Friday, August 13, 2021
CapitalPress.com 3
Settlement deal reached over 15,700-acre Oregon thinning project
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
The federal government has set-
tled a lawsuit fi led by environmen-
tal groups that objected to portions
of a 15,700-acre thinning project in
Oregon’s Ochoco National Forest.
The U.S. Forest Service has
agreed to refrain from logging
within 150-300 feet of streams
within about 40 units of the Black
Mountain Vegetation Management
Project and pay $100,000 in attor-
ney fees to the plaintiff s.
Attorneys for the Forest Service
did not respond to requests for com-
ment about the settlement.
The complaint was brought ear-
lier this year by the Central Oregon
Landwatch and Oregon Wild non-
profi t organizations, which alleged
the project failed to protect ripar-
ian areas that are critical for elk and
fi sh.
Under the original version of the
project, up to 3 million board-feet
of timber was to be harvested from
about 500 acres of riparian areas,
said Oliver Stiefel, an attorney with
the Crag Law Center who repre-
sented the plaintiff s.
A majority of those riparian acres
will now be preserved from log-
ging under the settlement, he said.
“There’s still thousands of acres of
upland logging that’s on the table.”
The original version of the proj-
ect was expected to generate nearly
18 million board-feet of timber.
The settlement creates logging
buff ers of 300 feet on either side of
larger fi sh-bearing streams and 150
feet on either side of smaller water-
ways, said Rory Isbell, attorney for
Central Oregon Landwatch.
“Our intentions were to pro-
tect the most sensitive habitats,” he
said. “This settlement gives us what
we wanted from the lawsuit.”
Aside from providing shade and
stream bank stability that benefi t
fi sh, riparian areas are also import-
ant to the life cycle of elk in the
national forest, Stiefel said.
Washington fruit grower resists class-action suit
a thousand other farmworkers “who
don’t know we’re in a courtroom
today.”
Rivera was a “remarkably slow
worker,” while Garcia courted insub-
ordination by encouraging other apple
pickers to slow down, Monahan said.
Both abandoned their jobs at Stemilt
and sought work elsewhere, violating
their visas, he said.
“What we haven’t talked about yet
is the plaintiff s’ obligation,” Monahan
said.
The suit alleges discrimination,
human traffi cking, breach of contract
and violations of Washington’s Farm
Labor Contractors Act. Expanding the
case into a class-action lawsuit would
increase potential penalties if Stemilt is
found guilty.
The lawsuit accuses Stemilt man-
agers of unlawfully introducing a min-
imum production standard and threat-
ening to fi re and “blacklist” H-2A
workers who didn’t pick fast enough.
Workers also had to wait on buses
for up to an hour without being paid,
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
Capital Press File
The Northwest Ag Show will return to the Oregon State
Fairgrounds and Exposition Center, Jan. 12-14, 2022.
Northwest Ag Show to
return to state fairgrounds
Capital Press
SALEM — The North-
west Ag Show is returning
to the Oregon State Fair and
Exposition Center for a live
event, Jan. 12-14, 2022.
The show is presented by
Harvest Capital Company.
“We’re anxious to return
to the state fairgrounds for a
live show after the COVID
pandemic forced us to con-
duct a virtual show this
year,” Joe Beach, the editor
and publisher of the Capi-
tal Press and manager of the
Northwest Ag Show, said.
More than 120 vendors,
ranging from large-scale
farm-equipment
dealers
to insurance and fi nancial
companies, vineyard sup-
ply companies and others
have traditionally show-
cased their goods and ser-
vices in two halls, the Jack-
man-Long Building and
adjacent Columbia Hall, and
on the grounds at the Fair
and Exposition Center.
Several Oregon nonprofi t
ag organizations will partic-
ipate in the show. Oregon
OSHA will off er for-credit
pesticide safety courses.
Educational seminars will
also be presented.
Companies interested in
becoming exhibitors should
contact Anne Long at 800-
882-6789 or email events@
eomediagroup.com.
The show’s title sponsor
A federal judge heard arguments
Aug. 4 about whether to allow the
grievances of two farmworkers against
an Eastern Washington fruit grower
to balloon into a class-action lawsuit
involving 1,135 workers.
The suit, fi led by Columbia Legal
Services, alleges that Mexico residents
Gilberto Gomez Garcia and Jonathan
Gomez Rivera were mistreated in 2017
by Stemilt Ag Services.
Columbia Legal Services is asking
U.S. District Judge Salvador Mendoza
Jr. in Richland to certify that Garcia and
Rivera can represent other allegedly
wronged H-2A visa workers employed
that year in 36 orchards owned or oper-
ated by Stemilt.
H-2A guestworkers are foreign
nationals who come to the U.S. on a
temporary basis to work in agriculture.
Stemilt’s attorney, Brendan Mona-
han, said Garcia and Rivera would
be poor representatives for more than
the suit alleges.
The lawsuit also alleges Stemilt
failed to fully disclose the terms of
employment.
Stemilt denies the allegations.
Monahan acknowledged isolated prob-
lems at some Stemilt orchards, but said
that the problems were not typical.
Stemilt had a contractual right to
expect workers to make a sustained
eff ort, but never had an ironclad three-
bin-a-day policy across all orchards, he
said.
Columbia Legal Services attorney
Maria Diana Garcia argued that decla-
rations from other workers show that
Rivera and Garcia’s experiences were
representative.
According to court records, Rivera
is a delivery driver in Mexico, who saw
an ad in 2017 recruiting farmworkers
to the U.S. Garcia, an electrician, had
previously picked for Stemilt.
Both said in court declarations that
they sought work in the U.S. because
they couldn’t earn enough money in
Mexico to support their families.
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Designed to meet the needs of any farming or industrial operation.
is Harvest Capital Company.
Major sponsors include
Kubota Tractor Company,
Coastal Farm & Ranch and
the Oregon State Fair and
Exposition Center.
The show is owned by
EO Media Events, a subsidi-
ary of EO Media Group, and
is produced by the Capital
Press.
The Northwest Agricul-
tural Show is one of the lon-
gest-running ag shows in
the Pacifi c Northwest. The
show was founded by Jim
Heater and Lloyd Martin in
1969. The show was orig-
inally held at the Oregon
State Fairgrounds. It was
later moved to the Portland
Coliseum and then to the
Portland Expo Center.
In 2017 the show was
taken over by EO Media
Events. After a one-year hia-
tus, the show returned to the
fairgrounds in 2019.
Because of the uncer-
tainties prompted by the
COVID-19 pandemic, the
2021 Northwest Ag Show
was conducted only as a vir-
tual event.
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