Friday, June 25, 2021
CapitalPress.com 3
Ranchers shut out of ESA lawsuits over wolves
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
A judge in California on
Monday barred farmers,
ranchers and timber com-
panies from intervening in
lawsuits that seek to restore
Endangered Species Act
protection to gray wolves.
U.S. District Judge Jef-
frey White in Oakland
already had granted inter-
venor status to the National
Rifl e Association and Safari
Club International. The
sportsmen will adequately
represent the interests of the
American Farm Bureau and
other agricultural groups,
according to White.
“This is surprising and
disappointing,” said Chase
Adams, senior policy direc-
tor for the American Sheep
Industry Association. “It
will take an important voice
out of this lawsuit. Certainly,
(the sportsmen) don’t repre-
sent all the folks who could
be harmed.”
The U.S. Fish and Wild-
life Service took gray wolves
off the federally protected
list throughout the Lower
48 in November. Three sep-
arate lawsuits challenging
that decision are pending in
the U.S District Court for
Northern California. The
three suits have merged into
one case presided over by
White.
The Farm Bureau, Amer-
ican Sheep, the National
Cattlemen’s Beef Asso-
ciation, American Forest
Resources Council and the
Public Lands Council fi led
a joint motion to intervene.
Neither the Biden adminis-
tration nor the environmen-
tal groups that fi led the law-
suits objected to agricultural
groups becoming a party to
the suit.
The agricultural coalition
argued the stakes were high
for their members and that
they couldn’t rely on anyone
else to represent their inter-
ests. They noted that Presi-
dent Biden, on his fi rst day
in offi ce, ordered USFWS to
WDFW
A calf that was injured by wolves. A federal judge in
Oakland, Calif., ruled June 21 that ranching and farm-
ing groups can’t intervene in lawsuits seeking to restore
Endangered Species Act protection to wolves.
review and possibly rescind
the Trump administration’s
delisting of wolves.
White’s decision to deny
intervention was disappoint-
ing and confusing, Pub-
lic Lands executive direc-
tor Kaitlynn Glover said in a
statement.
Ranchers, farmers, and
forest owners have borne
years of harm and invested
in wolf recovery, said
Glover, who’s also the nat-
ural resources executive
director for the cattlemen’s
association.
“We sought to inter-
vene in this case because we
believe the agriculture com-
munity’s unique experiences
are worthy of representation
in defense of the delisting
rule,” she said.
White wrote that while
agricultural groups have dif-
ferent motives than hunt-
ers’ organizations, both want
wolves managed by states,
rather than USFWS.
“Accordingly, the two
groups share the same inter-
est,” he wrote. “The agricul-
tural coalition has not shown
that its perspective adds a
‘necessary element’ to the
proceeding.”
White said practical con-
siderations also weighed in
his decision. Environmental
groups want a ruling before
states open fall wolf hunt-
ing seasons and adding farm
groups to the suits would
potentially complicate the
case, the judge wrote.
The agricultural groups
can submit an amicus brief
stating its opposition to
restoring federal protection
to wolves, White said.
Adams said the coalition
appreciates that chance, but
added, “It is not a substitute
for being able to intervene as
a party.”
“The importance of being
an intervenor is it gives
you more rights. If there’s
a settlement, you’re at the
table. If there’s a decision,
you have the possibility of
appealing,” he said.
White also denied inter-
venor status to groups rep-
resenting hunters in the
Great Lakes region. White
said the membership of
those groups overlapped
with the NRA and Safari
International.
Defenders of Wildlife,
WildEarth Guardians and
Natural Resources Defense
Council are the lead plain-
tiff s in the three lawsuits.
Many other environmen-
tal groups signed on as
co-plaintiff s. So far, the
USFWS has defended the
action it took during the
Trump administration.
Washington health offi cials don’t know if farmworker housing rules eff ective
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
OLYMPIA — The Wash-
ington Department of Health
counted 146 COVID out-
breaks on farms and pack-
ing warehouses last year, but
can’t say how many started
in employer-provided hous-
ing, where a top health offi -
cial claimed farmworkers
were particularly vulnerable
to the virus.
Health offi cials Thursday
told a state advisory commit-
tee on farmworker issues that
outbreaks in company hous-
ing were grouped with out-
breaks among farmworkers
who lived in the community.
Washington
Growers
League Executive Director
Mike Gempler, a commit-
tee member, said he was baf-
fl ed the health department
didn’t know where outbreaks
originated.
“This has not prevented
the department from making
the statement that there’s a
higher level of COVID infec-
tion in congregate housing,”
he said.
In an interview after the
meeting, Gempler said he
was “stunned.”
“People throw around
these statements about what’s
happening in housing,” he
said. “If they don’t have data,
why do they do that?”
The Department of Health
and Department of Labor and
Industries last year set emer-
gency rules to slow the pan-
demic among farmworkers
in company housing.
The rules were conten-
tious. Farm groups said parts
were arbitrary, while farm-
worker advocates said they
were insuffi cient.
It would be helpful to
know if they worked, Wash-
ington State Tree Fruit Asso-
ciation President Jon DeV-
aney said.
“We’d like to know how
eff ective everything we did
at great eff ort and expense
was, so we’d have lessons
for future outbreaks,” he
said.
Courtesy of Gebbers Farms
Plastic barriers in a break room at Gebbers Farms in Okanogan County, Wash. Health
offi cials can’t say how eff ective emergency housing rules were.
State
Epidemiologist
Scott Lindquist declared in
a court fi ling in mid-April
that “farmworkers living
in congregate settings are
especially vulnerable to
COVID.”
Lindquist was respond-
ing to a lawsuit fi led by the
Washington Farm Bureau
and Wafl a, a labor supplier,
challenging the emergency
rules as excessive.
The health department
does not comment on lit-
igation and can’t com-
ment on Lindquist’s state-
ment, a spokeswoman said
in an email. The lawsuit
technically remains open,
though the rules have been
relaxed to the farm groups’
satisfaction.
While the emergency
rules have been modifi ed,
the state plans to write per-
manent farmworker housing
rules for future pandemics.
“It would be extremely
important to know how the
emergency rules worked,”
Farm Bureau CEO John
Stuhlmiller said Friday in
an interview. “How can you
regulate it, if you don’t care
enough to keep data on it?”
Health offi cials made the
presentation on COVID out-
breaks to the Employment
Security Department’s Agri-
cultural and Seasonal Work-
force Services Advisory
Committee.
Health offi cials said they
were faced with incomplete
and confl icting reports and
were frustrated at not being
able to pinpoint where out-
breaks occurred.
“We want the informa-
tion as badly as you do,”
said Michelle Holshue of
the department’s COVID
response team.
“Ideally, we could under-
stand all the hard work you
guys (farmers) put into
meeting the requirement of
the emergency rule,” she
said. “It would be great to
understand how eff ective
that was.”
Your trusted
source.
We support agriculture and rural communities with
reliable, consistent credit and financial services,
today and tomorrow.
•
• Country Home & Lot Loans
Real Estate Financing
• Operating Lines of Credit • Crop Insurance*
800.743.2125 | northwestfcs.com
Equal Housing Lender
This institution is an equal opportunity provider and employer.
*Serviced through Northwest Farm Credit Services Insurance Agency.
S222026-1
S237117-1