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Friday, September 24, 2021
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the opinions of the authors but
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Opinion
Editor & Publisher
Managing Editor
Joe Beach
Carl Sampson
opinions@capitalpress.com | CapitalPress.com/opinion
Our View
Biden moves BLM brass back to Washington
L
ast week Interior Secretary Deb
Haaland announced that the Bureau
of Land Management is moving
back to Washington, D.C., from Grand
Junction, Colo.
Score one for the bureaucracy against
the people it allegedly serves.
Ninety-nine percent of the 250 million
acres managed by the BLM is West of the
Mississippi River. Its decisions impact the
livelihoods of people who populate rural
communities but those decisions are made
far from the forests, grasslands and high
deserts they call home.
To those people, a headquarters staff
ensconced 1,900 miles away in the nation’s
capital seemed remote. Its decisions often
did little to dispel that feeling.
Members of Congress from the West,
both Republicans and Democrats, have
long advocated moving BLM headquarters
out of Washington and into the same neigh-
borhood of those huge swaths of public
lands the agency manages. Other interests
in the West agreed.
The logic was simple: If BLM managers
Wikimedia
The Bureau of Land Management is
moving its headquarters back to Wash-
ington, D.C., from Grand Junction, Colo.
actually lived in the West and had a rela-
tionship with the land they managed, their
decisions might be informed by first-hand
experience.
The bureaucrats and the lobbying inter-
ests never warmed up to the idea. Critics
maintain the BLM and other agencies need
to be headquartered in the capital to be
included in budget and policy discussions.
But having all those discussions in Wash-
ington is part of the problem. That’s better
for K Street lobbyists and the environmen-
tal special interests, but not so good for the
people those policies impact.
In 2018, a bipartisan group of senators
and members of Congress from the West
formally proposed moving BLM’s head-
quarters. During the Trump administration
they got an ally in then Secretary of Interior
Ryan Zinke, a Montanan.
The Trump administration decided
to move the headquarters under its own
authority. The headquarters relocated to
Grand Junction in August 2019.
Most of the career BLM employ-
ees decided not to make the move, opt-
ing instead for retirement or to transfer to
other government agencies or departments.
In total, the agency lost 287 of the 328
employees scheduled to make the move.
We appreciate the difficult position such
a move placed on BLM employees. Mov-
ing families is always difficult. In Washing-
ton, many households have more than one
spouse employed in government.
Ranchers are right
to expect more
from WDFW
Our View
O
Wikimedia
Mountain bike enthusiasts want to develop 3,000 acres of trails near Prineville, Ore., on grazing allot-
ments in the Ochoco National Forest.
How not to build trails
P
eople often see ag land as having
“potential.” They look at farmland or
rangeland and start to imagine every-
thing they could do with it.
Why, it could be developed into housing, or
a shopping center — or trails. The possibilities
are endless.
Except for one thing. That land is already in
use.
The fallow field, the grazing allotment,
the orchard or berry patch are all part of
agriculture.
That land may have “potential” for someone
else, but it’s a means of making a living for a
farmer or rancher.
That’s why it’s so inconsiderate and often
downright insulting when someone comes
along with a plan for building a trail through a
farm, a ranch or even a grazing allotment.
It’s not that agriculture and recreational trails
are necessarily incompatible. It’s just that there
are a lot of considerations to take into account.
For example, if you’ve never been chased by
a 2,200-pound bull, you may not appreciate the
need for fencing, and keeping the gates closed.
Folks who see cropland may not appreciate
the fact that at certain times of the year tons of
manure may be spread on it. That could impact
the enjoyment of a Saturday hike.
At other times, pesticides made be in use to
protect those fruits or vegetables from pests or
diseases.
That’s why it’s critical for folks who want to
build a trail for hikers and bikers to talk with
farmers and ranchers first, not after the steam-
roller has started.
The folks in Yamhill County, in Oregon’s
But government is established to serve
the people, not the interests of government
employees. Military families know well
that service often requires the disruption of
personal lives.
We think decision makers can best serve
when they are among the governed, where
they can see first-hand the problems and
the impacts of policy. Too often those in the
Washington bubble look inward rather than
outward.
The Biden administration opposed the
move, and its review unsurprisingly rec-
ommended returning the top brass to
Washington.
Interior will keep the Grand Junc-
tion facility open as its permanent western
headquarters, a bone to the Democrat Col-
orado congressional delegation. But the
agency’s decisions will be firmly rooted in
Washington.
Government of the bureaucrats, by the
bureaucrats, for the bureaucrats shall not
perish from the earth — not without a fight.
Willamette Valley, learned this the hard way.
The county leaders wanted to convert an old
railroad line into a trail for hikers. The only
problem was they neglected to work with the
farmers who make their living in the orchards
and on the farmland adjacent to the old rail-
road. Then the county tried to ram it through
over the objections of the farmers. The state
Land Use Board of Appeals rejected the trail
plan three times.
That was, as they say, bad form, and county
taxpayers have been paying for that mistake.
In Central Oregon, another type of steam-
roller is planned for national forest graz-
ing allotments near Prineville. Mountain bike
enthusiasts see the 3,000 acres as a great spot
to enjoy themselves and their sport. They plan
three trailheads that together could accom-
modate 120 cars and who-knows-how-many
bikers.
The problem: they neglected to consult with
the allotment holders on their massive plan.
Had they done so, they might have found a
way to make the uses compatible. But if you
approach ranchers with a done deal that could
pose a threat to their livelihoods and to the
health of bikers being chased by cattle, you
have created a big problem.
Farmers and ranchers are by nature good
neighbors, but they need to be brought in at
the beginning of the conversation, not after the
plans have already been made.
Central Oregon mountain bikers would do
well to slam on the brakes and start over on
their aggressive trail plans.
And most importantly, they need to first
talk with the people who would be directly
impacted.
n Aug 26, 2021,
Washington Depart-
ment of Fish and
Wildlife Director Kelly Suse-
wind authorized the lethal
removal of one to two wolves
from the Togo pack territory
in response to repeated depre-
dations of cattle on public and
private grazing lands in Ferry
County.
This was a good deci-
sion and the right decision.
Susewind’s decision is con-
sistent with the guidance of
the state’s Wolf Conserva-
tion and Management Plan
and the lethal removal provi-
sions of the department’s 2017
wolf-livestock interaction
protocol.
WDFW stated that the pro-
active, nonlethal deterrence
measures implemented by
these three livestock produc-
ers were those best suited for
their operations in the profes-
sional judgment of WDFW
staff and “WDFW staff
believe depredations are likely
to continue.”
In a nutshell, what they
are saying is ranchers have
done what they have been
asked to do and it is now time
for the agency tasked with
managing the wolves to pro-
vide some relief to embattled
ranchers by removing wolves
that have repeatedly proven
they will not stop killing live-
stock despite everybody’s best
efforts.
This is the fifth time in the
past four years Susewind has
authorized killing Togo pack
wolves. To date, WDFW has
removed one wolf in four
years of chronic conflict.
There is recognition by wolf
advocates, WDFW, ranch-
ers, politicians, reporters and
all interested parties that there
exists a chronic problem that
needs to be addressed.
What is being repeatedly
debated seems to be, “What
is the best way to put an end
to the chronic problems that
exist?” Doing the same thing
that hasn’t worked during the
last 4 years doesn’t seem like
a workable solution.
The department has docu-
mented four attacks on calves
since June 24, 2021, including
three within the past 30 days.
Ranchers believe there have
been more depredations the
department should have con-
firmed. The last documented
depredation was confirmed on
or around Aug. 16. WDFW
then took 10 days to deter-
mine lethal removal needed to
be authorized.
After lethal removal was
authorized, WDFW biologists
attempted removal, from the
ground, with a rifle. This effort
consisted of three days of
hunting in a four-day period.
The effort was halted because
it had been 14 days since the
GUEST
VIEW
Scott
Nielsen
last confirmed depredation.
At this point it is important
to point out that 10 of those 14
days were spent with WDFW
deciding what to do about a
chronic problem that happens
every year in the same man-
ner. In 2018, 2019, 2020 and
again in 2021 WDFW has
justified decisions authoriz-
ing removal because depre-
dations are likely to continue.
After 10 days of hand-wring-
ing, it seems inadequate to
send out two department
biologists who have repeat-
edly shown themselves to be
unable to accomplish the task
of wolf removal. It came as no
surprise to ranchers that they
didn’t get it done.
In four years, Susewind
has authorized lethal removal
of Togo wolves five times
because his experts told him
they would not stop killing
cattle. His experts were right;
the Togo Pack hasn’t stopped
killing cattle. With five autho-
rizations for lethal removal,
WDFW has removed one
wolf, and that was in 2018.
The wolf that WDFW did
remove was injured. It was
wounded by a rancher when
it was caught attacking his
livestock. Since 2018 the
department consistently sends
out the same people to facil-
itate the removal. The same
people fail to remove any
wolves. Every year the same
people tell the world they
stopped their efforts because
they had done their job and
changed the wolves’ behav-
ior. The wolves continue to
harass and attack the ranchers’
cattle and Susewind’s autho-
rization for lethal removal
of Togo wolves has become
meaningless.
Ranchers manage live-
stock and WDFW manages
the wildlife. This is a wild-
life management problem. It
is time to stop heaping more
burdens on the victims and
address the problem. Suse-
wind is right when he says,
“Depredations are likely to
continue.”
Ranchers need to know
what he intends to do about
it. Most ranchers in northeast
Washington have watched and
learned many valuable les-
sons when it comes to involv-
ing WDFW in their ranching
operations. I wonder if Suse-
wind is content with what the
ranchers have learned.
Scott Nielsen is president
of the Stevens County Cattle-
men’s Association in northeast
Washington.