OFF PAGE ONE
Thursday, May 5, 2022
East Oregonian
Orchard:
Wolves:
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“But then the weather
started getting cold,” he
said. “It’s possible 50% of
the cherries didn’t even get
pollinated. It was the start of
apples last week; it’s possi-
ble those aren’t getting polli-
nated, either.”
Although there’s little he
can do to control the weather,
Dibble uses a number of tools
to try to keep his orchards
and grapes warm enough to
avoid frost damage.
Along with some
common tools of the trade,
he uses some less common
tactics, including a mobile
wind machine he can shuf-
fl e around to the area that
needs it most, or the line of
propane-fueled heaters he
used to get his vineyard off
the ground.
He said his losses from
the killed calves and the
one injured April 30 —
which he said likely won’t
be marketable — amounts
to an estimated $4,000.
Birkmaier said he’s been
working 20 hours a day for
the previous eight or nine
days to protect his cattle
and use nonlethal methods
to deter the wolves.
Ranchers also must
remove all carcasses, bone
piles and other attractants
and be using non-lethal
deterrents such as range
riders to qualify for lethal
take of wolves.
In this case, ODFW
repor ts the livestock
producer has a history of
using non-lethal deterrents
to haze wolves in the area,
including flashing lights,
radios and hiring a range
rider with funding provided
by a nonprofi t organization.
“I’m trying all the nonle-
thal methods that I can,”
Birkmaier said. “I’ve had a
tremendous amount of help
from the community.”
“The producer spent
several nights in the pasture
with his cattle following
the first depredation and
attempted to haze wolves
out of the area on April 26
by shooting in the air over
eight wolves he encountered
in the pasture,” the agency
stated. “Despite these
eff orts, wolves have contin-
ued to visit and have killed
additional calves.”
Birkmaier said he’s
received assistance from
fellow ranchers and resi-
dents. In particular, he noted
Mike and Mona Rahn, who
have a cabin in the area.
“They dropped every-
thing they were doing to
help,” he said. “They were
literally living with one
group of cows.”
He said many others
have helped who he will
publicly thank at a later
time.
“All ranchers work so
hard during the calving
season and we turn out
healthy calves with lots
of vigor,” Birkmaier said.
“Before wolves were intro-
duced, we didn’t have to
worry about them much this
time of year. Now it’s at a
whole other level of loss,
both emotional and fi nan-
cial and many extra hours of
work. Ranchers don’t have
that extra time … and to
have to work day and night
to protect them from the
wolves that are both nonna-
tive and were introduced.”
The Chesnimus pack
numbers at least eight or
nine adult and yearling
wolves, none of which
have a working GPS collar,
according to ODFW.
The agency says killing
two wolves would not be
expected to impact the
pack’s breeding success.
Roblyn Brown, wolf
coordinator for ODFW,
A warm-blooded
farmer
Dibble comes by his will-
ingness to experiment natu-
rally. His grandfather Aaron
Weis, for whom Dibble’s
farm is named, was the fi rst
in the Valley to combat frost
with wind machines.
By the mid-1960s, Weis
had installed wind machines,
giant fans that push warmer
air down to the ground and
delay the loss of heat, a tool
that had by then proven popu-
lar in California’s citrus
orchards.
Even on cold nights,
moving slightly warmer air
from the inversion layer back
down to the ground can make
the crucial diff erence for the
crop.
“Last week, when we had
that windy, snowy, rainy day,
we weren’t getting much heat
in the ground,” Dibble said.
“But wind is way better than
dead still. When you have
dead-still calm like you do
on those really cold nights,
that will mess you up more
than anything.”
Workers:
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“Two years ago we sat
with approximately 100 jobs
open,” she said. “In a survey
done several months ago by
the city, Pendleton was at 500
open positions. This is indic-
ative of the overall theme
across the state and nation.”
Rosenberg assessed the
worker shortage is not neces-
sarily easing thanks to wage
hikes.
“There are so many factors
facing folks today,” she said.
“Higher wages are great,
but without day care, hous-
ing, etc., higher wages don’t
cover those struggles. I know
one of the city’s priorities is
housing, and Pendleton Chil-
dren’s Center is working hard
to create 150 slot daycare. We
have some great providers in
town, but reality is there’s just
not enough to fi ll the gap.”
Reaction:
Continued from Page A1
Maxwell emphasized that
abortion is prohibited by the
Didache, a text the Catholic
Church holds sacred, and the
church’s stance on abortion
has not changed in hundreds
of years.
“The Catholic Church has
stood in opposition to abor-
tion since the 15th century.”
Maxwell continued. “It’s a
mortal evil, you can’t change
what’s true.”
John Herman, a member
of the parish of Our Lady of
the Valley Catholic Church in
La Grande, echoed that senti-
ment.
“They can call it what-
ever they want, but it’s still
taking another person’s life,’’
he said.
Maxwell and his church
par ish are not alone.
Anti-abortion protests are
not uncommon in Eastern
Oregon, and in fact it was
a major concern Planned
Parenthood addressed in
a press conference May 3.
Several questions revolved
around security measures at
the soon to be Ontario Clinic
and how the organization
Greg Lehman/Walla Walla Union-Bulletin
Dana Dibble talks about his propane orchard heating system, April 19, 2022.
While Dibble also uses
the traditional machines,
including one of the origi-
nals installed by his grand-
father, he also uses a mobile
unit that folds and unfolds
using hydraulics. While it is
signifi cantly smaller than the
older models, it makes up for
this shortcoming with adapt-
ability and price point.
While a new mobile wind
machine would have run
nearly $30,000, he bought his
used for $12,000, parking it
next to his peach trees. In a
year where many people lost
tree fruit to weather condi-
tions, Dibble sold 1,400
boxes of peaches in 2021,
much of which he credits to
the mobile machine.
The wind from the
machine functions in tandem
with the heat produced with
other components in Dibble’s
frost-free system, including
the heat radiated from irri-
gation water pumped in at 55
degrees.
He also uses diesel-fueled
smudge pots, a traditional
type of heater, and detach-
able heaters connected to a
propane line, a system Dibble
purchased from Hood River-
area contractor AgHeat.
Heaters aren’t a rare sight
in orchards, but Dibble orig-
inally bought AgHeat’s
propane units 16 years ago
to protect the young grape
vines of his River Rock Vine-
yard, an unusual gambit. The
young grapes can get wiped
out by a hard winter, and
Dibble’s kept dying.
While the wind machines
can help provide a layer of
protection to the vines as
easily as the trees, a cold
wind blowing in hard from
the Blue Mountains in winter
can overcome them.
“And that would kill us,”
Dibble said. “But the warmth
off the heaters would go up in
the air, and that drift would
kind of carry to (the nearby)
machine. So if you have
heaters, you create your own
inversion.”
This system isn’t perfect
— it’s an expensive invest-
ment, the heaters can
malfunction, and it’s labor
intensive, so Dibble doesn’t
often use the vineyard units
anymore. Instead, he does
what most vineyard manag-
ers do, simply laying the
canes down, a method of
fortifying the vine during
winter that also is labor
intensive.
But the unusual heaters
helped to get Dibble’s fl edg-
ling vineyard off the ground,
he said, and he has recently
begun to hear from growers
as far afi eld as Chile inter-
ested in his system.
Each component helps
to diversify and strengthen
A. Weis Farms’ frost-free
system, Dibble noted, a
business philosophy evident
in the wide variety of fruits
the land produces: cherries,
apples, apricots, peaches,
grapes and U-pick raspber-
ries. If any particular compo-
nent fails, the others are there
to pick up the slack, Dibble
said.
W h ile polli nat ion
concerns may prove to be
problematic for this year’s
crop, Dibble’s fruit seems
to have survived the spring
frost that descended on the
Valley earlier this month, due
in part to the heaters, irriga-
tion, wind machines — and,
of course, a few lucky clouds.
The lack of workers is a
common theme.
Due to staff shortages,
Starbucks in Southgate was
closed on weekends last
month according to a note on
display on a window in early
April.
A month later, the worker
shortage seems to have
improved somewhat, possi-
bly helped by higher mini-
mum wages. Now Starbucks
is open on weekends, but
still with reduced hours. The
Saturday and Sunday hours
shown on its website are
7 a.m. to 4 p.m., as opposed to
5:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. week-
days.
Oregon Grain Growers
Brand Distillery co-owner
Keili Bullington said staff -
ing has been an issue for the
establishment at 511 S.E.
Court Ave., the same as it has
been with many other indus-
tries.
“We have a few positions
that we are currently looking
to hire and we look forward
to seeing local faces coming
back to work with us this
summer after school is out,”
she said.
McDonald’s raised its
minimum wage to $15 per
hour in March. Burger
King declined to comment,
and Safeway’s director of
communications and public
aff airs didn’t respond to ques-
tions.
U.S. infl ation rose to its
highest level since 1981 in
March, as the Consumer
Price Index spiked 8.4%, so
cost increases eat into wage
hikes.
Wildhorse Resort &
Casino, with its subsidiary
operations, was advertising
at least 82 jobs in early April,
ranging from unskilled,
entry-level to highly trained
professional positions.
Among its satellite businesses
requiring help were Arrow-
head Truck Plaza by the free-
way, the Hamley complex
downtown and Birch Creek
Golf Course off Highway 395
south of Pendleton.
In early May, demand
for workers remains high,
with 80 positions listed, and
CHI St. Anthony Hospital is
advertising many available
positions.
At the jobs fair, Tum-A-
Lum Lumber Pendleton
branch manager Shane Rein-
hart said that just that morn-
ing his company had fi lled its
last open position.
“We’re fully-staff ed, but
some other branches still
need help,” he said.
During the pandemic, the
U.S. labor force participation
rate crashed from 63.4% in
February 2020 to its corona-
virus low of 60.2% in April,
according to the federal
Bureau of Labor Statistics.
As schools and businesses
closed, many parents again
needed to care for children at
home. By March, the rate had
recovered to 62.4%.
would address suspected
protesters.
Offi cials gave assurances
they have been diligently
planning for this for a while,
but refused to make an affi r-
mative statement to the ques-
tion.
Oregon’s senior U.S. sena-
tor, Ron Wyden, in a state-
ment blasted the Republican
Party and the draft.
“The Republican party has
set the stage for a total erosion
of Americans’ constitutional
rights,” Wyden said. “They
have made clear they won’t
stop at gutting the right for
a woman to make decisions
about her own body. Repub-
licans know that the majority
of Americans don’t support
eroding fundamental rights
like privacy, so instead, they
packed the Supreme Court
with right-wing extremists
willing to do their dirty work
behind closed doors.”
Wyden said if this was a
fi nal draft, the United States
will be one of a handful of
countries moving backwards
on women’s rights and mark
a “devastating loss of consti-
tutionally guaranteed bodily
autonomy and privacy for
more than half of America.”
He stated abortion is
health care.
“Ending this protected
and established right — a
right generations of women
have now known and that the
overwhelming majority of
Americans support — would
harm the health, safety and
lives of millions of women
and families,” Wyden said.
“This is going to be the fi ght
of our lives, and we must use
every tool at our disposal to
stop this attack on constitu-
tionally guaranteed rights.”
According to Politico,
Chief Justice John Roberts
confirmed the authenticity
of the draft but stressed the
document “does not represent
a decision by the Court or the
fi nal position of any member
on the issues in the case.”
Politico also noted, the
draft opinion includes “a
31-page appendix of histor-
ical state abortion laws ... is
replete with citations to previ-
ous court decisions, books
and other authorities, and
includes 118 footnotes.”
And the “appearances and
timing of this draft,” accord-
ing to Politico, “are consistent
with court practice.”
— East Oregonian news
editor Phil Wright and
The Obser ver reporter
Dick Mason contributed
to this report.
said May 3 that Birkmai-
er’s April 30 calf losses
were expected to be posted
on the ODFW website
May 3, after the investiga-
tion is complete.
She also said it’s possi-
ble the number of wolves
allowed to be taken under
the kill permits could
increase.
“T he potential to
increase the number of
wolves (permitted to kill)
exists,” she said. “It just
depends on if the number
of depredations increases.”
ODFW released its
annual wolf report on
April 19, showing the state’s
minimum wolf population
remained virtually fl at in
2021 while the number of
wolf deaths was the most
ever recorded in a single
year.
The known population
grew by two wolves, from
173 to 175, based on veri-
fi ed evidence and sightings.
However, the agency says
the actual number is likely
higher.
Meanwhile, 26 wolves
died in 2021, including 21
killed by humans, or about
12% of the population. Of
those, four were hit by vehi-
cles, eight were illegally
poisoned, one was legally
shot by a rancher on private
property and another eight
were killed by ODFW after
repeatedly attacking live-
stock in Baker County.
“Despite this, we are
confi dent in the continued
health of the state’s wolf
population as they expand
in distribution across the
state and show a strong
upward population trend,”
Brown said.
Environmental groups
argued the repor t is
evidence that wolves east
of highways 395, 78 and 95
still require protections to
aid in their recovery.
“State offi cials need to do
more to combat the illegal
killing of wolves, and they
need to embrace non-lethal
ways of preventing confl icts
with livestock,” said Sophia
Ressler, staff attorney with
the Center for Biological
Diversity.
John Williams, wolf
committee co-chairman
for the Oregon Cattlemen’s
Association, said ranch-
ers bear the economic and
emotional brunt of wolves
attacking their livestock.
In addition to confi rmed
depredations, Williams
said the presence of wolves
can make normally docile
cows agitated, lowering
birth rates and birth weight
of calves that ultimately
affects the producers’
bottom line.
“There has been a lot of
conservation that has been
done under the Oregon
Wolf Conservation and
Management Plan,” he
said. “It’s time that a lot
more management starts
happening.”
— Reporter Bill Brad-
shaw of the Wallowa
County Chieftain contrib-
uted to this article.
2022
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