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THE ASTORIAN • TuESdAy, July 5, 2022
OPINION
editor@dailyastorian.com
KARI BORGEN
Publisher
DERRICK DePLEDGE
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GUEST COLUMN
Work group to examine Oregon chicken rules
F
or decades, I watched as legisla-
tors punted when a difficult issue
defied resolution: They appointed
a task force.
Ah, a task force! As if lawmakers
had accomplished something instead of
doing nothing.
Until the digital age arrived, all those
let’s-at-least-convene-a-task-forces were
a boon to the bookshelf industry. The
resulting reports had to
gather dust somewhere.
Purposeful task forces
do have value. They
come with all the trim-
mings of official legis-
latively decreed goals,
membership, staffing
DICK
and budgets.
HUGHES
However, in recent
years, there’s been a
shift from sometimes-questionable task
forces to informal work groups. Task
forces can take months to formally cre-
ate, have limited membership, and can
cost $10,000 to $20,000 to staff and
run. In contrast, work groups can be put
together quickly at little or no cost and
with whatever participation is deemed
appropriate. The idea is to get diver-
gent stakeholders together, try to work
out key differences and agree as much as
possible on legislation.
Work groups also have operated
out of public view — a plus or minus
depending on one’s perspective. Some
work groups succeeded brilliantly, such
as recently finding common ground
on housing legislation. Others failed
famously, such as on mandatory over-
time for farmworkers.
In the current interim between legis-
lative sessions, a bunch of work groups
are underway, along with various public
task forces.
Another kind of work group also
is unfolding this summer, with more
of a fact-finding mission. It deals with
chickens.
State Sen. Jeff Golden, D-Ash-
Brian Hayes/Statesman Journal
A chicken on a ranch near Scio.
land, who chairs the Senate Environ-
ment and Natural Resources Commit-
tee, announced the work group members
in June and said they would examine
the potential effects of large-scale poul-
try operations. The issues include water
supply, air and water quality, impacts on
neighbors and whether such facilities are
appropriate on high-value farmland.
Confined animal feeding operations
– known as CAFOs – are controver-
sial in Oregon, though most discussion
has been around dairies. The proposed
chicken CAFOs have now raised the
hackles of neighbors, farmers and pub-
lic officials. During Legislative Days in
June, Golden’s committee and the House
Agriculture and Natural Resources
Committee held informational meetings
to learn about such operations.
Millions of chicks could be coming
to the mid-Willamette Valley each year.
They would be raised in facilities built
on undeveloped farmland and then sent
to slaughter as fully grown chickens.
One CAFO applicant has received initial
approval from the Oregon Department
of Agriculture but still has other condi-
tions to meet.
Golden tapped Sen. Michael Dem-
brow, D-Portland, to lead the work
group. Dembrow is such a believer in
bringing contrasting people together
to achieve good public policy that he’s
sometimes referred to as “Mr. Work
Group” or “Mr. Task Force.” He’s
involved in several at the moment,
including a group he convened to
address the shortage of educators.
The poultry work group won’t cre-
ate possible poultry legislation. Instead,
it will assess the current regulations and
laws affecting potential megaoperations
and share that information with Gold-
en’s committee, which could use it to
shape concepts for the 2023 Legislature.
Such advance work may prevent unin-
tended consequences if a bill becomes
law.
“My job will be to make sure that we
fully understand the existing rules and
statutes, understand the different per-
spectives on where they may or may not
be appropriate for the proposed poul-
try megaoperations, that we understand
the potential impacts of any changes
to them, and that all voices are heard,”
Dembrow said.
And unlike many work groups, this
one will not operate behind closed
doors. The public can watch the meet-
ings, which will be online, and at one
least session will be reserved for public
comment.
dick Hughes has been covering the
Oregon political scene since 1976.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Hogwash
I
must reply to Nello Picinich’s letter
(“Obfuscating,” June 25) regarding the
evils of gillnets. He states that the issue
is not about recreational angling vs. com-
mercial fishing, but about selective fishing.
Hogwash.
Hooks are much less selective in the
Columbia River than the gillnet. The
National Oceanographic and Atmo-
spheric Administration Fisheries estab-
lishes the allowable kill of nonlocal wild
and natural-spawn salmonids intermin-
gled with hatchery and healthy wild stocks,
under Endangered Species Act stan-
dards. Between 70% and 80% of those
fish, depending upon the stock, have been
assigned by the states to the sport fishery.
Despite the fact that recreational fish-
ery has by far the most fish and allowable
fish kills assigned to it, it frequently over-
shoots its quota of wild fish kills. Gillnet-
ting continues on the main stem Colum-
bia because no other gear meets both ESA
standards and is economically viable. In
2012, Oregon and Washington reallocated
main stem fisheries to the recreational sec-
tor, and select area fisheries to the commer-
cial sector.
At that time, promises were made to the
commercial fishery, including more select
areas, plus substantially increased produc-
tion, neither of which occurred. The main
stem fishery still comprises about 40% of
the industry income.
A balance of recreational fishing and
commercial fishing provides fish for sports
fishers, a relatively small group, and the
fish-consuming public, a much larger pop-
ulation. Picinich’s desire for a sport fish-
ery that takes the entire allowable catch is
an example of the urban view of how the
rural-urban divide affects Washington and
Oregon, right in our own communities.
KENT MARTIN
Skamokawa, Washington
LETTERS WELCOME
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97103.
Choices
T
he world is going to hell in a handbas-
ket. I remember thinking that was a
strange thing to say when I was a child, but
now I get it. Between the massive greed,
our rights being violated, the cost of every-
thing from food to gas to just living, the
homeless in our town — the list is long.
How are we, as a community, going to
tackle these issues without stepping back
and looking at history, and not making the
same mistakes over and over again!
Let’s take just one problem: the home-
less. It breaks my heart and many others’
to see the plight of the homeless.
It is time to revisit the decision to close
mental health hospitals and spend the
money, the time and the energy to reopen
those hospitals and give the mentally ill
the help they need. Why has our humanity
diminished so much that we can’t see that
as the very first step?
We have to look at each issue one at
time, and work together to make good
changes and good choices.
Do I support my community and buy all
of my goods right here in my town? These
are the kinds of choices we can make that
will make a difference.
If we all do our best, and work together,
we can make this world a better place
without violence. Choose love; love
always wins in the end.
MARY HADREAS
Astoria
Browser’s beware
Y
ou might be a browser like me. I love
browsing my way through City Lum-
ber, Homespun Quilts and garden stores.
Sad to say, though, the proposed remod-
eled Astoria Library will no longer be
a haven for book browsers like me, and
many of you.
The current plan, originally presented
several years ago at public meetings, is
that most books will be in closed stacks,
off-limits to patrons. After you request a
specific book, a staff member will get it
from the closed stacks.
This won’t work for me. Since child-
hood, I’ve picked nearly all my books by
chance as I’ve roamed the stacks. I’ve
rarely gone to the library with a specific
title in mind.
Mayor Bruce Jones described the pro-
posed remodel in the June 23 Astorian:
“It’s a place for people to convene, hear
presentations, to hear music, to study, to do
job applications, to do all kinds of learn-
ing and tutoring. A library could be a great
community gathering space if it has the
right amenities and the right functionality.”
Not a word about books.
The shift to a new-style facility is
underway. City staff are getting rid of
books to make room for the remodel. I
hope the plans will change before the
November bond election to include more
books, more open stacks and browsing.
If not, then I ask the city to acknowl-
edge that this bond issue is to finance a
community center, not a library.
LAURIE CAPLAN
Astoria