EMPOWERING PRODUCERS OF FOOD & FIBER
Friday, May 21, 2021
Volume 94, Number 21
CapitalPress.com
WILDFIRE
WEAPONS
$2.00
George Plaven/Capital Press
Hemp fl owers resemble
marijuana, but with an
average concentration of
tetrahydrocannabinol, or
THC, of 0.3% or less.
Hemp
lawsuit
against
DEA
dismissed
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
Courtesy of Loren Kellogg
NIFC
A Tactical Fire Suppression Forwarder in action in Central
Oregon.
The National Weather Service operations center at the Na-
tional Interagency Fire Center, Boise.
From satellites to state-of-the-art vehicles, fi refi ghters get a hand from technology
By BRAD CARLSON
Capital Press
B
OISE — From inside the National
Interagency Fire Center at the
Boise Airport, meteorologist
Nick Nauslar evaluated a wildfi re burn-
ing 1,100 miles away in southern New
Mexico.
Using the Visible Infrared Imaging
Radiometer Suite and Moderate Reso-
lution Imaging Spectroradiometer, he
peered into the heart of the wildfi re from
satellites orbiting the earth 22,300 miles
straight up. Using an arsenal of sensors,
Nauslar could track the size and move-
ment of the fi re, fi nd hot spots and assess
the weather and its impact.
“It’s not showing heat in the last 24
hours, due in part to weather,” he said.
The real-time information was help-
ful in seeing the fi re and forecasting its
behavior, Nauslar said. It would also be
updated using ground reports and aerial
mapping.
He used the system to help fi re man-
agers understand the fi re and to track
whether and where it was spreading.
“In fi re, there is a lot of data you have
to look at, and it comes from multiple
sources,” said Nauslar, who is in his 12th
fi re season. “So you are trying to ingest all
of this data, aggregate it, organize it and
apply it — one of the most important and
diffi cult aspects of our job.”
Technological advancements help
wildfi re forecasters, incident command-
ers and land managers as they race to
join the battle that rages across the West
every summer. The progress is welcome
— and needed in light of larger fi res, lon-
ger seasons and new urgency in determin-
ing how to manage fi re-prone landscapes.
Last year alone, 52,113 wildfi res burned
89 million acres, most of it in the West.
“Technology has helped us in prepa-
ration, planning and communication,”
NIFC Public Aff airs Specialist Carrie Bil-
bao said.
See Wildfi re, Page 12
Idaho Department of Lands
A Fire Boss single-engine
air tanker makes a drop.
The U.S. Drug Enforce-
ment Agency has convinced
a federal judge to dismiss a
lawsuit against its hemp reg-
ulations, but another legal
challenge against the rules
will likely persist.
U.S. District Judge James
Boasberg in Washington,
D.C., has determined his
court lacks jurisdiction in
the hemp industry’s lawsuit
against DEA restrictions that
allegedly overstep the agen-
cy’s authority.
The Hemp Industries
Association fi led a com-
plaint last year claiming the
DEA’s rules would “eff ec-
tively destroy the burgeon-
ing hemp industry” by crim-
inalizing crop extracts that
exceed 0.3% THC, the psy-
choactive compound in
marijuana.
Under the DEA’s “interim
fi nal rule” for hemp, hemp
extracts that exceed the 0.3%
THC threshold are regulated
as marijuana, which remains
illegal under the federal Con-
trolled Substances Act.
The hemp industry argues
this interpretation “threat-
ens every stage of the hemp
production supply chain”
because the crop’s extracts
temporarily become more
concentrated in THC during
processing.
Products sold for cannabi-
diol — or CBD, a substance
thought to have health-
ful properties — are diluted
below the 0.3% THC thresh-
old before becoming avail-
able to consumers, the indus-
try argued.
The DEA’s regulations
would expose hemp compa-
nies to prosecution simply
for engaging in “essential
hemp processing and manu-
facturing operations,” threat-
ening the entire industry, the
plaintiff said.
See Hemp, Page 12
Oregon Legislature approves higher wine shipping limit
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
SALEM — The Oregon
Legislature has passed a bill
to increase the monthly limit
on direct-to-consumer wine
shipments, aiming to keep
small wineries competi-
tive during the coronavirus
pandemic.
Up to fi ve cases of wine
per customer can be shipped
a month under Senate Bill
406, which was approved
39-13 by the House on May
12 after unanimously pass-
ing the Senate in March.
Total economic activity
associated with Oregon’s
wine industry fell about
20% last year and wine
industry jobs plunged 28%
due to coronavirus restric-
tions, said Rep. Gary Leif,
R-Roseburg.
“This is a way to support
wineries that are struggling
right now,” he said.
Though the bill didn’t
face many obstacles during
the legislative session, some
lawmakers opposed it on
the House fl oor, citing the
potential for alcohol abuse.
“I don’t think it’s appro-
priate for us to provide more
opportunity for people who
are struggling to fall deeper
into addiction,” said Rep.
Tawna Sanchez, D-Portland.
Sanchez said lawmak-
ers should “take our blind-
ers off ” and recognize that
easier access to alcohol is a
detriment to Oregon’s child
welfare, judicial and educa-
tional systems.
Meanwhile, the eco-
nomic eff ects of the coro-
navirus outbreak will wane
over time, she said. “At
some point, the pandemic
will be over and these
industries will be able to do
better.”
Proponents of SB 406
said that alcohol is already
accessible in Oregon and
that raising the shipping limit
isn’t likely to increase abuse
because price is the main
impediment to consumption.
See Wine, Page 12
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