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About Wallowa County chieftain. (Enterprise, Wallowa County, Or.) 1943-current | View Entire Issue (March 18, 2015)
A4 Opinion wallowa.com March 18, 2015 Wallowa County Chieftain The most important industry in the world N othing is more thrilling to a farmer than planting a seed and standing back to see what happens. Every year about 2.1 million U.S. farmers do just that. Some plant thousands of acres; others plant a patch of land the size of a small backyard. Still others take EDITORIAL former industrial sites in places such as Detroit and The voice of the Chieftain Philadelphia and convert them into urban farms. They are all participating in a 12,000-year-old ritual that has allowed humans to escape the role of hunter-gatherer and create a society where big ideas can be pursued. Once crops could be grown efficiently and animals could be domesticated for milk and meat, humans were free to think beyond their next meal. Today, farming is done across the globe. In China, farmers have cultivated rice for more than 7,500 years. In Bolivia, another ancient crop, quinoa, attracts extraordinarily high prices among so-called foodies in the U.S. In Brazil, ranchers raise beef cattle similar to those first brought to South America from India. Agriculture is important everywhere, but nowhere is it more important than in the United States. It was agriculture that helped a handful of colonies blossom into a booming economic powerhouse and world leader. Last year, U.S. farmers raised more than $400 billion in crops and livestock on slightly more than 900 million acres. U.S. farmers feed their fellow Americans — and much of the world. U.S. wheat, for example, can be found in noodles sold by a Tokyo street vendor, in flat bread baked in a stone oven in Algiers or in a steamed bun sold in a Jakarta restaurant. Other crops and products fill the shelves of shops and stores around the world, helping to feed 7 billion people. Who is the American farmer? Though statistics tell us that the average age is about 58 and the average farm is a little more than 400 acres, no farmer is typical. Just as every family is different, so too is every farmer. Some families have farming in their blood; they have tilled the land for generations. Others are new to it. Starting small, they add equal parts of inspiration and perspiration in an effort to grow new life and a livelihood from the land. Ours is a society that reveres high technology. Smart phones, electric cars and all manner of computer-enhanced gizmos are seen as the wave of the future. Yet, without agriculture, without food and fiber, none of that would exist. Before there could be iPhones, there had to be plows and tractors and combines. National Ag Day is March 18. It is a day to talk about how food is produced, and about the integral role farming and ranching play in society. And it is a celebration of the most important industry in the world. USPS No. 665-100 P.O. Box 338 • Enterprise, OR 97828 2I¿FH1:)LUVW6W(QWHUSULVH2UH 3KRQH)D[ :DOORZD&RXQW\¶V1HZVSDSHU6LQFH Enterprise, Oregon M EMBER O REGON N EWSPAPER P UBLISHERS A SSOCIATION P UBLISHER E DITOR R EPORTER R EPORTER N EWSROOM ASSISTANT A D S ALES CONSULTANT G RAPHIC D ESIGNER O FFICE MANAGER Marissa Williams, marissa@bmeagle.com Rob Ruth, editor@wallowa.com Stephen Tool, stool@wallowa.com Rocky Wilson, rwilson@wallowa.com Rich Rautenstrauch, rrautenstrauch@wallowa.com Brooke Pace, bpace@wallowa.com Robby Day, rday@wallowa.com Cheryl Jenkins, cjenkins@wallowa.com P UBLISHED EVERY W EDNESDAY BY : EO Media Group 3HULRGLFDO3RVWDJH3DLGDW(QWHUSULVHDQGDGGLWLRQDOPDLOLQJRI¿FHV Subscription rates (includes online access) Wallowa County Out-of-County 1 Year $40.00 $57.00 Subscriptions must be paid prior to delivery See the Wallowa County Chieftain on the Internet www.wallowa.com facebook.com/Wallowa | twitter.com/wcchieftain POSTMASTER — Send address changes to Wallowa County Chieftain P.O. Box 338 Enterprise, OR 97828 Contents copyright © 2015. All rights reserved. Reproduction without permission is prohibited. Wolf attack a cow man’s nightmare Wolves attacked and stampeded 250 head of very pregnant cows (calving start date March 1) on the Birkmaier private land on Crow Creek pass Feb. 12, 2015. The cows were wintering on the open bunch grass range receiving one-half feed of alfalfa hay. This 1,700-acre piece of land is about 10 miles northeast of Jo- seph. These cows were to be moved to the Birkmaier home ranch at the mouth of Crow Creek the last of February (the ranch is about 20 miles north). With no warning from agency people, who normally warn producers of wolves in the area, the wolves attacked in the night. The herd split into three groups. One group of about 70 cows went east, running in total panic, obliterating sev- eral barb wire fences. These cows ran about two miles to the Zumwalt road, then VRXWKDQGZHVWDERXW¿YHPLOHVGRZQWKH OK Gulch road to the Wallowa Valley, then north to the Birkmaier ranch land, about three miles, then reversed and ran about three miles south where they were stopped. These cattle were wet from the condensation of cold air on their overheat- ed bodies. Their tongues were out gasping for air. Another bunch went north through several fences to the Krebs ranch, about four miles, then back and were going in a large circle still running when they were stopped. A third bunch stayed in the pas- ture, but were in a high state of panic. The cattle could not be fed for two days. They ran away from hay and the pickup trying to feed them. None were killed, QR EURNHQ OHJV RU VWLÀHG MRLQWV VRPH cuts from barbed wire, not serious. We thought we were lucky. The rest of the story, we feared, would be told at calv- GUEST COLUMN Mack Birkmaier ing time and maybe before. By the way, the attacking wolves, from the Umatilla Pack, were at Dug Bar on the Snake Riv- er the next day (32 air miles away and over a mile climbing and descending). 1RZ DERXW ÀDGU\ DQG ZK\ LW ZDVQ¶W used. Fladry was not an option under these conditions on a large area with cat- tle grazing out in the winter time. Fladry is an electric wire with strips of colored plastic attached. Wolf cheerleaders, both local and everywhere, claim this cure- all is the answer to end all wolf depre- dations. Our experience: It may have a SODFHRQVPDOODFUHDJHVZH¿QGLWKDUGWR NHHSLWHOHFWUL¿HG:HWVQRZZLOOWDNHLW to the ground, wind blows tumbleweeds and mustard plants into it and if you use existing fences to put it on, wind blows it into the wires of existing fence and shorts it out. To use it on larger acreages re- quires a separate fence and many electric IHQFHFRQWUROOHUVDQGLW¶VMXVWLPSUDFWLFDO In the early days of the wolf debate, ÀDGU\ZDVRIIHUHGDVDWRROE\WKHDJHQ- cies and enviro groups to suck stock pro- ducers in to thinking they could use this to protect their animals. If it was practi- FDOLWSUREDEO\ZRXOGQ¶WEHVWDFNHGXSLQ the courthouse. Talking to other ranches LQ RWKHU VWDWHV FRQ¿UPV RXU EHOLHI WKDW PRVWUDQFKHUVNQRZLWGRHVQ¶WZRUNDQG so does the wolf. As I write this on the 11th day of March, 50 cows have calved. Our worst fears are coming true: one aborted a few days after the attack; three back- ZDUGV KLQG IHHW ¿UVW RQH XSVLGH GRZQ and backwards (the hind leg of this calf penetrated both the virginal and rectal walls); one more upside down and back- ZDUGV RQH WDLO ¿UVW EUHHFK WZR ZLWK legs turned back; one with head turned back. Several vaginal prolapses probably caused by improperly positioned calves. Is this indirect loss or what? My son Tom and his wife Kelly have had to deal with this horrible task night and day, 31 miles from vet clinics and assistance. What kind of people support turning the terrorist of the animal king- dom loose on these defenseless animals DQGLQÀLFWLQJWKLVNLQGRISDLQDQGORVV" When I think of my family out in the barn trying their best to save these poor animals — it takes hours with good luck to straighten and get them out — I get damn mad. Who do I blame? After devot- LQJDERXW\HDUVRIP\OLIHWR¿JKWLQJ this invasion of wolves from neighboring states through the political system, at- tending numerous ODFW hearings and workshops all over the state and partic- ipating in the largest “no wolf” hearing in the state of Oregon at Enterprise, and losing it all when we were slam-dunked by the ODFW commission in Trout- GDOHZKRE\WKHZD\GLGQ¶WKDYHJXWV enough to attend the Enterprise hearing) \HD,¶PELWWHU We lost eight calves this summer, we were compensated for one. If we ar- HQ¶W FRPSHQVDWHG IRU LQGLUHFW ORVV IURP wolves, our ranch and all others are in serious jeopardy. Mack Birkmaier, a past president of the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association, is a lifetime rancher on Crow Creek and Jo- seph Creek. Bette Husted comes back to Joseph I met Bette when she was teaching English at Joseph High School in the late 1970s. I had opened the Bookloft in Enter- prise, she was a customer, and we trumped up a student writing contest. It was open to all schools, but there were always more Husted student entrants and $10 winners. I ZRQ¶WVSLOOWKHEHDQVKHUHRQVRPHRIRXU neighbors who run ranches and local busi- nesses who, at the age of 15 and 16, some- times wrote poems. Good ones too. I will tell you that when the Josephy Cen- ter invited Bette back to town as part of our March celebration of women, I heard from several former students and parents of stu- dents who claimed that Bette was the best. She and her stories and invitation to stories were lights for many in those tough teenage years. Her tenure at Joseph was 11 years; in 1987 she moved to Pendleton and a long teaching career at Blue Mountain Community Col- lege. We stayed in touch, as Bette came back to Fishtrap conferences and sent her students ²VRPHWLPHVWULEDOPHPEHUVQHZO\¿QGLQJ written voice — to our workshops. Her own poems began showing up in various publica- tions, and then an award-winning book, “Liv- ing on Stolen Ground,” was published. That book was as soft and quietly pow- erful as she must have been as a teacher. It showed a poor, hardscrabble white family hanging onto any edge while living at the edge of the Nez Perce Reservation in Idaho. The title referred to reservation land that was stolen from Indians via the Allotment Act, one of the many attempts at forced assimilation, RIWHQGH¿QHGE\LWVSURSRQHQWVDVWKHSURFHVV of “killing the Indian to save the man.” with grit and humor, friendship and family. On Thursday night, she read to a small MAIN crowd at the Josephy Center and gave us some STREET of them. One of her former students said she told her daughter she was going to be read to Rich Wandschneider by her teacher — a long-ago remembered joy. We all craned to the soft voice to hear poems In the late 1800s the government decid- about a “perfect mother,” and then a wonder- ed that it would make farmers of Indians, so ful and complicated story about Pat Courtney “allotted” tribal lands to individual Indians. *ROGD:DVFREDVNHWPDNHUDQG¿EHUDUWLVW Some tribes resisted, knowing that it would Other major pushes at assimilation, the disrupt their culture. The major architect of the ,QGLDQERDUGLQJVFKRROV²ZKLFKÀRXULVKHG program, a well-intentioned woman named from the late 1800s into the 1970s — and Alice Fletcher, came to the Nez Perce reser- the Termination Act of the 1950s, had pretty vation herself to allot lands, and over a four- much decimated the basketry tradition among year period successfully assigned 80-acre al- the Wasco. Girls were carted off to boarding lotments to many tribal members. (She tried schools where they could not speak their lan- to allot land to Chief Joseph, then living at guage or practice traditional crafts, and impov- Colville, but he turned her down, holding out erished families sold off baskets and regalia as for a Wallowa return that of course never hap- they fought to retain tribal lands and identity pened.) The Act allowed these tribal members in the face of government policy aimed again to sell off their parcels after a 25-year period, at killing the Indian to save the man. So when Pat Courtney Gold, with, I must and further allowed the government to sell off mention, the encouragement of a brave and non-allotted lands as “surplus.” Fortunately, the Allotment Act was even- important white woman named Mary Schlick, tually abandoned, but a hundred years later who has made Indians and baskets a life work, less than 20 percent of the land on the Nez ZHQWWRPDNLQJEDVNHWVLWZDVGLI¿FXOWWR¿QG Perce reservation was owned by individual examples of traditional designs and weaving tribal members or by the tribe. The Nez Perce, patterns. She found some of them in a New like their Umatilla cousins and other tribes York museum. Bette told us her story. And that is what the best writers and teach- around the country, are addressing the issue ers do, bear witness to a complicated and of- now, repurchasing lost lands. Bette has gathered and held these Indian ten unjust world, show us how some people stories for 50 years, turned them over in her — and they themselves — have navigated it, mind, and reframed them in poems and stories. and nudge us towards doing the same. Main Street columnist Rich Wandschnei- 7KH\¶YHMRLQHGKHURZQVWRULHVRIJURZLQJXS poor, and of being a woman in sometimes hos- der is director of the Alvin M. and Betty Jose- tile male-dominated systems. Her stories are phy Library of Western History and Culture, those of difference and survival, of making it in Joseph. Wolf used as a pawn in a larger effort To the Editor: As a full time rancher and farmer that has both cattle and sheep I would agree with Commissioner Roberts use of the word “minimally” on the effectiveness of ÀDGU\LQUHJDUGVWRZROYHV Mr. Sykes and the environmental groups he helps represent have no problem with the use of the word “minimum” when it comes to the annual wolf count numbers. 7KH SKRWR RI WKH ÀDGU\ UROOV would only cover two miles and installa- tion costs are not covered nor to maintain of the total amount received for preventive measures whether it works or not. Mr. Sykes is on the Wallowa County Wolf Compensation Committee and is ful- ly aware of all the numbers and budgets. DQGWKHUHDUHDOVRVSHFL¿FUHTXLUHPHQWVRQ Simply turning in “funding applications” installation. The important factors other to receive funds is totally dependent upon WKDQ MXVW ÀDGU\ WR FRQVLGHU DUH WKH FORVH whether there is any available funding for location of cattle to humans and their the compensation to occur. The turning in dwellings during calving and if wolves are of applications does not equal automatic or even in the area at that time. As a result of guaranteed payment. endless litigation by environmental groups See LETTERS,3DJH$ compensation for producers must use 30% LETTERS TO THE EDITOR