Friday, September 3, 2021
CapitalPress.com 3
Oregon farmers, ranchers weigh in on wolf suits
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
Northern Rocky Moun-
tain wolves shouldn’t receive
federal protection just by
crossing into Central Wash-
ington or Central Oregon, the
Oregon Farm Bureau, Ore-
gon Cattlemen’s Association
and Klamath County said in
a court fi ling Monday.
Gray wolves are not in
danger of extinction and
returning them to the endan-
gered species list would
increase tensions with pro-
ducers, according to an
amicus brief fi led in the U.S.
District Court for Northern
California.
Klamath County has
roughly 50,000 head of cattle
and more wolf activity than
any other county in west-
ern Oregon, according to the
brief.
The fi ling adds more
viewpoints to an onslaught of
briefs in three lawsuits fi led
in Northern California by
environmental groups. The
lawsuits have been merged
into one case.
The suits claim the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service
prematurely delisted wolves
throughout the Lower 48,
giving short shrift to wolves
in California and the west-
ern two-thirds of Oregon and
Washington.
The USFWS, sticking
with the decision it made
ODFW/La Grande Observer
The Oregon Farm Bureau, Oregon Cattlemen’s Associa-
tion and Klamath County warn that reinstating federal
protection to wolves will increase tension with live-
stock owners.
under the Trump adminis-
tration, has fi led a motion
asking Judge Jeff rey White
Coronavirus assistance program expanded
to include Kentucky bluegrass seed
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
WASHINGTON, D.C.
— Add Kentucky blue-
grass seed to the list of eli-
gible commodities under
the USDA’s Coronavirus
Food Assistance Program, or
CFAP.
The agency announced
on Aug. 24 it is updating the
second round of CFAP pay-
ments to include Kentucky
bluegrass seed, which was
previously left out.
Ninety percent of all Ken-
tucky bluegrass seed in the
U.S. comes from the Pacifi c
Northwest. It is used primar-
ily for turf grass and sod,
and can be found growing
in lawns, golf courses, sports
fi elds and pastures across the
country and worldwide.
On Jan. 15, the USDA
Farm
Service
Agency
announced that CFAP would
cover turf and sod producers.
Kentucky bluegrass seed
growers, however, were ini-
tially told they could not
apply since the seed can be
used for both sod and forage.
The FSA had already decided
that crops intended for graz-
ing would not be considered.
Members of the North-
west congressional delegation
intervened, sending a letter
June 30 to Zach Ducheneaux,
FSA administrator, urging
him to reconsider Kentucky
bluegrass seed.
The letter — signed by
Rep. Cliff Bentz and Sens.
MORE
INFORMATION
For more information on
the USDA Pandemic Assis-
tance for Producers initia-
tive, visit www.farmers.gov/
pandemic-assistance.
Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley
of Oregon, as well as Reps.
Mike Simpson, Russ Ful-
cher and Sens. James Risch
and Mike Crapo of Idaho —
argued that locally grown
varieties of Kentucky blue-
grass seed are bred, con-
tracted and produced for the
turf and sod industries, not for
forage.
Seed breeders carefully
select traits ideal for lawns
that are mowed at a 1-2 inch
height, and that require min-
imal water and pesticides to
remain healthy, the lawmak-
ers added.
“The grass grown from the
Kentucky bluegrass seed our
farmers produce was never
contracted for or intended to
be grazed or used for forage,”
the letter underscores. “There-
fore, we believe that FSA has
made an honest error in fi nd-
ing bluegrass seed for turf and
sod ineligible.”
The FSA ultimately
agreed, adding Kentucky
bluegrass seed to the list of
eligible specialty crops that
also includes fruits, honey,
tree crops and vegetables.
“Over this past year, agri-
cultural producers have
been hit hard by drought as
well as the coronavirus pan-
demic,” Bentz said in a state-
ment. “This program provides
vital assistance to farm-
ers who experienced market
disruptions in 2020 due to
COVID-19.”
The USDA also announced
changes in CFAP payments to
contract producers of certain
livestock and poultry, includ-
ing broilers, pullets, layers,
chicken eggs, turkeys, hogs
and pigs, ducks, geese, pheas-
ants and quail.
Payments for contract pro-
ducers were to be based on a
comparison of eligible reve-
nue for the periods of Jan. 1,
2019 through Dec. 27, 2019,
and those dates in 2020. Pro-
ducers may instead elect to
use revenue from the same
period in 2018, as opposed to
2019, if they believe it is more
representative.
Ducheneaux, the FSA
administrator, said both
adjustments were made after
listening to feedback and con-
cern from producers about
gaps in pandemic assistance.
“The pandemic has had a
tremendous impact on agri-
cultural producers,” Duche-
neaux said, “and we have
made signifi cant progress
since announcing our plans
in March. While addi-
tional pandemic assistance
remains to be announced in
the coming weeks, USDA is
also ramping up its eff orts
to make investments in the
food supply chain to Build
Back Better.”
in Oakland to dismiss the
lawsuits.
The environmental groups
have fi led motions asking
White to invalidate the del-
isting. A hearing on the com-
peting motions is scheduled
for Nov. 12.
White has granted inter-
venor status to states, sports-
men groups and tribes with
confl icting views. He denied
intervenor status to the Amer-
ican Farm Bureau, National
Cattlemen’s Beef Associa-
tion and other national agri-
culture groups. The farm
groups last week appealed
the denial to the 9th U.S. Cir-
cuit Court of Appeals.
The USFWS concluded
that wolves have stable and
growing populations in the
northern Rocky Mountains
and Great Lakes and that
wolves outside those core
areas are a westward expan-
sion of a recovered species.
U.S. wolves and Cana-
da’s 30,000 wolves are con-
nected in a vast North Amer-
ican network, according to
the agency.
DNA tests show wolves
in Oregon are descended
from Rocky Mountain
wolves, while wolves in Cal-
ifornia are descended from
Oregon wolves, according
to the USFWS.
The ancestry of wolves
in Washington is more
complex, according to
USFWS. Wolves from
the Rocky Mountains and
British Columbia have
commingled.
Washington eyes quarantine
to control Japanese beetles
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
More than 20,000 Jap-
anese beetles have been
trapped in and near a Cen-
tral Washington town, an
infestation the Washing-
ton Department of Agricul-
ture hopes to contain with a
quarantine.
The department has
fi led a notice that it intends
to establish a quarantine
in portions of Yakima and
Benton counties. Grand-
view, the outbreak’s epicen-
ter, is in Yakima County and
just west of Benton County.
The department has not
determined the boundaries
or what would be regulated
under a quarantine, spokes-
woman Karla Salp said
Monday. Before establishing
a quarantine, the department
would analyze how it would
aff ect businesses, she said.
Japanese beetles eat fruit,
fl owers and buds, and dam-
age roots. The invasive pests
are widespread east of the
Mississippi. If established
in Washington, the beetles
would be a threat to agri-
WSDA
A Japanese beetle clings
to a plant in Yakima Coun-
ty, Wash. The Washington
State Department of Ag-
riculture plans a quaran-
tine to contain the pests.
culture, according to the
department.
The Oregon Department
of Agriculture has been bat-
tling Japanese beetles in the
Portland area since 2016.
In Washington, beetles are
being trapped by the thou-
sands close to farms and
nurseries.
The beetles have the
potential to aff ect export
markets for farm goods
grown in the area, according
to the department.
To eradicate beetles, Ore-
gon spreads a granular larvi-
cide in the spring on lawns
and planting beds. The state
agriculture department last
spring treated 12,000 prop-
erties over 4,000 acres with
Acelepryn G.
Landowners who didn’t
consent to the treatments
were served warrants allow-
ing the department onto their
property.
The beetles spend about
10 months underground.
The trapping season is com-
ing to a close, Salp said. The
department likely will use
chemicals against the beetles
in the spring.
The department has not
yet presented a formal quar-
antine proposal or opened a
comment period.
Anyone who would like
to participate in formulating
the rule can contact Assis-
tant Director Brad White of
the Plant Protection Divi-
sion at (360) 902-1907 or
bwhite@agr.wa.gov.
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