Rancher Mack Birkmaier receives a pair of women's red underwear, given as a gag by outgoing Stockgrowers President Skye Krebs, who recalled an evening the two men spent together in the honeymoon suite of a Las Vegas hotel during a cattlemen's meeting. Photo by Rick Swart

An ongoing battle with weeds remains as one of the top priority of Wallowa County ranchers, according to the speakers who showed up for the annual meeting of the Wallowa County Stockgrowers.

“I know it’s a big deal here and Wallowa County,” said Bob Skinner, president of the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association (OCA), speaking to an audience of 62 people who showed up for the Stockgrowers meeting Saturday morning.

The subject of weeds came up several times during the course of the four hour meeting in Enterprise.

Skinner, a rancher from Jordan Valley, Ore., said he had participated recently in a tour of Hells Canyon organized by the cattlemen and Nature Conservancy.

“It’s pretty sobering,” he said of the weed infestation that he saw on the tour. “The star thistle runs from rim to rim.”

Skinner noted that he traveled to Washington, D.C., to encourage members of Congress to support a federal weed bill introduced by Sen. Larry Craig. Craig’s which calls for a federal expenditure of $300 million a year on weed control.

Mark Porter, rangeland stewardship coordinator for Wallowa Resources, said that Wallowa County is on the edge of a population explosion with many species of weeds. He said that more education and treatment is needed in the near future to stave off a disaster. To that end, he said, the county is preparing a $50,000 weed levy for the November ballot.

Cattlemen need to “lay the weed problem at the door of the environmentalists,” said Mac Birkmaier, who suggested that appeals filed by environmental groups halted the aerial application of herbicides, exacerbating the week problem in Hells Canyon. Birkmaier also suggested that the Forest Service isn’t spending nearly enough on weed control.

“It’s a joke,” he said after Porter estimated the Forest Service’s annual budget for weed control in Wallowa County was $30,000. “They own 70 percent of the county.”

Rancher Don “Biden” Tippett questioned whether “throwing money at the (weed) problem” is going to take care of the situaation.

“I think more private landowners should be a little more responsible for taking care of the weeds on their place,” he said.

Public access to streams through private ranches, a court ruling declaring the national beef checkoff unconstitutional, and a proposed ban on ownership of cattle by meat packers were also addressed by cattle industry leaders.

Glen Stonebrink, executive director of the OCA, said one new hot button issue is navigability of Oregon waterways. He reported that recreation groups are pushing for legislation that would give them access to the banks of all streams and rivers in the state, up to their high water marks.

The issue came to a head recently when two fishermen were prosecuted for trespassing along the John Day River. Northwest Steelheaders, a recreational group, took up the fishermen’s cause and in a lawsuit against the Division of State Lands seeking a declaration that John Day River navigable, opening it to the public along its banks.

OCA is now working on the issue with Northwest Steelheaders and others in a work group appointed by State Treasurer Randall Edwards, who is chairman of the state land board.

Diane Byrne Johnston, executive director of the Oregon Beef Council (OBC), defended the need for beef promotion in the wake of a federal court ruling declaring the national beef checkoff unconstitutional.

Johnston noted that the cattle industry will continue to collect $1 a head on cattle until a decision by a federal judge in South Dakota is appealed to a higher court.

Out of each dollar collected, she said, 50 cents is funneled into the OBC to pay for statewide beef education and promotion. She added that OBC plays an important role as the “go to” organizations when consumers, the media, and grocery stores raised concerns about e-coli, Mad Cow Disease, and other food safety issues.

Perhaps the most divisive issue currently facing the beef industry is a national proposal that would prohibit packers from owning beef for more than 14 days before they are slaughtered.

The proposal, known as the Livestock Ownership Fairness Act, was introduced by Rep. John Thune of South Dakota in an attempt to stop packers from engaging in manipulation of the cattle market by owning large lots of cattle and slaughtering them — before those owned by ranchers and feed lot owners — when prices go up.

In other business, the Stockgrowers elected Charlie Warnock as president of the organization for the next two years. He replaces Wallowa sheep man Skye Krebs.

The Stockgrowers also conferred honorary membership on Grant and Barbara Warnock of Imnaha.