Friday, September 17, 2021
CapitalPress.com 3
Oregon ranchers fear bikes and cows don’t mix
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
PRINEVILLE, Ore. —
Grazing cattle and speeding
mountain bikes don’t seem
compatible to rancher Shel-
ley Santucci.
For that reason, Santucci
grew alarmed earlier this
year when the U.S. Forest
Service fl oated the idea of
constructing a 52-mile sys-
tem of mountain bike trails
largely on her grazing allot-
ment near Prineville, Ore.
“It’s not just a bike trail,
it’s a bike highway,” San-
tucci said of the proposal.
The possibility of a
mountain bike crashing into
a cow at high speed doesn’t
seem safe to Santucci, who
also worries who’d be held
liable for such an accident.
Aside from the immedi-
ate threat of collisions, she’s
concerned that the presence
of bikers will drive her cattle
from the uplands into ripar-
ian areas.
Santucci’s grazing allot-
ment, which her family’s
held for 33 years, is regu-
larly monitored for distur-
bances to waterways. Viola-
tions could mean losing the
grazing permit.
“It’s tough enough to
keep them in the uplands as
it is, because cattle by their
nature are roamers,” she
said.
Other neighbors of the
proposed Lemon Gulch
Trail System Project also
worry about the height-
ened risk of fi re from more
visitors.
Mateusz Perkowski/Capital Press
Mateusz Perkowski/Capital Press
Rancher Shelley Santucci discusses her concerns about
the proposed Lemon Gulch Trail System in the Ochoco
National Forest, which critics fear will confl ict with
grazing cattle.
Ann Dill, left, discusses the proposed Lemon Gulch Trail
System in the Ochoco National Forest with Shelley San-
tucci, center, and Don Vogel. They fear mountain bikers
will confl ict with grazing cattle.
The project would entail
building three trailheads for
up to 40 cars apiece, which
critics fear would invite
around 100 vehicles a day
and greatly worsen traf-
fi c on the gravel road lead-
ing to the site in the Ochoco
National Forest.
These problems, as well
as a potential culture clash
between rural residents
and urban mountain bik-
ers, aren’t worth any eco-
nomic boost from tourism
— which would likely be
nominal, said rancher Don
Vogel.
“They might stop by a
brewery in town and eat a
hamburger and drink a beer,
but it’s not going to bring
much money to this commu-
nity,” Vogel said.
Though the proposal
was offi cially announced
under a “scoping notice”
Due to the concerns
raised by critics, the Forest
Service is hitting “pause” on
the proposal, but it doesn’t
plan to choose another site
for the trail system, said
Kassidy Kern, public aff airs
offi cer for the agency.
“We defi nitely pumped
the brakes,” she said.
The trail system would
predominantly be located
within the 50,000-acre Mill
Creek Allotment. About 6%
of that area — 3,000 acres
— would be aff ected by the
proposal, the agency said.
Santucci’s permit allows
her to release 340 head of
cattle onto the allotment.
The Forest Service is
looking into reports of col-
lisions between bikes and
cattle on other trails but so
far hasn’t found any, said
Beth Peer, environmen-
tal coordinator with the
in March, the concept has
been fermenting for about
three years. Critics feel it’s
now largely a fait accompli
whose planning they were
excluded from.
“The Forest Service has
a legal obligation to contact
adjacent landowners and
aff ected permittees. None
of them were contacted,”
said Ann Dill, a neighbor-
ing rancher.
Critics of the proposal
are trying to muster politi-
cal opposition to the project
at the county, state and fed-
eral levels, with the goal of
having the trail system built
somewhere else.
“We’re not necessar-
ily opposed to it. We’re
opposed to it at the loca-
tion proposed,” Vogel said.
“We’ve asked them to go
back to the beginning, to
start the process over.”
agency.
The agency will be
“managing public expec-
tations” so that bikers are
aware of cattle and manure
on the trails. The agency
will also rely on a “phased
approach” so that there’s
“time for monitoring and
assessing” the project’s
impacts, Peer said.
“Mountain biking is a
valid use of public land,
as is grazing,” Kern said.
“How do we balance those
benefi ts? That’s what we’re
working on right now.”
As for complaints about
the planning process, the
Forest Service said it’s only
taken an active role this year
after receiving a submis-
sion from the Ochoco Trails
Strategy Group.
That
“collaborative”
group is aimed at resolv-
ing confl icts between rec-
reational uses of public
lands, such as those between
mountain bikes and horses,
Kern said. “They’re try-
ing to deconfl ict themselves
before they come to the For-
est Service.”
The agency began noti-
fying landowners and
started the scoping pro-
cess once it had taken up
the strategy group’s con-
cept, she said. “When they
brought us the project pro-
posal, that’s when our
wheels began to kick into
motion.”
It’s already common
for mountain bikes to
share trails with cattle, so
it should be possible to
resolve the concerns of the
project’s critics, said Travis
Holman, who represented
the Central Oregon Trail
Alliance in developing the
strategy group’s proposal.
“I don’t think I’ve ever
heard of a mountain bike
colliding with a cow,” Hol-
man said.
Trails that meander
through “technical fea-
tures” require bikers to
slow down, while faster
trails are designed to have
a clear view so that bikers
have no problem stopping
for obstructions, he said.
It’s possible that rerout-
ing certain trails or reduc-
ing the overall trail mile-
age will alleviate critics’
concerns, Holman said.
“We want to get with
the ranchers and look at
the specifi cs on the map,”
he said. “We hope to work
with them.”
Biden administration accuses meat Judge: Washington Farm Bureau
processors of pandemic profi teering can sue to stop capital gains tax
The Biden administra-
tion has released a report
addressing concentration
in the meat-processing
industry, saying processors
are generating record prof-
its during the pandemic at
the expense of consumers,
farmers and ranchers.
“The dynamic of a
hyper-consolidated pinch
point in the supply chain
raises real questions about
pandemic profi teering,” the
report states.
The top four beef, pork
and poultry processors con-
trol 82% of the beef mar-
ket, 66% of the pork mar-
ket and 54% of the poultry
market, according to the
report by the National Eco-
nomic Council.
“That
consolida-
tion gives these middle-
men the power to squeeze
both consumers and farm-
ers and ranchers. There’s a
long history of these giant
meat processors making
more and more while fam-
ilies pay more at the gro-
cery store and farmers and
ranchers earn less for their
products,” the report states.
Large price increases
for beef, pork and poultry
are driving the recent price
increases at grocery stores,
constituting half of those
increases. Since December,
prices have increased 14%
on beef, 12.1% on pork and
6.6% on poultry, the report
states.
Gross profi ts for some of
the leading beef, pork and
poultry processors are at
their highest levels in his-
tory, and net income for
many of the companies is
on pace to reach historic
highs, the report states.
“These record profi ts,
income and margins under-
score the role that meat
processors’ dominant mar-
ket position and power play
in increasing meat prices,”
the report states.
“While factors like con-
sumer demand and input
costs are aff ecting the mar-
ket, it is the lack of com-
petition that enables meat
processors to hike prices
for meat while increasing
their own profi tability,” the
report states.
At a White House press
briefi ng on Sept. 8, Brian
Deese, director of the
National Economic Coun-
cil, said the administration
— with USDA Secretary
Tom Vilsack in the lead —
is focused on driving more
price transparency and
encouraging more compe-
tition in the meat process-
ing sector.
Vilsack said the agency
has two responsibilities —
making sure farmers get a
fair return and consumers
get fair prices.
USDA is strengthen-
ing the Packers and Live-
stock Act to identify and
hold processors account-
able for unfair and discrim-
inatory practices, making
sure there is adequate price
discovery in livestock mar-
kets, providing funding to
expand processing capac-
ity and maintain small and
very small facilities, and
making new rules on label-
ing meat “Product of the
USA.”
The North American
Meat Institute, which rep-
resents processors, issued
a statement saying meat
and poultry processors
have been and continue to
be aff ected by the global
pandemic and infl ationary
trends.
“American consumers
of most goods and services
are seeing higher costs,
largely due to a persistent
and widespread labor
shortage. The meat and
poultry industry is no dif-
ferent,” said Mark Dopp,
the Meat Institute’s COO.
“Issuing infl ammatory
statements that ignore the
fundamentals of how sup-
ply and demand aff ects
markets accomplishes noth-
ing,” he said.
“Meat and poultry mar-
kets are competitive and
dynamic with no one sector
of the industry consistently
dominating the market at
the expense of another,” he
said.
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
The Washington Farm
Bureau can challenge the
state’s capital gains tax
before it takes eff ect, rather
than wait for farmers to
be taxed, Douglas County
Superior Court Judge Brian
Huber has ruled.
Huber rejected claims
by the state attorney gen-
eral that potential tax-
payers can’t question the
tax’s legality. Some farm-
ers anticipate owing the
tax and say it has already
lowered the values of cap-
ital assets, even though the
tax won’t take eff ect until
2022.
The attorney general
argued that farmers were
only speculating that they
would owe the tax. Huber
said farmers weren’t being
“unduly speculative.”
“The court fi nds no
basis to suggest that these
allegations are unreason-
able,” Huber wrote in a rul-
ing Sept. 10.
The ruling did not touch
on whether the capital
gains tax violates the state
constitution. It does, how-
ever, allow the suit brought
by the Farm Bureau and
others to proceed.
The tax’s legality likely
will be decided by the state
Supreme Court, but the
issue will have its fullest
hearing in Douglas County,
an agricultural area in Cen-
tral Washington.
Huber denied a motion
by the attorney general to
move the case to Thurston
County, where the capi-
tal and most of the state
bureaucracy are. The Farm
Bureau and a conservative
think tank, the Freedom
Foundation, chose Douglas
County to fi le separate law-
suits. Huber said the state
gave no valid reason for
moving the case.
“We were delighted. A
win on all counts is a good
win,” Farm Bureau CEO
John Stuhlmiller said Sept.
13.
Democrats this year
passed a 7% tax on income
over $250,000 from sell-
ing certain capital assets.
The tax won’t apply to
farmland, but will apply
to shares in business
partnerships.
Lawsuits claim the cap-
ital gains tax violates the
state constitution by taxing
income unequally. Defend-
ers say it’s not a tax on
income, but rather a tax on
transactions.
Gov. Jay Inslee’s admin-
istration sought to forestall
legal challenges to the tax,
claiming there was no dis-
pute for courts to review
until the tax was collected.
Taxpayers could then
apply for refunds, the state
argued.
Huber said it was well
settled that courts have the
power to rule on the consti-
tutionality of tax laws.
The Farm Bureau and
Freedom
Foundation’s
lawsuits were merged into
one case.
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