Friday, July 9, 2021
CapitalPress.com 9
Cattle Producers win state support to watch for wolves
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
The Cattle Producers
of Washington organiza-
tion has been awarded a
$397,440 state grant to pre-
vent conflicts between cows
and wolves in northeast
Washington.
The amount nearly
doubles state support the
group got in 2019 and
boosts a program running
low on money. The cattle-
men’s group helps about
20 ranches protect herds in
Ferry and Stevens counties.
“We’ll probably be able
to cover twice as many cat-
tle,” said Stevens County
rancher Scott Nielsen, the
program’s director. “We
will go where the need is.”
The award was the full
amount the Legislature
appropriated this year for
grants to nonprofit groups
to curb wolf-livestock
conflicts.
Conservation district
representatives from four
counties evaluated the
applications. Fish and
Wildlife commented on
the proposals. The state
Department of Agriculture
handles the paperwork.
The Northeast Wash-
ington Wolf-Cattle Col-
laborative, a range-rid-
ing program more closely
UI cancels weed
control tour
following incident
By BRAD CARLSON
Capital Press
The University of Idaho
canceled the July 8 Snake
River Weed Control Tour
at its Aberdeen Research
and Extension Center after
someone sprayed gly-
phosate on about 1 acre,
destroying plantings in
research trials.
University
research-
ers said the herbicide
was sprayed from a four-
wheeled, all-terrain vehi-
cle during the first week
of June, killing litchi
tomato and quinoa. Litchi
is a promising trap crop
for pale cyst nematode, an
important pest in potatoes.
Aberdeen-based
UI researcher Pamela
Hutchinson said it appears
someone from outside the
university system acted
intentionally. Four-wheeler
tracks that weaved between
plot stakes were found.
The center does not have a
sprayer on such a vehicle.
An in-house investiga-
tion documented damage,
said Mark McGuire, who
directs the university’s sys-
tem of nine research and
extension centers and six
affiliated centers. That
investigation did not iden-
tify who caused the dam-
age or “who might be inter-
ested in destroying these
plots,” he said.
UI notified local law
enforcement immediately
and “just really moved into
keeping the research going
and determining what we
can do to resurrect these
plots for current research,”
he said.
McGuire said the uni-
versity will analyze sam-
ples and the progress of any
future plantings. If only
glyphosate were sprayed,
new plantings would sur-
vive because that herbi-
cide is for emergent plants
and does not stay in soil, he
said.
Hutchinson said the
incident was reported to the
Idaho State Department of
Agriculture official work-
ing on the pale cyst nem-
atode project, and to the
Bingham County Sheriff’s
Office. The sheriff’s office
has a service agreement
with local police.
Aberdeen Police Chief
Chuck Carroll on July 1
said there is no evidence to
identify a suspect, and the
investigation is ongoing.
People can call 208-785-
1234 to offer information.
“We’ve lost a whole
year of research,” Hutchin-
son said. She doesn’t have
enough seed to replant the
litchi trial for the research
needed.
Pale cyst nematode was
found in Idaho in 2006. A
major eradication effort has
made progress, and PCN
has not spread outside reg-
ulated areas.
Hutchinson, UI’s potato
cropping systems weed
scientist, said some people
worry litchi will spread like
a noxious weed. It has not
escaped or become weedy
since it was first planted in
Shelley in 2012 with Idaho
Potato Commission fund-
ing, she said. And no such
problems have occurred in
the federally funded Aber-
deen project, now in its
sixth year. Litchi can be
killed the same year it is
planted.
The work at Aberdeen
involves multiple research
partners. Planting litchi
requires an ISDA permit so
it can be tracked.
Hutchinson said the
research shows litchi will
cause PCN eggs to hatch,
but will not allow them to
grow to maturity and pro-
duce more eggs.
Weeds must be con-
trolled in litchi, including
some that can host PCN to
maturity, she said.
Hutchinson said the
quinoa research focuses
on herbicides that can kill
that crop where it is not
wanted, and kill weeds that
compete with it where it is
wanted. A goal is to pro-
duce data useful to the IR-4
Project, a longtime USDA
effort to assist in identi-
fying and registering pest
management products.
She said it appears qui-
noa was sprayed inciden-
tally. It was in the same
block as litchi.
WDFW
The Cattle Producers of Washington organization has
been awarded a state grant to prevent conflicts be-
tween cows and wolves.
associated with environ-
mentalists, applied for
$156,237, but did
receive funding.
not
However, the wolf-cat-
tle collaborate did receive
$320,000 directly from the
Legislature for range-rid-
ers, while the Cattle Pro-
ducers were shut out.
Fish
and
Wildlife
places a high priority on
increasing human pres-
ence around cattle to pre-
vent attacks by wolves. If
the attacks are apparently
unstoppable by non-lethal
measures, the department
resorts to killing wolves,
inciting legal and political
turmoil.
With more money, the
Cattle Producers will add
conflict monitors and trail
cameras. Nielsen said he
expects the group will have
seven riders watching cattle
before mid-July.
The cameras will help
riders identify where wolves
are roaming, he said. “If we
are not seeing wolf activity
in an area, there’s no reason
to spend a lot of time on it,”
he said.
The Cattle Producers
received a $210,600 grant
in 2019. In its most recent
application, the group said
its program needs to grow to
meet demand.
“I think it’s been a good
program. I think it bene-
fits the ranchers, and I think
they’re buying into it,” Niel-
sen said.
Ruling goes against USDA sheep
experimental station in Idaho
By KEITH RIDLER
The Associated Press
BOISE, Idaho — U.S.
officials and a sheep indus-
try group have filed notices
to appeal a federal court
ruling involving an east-
ern Idaho sheep research
facility long targeted by
environmental groups con-
cerned about the potential
harm to grizzly bears and
other wildlife.
The U.S. Department
of Agriculture and Ameri-
can Sheep Industry Associ-
ation filed the notices late
last month to the 9th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals.
A judge’s ruling in April
prevents grazing in sig-
nificant areas used by the
Agriculture Department’s
U.S. Sheep Experiment
Station.
Grazing was suspended
in 2013 following previous
lawsuits by environmen-
tal groups contending the
areas contain key wildlife
habitat that is a corridor
for grizzly bears between
Yellowstone National Park
and Glacier National Park.
Conservation groups con-
tend grizzly bears have
been killed because of
sheep station activities.
The groups also say
bighorn sheep, which can
acquire deadly diseases
from domestic sheep, and
greater sage grouse use the
area.
Grazing resumed fol-
lowing the release of a
2017 environmental impact
statement considering the
effects of sheep grazing on
wildlife.
The Western Water-
sheds Project and two other
groups filed a new law-
suit in early 2019 challeng-
ing the government’s deci-
sion allowing sheep owned
by the University of Idaho
to graze in the Centennial
Mountains of Idaho and
Montana.
A federal judge in April
agreed with the environ-
mental groups that the gov-
ernment hadn’t adequately
examined all of the impacts
with its 2017 environmen-
tal review.
“It’s really good news
for wildlife that the sheep
experimental station is
USDA file photo
Sheep graze at the U.S. Sheep Experimental Station near Dubois, Idaho.
basically down to its head-
quarters area, and they’re
not going to be graz-
ing sheep in the Centen-
nial Mountains,” said Erik
Molvar, the Western Water-
sheds Project’s executive
director.
The sheep station is
operated by the Agricul-
ture Department’s Agri-
cultural Research Ser-
vice. The sheep station
supports research using
domestic sheep owned by
the University of Idaho,
some of it involving
sheep grazing at higher
altitudes.
Specifically, Chief U.S.
Magistrate Judge Ronald
E. Bush ruled the govern-
ment hadn’t sufficiently
examined the project’s
potential effects on grizzly
bears and bighorn sheep,
and didn’t objectively ana-
lyze alternatives.
Bush ruled the govern-
ment did adequately exam-
ine the effects on sage
grouse.
The sheep station uses
grazing allotments not
belonging to the Agricul-
tural Research Service.
Bush ruled that the gov-
ernment didn’t adequately
examine direct and indi-
rect effects of sheep graz-
ing on those allotments.
He said the government
must review the project
again in line with environ-
mental laws, and until that
review is complete, sheep
grazing isn’t allowed in
those areas.
The Agriculture Depart-
ment has said that the
sheep station conducts
research on lands rang-
ing from about 5,000 feet
to nearly 10,000 feet in
elevation.
The “lands contain
subalpine meadow, foot-
hill, sagebrush steppe,
and desert shrubland eco-
systems,”
the
agency
noted. “This diversity
provides unparalleled research
opportunities.”
The Sheep Experiment
Station, based near Dubois,
Idaho, has not only been
targeted by environmental
groups but has also been on
the federal budget chopping
block under the administra-
tions of both President Bar-
rack Obama and President
Donald Trump.
Republican U.S. Rep.
Mike Simpson, who rep-
resents the area, has played
a crucial role in restoring
funding.
“We’d like to see the
sheep station converted
into a research station that
focuses on native ecosys-
tems,” Molvar said.
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