Big Day At The Polls & Rancher/Activist Dies

Big Day At The Polls & Rancher/Activist Dies plus Food Forethought. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report.

Today may be a bit of a hallmark day when it comes to the polls. A number of major issues and control of the Senate are all up for grabs. The Ag Network's KayDee Gilkey has more.

GILKEY: While a lot of mail in ballots have already been returned you still have the opportunity to let your voice be heard. In Oregon the big issue is the labeling of GMO with Measure 92. Colorado is also voting on the GMO labeling issue today with Proposition 105. Washington has a couple of controversial issues on the ballot. Initiative 591 would ban background checks on firearms while Initiative 594 would require universal background checks for gun purchases. Oregon and Alaska are also voting on the legalization of marijuana.

Longtime Nevada rancher, attorney and land-rights activist, Grant Gerber died of the weekend from injuries sustained during his cross-country ride in the Grass March Cowboy Express on Washington, D.C. Gerber was one of the earliest people to focus on protections for private property rights on public lands in the West and to call for continuation of multiple-use policies on the federal lands. Grant's horse stumbled and fell in a groundhog hole in Kansas giving Grant a concussion. He finished the ride to Washington, D.C. but succumbed to the injuries after returning to Nevada. He was 72.

Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Lacy Gray.

Several years back I spoke about the reintroduction of the gray wolf here in the Pacific Northwest and the turmoil it was creating between farmers and ranchers, and pro-wolf supporters. Rather than being rectified over the years, problems with gray wolves and their reintroduction into different regions of the Northwest have continued to escalate; resulting in a rapidly growing wolf population that has become more and more habituated to domestic animals and human activity. This means ranchers face mounting losses of livestock due to wolf depredation. While no one, and yes that includes most ranchers, wants to see the gray wolf completely disappear from the American landscape, to expect ranchers to "just learn to live with wolves" is like expecting people to ignore an angry pit bull on a playground. As I have said before, dealing with an apex predator is not akin to a Disney movie, "playing nice" and co-existing peacefully with wolves is just not practical or probable. As one local rancher recently stated, "state and federal entities need to spend time and energy educating the general public about what it really takes to manage and recover an apex predator.

Thanks Lacy. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.