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OFF PAGE ONE
East Oregonian
Thursday, March 16, 2017
SYMBOLS: Marionberry was developed at OSU TRAVEL: DHS report
“They’re
beautiful
Hansell the reason Oregon contributions of Oregonians
found nationality an
animals, sturdy and hardy,” has never named a state dog with Scottish ancestry, a
characteristic gold coloring he said.
before may be because there proposal to replace the
and dark mane was used
Hansell also sponsored a isn’t a particular breed of western meadowlark with
‘unlikely indicator’ of
as the model for the title bill naming the borer collie dog that stands out for its the osprey as Oregon’s state
character of the animated as Oregon’s state dog, at ties to Oregon. And while bird, and a proposal to name
terrorism threats
movie “Spirit: Stallion of the the request of Ron Folck dog’s are “humankind’s best marionberry pie as the state’s
Cimarron.”
of Unity. He felt a working friend,” people’s favorite official pie in recognition of
Continued from 1A
Hansell said Devlin asked
him to add his name to the
bill that would name the
Kiger Mustang as Oregon’s
state horse, and Hansell
agreed, thinking of the Kiger
Mustangs that a family in
Athena owns.
dog like the border collie
was a good representation
of Oregon, but Rep. David
Gomberg, D-Central Coast,
had a different idea and is
sponsoring a bill to name
dogs rescued from a shelter
as the state dog.
breed of dog varies greatly.
“All my kids and I, we
love the corgi, because that
was our family’s first dog,”
he said.
This session there are
also proposals to name a
state tartan to honor the
the fact that the marionberry
was developed at Oregon
State University and was
named after Marion County.
———
Contact Jade McDowell
at jmcdowell@eastorego-
nian.com or 541-564-4536.
SOLAR: Project development will take at least three years
said, “and if we find
“I don’t see any way around it for UEC to he
enough scab ground to put in
county planning commission take farmland parcels that aren’t productive.” on, I’m fine with that.”
Continued from 1A
in February voted 4-3 against
the exemption. The county
board of commissioners
held a public hearing on the
matter Wednesday morning
in Pendleton.
Tamra Mabbott, county
planning
director,
told
the board the planning
commission discussed the
policy “conundrum” of
abiding state rules to protect
farmland while the state also
mandates utilities to deliver
renewable energy.
UEC over the next 15
years, she stated in her
report, must provide 25
percent of its energy from
renewable sources to meet
that mandate. Mabbott said
assistant planner Brandon
Seitz reviewed industrial
land within UEC’s service
area in Umatilla County and
came up with a “thumbnail
— Tamra Mabbott, county planning director
sketch” showing about 320
acres are suitable for solar or
other renewable energy.
The utility, however, will
need 600-700 acres to meet
its 100 megawatt require-
ment of renewable energy.
“I don’t see any way
around it for UEC to take
farmland parcels that aren’t
productive,” Mabbott said.
Tommy Brooks, attorney
for UEC, told the board the
site is near electrical transfer
lines and would not affect
nearby farms. While some
industrial land is available,
he said, those sites would
require electrical infrastruc-
ture and thus cost more, as
well as create a “patchwork”
of solar arrays around the
county.
Dave Price, with Blue
Mountain Alliance, spoke
against the development.
The land is not in production
now, he said, but could be in
the future. And if the county
allows the expansion on this
80 acres, UEC and other
energy companies will ask
for more.
Brooks
countered
granting this exemption
would not set precedent
because each case would
have its own set of unique
facts to consider.
Commissioner George
Murdock said he wanted to
be clear “UEC would not
be warmly received by one
commissioner” if its plans
took a crop out of production.
“If we’re going to have
solar power, we’re going to
have to have it somewhere,”
Commissioner
Bill
Elfering said this comes
down to the highest and best
use of the land, and in this
case that’s solar generation.
Larry Givens, board
chairman, asked how soon
the project would begin
development.
Robert
Echenrode, UEC general
manager, said the project is
in a two-year planning phase
and development would
take at least three years. The
company also will have to
ask the county for a separate
conditional use permit for
the solar panels.
County commissioners
voted 3-0 to allow the
exemption for the solar
expansion.
———
Contact Phil Wright at
pwright@eastoregonian.
com or 541-966-0833.
WOLVES: Taken off state endangered species list in 2015
Continued from 1A
we want to increase our
communication between our
agencies,” he said. “We want
to develop a more effective
system to ensure that Wild-
life Services’ staff working
in areas with wolves know
what ODFW knows about
wolf activity.”
OR-48, a 100-pound
male from the Shamrock
Pack, died Feb. 26 after it bit
an M-44 device, which fires
cyanide powder into a pred-
ator’s mouth when it tugs on
a baited or scented capsule
holder. Wildlife Services set
the trap on private land in an
attempt to kill coyotes.
The federal agency kills
predators or other wildlife
that damage or pose a
threat to property, livestock
or humans. The agency
describes M-44s as an
“effective and environmen-
tally sound wildlife damage
management tool,” but
the wildlife activist group
Predator Defense calls them
notoriously dangerous.
The devices are designed
to kill canids such as coyotes
and foxes. The cyanide
powder reacts with saliva in
an animal’s mouth, forming
a poisonous gas that kills
the animal within one to
five minutes. Brooks Fahy,
executive director of Pred-
ator Defense, said M-44s
indiscriminately kill dogs
attracted by the scent and are
a hazard to children or others
who might come across
them in rural areas.
The Wallowa County
incident is complicated by
Oregon’s management and
protection of gray wolves
Poison capsule
M-44
Cyanide
Traps
Lure head
Bait/lure
material
Trigger
lock ring
Surface
grade
M-44-style traps,
also known as
Canid pest ejectors,
or CPEs, were first
developed in the U.S.
in the 1930s as a way
to autonomously
control pest species.
Trigger
Piston
Ejector
body
Spring
When the animal pulls on the
baited lure head, the trigger
releases the piston. Under
pressure of a mechanical
spring, the piston strikes the
poison capsule, ejecting a
lethal dose of sodium cyanide
into the animal’s mouth.
Ground
spike
Sources: www.predatordefense.org;
www.smithandgeorg.com.au; www.aphis.usda.gov
over the past decade as they
entered the state from Idaho,
formed packs, quickly grew
in population and spread
geographically.
Previously,
Wildlife
Services did not use M-44s
in what the state designated
as Areas of Known Wolf
Activity. After wolves were
taken off the state endan-
gered species list in 2015, it
was ODFW’s understanding
that Wildlife Services would
continue to avoid using
M-44s in such areas.
“We
discussed
our
concerns
specifically
regarding M-44s,” ODFW
spokesman Rick Hargrave
said last week. “We didn’t
want those devices in those
Alan Kenaga/
Capital Press
areas.
“We believed it was clear
what our concerns were,”
Hargrave said.
Williams, the Wildlife
Services state director,
said he wants to focus on
preventing another wolf
death rather than “who
messed up here.”
He said the Wallowa
County case was the first
time the agency has killed a
wolf in Oregon. Overall, the
agency has recorded “lethal
take” of “non-targeted”
animals — ones it didn’t
intend to kill — in 1.3 percent
of cases, he said. He said the
agency twice unintention-
ally caught Oregon wolves
in foothold traps, which
March 4-5-6, 2016 | Spokane Fair & Expo Center | Spokane, WA
“We discussed
our concerns
specifically re-
garding M-44s.
We didn’t want
those devices in
those areas.
— Rick Hargrave,
ODFW spokesman
nonetheless allowed ODFW
to put tracking collars on
them before releasing them
unharmed.
“Some of our tools are
more forgiving than others,”
Williams said.
He said Wildlife Services
puts on workshops to help
ranchers protect livestock
with non-lethal methods.
In one case two summers
ago, agency personnel spent
260 hours over four weeks
helping protect a sheep flock
from Umatilla Pack wolves,
he said. The work allowed
ODFW to avoid having to
kill wolves due to depreda-
tions, he said.
Meanwhile, the Oregon
Cattlemen’s
Association
views the Wallowa County
incident as a matter of agency
to agency interaction and is
“staying on the sidelines” in
the investigation, said Todd
Nash, a Wallowa County
rancher who is the group’s
wolf policy chair. Livestock
producers, of course, have
a keen interest in the state’s
wolf management policies
and outcomes.
“It’s never a good time
politically to have a dead
wolf,” Nash said.
Continued from 1A
Watson criticized what
he called the “illogic” of the
government’s arguments
and cited “significant and
unrebutted evidence of
religious animus” behind
the travel ban. He also
noted that while courts
should not examine the
“veiled psyche” and “secret
motives” of government
decision-makers,
“the
remarkable facts at issue
here require no such imper-
missible inquiry.”
“For instance, there is
nothing ‘veiled’ about this
press release: ‘Donald J.
Trump is calling for a total
and complete shutdown
of Muslims entering the
United States,’” Watson
wrote, referring to a state-
ment Trump issued as a
candidate.
Trump called the ruling
an example of “unprece-
dented judicial overreach”
and said his administration
would appeal it to the U.S.
Supreme Court. He also
called his new travel ban
a watered-down version
of the first one, which he
said he wished he could
implement.
“We’re going to win.
We’re going to keep our
citizens safe,” the president
said at a rally in Nashville.
“The danger is clear. The
law is clear. The need
for my executive order is
clear.”
The judge issued his
43-page ruling less than
two hours after hearing
Hawaii’s request for a
temporary restraining order
to stop the ban from being
put into practice.
The hearing was one of
three held Wednesday in
federal courts around the
country. U.S. District Judge
James Robart in Seattle,
who blocked the initial
travel ban last month, did
not immediately rule on
a request from an immi-
grant-rights group to block
the revised version. Neither
was there a ruling from U.S.
District Judge Theodore
Chuang in Maryland in a
challenge brought by the
American Civil Liberties
Union and other groups.
In all, more than half a
dozen states are trying to
stop the ban. A case brought
by Washington state argues
that the new order harms
residents, universities and
businesses, especially tech
companies such as Wash-
ington state-based Micro-
soft and Amazon, which
rely on foreign workers.
California,
Maryland,
Massachusetts, New York
and Oregon have joined the
claim.
Trump’s initial travel
ban, issued on a Friday
in late January, brought
chaos and protests to
airports around the country
as travelers from seven
nations — Somalia, Iran,
Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Libya
and Yemen — were barred
from entering even if they
had prior permission to
come to the U.S. The State
Department canceled up
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to 60,000 visas, but later
reversed that decision.
Robart ordered the
government
to
stop
enforcing the ban, which
also suspended the nation’s
acceptance of refugees
from around the world, and
a three-judge panel from
the 9th U.S. Circuit Court
of Appeals unanimously
declined to reinstate the
ban.
The
administration
subsequently rewrote the
ban, emphasizing more of a
national security rationale,
dropping Iraq from the list
of banned countries and
spelling out some reasons
that travelers from the listed
nations might be granted
waivers allowing them into
the U.S. despite the policy.
The new ban does not apply
to travelers who already
have visas.
Critics of the ban said
the changes made it more
palatable, but they still
argued that it violated both
the Constitution and federal
immigration law, and they
tweaked their lawsuits to
target the revised order.
Watson is a 2012
appointee of President
Barack Obama. He is the
only Native Hawaiian
currently sitting as a federal
judge and the fourth in U.S.
history. He received his law
degree from Harvard in
1991.
In his order, he found
little evidence the travel ban
would aid national security,
noting a point brought up
by the state: that a draft
report from the Department
of Homeland Security
found nationality to be
an “unlikely indicator” of
terrorism threats.
If the administration
seeks an emergency stay of
Watson’s decision at the 9th
Circuit, the matter would
be heard by different judges
from the three who ruled on
the case last month. That’s
because the panel of judges
assigned to such cases
rotates every month, said
court spokesman David
Madden.
The 9th Circuit on
Wednesday declined to
reconsider the 3-0 decision
not to reinstate the original
ban. In a dissent, five
judges said they considered
that decision incorrect and
wanted it vacated.
“Whatever we, as indi-
viduals, may feel about the
president or the executive
order, the president’s deci-
sion was well within the
powers of the presidency,”
Judge Jay Bybee wrote for
the five.
In Seattle, Robart grilled
lawyers on two seemingly
conflicting federal laws
on immigration — one
that gives the president the
authority to keep any class
of aliens out of the country
and another that forbids the
government from discrim-
inating on the basis of
nationality when it comes
to issuing immigrant visas.
In Maryland, the judge
weighed
whether
the
measure
discriminates
against Muslims.
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