A4
Opinion
wallowa.com
April 8, 2015
Wallowa County Chieftain
Water rights
reform
appears
inevitable
E
normous splotches of cancer-like drought consuming
some of a nation’s most productive agricultural lands:
If CIA analysts saw the same thing happening in Africa,
Asia or Latin America,
they would warn of near-
EDITORIAL
term economic and social
upheaval. It’s happening
The voice of the Chieftain
here in America and though
nobody is predicting food
riots right away, a substantial governmental and personal
response is essential.
The U.S. Drought Monitor (droughtmonitor.unl.edu) has
been a source of worry for several years but is particularly
worrisome this spring. With the exception of Montana and
Wyoming, the mainland Western states are on track to repeat
the dry pattern of recent years. Now in early spring when
conditions might usually be expected to be moist, 60 percent
of the West has some degree of water shortage — 7.23 percent
in the worst, exceptional form of dead dryness. Years of this
means that stored water and groundwater are being rapidly
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California is working its way through its last year of water.
Crucial food-growing areas of California and Midwestern
states like Kansas are in the grip of conditions that will drive
up food prices, putting greater strain on families that already
struggle to balance monthly expenses. Affordable food has
been one of America’s key advantages. The California Farm
Water Coalition points out U.S. consumers pay just 6.2
percent of their disposable income on food, compared to 10.2
percent in 28 other high-income countries. At the same 10.2
percent rate, U.S. families would have to increase the amount
they spend on their food budget by almost $4,000 per year,
the coalition’s Mike Wade commented to The Wall Street
Journal.
Allocating water in a time of scarcity will stretch the
current boundaries of legal ingenuity. Water law is a topic
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lawsuits and actual shootouts. We’re fast coming to a time
when this untouchable topic will have to be dealt with. As
an Oregon State University Extension crop scientist told The
Oregonian last week, “At what point does it go from being
a dry spell to just having to accept where we are today and
where we’re going?”
This crisis is generating a lot of discussion. In Southern
Oregon, water users are awaiting congressional authorization
of a set of agreements that will help settle water-sharing
issues between farms, tribes and wildlife. In California, a
venture capitalist and a journalist have proposed a new free
market to buy and sell water like any other commodity, rather
WKDQQDUURZO\OLQNLQJVSHFL¿FZDWHUWRVSHFL¿FODQGDVWKH
law now mandates. Other responses include a Facebook
campaign seeking to make vegetable gardening a standard
offering in public schools.
Western water was initially parceled out based on
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ranchers, and then eventually by growing cities. Byzantine
court decisions and rural politics driven by property-rights
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in this system.
The pressure for reform is only going to increase, however.
Like requisitioning iron in a time of war, a time is fast
approaching when we will be forced to develop ways to get
water where it will do the most good. Having these debates
now, before too much ag land is in deeper crisis, will be the
best way to avoid more damaging impacts later on private
water rights.
Correction
Although
Enterprise’s
Ace Hardware store has no
immediate plans to expand
into lumber, it remains a fu-
P.O. Box 338 • Enterprise, OR 97828
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Enterprise, Oregon
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Branding season has come early to
Wallowa County in 2015. It seems we got
60 days of May in February and March
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days of March.
I have gone to four brandings in four
days and by the fourth one I had two tired
horses and a weenie arm that could hard-
ly build a loop. The fourth was at Aunt
Dan Warnock’s in the upper Imnaha.
Due to my eroded condition I elected to
leave my horses at home and just work
the ground. I knew there would be plen-
ty of ropers and they wouldn’t miss my
participation in the roping. I felt it was
necessary to show up if only to serve as a
role model for Warnock boys. The older
ones may be beyond help, but Riley the
roper shows some promise.
There appeared to be plenty of ground
help also, so I opted to have a beer and offer
constructive criticism to the workers. This
brought on an unprovoked attack from Lisa
Morgan who suggested that I was only
drinking beer and not helping. I pointed out
that pretty people shouldn’t have to do hard
work. I think it fell on deaf ears. Things
went along pretty good until one of the la-
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her relatives for using the wrong iron on
one of the calves. I got to see a side of her I
had never seen before. She seemed to shun
the constructive criticism her family was
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
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Contents copyright © 2015. All rights reserved. Reproduction
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minutes after the procedure the calf is hap-
pily sucking his mom and all is well. I look
OPEN RANGE
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participating, laughing and smiling. They
compare favorably to some animal rights
Barrie Qualle
people’s kids that commonly are seden-
tary while they play video games and try to
decide whether to get another tattoo or do
offering.
There is a lot that can go wrong at a some more body piercing. They complain
branding and OSHA would never approve about how we treat a calf and don’t appear
of the exciting action at all brandings. We to worry about their children.
Ranchers know that any abusive treat-
got through this one with little more than a
EURNHQ¿QJHUQDLO:KHQDOOZDVGRQHDQG ment is counterproductive and likely to
the cattle were being turned out, the crew DIIHFW WKHP ¿QDQFLDOO\ LQ WKH ORQJ UXQ
decided to rope a cow for one of the War- These animals are worth over $1,200 for a
nock boys to ride. The cow was necked weaned calf and maybe $2,600 for a bred
and others were trying to heel her when young cow. Bull sales have been averaging
Amanda Smith’s horse decided it had all it about $7,500 per head. Why would anyone
was going to take and bucked her off. This jeopardize earning this kind of money on
caused Tyson McLaughlin’s horse to do the their cattle? Urban people trying to pass
same and we had a double buck-off. It was legislation to alter the way ranchers oper-
all pretty scary and both riders were pretty ate might better spend their time looking
aired out. Amanda had us all pretty worried at the urban children and the way they
and was hurting pretty bad. Turned out to are allowed to decorate their bodies with
be a couple of cracked vertebrae along with their parents’ permission. There is plenty
contusions and abrasions. Tyson is just sore of time after you are older and have better
judgment to tattoo, smoke, and pierce your
all over.
,¿QGLWRGGZKHQDQLPDOULJKWVSHRSOH tongue and nose.
What do you think Wally?
gripe about things like ranchers processing
Open Range columnist Barrie Qualle is
cattle. Ranchers are immunizing their an-
imals from sickness or death and maybe a Wallowa County cowboy who sometimes
giving them a vitamin or selenium boost. works and other times watches others work
6XUHWKH\EUDQGDQGLQVWDOOHDUWDJVEXW¿YH while he dispenses advice and drinks beer.
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By Rocky Wilson
In decades past, members of the Wallowa
County Planning Commission, among oth-
ers, spent hours strategizing on best ways to
manage future growth in this rural corner of
Oregon. Ordinances to govern setbacks and
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to separate industrial zones from residential
zones, and much more were discussed at
length and, in most cases, resolved via writ-
ten decree.
All this was important work that had to
be done, but maybe that anticipated future
growth may never come.
ture possibility. The headline
Let’s face it: Wallowa County, by its lo-
above the story’s continued cation, is an end-of-the-road destination and
SRUWLRQRQSDJH$ODVWZHHN likely will remain so into the future. One
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access highway, play-dough for some, could
be described as the most dangerous stretch
of state highway in the U.S., and tourists as
a whole aren’t keen on retracing their steps
when traveling on secondary routes. I mean
USPS No. 665-100
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gal avenues that can be tapped to remove
money from the hands of willing tourists
and into the hands of local businessmen.
And in society today, one excellent re-
Wallowa Lake is beautiful, but driving twice source of capital outlay — one that won’t
over the 75-mile stretch between La Grande come here overnight, but will come —
and the lake is a deterrent many tourists will be an explosion of bicyclists who are
mounting bikes on cars in ever-increasing
choose to avoid.
But even if future growth doesn’t oc- numbers, driving distances in search of
FXUWKHUHDUHGH¿QLWHQHHGVKHUHPDQ\RI new locales of beauty (Wallowa County?)
them economic, that can and should be ad- and unloading their foot-powered vessels
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dressed.
Tourism is mostly seasonal, with many ercise that many yearn for.
They also mean to breathe fresh air,
businesses closing their doors during the
cold season, when icy roads of the fears of and take in Nature’s grandeur at their own
such keep people away and motel rooms pace.
And, historically, these touring bi-
vacant. But what can we do, right? Or,
maybe better worded, what do we want cyclists are environmentally conscious
and spend twice as much money as other
to do?
We can’t dictate the weather, which tourists when on vacations.
is under the control of an entity beyond
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human comprehension, but there are le-
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A recent Commentary piece published
in the April 1st edition of the Chieftain from
the Capital Press states that “the lone advan-
tage of food grown near the consumer is a
smaller fuel bill for the truck. Beyond that,
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the region is any better, or worse, than any
other food.”
I beg to differ. Although the term “local”
can be stretched to mean different geograph-
ic extents, “local” food available at farmers
markets is often required to be from the
same county, surrounding counties, or only
several counties away. This is the case with
the farmers markets in Wallowa County.
Freshness greatly affects the nutrition of
GUEST RESPONSE
Lauren Johnson
fruits and vegetables: as soon as you pick
produce, vitamin and mineral content begin
to decrease. Plus, many fruits on an industri-
al scale are picked unripe, meaning that their
nutritional content doesn’t develop to its full
potential.
Buying produce at your farmers markets
means that it was picked within days, some-
times hours, of being sold, that it was picked
ripe, and that it’s full of vitamins, minerals,
and antioxidants. Buying directly from a
farmer creates a relationship of trust: you
can speak directly to him or her about their
practices, where it was grown, and how they
treat their employees.
Although food from large scale farms
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Further, you have no way of verifying how
workers are treated on the massive farms
in Mexico that produce much of our fruits
and vegetables. A recent exposé in the LA
Times (“Hardship on Mexico’s Farms,
a Bounty for US tables”) showed that
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Plato’s political depth is best mea-
sured by one of the many questions
he didn’t inconvenience himself with:
If man, by his nature, is unqualified to
govern himself, then by what superior
substitute for human reason does it fol-
low that others of his species are enti-
tled to “govern” him in his stead — and
on whose worthy behalf?
The single pillar absent from each of
the “-ocracies” and “-archies” on Pla-
to’s list of inferior forms of government
(including democracy) is absent also
from the “ideal” form of monarchy that
LETTERS TO
THE EDITOR
Plato favors over them — as if subser-
vience to a philosopher-king were any
less an instance of subservience. Miss-
ing from them all, most conspicuously
from Plato’s alleged “republic,” is the
concept of man’s innate, inalienable,
individually held rights — the factor
apart from which the necessity and the
proper role of government can’t begin
to be grasped or communicated. In re-
buttal to all the travesties appearing on
(or off) Plato’s S.-list, there is no such
factor to consider as “the rights of the
rich” or “the rights of the poor”; nor,
most preposterous of all, “the divine
right of kings” or whatever fibre of
“qualification.” Every such notion is an
insolent denial of the authentic rights
belonging, from birth, to every human
being — his right not to be murdered,
plundered or enslaved, no matter who
or how many would benefit (monetari-
ly) from his subjugation.
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