SILVERTONAPPEAL.COM
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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 31, 2021
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The future site of a Foster Farm Chicken Ranch outside of Scio. BRIAN HAYES/STATESMAN JOURNAL
Chickens
Continued from Page 1A
“And I totally understand that. I do
totally understand that,” said Simon,
who owns a similar ranch in Browns-
ville. “They bought a place isolated and
stuff. I understand.
“I was telling Glenda, our nearest
fans are going to be 1,200 feet away from
her place. The fans we’re going to use
most of the time are going to be another
600 feet away. I personally have a very
nice place that’s 800 feet away from the
fans. My daughter got married in our
backyard this summer. It’s very livable
to be around. It’s very clean.”
Simon plans to start construction on
the ranch in May or June, even though
there has been no public process so far
and neighbors didn't learn of it until
weeks ago.
Some of the neighbors are concerned
about the lack of opportunity for public
input, although the Oregon Department
of Agriculture says there will be a future
public comment period.
Other people are concerned about
the potential environmental impacts
considering the proximity to the North
Santiam River.
“This whole general area is a bad
idea,” Cassandra Schrunk said. “We got
Thomas Creek. We’ve got the Santiam.
We’re at the main base of the watershed.
Let’s just fill that up with chicken farms.
It doesn’t seem smart to me. There’s bet-
ter places in the world than the Willam-
ette Valley.”
Neighboring fifth-generation farm
In 1951, Harland Eastman purchased
a farm between Scio and Jefferson along
the banks of the North Santiam River.
Harland and his son, Burl, cleared out
trees with dynamite to expand the farm
closer to the river.
“They cleared this river bottom for
farmland,” said Christina Eastman, one
of four generations of Eastmans to still
live on the family farm that borders the
proposed chicken ranch.
For five generations, the Eastman
family has farmed the property. Grass
seed is now the major crop produced
there.
But over the years, they’ve also lost
large portions of the land as the North
Santiam River has changed course and
taken over, despite mitigation attempts
including adding rip rap to the river
bank.
“One time we were down there, it
took out a chunk of land the size of a
corn truck. Just boom, into the water,”
Eastman said. “We had seven fir trees
that were going north to south, one by
one in the river.”
The North Santiam River, which is a
habitat for environmentally-threatened
Chinook salmon and steelhead and the
source of drinking water for cities in-
cluding Salem, Stayton and Jefferson, is
about 1,400 feet from the proposed
chicken ranch.
A 2018 report published by the Envi-
ronmental Integrity Project, a non-prof-
it that advocates for enforcement of en-
vironmental laws, found large-scale
broiler chicken operations like the one
Simon is proposing produce tons of am-
monia per year.
The Environmental Protection Agen-
cy has found ammonia toxicity can lead
to the death of aquatic animals in near-
by water bodies.
"Do you want to come and eat when
you’re smelling chicken manure or
smelling the ammonia? It’s not nice,"
said Teresa Anderson, a farmer from
Stayton.
And Eastman estimates that the river
has shifted 3/4 mile southwest towards
the property in her 56 years.
“Eventually this chicken farm is go-
ing to fall into the river,” said Nancy
Hanna, who lives on a neighboring
farm. “I’m not opposed to Foster Farms
raising chickens, but surely there’s a
place in eastern Oregon or way out
where you’re not sitting on the North
Santiam River.”
Becoming a chicken rancher
In 2000, Simon bought his first chick-
en ranch in Brownsville and moved his
young family into a house on the proper-
ty.
It had two barns that dated to the
1950s for poultry raising and he started
contracting with Foster Farms to raise
40,000 chickens at a time.
Over the years, he built new coops
the size of the ones he’s proposing to
build in Scio, expanded his operation
and started a second business, Ideal Ag
Supply, which provides equipment for
climate control and ventilation for farm-
ers like him.
Raising broiler chickens requires
constant work, from when they show up
as day-old chicks and need 90-degree
heat to survive until they are picked up
by the processor 45 to 50 days later.
In 2019, Oregon had 508 Confined
Animal Feeding Operations, an agricul-
tural enterprise where animals are
raised in a confined situation, like the
one Simon is proposing in Scio.
Simon said Foster Farms has been
losing farmers to retirement and adver-
tising for new ranchers in recent years.
“It’s very hard and very expensive,”
Simon said. “Finally, last year, they kind
of sweetened the pot a little more.”
Last year, a customer came to Simon
and was interested in building a chicken
ranch. Simon instructed his children,
who are Realtors, to find a location for
him.
They found the farm on Jefferson-
Scio Road, but it didn’t meet his custom-
er’s needs for a house and the customer
passed. But the site had access to natu-
ral gas, electricity and water rights, and
it was too good for Simon to let go.
“I couldn’t pass up that opportunity
because that’s an opportunity for me,
it’s an opportunity to display all the lat-
est and greatest of what we do,” he said.
“There will be stuff on that farm years
past stuff we do here.”
He closed on the property outside
Scio in February, but had started the
process of getting the necessary permits
and approvals six months earlier.
He received a permit from Linn
County in February for the buildings.
But there was no public process as part
of that application because it's for agri-
cultural use.
“And part of it, too, Oregon law, agri-
culture is agriculture and it’s exempt
from having to go through the same
processes,” said Kendra Kimbirauskas,
a Scio farmer.
A grass seed farmer had a two-year
lease on the land with its previous own-
er, but Simon said he negotiated with
him so he could develop the land sooner.
He said he intends to build a vegeta-
tive barrier including trees and grass
around the buildings to keep any dust
and smell from going onto neighboring
properties.
gets scary for the horses. I about got my
butt dumped off in a stall with a FedEx
truck that came through and just scared
a colt I was on.”
Simon said the property in question
came with an easement on the road and
that he has applied to Linn County to
widen and improve it, including moving
a drainage ditch.
“They just said we can’t have trucks
waiting on the road,” he said.
He said there will be times with mul-
tiple trucks per day when the chickens
arrive as hatchlings and leave 45 to 50
days later fully grown, but the rest of the
time there may be one truck per day
bringing feed or people coming to buy
manure.
“The rest of the time will be a very,
very small amount,” Simon said.
Poultry company keeps up with
demand
Foster Farms was founded by Max
and Verda Foster in 1939 near Modesto,
California and remains in the family's
ownership 80 years later.
Over the years, the West Coast com-
pany has grown through acquiring other
poultry companies, such as when it ex-
panded into the Northwest in 1987 by
purchasing Fircrest Farms.
Foster Farms spokesperson Ira Brill
said the company owns almost all of its
ranches in California – where the major-
ity of its chickens are grown. In Oregon
and Washington, the company con-
tracts with growers like Simon.
“It sort of was a historical legacy that
we inherited when we bought the pro-
ducer up there,” Brill said.
Demand for chicken has grown over
the years, and Foster Farms is one of the
major suppliers to supermarkets like
Fred Meyer and Safeway.
Estimates are more than 90% of meat
consumed in the United States is grown
in large-scale farms like the ones in
which Foster Farms chickens are raised.
The chicks raised in northwest farms
are hatched at a facility in Oregon City.
The feed is processed and distributed
from a facility in Aurora and the fully-
grown chickens are slaughtered in Kel-
so, Washington.
“I think the other thing that’s impor-
tant to really understand is that the ad-
vantage of Foster Farms operating in the
Pacific Northwest is the product we
raise there, we sell there,” Brill said.
Brill said Foster Farms currently has
more than 30 contract growers like Si-
mon in the Northwest.
Brill said the company works closely
with contract growers to ensure they are
following all state and local regulations
in building new operations and regular-
ly inspects the facilities, as does a third
party, the American Humane Associa-
tion, a non-profit that ensures the well-
being of animals.
Oregon also inspects the operations
on a yearly basis.
Finally getting a say
Ranches like the one Simon is pro-
posing require a permit from the state.
Oregon Department of Agriculture
spokesperson Andrea Cantu-Schomus
said Simon’s application will go through
a public process, including the release
of the draft application and permit to
the public, a 35-day public comment pe-
riod and a public hearing within 30 days
of the notice.
But none of that has been scheduled,
she said.
She said the Oregon Department of
Agriculture and Department of Envi-
ronmental Quality can then issue a per-
mit as proposed, make changes in re-
sponse to comments received, or deny
the permit.
“Protection of water quality on the
surface and in the ground is a critical el-
ement of the CAFO program and an im-
portant and necessary component of
approval,” Cantu-Schomus said in an
email.
Simon estimates 4,500 tons of ma-
nure will be produced each year, and he
said it will be sold to organic farmers
and trucked offsite. He said any manure
and wastewater on the site will be con-
tained at the property and not be in dan-
ger of leaching into the groundwater or
running into the North Santiam River.
“Our manure is never going to be out-
side. It won’t ever be exposed to rain," he
said. "It’s either going to be inside the
poultry houses or it’s going to go to the
manure storage building that will have a
concrete floor on it. When the trucks are
loaded, they tarp them.”
Thus far, the only outreach about the
proposed chicken ranch to neighbors is
when Simon had a conversation with
Glenda and Monty Brooking after buy-
ing the land.
It didn't leave Glenda satisfied, and
she plans to be among those who sub-
mit comments to the state.
“I’m not happy about the traffic that’s
going to be on my road,” she said. “I’m
not happy about the smell of the bird
poop that goes right beside my house.
I’m not happy about the smell, period, if
it comes to my house. They’re going to
truck truckloads of chicken poop right
past my house. That’s a problem.”
Bill Poehler covers Marion County for
the Statesman Journal. Contact him at
bpoehler@statesmanjournal.com
or
Twitter.com/bpoehler.
LOCAL
ADVISORS
Being a good neighbor
Schrunk is the fourth generation to
live on the Eastman family farm, and
personifies the farm life.
She babysits neighbors' chickens
when they go on vacation and takes in
bummer – rejected – lambs and raises
them.
During September’s wildfires, she
drove to Lyons with her trailer, helped
rescue horses out of burning fields and
brought them to her farm.
At one point, she had 15 horses at her
home and it took weeks until she could
figure out who owned which horses.
“It pays it forward,” Schrunk said.
She currently boards and trains hors-
es on her property and has run busi-
nesses including childcare out of her
home.
Her property borders the dirt road
that would lead to the proposed facility.
The narrow road needs constant
maintenance, such as during February’s
ice storm when the road was blocked
with trees. When potholes form, she
and the Brookings pitch in to fill them.
“They fly down this road, Amazon
does,” Schrunk said. “When they drive
by my barn and I train out of that barn, it
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