May 1, 2015
Lone wolf spotted in wheat fi eld
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
ADRIAN, Ore. — A castoff wolf
from a Northeast Oregon pack has tak-
en up temporary residence in Malheur
County in Eastern Oregon and has been
seen by several farmers and irrigation
ditch workers.
Two of those farmers told the Capi-
tal Press they were stunned to see a full-
grown wolf lying in a wheat fi eld west
of Adrian on April 21.
Oregon Department of Fish and
Wildlife offi cials confi rmed that they
weren’t imagining things.
“Everybody is correct in what they
saw,” said Philip Milburn, a district
wildlife biologist in ODFW’s Ontario
offi ce.
The male wolf, which has a tracking
collar, entered Malheur County around
April 10 and has been hanging out west
of Adrian in sagebrush country for
Courtesy of Oregon Department of Fish and
Wildlife
OR 22, a male wolf that separated from
the Umatilla River Pack in February, is
pictured walking through a Northeast
Oregon forest on Jan. 26. The lone wolf
has recently been spotted by several
farmers near Adrian in Malheur County.
more than a week, he said.
“On (April 21), for some reason he
decided to come down and visit ... farm
country,” Milburn said.
On that day, two farmers in a pick-
up truck saw the wolf lying in a wheat
fi eld, apparently napping.
“We were just sitting there in
shock,” said Casey Kuenzli, one of
those producers. “He stood up and cut
in front of us across the road about 20
feet away.”
Kuenzli, who is also a professional
guide, said he was certain the animal
was a wolf even before the ODFW con-
fi rmed the animal’s presence in the area
to the Capital Press.
“There’s no mistaking what it was,”
he said, adding that the wolf was black
on top and “brown going down the
sides.”
Marvin Seuell, another farmer who
was in the truck with Kuenzli, said
the wolf appeared to weigh about 150
pounds.
“He came within 20 or 30 feet of
us,” he said. “I was shocked.”
During the wolf’s visit to farm
country on April 21, it also swam
across a canal in front of some ditch
workers, Milburn said.
He said the wolf, known as OR
22, separated from the Umatilla River
Pack in Northeast Oregon about Feb.
13 and has “been wandering around in
a dispersing pattern” since then.
There have been a few reported
wolf sightings in Malheur County in
the past, as well as some confi rmed
wolf tracks, and a collared wolf
crossed briefl y from Baker County
into Malheur County last May, Mil-
burn said.
But OR 22 is believed to be the fi rst
wolf that has spent more than a short
amount of time in the county, he said.
“We’re just letting him be; he hasn’t
done anything to indicate he’s going to
be a problem,” Milburn said. “We keep
expecting he’s not going to stay here ...
but he’s been proving us wrong.”
Washington asparagus industry eyes comeback
Washington asparagus production
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
$60 million
U.S. harvested
acres in 2013
Wash.: 4,000
$54.9 million
16.3%
Mich.:
9,000 or
36.7%
40
Photo by Phil Clouse
A Gourmet Trading Co.
asparagus near Pasco, Wash.,
is shown on April 24. This
high-density crop was planted
last year and is being let go
to seed to better establish
the crowns. The crowns are
irrigated and fertilized by an
underground drip tape using
30 percent less water than
overhead irrigation. It promotes
faster growth by keeping the
surface dry and getting water
directly to the crowns.
ing replacement beds and
continue to leave asparagus,
Schreiber said.
But others who think they
can fi nd labor are expanding
and there may be a net gain in
Calif.:
11,500
or 46.9%
20
$13.7 million
Source: USDA NASS
Dan Wheat and Alan Kenaga/
Kenag
a/Capital
Capital Press
Kenaga/Capital
0
2000
2005
acreage for the fi rst time in 24
years, he said.
Asparagus is grown around
Pasco, in the Yakima Valley
and Grant County. Harvest
started early this year with
fi rst packing on March 23
versus a normal April 1 start,
Schreiber said. It will end in
mid-June.
Gourmet Trading Co., Re-
dondo Beach, Calif., has been
2010
2014
packing Washington fresh as-
paragus for 10 years and last
year planted 150 acres. It is
planting another 150 this year,
said Phil Clouse, the compa-
ny’s Washington representa-
tive.
“We weren’t getting the
volume we wanted so we
rented a couple farms and are
planting our own,” Clouse
said.
CapitalPress.com
5
Artifi cial
beaver
dam bill
advances
Legislation
would streamline
permitting
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
A bill intended to promote
artifi cial beaver dams in Ore-
gon’s Malheur Lake drainage
basin has crossed a key legis-
lative hurdle despite misgiv-
ings from some environmen-
talists.
Artifi cial beaver dams are
meant to slow quick-running
streams, improving riparian
habitats for wildlife and for-
age conditions for ranchers.
House Bill 3217 would
ease the permitting process
for landowners who want to
build such structures in the
region as part of a pilot pro-
gram.
The Oregon Natural Des-
ert Association urged law-
makers to pass the bill but
other environmental groups
— WaterWatch of Oregon
and the Oregon Council of
Trout Unlimited — feared the
consequences of exempting
artifi cial beaver dams from
fi sh passage requirements.
Proponents argued that the
pilot program would only ap-
ply to streams that currently
dry up in summer and don’t
contain any fi sh.
Recent amendments to HB
3217 provide more details on
the fi sh passage exemption,
providing for the possibility
of retrofi tting structures once
habitats are restored.
Rep. Brian Clem said the
changes have tempered en-
vironmental groups’ objec-
tions to the bill, which was
recently approved 5-2 by the
House Committee on Rural
Communities, Land Use and
Water.
18-7/#6
PASCO, Wash. — The
Washington asparagus indus-
try may be starting a slow
comeback as production
slows in California and Peru.
But the lack of labor is a hin-
dering factor.
U.S. production, a lot of
it in Washington, shrank by
two-thirds from 1990 to 2010
because of free trade agree-
ments and U.S. resources
spent to establish an aspara-
gus industry in Peru in hopes
of weaning growers away
from producing cocoa leaves
for cocaine.
Washington lost its aspar-
agus canning, but maintained
a limited crop for fresh sales,
pickling and freezing.
“Last year, we got down
to 16 percent of what our pro-
duction was in 1990. I hope
that’s the bottom,” said Alan
Schreiber, administrator of
the Washington Asparagus
Commission.
Some growers, concerned
about consistent quality and
lack of pickers, are not plant-
Washington’s annual crop value has plum-
meted more than 75 percent in the last 15
years, according to NASS statistics.
Instead of planting crowns
from a nursery, the company
is direct seeding for 40,000
plants per acre, double the old
way, and with drip irrigation
instead of center pivot, the
company hopes to improve
yield from 5,000 to 6,000
pounds per acre to at least
10,000 to 15,000 pounds per
acre, he said.
Growers’ price was 47
cents per pound 10 years ago,
peaked at 94 cents two years
ago and remains around 90
cents, he said.
In today’s market, con-
sumers prefer fresh produce
over canned, he said.
The biggest impediment
is the lack of skilled labor, he
said. The company is consid-
ering using the H-2A guest-
worker visa program next
year to bring some of its pick-
ers from Mexico after harvest
there, he said.
Asparagus growers in
Washington haven’t used
the H-2A program because
they haven’t felt they needed
workers long enough, just two
months, Schreiber said. They
also have to provide housing.
18-1/#6