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East Oregonian
Friday, February 15, 2019
CHRISTOPHER RUSH
Publisher
KATHRYN B. BROWN
Owner
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Managing Editor
WYATT HAUPT JR.
News Editor
Founded October 16, 1875
OUR VIEW
Tools for keeping wolves away from livestock
J
ust about the last thing a visitor
to Ted Birdseye’s ranch would
expect to see is “Tube Man.”
You know, one of those inflatable
air dancers that flop back and forth
and are featured at used car lots across
the country.
Birdseye, whose Mill-Mar Ranch is
in Southern Oregon, has not one but
two of the crazy-looking contraptions.
The idea is not to sell 1985 Buicks
but to keep wolves away from his
livestock.
Wolves in the past year have taken
a heavy toll on Birdseye’s herd, killing
or injuring at least seven calves and
one guard dog.
Such attacks would drive a rancher
to try just about anything to keep
University of New South Wales/Ben Yexly
wolves away from livestock.
The eyes painted on the rumps of cattle in Botswana are designed to ward off marauding
The idea for the “Tube Man” came
from the environmental group Defend- lions, helping to save the livestock and the lions from farmer retaliation.
ers of Wildlife as a non-lethal means
of keeping wolves away from the herd. wolves would be particularly skittish
ranchers and others who are pestered
of,” Suzanne Stone, senior Northwest
Birdseye has tried other means of
by predators. Some ranchers have suc-
representative of Defenders of Wild-
keeping wolves away: flashing lights
cess training their cattle to stay in
life, told EO Media Group reporter,
and hanging fladry — tiny flags —
herds instead of running.
George Plaven.
on fences. He has even had U.S. Fish
In Botswana, Africa, researchers
When it comes to keeping wolves
and Wildlife Service wolf coordinator
have even painted eyes on the rumps
away from livestock, any and all
John Stephenson camp on his ranch.
of cattle to keep lions away. Called the
means should be tried. Air cannons,
The “Tube Man” had been used
iCow, it causes the predators to give
special lights called Fox Lights, noise- up their hunt, according to the Austra-
with success on a ranch near La
makers — even drones equipped with lian Geographic magazine. It does it
Grande after wolves killed several
lights, pepper spray and noisemak-
llamas.
by tapping into the fact that lions quit
“It’s always struck me as something ers — can be part of the toolbox for
hunting if the prey looks at them.
OTHER VIEWS
In the experiment, the researcher
found that none of the 23 cows with
eyes painted on their rears were killed,
while 39 others without the eyes were
killed.
In another experiment, the maga-
zine reported the Australian researcher
is testing whether use of dingo territo-
rial scents might keep predators away
from cattle.
Other, less scientific research has
involved hooking up a motion sen-
sor to a sprinkler to keep mountain
lions away from livestock. According
to mountainlion.org, when a predator
shows up, it gets a good dousing to let
it know it’s not welcome. Another idea
the website reported on involved using
Christmas lights to create “evil” eyes
that scare predators away.
One wonders whether other low-
and high-tech tools might work.
Motion sensors are readily available
at hardware stores. In fact, they allow
trail cameras to photograph wolfpacks
in the wild. Combined with “Tube
Man” and other devices, they might
just be enough to scare off wolves
intent on attacking livestock.
The idea is to keep trying. Wolves
are smart, and they are vicious, but
there has got to be a way to keep them
away from livestock.
And if all else fails, there’s always a
rifle — when and where it’s legal.
OTHER VIEWS
Navigating the male-female
work relationship
W
Tone-deaf harassment training
at Legislature is unacceptable
Mail Tribune
T
he Oregon Legis-
lature is off on the
wrong foot in its
attempt to address a toxic
culture of sexual harassment.
It’s unclear who’s at fault,
although the federal govern-
ment shutdown may have
played a role. The important
thing is to get newly insti-
tuted staff training sessions
back on track, and quickly,
before disillusioned staffers
give up and refuse to attend.
Training last fall report-
edly went well, but last
week, staffers who attended
a session conducted by a
trainer from the federal
Equal Employment Oppor-
tunity Commission walked
out, saying the trainer
appeared unaware of the cul-
ture of harassment that has
become a major issue in the
Capitol for more than a year.
The trainer reportedly
joked about those who file
harassment complaints,
saying, “as you all know,
snitches get stitches.” At
another point, the trainer
responded to the topic of
inappropriate touching in a
dismissive manner, saying
“we all know this is bad; we
don’t need to talk about that.”
It was inappropriate
touching that ended the
career of veteran State Sen.
Jeff Kruse, R-Roseburg,
after two female lawmak-
ers accused Kruse of inap-
propriate behavior two years
ago, including groping them
in meetings. Kruse denied
the allegations, but resigned
his seat.
Then, last year, the state
Bureau of Labor and Indus-
tries declared the Legislature
a hostile work environment
after an investigation. Legis-
lative leaders have appointed
a Committee on Culture to
address the issue.
But before that commit-
tee can make any headway,
it must fix what appears to
be a tone-deaf approach
by at least one trainer pro-
vided by the federal EEOC.
According to one report, the
trainer who conducted last
fall’s successful session was
unavailable because of the
federal shutdown. State offi-
cials requested a different
trainer for this week’s ses-
sion, and representatives of
the EEOC visited Salem to
meet with legislative leaders
on Friday.
Regardless of the reason
for last week’s disastrous
training session, there can be
no excuse for it. If the EEOC
can’t provide appropriate
training, the state should
look elsewhere.
Unsigned editorials are the opinion of
the East Oregonian editorial board. Other
columns, letters and cartoons on this page
express the opinions of the authors and not
necessarily that of the East Oregonian.
e’re seeing a backlash from was within shouting distance of the
first, which allayed my concern that
the #MeToo movement,
June might not be safe alone in an
with many male bosses
unlocked yurt. If she had been a col-
saying in surveys that they are less
league on a more equal footing, we
willing now to mentor junior female
might have stayed together, but the
colleagues, go to dinner with them,
gap in power between us made me
travel with them — generally treat
particularly cautious.
them as co-workers rather than as
This week I reached out to June to
land mines.
ask if her memory jibed with mine.
Male anxieties about mentoring
She said it was the best trip of her
women seem to me overblown. Sure,
life, but she didn’t remember any
there are risks of misunderstandings
crisis over accommodations — and
— women navigate this turf every
thought that even if she
day — but common sense
hadn’t said so, she might
can usually mitigate them,
have felt “weird” if we had
and gender separation won’t
shared a room. “I remember
work any better for us than
more that it was freezing
it did for the Taliban. We
cold,” she told me, “and I
should all be adult enough to
slept with all my clothes on
maneuver through the mid-
dle ground between leering
and about a foot of stinky
at a colleague and avoiding
wool blankets on top.”
her.
It’s 2006 and I’m trav-
N icholas
eling in the Darfur area
Here are a couple of real-
K ristof
COMMENT
of Sudan with my female
life work experiences I’ve
researcher, Winter Miller,
had. How do you think I
who persuaded me to let her
should have handled them?
use her own money and vacation time
It’s 1993 and I’ve sneaked into a
to join the trip for her own writing
remote part of the Xinjiang region
(she later wrote the play “In Darfur”).
of China with a female intern, June
We’re also accompanied by a male
Shih. After a horseback ride, we get
video journalist, Naka Nathaniel.
to our “hotel,” which has only sev-
eral large yurts, each with more than
The problem is that the first night
a dozen beds.
we’re in an upscale hotel in the Chad-
ian capital, which is more than Win-
The lodge manager opens one
ter can readily afford. Do I let Winter
yurt and turns on the electricity and
sleep on the extra bed in my room to
heat. I ask the manager for a sepa-
rate room, but he points out that there save money?
are another dozen beds available in
This really pained me. I wanted to
this yurt; he doesn’t want to open up
help but feared stories about me shar-
ing a hotel room with my researcher.
another.
Fortunately, Naka rescued us by let-
June says she doesn’t care. What
ting Winter stay on his extra bed; at
do I do?
least she did not work for him, and
I was conflicted, for it seemed
they were simply colleagues.
absurd for the two of us to take up
I reached Winter, now a play-
two giant yurts when there was zero
wright in New York, and here’s her
risk of actual impropriety. On the
take: “At the time, I wanted you to
other hand, I dreaded word getting
be a hero and pay for an additional
out that I had shared a room with an
room. However, I thought you were
intern.
overreacting; I trusted myself to be
In the end, I persuaded the man-
ager to open up a second yurt. It
around you and I trusted you to be
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around me.”
Did I choose right in these cases?
Wrong? I’m not sure. The challenge is
less about maintaining propriety than
about the image of propriety. I know I
wouldn’t do anything improper, but I
don’t want to leave the slightest room
for innuendo.
That’s why men sometimes say
they don’t dare mentor women;
tongues will wag.
To me, that’s ridiculous. Bosses
should manage these issues just as
they handle every other kind of risk
— conflicts of interest, volatile per-
sonalities, data safety and so on.
There’s abundant evidence that
companies with more senior women
have a higher return on equity. This
seems to be because more diverse
teams do better and also because the
companies willing to promote women
are more innovative in other ways.
The upshot is that managers who
don’t mentor women don’t just hurt
those women; they also sell their own
companies short.
Men and women alike will peri-
odically hug someone who isn’t
ready to be hugged, or will make a
ribald comment that leaves some-
one uncomfortable. But occasional
awkwardness is preferable to gender
apartheid.
In my journalistic career, I’ve
worked alongside women cover-
ing war, genocide, riots and famine.
Often there are no toilets, no places
to change, no privacy, but men and
women manage to make the situation
work through mutual respect. If peo-
ple of goodwill can make those “work
places” succeed, a modern office
building should be no problem.
Frankly, if we men need help sort-
ing all this out, we can ask a woman.
They’ve always managed this terrain,
mostly avoiding both anxiety and lust
and relying on simple common sense.
———
Nicholas Kristof is a columnist for
the New York Times.
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Pendleton, OR 9780, or email
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