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CapitalPress.com
May 1, 2015
People & Places
Researcher studies alternative crops, organics
Bill Buhrig adds
local knowledge
of ag to his OSU
Extension work
Western Innovator
Bill Buhrig
Title: Crop agent, Oregon State Uni-
versity’s Malheur County Extension
office
Age: .9
Degrees: Master’s degree in plant science, University of Idaho;
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
ONTARIO, Ore. — Or-
egon State University re-
searcher Bill Buhrig wants
to help local farmers find
alternative crops to plug into
their rotations and establish a
blueprint for growing organic
crops in Eastern Oregon.
Buhrig was born and raised
on a farm in the area, so he has
an intimate understanding of
the local agricultural produc-
tion system and its challenges.
Buhrig, 39, says he “never
really left home” when he ac-
cepted the job as a crop agent
with OSU’s Malheur County
Extension office 18 months
ago.
Even while working for
six years as a scientific aide
at University of Idaho’s Par-
ma research center 18 miles
away, he commuted to work
from his farm in Vale, Ore.
Fellow OSU researcher
Stuart Reitz said Buhrig’s
knowledge of the local ag-
ricultural industry, as well
as his familiarity with the
world-leading research on on-
ions and potatoes being con-
ducted at the Parma station,
Associated Press
BOISE (AP) — A large
shorebird that nests in grass-
lands and uses its extra-long bill
to pluck crustaceans from mud-
flats and wolf spiders from ani-
mal burrows will be the subject
of an intense study this summer
in three states.
The long-billed curlew is of
particular interest to researchers
because its downward curving
bill allows it to live in a range of
habitats, including cattle-grazed
pastures, but populations appear
to be flagging.
“They’re generalists,” said
scientist Jay Carlisle of the In-
termountain Bird Observatory
at Boise State University, noting
that the curlews also use native
grass areas, mudflats and estu-
aries. “That would suggest flex-
ibility. If there is decline, what
does that mean with how we’re
impacting them?”
This spring researchers in
Idaho, Montana and Wyoming
plan to put satellite transmitters
Family: Wife, Tracey; three children.
Joe Beach ..................................... Editor
Elizabeth Yutzie Sell .... Advertising Director
Sean Ellis/Capital Press
Oregon State University crop agent Bill Buhrig holds a bag of
edible pumpkin seeds that were grown at OSU’s Ontario research
station last year. Buhrig hopes to help local farmers find alterna-
tive crops, such as pumpkin seeds, that they can plug into their
rotations.
make him a valuable addition
to the Malheur County Exten-
sion office.
“He knows a lot of farmers
in this area, they know him
and he has a very good rela-
tionship with growers around
the community,” Reitz said.
on 19 of the ground nesting
birds in hopes of getting a better
understanding of the challenges
they face. That’s more than tri-
ple the number of birds current-
ly being tracked. The curlews
can be up to several feet long,
weigh several pounds and have
bills longer than 8 inches.
Scientists say the birds face
challenges on breeding grounds
as well as on wintering areas in
central California. Some birds
also winter in Mexico.
One of the largest known
breeding populations of the
birds in the West was in south-
west Idaho at the Long-billed
Curlew Habitat Area of Criti-
cal Environmental Concern, a
45,000-acre area of mostly U.S.
Bureau of Land Management
land between Parma and Em-
mett.
About 2,000 curlews used
the area in the 1970s. Current
estimates put the number at less
than 200.
“We’re talking about a 90
percent loss over a 30-year pe-
riod, and we’ve continued to see
By SETH BORENSTEIN
AP Science Writer
WASHINGTON — A common type
of pesticide is dramatically harming
wild bees, according to a new in-the-
field study that outside experts say may
help shift the way the U.S. government
looks at a controversial class of chem-
icals.
But in the study published by the
journal Nature, honeybees — which
get trucked from place to place to polli-
nate major crops like almonds — didn’t
show the significant ill effects that wild
“He’s a tremendous asset to
the office.”
One of Buhrig’s main
goals is to help local farmers
find alternative crops they can
plug in to their typical four- or
five-year rotations.
In 2014, he began explor-
ing whether pumpkin seed for
snacks could be grown profit-
ably in the valley.
After a local economic de-
velopment agency informed
researchers that some buyers
wanted to know whether it
was plausible to grow pump-
kin seeds in the valley, Buhrig
and other researchers planted
200 row feet of the crop.
“We learned just enough
to want to learn more,” he
said. “It’s piqued my curios-
ity.”
Buhrig will replicate the
trial this year, and if the re-
sults are successful, research-
ers will start working with a
handful of growers to contin-
ue exploring the idea.
“From an agronomic per-
spective, it seems plausible,”
he said. “From a logistics per-
spective, we still have some
work to do.”
Potatoes and onions, two of
the region’s main cash crops,
are grown on 4- or 5-year ro-
tations. A pumpkin seed crop
also requires that same type of
rotation, Buhrig said.
“This is something that
could be dropped right into a
crop rotation in this valley,”
he said.
Buhrig also wants to de-
velop a blueprint for organic
production in the valley. A lot
of farmers in the area want to
explore the organic market
but there is no real agronomic
game plan for growing organ-
ic crops in the area, he said.
Buhrig is applying for
grants that would enable him
to set up a 30-acre trial on a
full-circle pivot. Multiple
crops would be grown on half
the acres using convention-
al methods followed in the
valley and those same crops
would be grown on the oth-
er side using no-till organic
methods.
“I would like to blueprint
out reduced or no-till organic
production in this area,” Buh-
rig said. “That’s a big goal of
mine.”
A long-billed curlew
keeps watch over its
nest in the tall grasses
of The Nature Con-
servancy’s Flat Ranch
Preserve in Island
Park, Idaho. The long-
billed curlew, a large
shorebird that nests in
grasslands and uses
its extra-long beak
to pluck crustaceans
from mudflats and wolf
spiders from animal
burrows, will be the
subject of an intense
study this summer.
Megan Grover-Cereda
The Nature Conservancy
via AP
a drop in the last six years,” Car-
lisle said.
There is no hunting season
for curlews, which are protected
under the Migratory Bird Treaty
Act. But two birds with satellite
transmitters have been shot in
the area, and researchers have
found five others also killed by
gunfire.
Another problem, said Matt
McCoy of the BLM, is off-road
vehicle riders that create unau-
thorized trails through the grass-
lands.
“The unfortunate part is we
haven’t done any public out-
reach or signage,” McCoy said.
“This year we’re making a very
concentrated effort.”
He said the agency plans to
close some of the illegal off-
road paths and is putting up
signs alerting visitors to the sig-
nificance of the area. The agen-
cy recently published a brochure
with more detailed information.
The decline of curlews in
southwest Idaho led scientists
to wonder about other breeding
populations, Carlisle said.
That has led to studies at
The Nature Conservancy’s Flat
Ranch Preserve in eastern Ida-
ho and the Big Creek Ranch in
the Pahsimeori Valley in central
Idaho. In Montana, researchers
plan to study curlews at a private
ranch south of Missoula.
In Wyoming, researchers are
working at The Nature Conser-
vancy’s Heart Mountain Ranch
Preserve near Cody, the Na-
tional Elk Refuge near Jackson
Hole, a site in Grand Teton Na-
tional Park, and another near the
town of Daniel.
cousins like bumblebees did. This is a
finding some experts found surprising.
A second study published in the same
journal showed that in lab tests bees are
not repelled by the pesticides and in fact
may even prefer pesticide-coated crops,
making the problem worse.
Bees of all kinds — crucial to polli-
nating plants, including major agricultur-
al crops — have been in decline for sev-
eral reasons. Pesticide problems are just
one of many problems facing pollinators;
this is separate from colony collapse dis-
order, which devastated honeybee popu-
lations in recent years but is now abating,
experts said.
Exposure to neonicotinoid insecti-
cides reduced the density of wild bees,
resulted in less reproduction, and col-
onies that didn’t grow when compared
to bees not exposed to the pesticide, the
study found.
Scientists in Sweden were able to
conduct a study that was in the wild,
but still had the in-the-lab qualities of
having control groups that researchers
covet. They used 16 patches of land-
scape, eight where canola seeds were
coated with the pesticide and eight
where they weren’t, and compared the
two areas.
When the first results came in, “I
was quite, ‘Oh my God,”’ said study
lead author Maj Rundlof of Lund Uni-
versity. She said the reduction in bee
health was “much more dramatic than
I ever expected.”
In areas treated with the pesticide,
there were half as many wild bees per
square meter than there were in areas
not treated, Rundlof said. In the pesti-
cide patches, bumblebee colonies had
“almost no weight gain” compared to
the normal colonies that gained about a
pound, she said.
Calendar
Forest Landowners of California
Annual Meeting, 8 a.m. Holiday Inn,
Auburn, Calif.
Wednesday, May 6
Roots of Resilience, Rejuvenating
Grasslands through Grazing Man-
agement, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Washington
Family Ranch, Antelope, Ore.,
.60-220-510.. Create resilience,
improve production, increase profit
and enhance quality of life.
Thursday, May 7
Roots of Resilience, Rejuvenating
Grasslands through Grazing Man-
agement, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Washington
Family Ranch, Antelope, Ore.,
Corporate officer
John Perry
Chief operating officer
Capital Press Managers
Mike O’Brien .............................Publisher
Popular pesticide hurts wild bees in major field study
Saturday, May 2
Established 1928
Board of directors
Mike Forrester ..........................President
Steve Forrester
Kathryn Brown
Sid Freeman .................. Outside director
Mike Omeg .................... Outside director
bachelor’s degree in business administration, Eastern Oregon
University
Scientists to study grassland-nesting shorebird in 3 states
By KEITH RIDLER
Capital Press
.60-220-510.. Placing the animals
in the right place at the right time for
the right reason, or learn about the
importance of monitoring — Are you
taking full advantage of your most
scare resource, rainfall?
Saturday, May 9
Northeast Washington Haygrowers
Association spring meeting, 8: 15
a.m.-1:.0 p.m. Dun Renton Ranch,
Deer Park, 509-276-5955. Spring
meeting includes pesticide appli-
cator recertification credits, field
tours, equipment displays, weed
identification and management,
nutrient management.
Garden Expo 2015, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
Spokane Community College,
Spokane, 509-5.5-84.4. Over
250 garden-related vendors. Free
admission. Presented by The Inland
Empire Gardeners, gardenexpo@
comcast.net, www.tieg.org
Wednesday, May 13
19th Annual Distillers Grains Sympo-
sium, 7 a.m.-11 p.m. Sheraton Crown
Center, Kansas City, Mo.
Designing and Establishing Insectary
Plantings Field Course, 9 a.m.-4: .0
p.m. Two cherry orchards in The
Dalles, Ore., 541-737-6272. A field
course on insectary plantings in
commercial orchards and the bene-
fits they bring. Drew Merritt, co-own-
er of Humble Roots Farm and
Nursery; Gwendolyn Ellen, Farms-
caping for Beneficials Coordinator at
OSU, and farmer hosts Mike Omeg
and Tim Dahle will share tips and
challenges in establishing orchard
insectary plantings. The course will
be at Omeg Family Orchards and
Dahle Orchards. Participants must
provide transportation.
Thursday, May 14
19th Annual Distillers Grains Sympo-
sium, 7 a.m.-11 p.m. Sheraton Crown
Center, Kansas City, Mo.
Washington FFA Convention, 8 a.m.
Washington State University, Pullman.
Friday, May 15
Washington FFA Convention, 8 a.m.
Washington State University, Pullman.
Saturday, May 16
Washington FFA Convention, 8
a.m. Washington State University,
Pullman.
PerryDale Parents Club Taste of Italy
Dinner and Auction, 4-9 p.m. Polk
County Fairgrounds, Rickreall, 50.-
9.2-0558. Perrydale Parents Club
fundraiser to supplement educational
needs of students.
Wednesday, May 20
Seafood HACCP Segment II, 8: .0
a.m.-5 p.m. University of Idaho,
Boise, 208-.64-6188. This work-
shop is for seafood processor
personnel who develop, reassess
and modify the HACCP Plan and
manage verification activities.
Carl Sampson ................Managing Editor
Barbara Nipp ......... Production Manager
Samantha McLaren .... Circulation Manager
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Markets ............................... 16
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