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About Capital press. (Salem, OR) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 6, 2015)
February 6, 2015 CapitalPress.com 7 Grants help farmers fend off junipers By LACEY JARRELL For the Capital Press In Oregon, livestock and wildlife can benefit from small grants for watershed improve- ment. Last year, Frank Hammerich was awarded a small grant from the Oregon Watershed Enhance- ment Board that helped him clear junipers from a 40-acre parcel of his ranch near Bonan- za, Ore. “The junipers just kind of overtook everything and they needed to get thinned out,” Hammerich said. The grant paid for a pro- fessional tree company to cut down dozens of junipers with a Lacey Jarrell/For the Capital Press Frank Hammerich stands before a heap of junipers that were razed at his Bonanza, Ore., ranch. The tree removal project was funded by an Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board small grant. hydraulic clamp; other young- er, smaller trees were cut by hand with pruning shears. Spe- cies like mountain mahogany and ponderosa pine were left to flourish in the newly opened space. Hammerich secured his OWEB grant locally from the Klamath Watershed Part- nership. But, according KWP project manager Roger Smith, the grants are available state- wide. He said the maximum is $10,000, although total proj- ect costs may be more because landowners are required to pay in-kind, roughly one-quarter of the cost. Smith noted that OWEB grants are available for a host of watershed improvements such as riparian fencing and bank sta- bilization. “It just needs to have a wa- tershed benefit,” Smith said. “We’ve been dealing with juni- per removal, but there are lots of opportunities.” According to OWEB Grant Program Coordinator Courtney Shaff, every year each of the state’s 28 districts is awarded $100,000 for watershed proj- ects. The small grant program lets landowners to make on- the-ground improvements that benefit water quality, water quantity, and fish and wildlife, she said. Smith said juniper removal is a good fit for the program be- cause the trees commonly out- compete other species for water. Juniper trees have been recorded drawing more than 30 gallons per day, he said. “The lack of wildfires has al- lowed junipers to take hold at a level and a density that never ex- isted naturally,” Smith said. “By removing the juniper, you have an immediate impact on the grasses, forbes and shrubs in the area — so you allow more live- stock and wildlife production.” Hammerich said that before the removal, the juniper-cov- ered land looked like a jungle. The encroaching trees were so dense, he said, grass disap- peared and timber species, like pine, became stunted. In addi- tion, soil erosion increased be- cause no ground cover or shal- low roots existed to slow surface water flows. Conservation district saves money with new building By ERICK PETERSON For the Capital Press The Franklin Conservation District will move this spring from the USDA Agricultural Service Center in Pasco, Wash., to a new building nearby. Board mem- ber Chris Her- ron and other district officials say, howev- er, that people who currently depend on the Wendt district have nothing to worry about, as it will continue to offer the same services. Actually, they said, the dis- trict will have a little more to offer. Herron, a wheat farm- er, said the district is well prepared for the transition. Through strong management of its resources, he said, the district saved money to con- struct the new building. Still, Heather Wendt, as- sistant manager of the Frank- lin and Benton conservation districts, calls the need for the move “a sad story with a hap- py ending.” The district office has been at the ag service center since its inception in 1951, as was done at many other service centers across the country. “We’ve been tied by the hip to them for forever,” she said. As such, the USDA has helped her office with technical assis- tance, supplies and equipment and by giving the district office space in their building. But things changed last year, she said, when the USDA de- cided to charge rent — $65,000 per year, a sum the district could not afford. Fortunately, she said, the district had been saving for the previous 20 years and had enough savings for a building, which it has recently started. At a cost of $583,000, the building will be within eyesight of its current location. It will have 4,000 square feet of space, half of which will be offices for the seven full- time employees. The other half will be a shop, which will serve primarily as storage for teach- ing supplies. The completion date is April 1. She said that the only new service will be a demonstration garden for local plants. This will be an opportunity to teach property owners about native plants and encourage them to install lawns that save water. Irrigation water manage- ment will remain the top prior- ity, said Mark Nielson, district manager. “In Franklin County, you have some of the highest nitrate levels in groundwater across the state,” he said. Nielson and his team are trying to reduce the amount of water used to limit nitrates from leeching into the ground- water. The project involves putting monitors in the ground, tracking water use and trying to match water to crop conditions. The goal, he said, is to use only enough water for the crops and prevent it from carrying nitrates deep into the groundwater. Jill has Call Jill or the parts staff for further details. 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