3A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, JANUARY 16, 2018
State officials
say saving
roadkill
makes sense
Associated Press
SPOKANE, Wash. —
Laws in Idaho and Washing-
ton state that allow people to
salvage roadkill have yielded
some benefits, according to
wildlife officials.
Idaho and Washington have
passed laws allowing people
to salvage roadkill, provided
they fill out a short form with
the state wildlife agency to get
a permit.
Washington’s law, which
took effect in July 2016, allows
for deer and elk only, The
Spokesman-Review reported.
Between then and the end of
2017, 3,099 animals were sal-
vaged off Washington roads,
the Washington Department of
Fish and Wildlife said.
Idaho’s law, which took
effect six years ago, is much
broader, listing nearly 50 spe-
cies of mammals and birds as
salvageable. Most animals are
fair game, provided they’re not
endangered, threatened or oth-
erwise protected by federal or
state law.
Deer and elk top the list
in Idaho. But Idaho residents
have also hauled away 419
moose, 55 black bears, 51 wild
turkeys and 39 beavers since
the law went into effect.
Under a law passed last
year, Oregon will begin allow-
ing permit holders to salvage
roadkill in 2019.
Salvagers don’t have to say
what they intend to do with the
animal. Gregg Servheen, the
wildlife program coordinator
at Idaho Fish and Game, said
salvagers, in addition to eating,
may be practicing taxidermy,
looking for hides to display,
gathering items for crafts or
regalia or making their own
fishing lures.
Idaho’s roadkill data is
more detailed than Washing-
ton’s, with a greater variety of
species and occasional notes
from the salvager. The species
is often a best guess from the
salvager.
Conservation group files
lawsuit to protect rare plant
Associated Press
SALEM — A group of
Oregon conservationists is
suing the U.S. Forest Service
after it reauthorized livestock
grazing on grasslands within
Hells Canyon National Rec-
reation Area.
The lawsuit, filed last
week by the Greater Hells
Canyon Council in La
Grande, looks to protect a
rare species of plant known
as Spalding’s catchfly, the
Capital Press reported.
Spalding’s
catchfly,
which is found only in east-
ern Washington, northeast
Oregon, west-central Idaho,
western Montana and Brit-
ish Columbia, Canada, is
listed as threatened under the
Endangered Species Act.
The Forest Service is
obligated to protect Spald-
ing’s catchfly under the Hells
Canyon National Recreation
Area Comprehensive Man-
agement Plan, Greater Hells
Canyon Council Conserva-
tion Director Veronica War-
nock said.
“This isn’t about a rancher
doing something wrong,”
Warnock said. “This is about
the Forest Service ignoring
management recommenda-
tions on how to protect and
recover a threatened species,
something it is required to do
in Hells Canyon.”
A Forest Service spokes-
man said the agency can-
not comment on pending
litigation.
Darilyn Brown, executive
director of the Greater Hells
Canyon Council, said delist-
ing Spalding’s catchfly is the
ultimate goal.
“The area in dispute is
really just a small fraction
of the Wallowa-Whitman
National Forest,” Brown
said. “However, it could have
a big impact on the recovery
of Spalding’s catchfly.”
Fewer than 1,000 catch-
fly plants are known to exist
in the grazing area along the
lower Imnaha River in Wal-
lowa-Whitman
National
Forest.
The
Hells
Canyon
National Recreation Area is
part of the forest, though the
areas are technically man-
aged under different forest
plans.
WANTED
Alder and Maple Saw Logs & Standing Timber
Northwest Hardwoods • Longview, WA
Contact: John Anderson • 360-269-2500
EMERALD HEIGHTS
APARTMENTS
503-325-8221
2 & 3 BEDROOM
APARTMENTS
EQUAL HOUSING
OPPORTUNITY
All Rents
Electricity · Garbage · Water
Include:
ASK ABOUT
NEWLY REMODELED APARTMENTS
Washington state agency stops
giving personal info to feds
Associated Press
OLYMPIA, Wash. — The
Washington state Depart-
ment of Licensing says it
will no longer release per-
sonal information to fed-
eral immigration authorities
without a court order unless
required by law.
The agency announced
the change Monday follow-
ing a report in The Seattle
Times last week that showed
the department was handing
over personal information to
federal authorities 20 to 30
times a month.
Washington is one of the
few states that allow peo-
ple without proof of legal
U.S. residency to get driver’s
licenses.
Officials also said the
agency would end its prac-
tice of collecting “informa-
tion that isn’t mandated and
could be misused,” such as
information on license appli-
cations about where a person
was born.
The
agency
also
announced the resigna-
tion of Deputy Director Jeff
DeVere, who oversaw com-
pliance with an executive
order signed last year by
Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee
to prevent state employees
from helping federal officials
enforce immigration laws.
Inslee, a critic of Repub-
lican President Donald
Trump, has said Trump’s
immigration policies were
“mean-spirited” and break
up families.
When information was
passed to federal authorities,
the Department of Licens-
ing redacted a field on the
driver’s-license application
showing whether someone
has a Social Security number
but left visible fields showing
where someone was born.
In a statement about
changes at the agency,
Department of Licensing
Director Pat Kohler apolo-
gized, saying “our work did
not align with our state’s
values.”
She said the department
didn’t clearly communicate
the nature of federal law
enforcement requests to Ins-
lee and the Legislature and
failed to seek clarification
about how to handle certain
queries about records con-
cerning criminal and civil
immigration violations.
Inslee said “recent revela-
tions about our state Depart-
ment of Licensing’s failure
to safeguard certain informa-
tion from federal immigra-
tion officials has shaken and
angered many communities.
It has angered me.”
He said he would support
efforts in the Legislature to
support immigrants.