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About Wallowa County chieftain. (Enterprise, Wallowa County, Or.) 1943-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 18, 2017)
A4 Opinion wallowa.com January 18, 2017 Wallowa County Chieftain Study looks at cattle time near streams E nvironmental groups say cattle grazing on public rangeland trample and erode streambanks and pollute water. But a five-year study of cattle grazing conducted by Oregon State University shows cattle spend only 1 to 2.5 percent of their time in streams or buffer areas. And rather than ranging up and down the length of steams in allotments, cattle used only 10 to 25 percent of the available stream area. The cows typically From Capital Press did not rest or graze near streams. Instead, they spent most of their time grazing on higher ground or resting in dry areas away from streams. John Williams, an OSU Extension rangeland expert in Wallowa County, said cows enter riparian areas for two reasons: “One is to drink, the other is to cross.” The study was done on a tight budget. Researchers built their own GPS collars, which generated location data every five minutes. They attached the collars to 10 cows in three different herds. Over the course of five years they collected 3.75 million data points. That data show that animals behave differently at different points in the grazing season. And that, Williams says, suggests that producers could use such data to increase the efficiency of their operations. The findings are potentially significant. Now we know that cattle probably don’t cause as much damage to streams and riparian areas as popularly thought, and it’s possible to use real data to reduce damage further by better management. The study shows the value of testing assumptions, and using what’s learned to make things better. We encourage OSU to continue this line of inquiry, and for all parties to take note. —— EDITORIAL Agriculture is sustainable S peaking to reporters last week, American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall said producers need to speak up and tell the public how they are producing more food with less water, less pesticides and less plowing. “We need to take back the concept of sustainability, because nobody works harder on sustainability than the American farmer and rancher,” he said. He says agriculture has never been more sustainable. Here, in his own words: “Just think about it for a minute; by using modern technologies, today’s farmers grow more crops on the same amount of land, using less plowing and pesticides, and feeding more people. “By developing more uses for our crops, like energy, we are making our economy more sustainable. “If farmers don’t take care of our land, we cannot stay in business. By providing food for all Americans, we are sustaining their freedom — so they can pursue the careers they are interested in. “We have a great story to tell. We need to take back the concept of sustainability — because nobody is working harder to be sustainable than America’s farmers and ranchers.” All good stuff. But he saves the money shot for last. “For agriculture to be sustainable, farming and ranching have to be profitable.” No profit, no food. Enough said. USPS No. 665-100 P.O. Box 338 • Enterprise, OR 97828 Office: 209 NW First St., Enterprise, Ore. Phone: 541-426-4567 • Fax: 541-426-3921 Wallowa County’s Newspaper Since 1884 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 O FFICE MANAGER Marissa Williams, marissa@bmeagle.com editor@wallowa.com Stephen Tool, stool@wallowa.com Kathleen Ellyn, kellyn@wallowa.com editor@wallowa.com Jennifer Powell, jpowell@wallowa.com Cheryl Jenkins, cjenkins@wallowa.com p ublished every w ednesday by : EO Media Group Periodical Postage Paid at Enterprise and additional mailing offices 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 © 2017. All rights reserved. Reproduction without permission is prohibited. Volume 134 The Legacy of Vietnam This month Fishtrap reads “The Things They Carried,” by Tim O’Brien, a novel of Vietnam, as part of the Big Read Program. It is also Martin Luther King day as I write. In 1994, at Fishtrap, our theme was “The Restless West: World War II and After.” Alvin Josephy was there, with stories of the Marine Corps in Guam and Iwo Jima. And Ivan Doig, with a new memoir, “Heart Earth,” based on a letter exchange between his mother in Mon- tana and an uncle in the Pacific. And Jean Wakatsuki Houston, who had grown up in the Japanese internment camp at Man- zanar. Historian Richard White gave the key- note, and I can almost quote his opening lines from memory: “Before World War II the West was a hard-scrabble place looking for population, capital, and an industrial base. World War II brought all three. Most of us in this room would not be here but for World War II.” We looked around the room and at each other. Some had a mom or dad who had worked in shipyards; many were from families transported west by the military; some came at war’s end to build and live in tract homes in California, or work in factories converted from build- ing tanks to tractors. The war was part of MAIN STREET Rich Wandschneider us. In a recent essay in the New York Times, “Vietnam: The War That Killed Trust,” Karl Marlantes argues that it was “the war — not liberalism, not immigra- tion, not globalization — that changed us.” Marlantes is a Vietnam vet who grew up in an Oregon logging town and the author of “Matterhorn,” a well-regarded novel of that war. WW II; Vietnam. Sure Vietnam changed us; my life here in Wallowa County is a small example. I was in the Peace Corps in Turkey in 1967, loving it and looking for a career in the State De- partment. I passed the Foreign Service written exam at the embassy, and, when I came home that fall, had a scheduled in- terview with the State. I also interviewed for Peace Corps staff, and had been of- fered a job there when I went to State. A panel of four ambassadorial-ranked men and women sat across from me at a huge table. I sweated my way through the inter- view, in the course of which I learned that my first assignment would be Vietnam. I remember saying that I had been out of the country since 1965, and really didn’t know much about Vietnam. A kind wom- an, seeing my discomfort, suggested that I take the Peace Corps offer and come back to them after my three-year hitch. Two years later, Turks were yelling at me on the streets over an ambassador newly arrived from the Vietnam “Phoenix pro- gram,” and the Peace Corps was kicked out of Turkey. Marlantes’ “War that killed trust” takes me — and us — from 1967 to to- day. He remembers a 1967 late-night hallway discussion at Yale, where he was the naïve Westerner who didn’t believe that American presidents lied to us. He learned about Johnson’s and Nixon’s lies while in Vietnam. I learned about them in Turkey, where Ambassador Komer was greeted in 1969 newspapers from far left to far right as the “American butcher from Vietnam.” “Phoenix,” part of a “pacification pro- gram,” was aimed at killing suspected Viet Cong in South Vietnamese villages. It was later admitted that 20,000 had been killed. See LEGACY, Page A5 Poachers steal from everyone Appreciation for native wildlife is something nearly all Americans share. Wildlife bring value and belong to all of us – not just those of us lucky enough to live near our state’s big wild places or those who shoot them with cameras rather than rifles. Some animals challenge us, but poaching is a crime against us all. Re- cent efforts to address the problem are welcome, but show just how far we have to go. Too often, poaching is considered an exotic problem on faraway continents where animals like elephants and rhi- nos are prized for their ivory and horns. Less recognized is the enormous prob- lem closer to home. Exhibit A is the easy passage of Measure 100 in the same year that saw Oregon’s legislature cre- ate legal loopholes for poachers and its wildlife agency defend allowing hunting of wolves as soon as this year. Poaching laws are difficult to en- GUEST COMMENT Rob Klavins force, but the problem has deep roots that make powerful interests uncomfort- able. Even in wildlife-loving Oregon, our efforts show a reluctance to take the first step of admitting we have a problem – and the influence of politics. When one of Oregon’s rare moose was illegally killed in Wallowa County, it was front page news. New laws mean that if the animal was sporting antlers, the crime is punishable by $50,000. News of wolf poaching is usually buried in annual agency reports. The fine for killing a wolf or cougar maxes out at $7,500. Wolf recovery in Northeast Oregon is no longer a novelty. However, that’s not true everywhere. OR-28, the matriarch of the Silver Lake wolves, was killed in October in Southern Oregon. The inves- tigation into her death remains shroud- ed in secrecy. Had she, her pup, and her 8-year old partner (another Wallowa County disperser) survived, they might have officially been designated the sec- ond known wolf pack outside Oregon’s Northeast corner. It’s not an isolated incident. In 2015, one-in-five monitored wolves were ille- gally killed – or died under mysterious circumstance — a number sadly in line with states like Idaho and Wyoming. That rate is also consistent with deer poaching in Oregon. A recent migration study incidentally revealed just as many mule deer killed legally by hunters as were killed illegally. Does that startling rate of poaching apply to other wildlife? We simply don’t know. See KLAVINS, Page A5 Joseph’s flower boxes need help I am writing in reference to the article in (the Jan. 11) Chieftain about the Jo- seph City Council – I have to say, as the “Joseph Flower Girl” for two summers that I love the gardens and flower boxes in the city of Joseph. I worked hard in my 2 summers there to do the best for them – however, Mr. Clevenger had an excellent suggestion for those boxes and gardens, they really, really need help. While I was working with them I worked hard to develop new soil and compost to try and replace the soil in each box and revitalize them. There was not money for new soil and the compost was blocked off so that plan did not work. This really desperate- ly needs to be done. Many people over the years have just clipped the weeds (or plants they don’t’ like) at the surface leaving the soil in nearly every spot so impacted with roots that it’s nearly im- possible to dig them. Many business owners and/or those who have adopted the beds have not been able to maintain them, because the soil is so unhealthy and thick with weeds it’s nearly impossible to dig into. With money and some coordi- nated effort they could be refreshed and made gorgeous again. Ideally, the flower beds need to be completely dug out, any repairs on the structure and/or water system need to be fixed and the offending big rocks that have blocked several of the hoses at the LETTERS to the EDITOR entrance to Joseph and new soil put in. We have many lovely perennials that a skilled gardener can save and replant so that would keep the costs down but, we really need to do something! The poten- tial for them to be great again is there – they are in place and my understanding is the hours and pay for the seasonal gar- dener have been reduced – when I was there it was a 20 hour a week job at $10 an hour – that is reasonable – you cannot go much lower than that. Please take the time to think about and consider if the flowerbeds – which many love should be continued and if so they must have a revitalization as I’ve de- scribed. If not then they should consider removing some or most because they are simply to the point of needing to be taken care of correctly. Tamara da Silva Enterprise Did Wallowa County move west? Possibly five years ago the Wallowa County Commissioners went out on a limb and loaned $500,000 to an incoming entrepreneur to purchase the old Wallowa Forest Products mill site near Wallowa to set up a biomass operation. The state thought it was such a good idea that they popped in another $100,000 or so. The loan was for five years, but the investor paid the county back in 18 months. It’s been a bumpy road, but In- tegrated Biomass has remained a steady, top employer at the Northwest corner of Wallowa County; paying bills primari- ly through sales of firewood, posts, and poles. In the January 4 issue of the Chief- tain, on page 14, the local newspaper published a lengthy article written by the Oregon State University Department of Forestry saying, in essence, that what has been done for five years in Wallowa County can’t be done. That study concluded that, even were wood off federal lands made available (the issue Wallowa County Commission- ers have been battling to assist Integrated Biomass,) “the additional supply does little to change the economic feasibility of processing facilities.” The nut of the argument comes two paragraphs later when it states all 65 identified locations the study was based on are in Western Oregon. Hmm. Isn’t Wallowa County, which the Chieftain represents, in Eastern Or- egon? Rocky Wilson Wallowa
