danger to spread. Statewide, the department trapped 14 gypsy moths, a rela- tively low number. The department caught 11 European gypsy moths. Before finalizing plans to spray, the department will conduct envi- ronmental reviews and consult with other agencies, including the USDA. The department said it will explain its plan to residents at open houses. European gypsy moths defoliate a wide variety of trees and shrubs. They are established throughout the East and Great Lakes. Western states have been successful in erad- icating incipient populations. Washington has sprayed for gypsy moths most years since 1979. To cover large areas, the agriculture department contracts with an aviation company to spray from the air. Gypsy moths spread by laying eggs on personal belongings or ships. Eradication campaigns take place in the spring to kill emerging caterpillars. WSDA European gypsy moth larvae feed on trees and shrubs. Wash- ington’s Department of Agri- culture will spray 1,300 acres to stop an outbreak.
