News
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, March 1, 2017
A3
Ranchers oppose cuts to wolf
compensation, predator control
By Mateusz Perkowski
Capital Bureau
The Eagle/Rylan Boggs
Kam Wah Chung Curator Don Merritt stands for a photo
in the Kam Wah Chung Interpretive Center. He earned a
master’s degree in anthropology with an emphasis in
archaeology from University of Montana in 2010.
Local museum
gets new curator
Merritt wants
to attract more
volunteers
By Rylan Boggs
Blue Mountain Eagle
The Kam Wah Chung
Museum has a new curator.
Don Merritt started Jan.
3 and is looking forward to
re-opening the museum and
interpretive center in May.
Merritt said starting in
the off-season is nice be-
cause it allows him to famil-
iarize himself with the posi-
tion and history of the area.
“For the fi rst few weeks,
all I did was read all the
books, all the documents
and all the histories that
were around so I had some
familiarity with what’s go-
ing on,” he said.
He has been preparing
for the season by complet-
ing small maintenance proj-
ects and continues to scan a
plethora of documents writ-
ten in Chinese that were re-
covered from the Kam Wah
Chung building. Roughly
20,000 documents — from
personal correspondence to
legal documents and med-
ical records — are being
scanned to more effective-
ly share with translators.
However, some documents
are written with traditional
Chinese characters, making
them more diffi cult to trans-
late, Merritt said.
Many of the letters are
from Chinese immigrant
and former Kam Wah Chung
owner Lung On, including
personal correspondence be-
tween him and his father in
China and business dealings
pertaining to his car dealer-
ship.
“It’s just amazing how
much stuff they found that
was in boxes,” Merritt said.
“They were pack-rats. You
couldn’t hardly walk into
the building because they
had so much stuff.”
Prior to being hired at
Kam Wah Chung, Merritt
worked as an archaeologist
for the Bureau of Land Man-
agement and, before that, as
a curator at the Fremont In-
dian State Park in Utah.
He earned a master’s de-
gree in anthropology with
an emphasis in archaeology
from University of Montana
in 2010.
Merritt was drawn to the
area because of its remote-
ness and proximity to the
outdoors. He enjoys hiking
and studying the genealogy
of his family, and is current-
ly writing a book about Fort
Owens, a trading post estab-
lished in 1849 near Stevens-
ville, Montana. He complet-
ed his thesis there and wants
to document its transforma-
tion from an early outpost to
a state park.
In the coming years,
Merritt would like to work
with the Forest Service to
host archaeological events
and encourage more local
connection and volunteer-
ism.
He said he’s noticed
many residents haven’t been
in the Kam Wah Chung Mu-
seum, something he hopes
to change.
Ranchers who suffer live-
stock losses from predators
stand to lose state support un-
der both budget scenarios cur-
rently proposed for the Oregon
Department of Agriculture.
Funding aimed at predator
control and compensation for
livestock depredation would
be cut under recommendations
from Gov. Kate Brown as well
as the co-chairs of the Joint
Ways and Means Committee,
Sen. Richard Devlin, D-Tuala-
tin, and Rep. Nancy Nathan-
son, D-Eugene.
The proposed cuts drew
objections from the livestock
industry during a Feb. 22 hear-
ing on ODA’s budget before a
panel of Joint Ways and Means
Committee members focused
on natural resources.
As the wolf population has
grown in Oregon, livestock
losses have been a continuing
source of frustration for ranch-
ers, said Mike Durgan of the
Baker County Wolf Compensa-
tion Advisory Committee.
Even when wolves don’t kill
cattle, they cause health prob-
lems that are considered indirect
losses and aren’t compensated
with state dollars, Durgan said.
Until wildlife offi cials fi nd
a better way to manage the
predators, the livestock indus-
try should receive state assis-
tance, he said. “I want to make
it clear I’m not advocating kill-
ing wolves today.”
Oregon counties have stead-
fastly contributed money to
their partnership with ODA and
USDA’s Wildlife Services divi-
sion to pay for predator control,
even as they’ve fallen short of
funds for public safety and other
vital services, said Craig Pope, a
Contributed photo/Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife
Funding aimed at predator control and compensation
for livestock depredation would be cut under
recommendations from Gov. Kate Brown as well as the
co-chairs of the Joint Ways and Means Committee.
Polk County commissioner.
“We will have no one else
to call if we let this partnership
fail,” Pope said. “Counties
cannot make up the difference
of this funding hole.”
The Oregon Hunters Asso-
ciation and the Rocky Moun-
tain Elk Foundation testifi ed
in favor of restoring the state’s
full contribution to the pred-
ator control program, which
they say is necessary to main-
tain a balance between preda-
tors and deer and elk.
Under Gov. Kate Brown’s
recommended 2017-2019 bud-
get, the ODA would eliminate
$460,000 in state funding for
the USDA’s Wildlife Services
division, which kills problem-
atic predators.
An ODA program that com-
pensates ranchers for wolf dep-
redation would be funded at
$211,000 under the governor’s
proposal, compared to $233,000
in the 2015-2017 biennium.
The co-chairs of the Joint
Ways and Means Committee,
meanwhile, have proposed
a “budget framework” for
the upcoming biennium that
would decrease funding for
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the wolf compensation pro-
gram “and/or reduce funding
for predator control.”
While the co-chairs’ budget
framework doesn’t specify the
exact reductions for ODA pro-
grams, it does propose cutting
state funding for all natural re-
source agencies to $405 mil-
lion, down from $413.6 million
during the previous biennium.
Rep. Lew Frederick, D-Port-
land, said he’s concerned about
livestock losses and supports
continued assistance from the
state but raised concerns about
possible hunting of wolves.
While wolves aren’t cur-
rently hunted in Oregon, con-
trolled hunts could be allowed
during a later phase of wolf
recovery under the state’s man-
agement plan for the species.
Frederick cautioned against
the display of “trophy” wolves
killed by hunters, which he said
would erode public support for
the predator control and wolf
compensation programs.
“That’s a political situa-
tion that will shut down a great
deal,” he said.
Aside from predator control,
other ODA programs are on
the chopping block under the
proposals from Brown and the
co-chairs of the Joint Ways &
Means Committee.
A coalition of natural re-
source industry groups — in-
cluding the Oregon Farm Bu-
reau, Oregon Association of
Nurseries, Oregon Cattlemen’s
Association and others —
urged lawmakers not to curtail
those programs.
For example, the co-chairs’
budget framework recom-
mends decreasing the number
of positions in ODA’s agricul-
tural water quality program
and shifting food safety and
pesticide programs from the
general fund to program fees.
Industry
representatives
fear such shifts will effective-
ly increase fees on farmers,
ranchers and others.
Under Brown’s budget
proposal, about $250,000 in
general fund dollars would
be cut from ODA’s inspection
program for “confi ned animal
feeding operations,” shifting
the burden onto fee payers.
A biocontrol program for
controlling invasive weeds
would also be eliminated, sav-
ing $250,000.
Don Farrar, Gilliam Coun-
ty’s weed offi cer, argued
against the proposal because bi-
ological control with predatory
insects can effectively suppress
large infestations of weeds.
“This program has been one
of the best in the nation, and it
would be sad to lose that,” he
said.