A wave of green jobs
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• June 14, 2010 50¢
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Ranchers, conservation groups split on grazing ruling impact By Kate Ramsayer The Bulletin
A recent federal decision on cattle grazing on federal lands in Eastern Oregon has both ranchers and environmentalists claiming victory. Federal district Judge Ancer Haggerty, with the U.S. District Court in Pendleton, found that cattle grazing in the Upper John Day River Basin damaged stream-side habitat, likely killing threatened steelhead, conservation groups pointed out. And the judge said the U.S. Forest Service had not done its job in making sure that damage wasn’t occurring in the Malheur National Forest. “This just reaffirms that livestock grazing and stream-side grazing is incompatible with maintaining the integrity of streams and maintaining fish populations,” said Noah Greenwald with the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the lawsuit’s plaintiffs along with the Bendbased Oregon Natural Desert Association. But John Day-area ranchers, intervenors in the lawsuit, note that the judge said they should have been involved in developing a grazing plan, and that the court did not call a halt to grazing in the Malheur National Forest. “This is a win for us in lots of ways, because we still are turning cows out,” said Ken Holliday, a rancher along the John Day River. Forest Service spokesman Glen Sachet declined to comment on the case, citing the possibility of future appeals. The Oregon Natural Desert Association started pushing for changes in grazing practices in the John Day basin more than a decade ago, said Brent Fenty, the association’s executive director. See Grazing / A4
Best path to a stronger food chain? A bill in D.C. is up for a vote this summer, and Oregon farmers are watching closely
Photos by Pete Erickson / The Bulletin
Fields Farm owner Jim Fields talks to a customer Wednesday at the Bend Farmers Market in Drake Park. Fields says any new food safety law needs to draw a line between large farms and small ones such as his. “We’re less able to afford these kinds of improvements that they would want,” he says.
By Keith Chu • The Bulletin WASHINGTON —
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agree that something needs to be done to cut down on outbreaks of food-borne illness. It’s in the details where things get sticky.
The U.S. Senate is crafting a food safety bill that would overhaul federal regulation of the food chain, from the farm to processed food factories. While some reforms, like giving the U.S. Food and Drug Administration power to recall tainted food, aren’t controversial, the question of which rules should apply to small farms — and what qualifies as a small farm — are proving to be a point of contention. The bill is expected to come to a vote in the next few weeks, or by the end of the summer at the latest. The bill also requires high-risk food facilities to test for contamination every six months
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armers and food safety advocates in Central Oregon and nationwide
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to a year and share test results with the FDA. Currently, positive tests — like those that found salmonella in the Peanut Corporation of America recall — do not have to be given to the government. Farm groups, though, including the La Grande-based Oregon Rural Action, say the bill could lead to expensive record keeping and other regulations for small farmers. Jim Fields, owner of Bend’s Fields Farm, said lawmakers need to be careful to delineate between big producers and small farms like his. “There is some concern that they’ll try to create a bill that protects the consumer as much as they possibly can, but it tends to be geared toward larger farms,” Fields said. “We’re less able to afford these kinds of improvements that they would want.” See Food / A4
NEW YORK — If you want a hint about the economic recovery, follow that truck. Pickups are a kind of rugged indicator of the nation’s financial health. When times
are good, contractors buy more of them to carry tools around for landscaping and lumber to build homes. Weekend haulers also gravitate to them — even though cars get better mileage. And lately sales have start-
ed shifting into a higher gear. Americans bought 151,000 pickups last month, 19 percent more than a year ago. Sales of full-size pickups, especially popular among contractors and builders, grew even faster. See Trucks / A4
BEND-LA PINE Food safety legislation:
$500 Inspection fee to be paid by food “processing facilities” in a U.S. House bill passed last year.
$500,000 A Senate amendment would make farms that earn less than that each year exempt from the new law.
Also exempt Under the House bill, farms that sell the majority of their produce directly to consumers, like Fields Farm, above, won’t have to follow the new rules.
Fees and sponsors weighed for prep sports By Sheila G. Miller The Bulletin
Bend-La Pine Schools plan to begin making all students who receive pay-to-play scholarships fund a small amount of their athletic season, and the district is open to entering more elaborate sponsorships, according to a study on athletics conducted this spring by a committee of board members, athletic directors and others. The district conducted the wide-ranging study, amid significant budget cuts, to determine what efficiencies might be available in its athletic departments. And while district administrator Bob Jones said the committee found schools are already running lean operations, it did discover areas where schools might save more money — and in the future, spend more money. Board member Nori Juba was one of 13 committee members who studied the district’s athletic departments, and said he wasn’t surprised to learn that schools were already doing a great deal to cut down on costs and be as efficient as possible. “It’s common sense that coaches would be more motivated to find cost savings,” he said. “They want to keep the burden low on students.” With the district struggling to deal with state budget cuts, Juba said it’s a delicate balance — wanting athletic teams to be competitive and funding them at a level that is equitable in tough times. See Athletics / A5
Afghanistan sitting on $1T in untapped mineral riches By James Risen New York Times News Service
Produce for sale by Fields Farm at the Bend Farmers Market.
The United States has discovered nearly $1 trillion in untapped mineral deposits in Afghanistan, far beyond any previously known reserves and enough to fundamentally alter the Afghan economy and perhaps the Afghan war itself, according to senior American government officials. The deposits — including huge veins of iron, copper, cobalt, gold and critical industrial metals like lithium — are so big and include so many minerals that Afghanistan could eventually be transformed into one of the most important mining centers in the world. See Afghanistan / A5
Walter Arbuckle, of Braintree, Vt., looks over Ford F-150s at the Formula Ford dealership in Montpelier, Vt. The Associated Press file photo