AGRI-BUSINESS
OCTOBER 2019
THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD — 3
Drought stays at bay in 2019
By Jayson Jacoby
Baker City Herald
Marcy Osborn could hardly
have had a better year to make
her debut as Baker County
watermaster.
No drought to deal with.
Which is pretty signifi cant for
a person whose duty is spelled
out right in the job title.
“It was a pretty easy year,”
said Osborn, 41, who was born
and raised in Baker City and
graduated from Baker High
School in 1996.
“It made it nice for me as a
transition into this position.”
Although the job title is new,
its responsibilities are quite
familiar for Osborn.
She’s worked for the Oregon
Water Resources Department for
13 years, including the past nine
as an assistant watermaster in
Baker County.
“Most people that I work with
already knew me, so I didn’t
have that meet-and-greet part to
worry about,” Osborn said.
S. John Collins/Baker City Herald
The supply of irrigation water was generally abundant in Baker County and the rest of Northeastern Oregon this summer.
She took over for Rick Lusk, who
retired, around mid-June.
Osborn said she was gratifi ed
that she received letters of recom-
mendation from several irrigators
who endorsed her application for
the promotion to watermaster.
“It was helpful to know I had
What’s Inside......
that support,” she said.
Although the distribution of irri-
gation water in Oregon is governed
by the relatively straightforward le-
gal doctrine of prior appropriation,
its application can be troublesome.
See Water/Page 4
S. John Collins//Baker City Herald
ON THE COVER
Alfalfa and other crops generally had suffi cient irrigation
water this summer.
Page 18
Farming technology has
changed dramatically over
the past century, but one
constant in the Grande
Ronde Valley is the Wilfred
Hamann Farm
Page 8
Page 12
Page 22
Cliff Curtis distills fragrant oil from the
lavender plants on his Baker Valley farm
Take a tour of an industrial hemp
farm in eastern Baker County
Patrick Thiel of Wallowa County talks about the
challenges of organic farming