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10 CapitalPress.com August 7, 2015 Oregon Hermiston delivers watermelons, goodwill By ERIC MORTENSON Capital Press PORTLAND — Jokes and seed spitting contest aside, there was a polite edge to Hermiston’s renewed tradi- tion of handing out free water- melons and potatoes in down- town Portland. This time, Hermiston’s growers and civic leaders stood in Portland’s Pioneer Square as representatives of Eastern Oregon’s biggest and fastest growing city and one of the state’s agricultural powerhouses. As a line formed for the giveaway Friday, Hermiston Mayor David Drotzmann ac- knowledged the two cities vary greatly in scale — Port- land has about 570,000 more people — but said they share issues such as public safety, livability, transportation and water. “Those are all common things, regardless of size,” he said. Drotzmann said he hoped the event reminded Portland residents of Hermiston’s ag- ricultural prowess. Umatilla County ranks second in the state, behind Marion Coun- ty, with about $500 million in annual gross farm and ranch sales. The region is best known for Hermiston water- melons, but grows a wide va- riety of irrigated vegetables as well. “We provide the fruit and vegetables you pick up in the grocery store every day,” Drotzmann said. In his remarks to the crowd at Pioneer Square, Drotzmann said the eastern side of the state gladly eJtends its hand to Portland. “We know when Portland is successful, all of Oregon is successful,” he said. with a depiction of Portland’s new Tilikum Crossing bridge, which opens in September and will carry light-rail trains and bikes over the Willamette River, but not cars and trucks. The melons and potatoes, donated by Walchli Farms, Bellinger Farms and Bud- Rich Potato Inc., disappeared in about 20 minutes as a long line of pleased Portlanders took advantage. Seed spitting sweep Began in 1991 The watermelon delivery and accompanying melon seed spitting contest began in 1991 with a friendship be- tween longtime Hermiston mayor and councilor Frank Harkenrider and colorful Portland Mayor Bud Clark. The event ran for 17 years then faded, but was renewed this year by civic leaders and Eric Mortenson/Capital Press Hermiston Mayor David Drotzmann oversees a watermelon and potato giveaway Friday in downtown Portland. The city renewed the exchange — and a seed spitting contest that Hermiston won — as a goodwill gesture to urban consumers. the Hermiston Chamber of Commerce. Harkenrider and Clark attended Friday’s re- newal, and Harkenrider ad- mitted the city slicker bested him at seed spitting. “He got me all the time,” he said with a laugh. Portland Mayor Charlie Hales said the eJchange “was a good idea then and is a good idea now.” “This is what good neigh- bors do for each other,” Hales said, “they share their boun- ty.” Hales presented Drotz- mann with a tie embossed For the record, Hermiston swept the seed spitting con- test. City Councilor Doug Primmer took first, and Drot- zmann was second. Both sent seeds flying more than 300 inches. Hales showed he was no slouch with a 296-inch launch, and Portland City Commissioner Dan Saltzman managed to spit one 126 inch- es. Primmer indicated the city boys didn’t have a chance against people who grew up in watermelon country. “You live in Hermiston, you get into competition when you’ve got brothers,” he said. Oregon wolves disperse, OSU onion field trial seeks establish new territory optimal thrip-control program EO Media Group A pair of wolves from northeast Oregon packs have dispersed and established new territory in Klamath and Union counties. The Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife has posted two new areas of known wolf activ- ity after OR-25, of the Imnaha pack, traversed the state to just north of Klamath Falls, and OR- 30, of the Mount Emily pack, crossed Interstate 84 between Starkey and Ukiah. Both wolves have been in their new homes since May. OR-30’s territory includes a mix of national forest land between I-84 and Highway 395, split down the middle by Highway 244. Once ODFW establishes an area of known wolf activity, the department works with local landowners to determine ap- propriate non-lethal deterrents, such as fladry fencing and range riders. Wolves remain listed as en- dangered by the state in East- ern Oregon, though that could change before the end of the year. The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission will con- By SEAN ELLIS sider whether to delist wolves during an informational briefing Oct. 9 in Florence, and a No- vember meeting to be held in Salem. The date of the Novem- ber meeting has not yet been set. Public testimony will be tak- en at the meetings, but can also be emailed to odfw.comments@ state.or.us. Please make sure to include “Comments on Wolf Delisting Proposal” in the sub- ject line of emails. Oregon has 77 wolves and nine packs statewide, though the animals are federally listed as endangered west of highways 395, 78 and 95. Capital Press ONTARIO, Ore. — Or- egon State University re- searchers in Eastern Ore- gon are trying to help onion growers figure out which miJ of insecticide treat- ments is most effective, and economical, for controlling thrips populations. Researchers are rotating chemistries, using them at different times of the sea- son and applying them in varying intervals, said Stuart Reitz, an OSU cropping sys- tems eJtension agent. Onion thrips cause feed- ing damage and are also a vector for the iris yellow spot virus, which can signifi- cantly lower onion yields. There are no good biolog- ical controls for the insects and onion growers say that not spraying for them in this region isn’t an option. “Onion thrips are a big- ger problem than anything else in onion production,” Reitz said. “If you don’t do anything to manage thrips in the Treasure Valley, you’re not going to have very good onions.” Onion growers used to spray three or four times a Sean Ellis/Capital Press Onion growers and industry representatives inspect an onion field trial at Oregon State University’s Malheur County experiment station July 8. The trial is trying to help growers reduce the number of times they spray for onion thrips. year for thrips but in recent years they have had to spray as many as eight to 10 times in a season, said Nyssa farm- er Paul Skeen. “The key ingredient in controlling thrips is getting on it early and keeping their populations down,” he said. “When in doubt, you spray.” But each treatment costs money and the main goal of the OSU trial is to try to find a season-long control pro- gram that will allow grow- Services & Supplies 2015 Special Section October 2nd, 2015 Doing Business with the Ag Community? On October 2nd, 2015, Capital Press Ag Weekly readers will find labor and money saving tips in the 2015 Winter Services & Supplies Special Section. Place an ad in this Special Section and reach Capital Press readers online and in the newspaper with YOUR services and supplies! Content will include: Online Agribusiness, Equipment, Maintenance, New Products, Consulting & Planning Services and much more! Contact us by Sept. 4th to advertise your product or service! (503) 364-4798 of (800) 882-6789 FAX (503) 364-2692 or (503) 370-4383 P.O. Box 2048 • Salem, OR 97308 www.CapitalPress.com 32-2/#6 ROP-32-4-4/#13 ers to reduce the number of times they spray, Reitz said. Researchers are also try- ing to determine if products have a longer residual ef- fect at certain times of the season. If they do, growers could get by with spraying less often. “It’s getting so costly to control them and we want to see if we can reduce that cost for growers,” he said. There are only siJ prod- ucts that are effective for controlling onion thrips and researchers also want to de- velop a treatment program that allows growers to rotate chemistries often to avoid insect resistance, Reitz said. Malheur County farmer Bill Johnson said the on- going OSU trial is helping growers zero in on the op- timal treatment program for thrips. “We continue to have is- sues with fleJibility in some of the chemistries we work with,” he said. “We’re just trying to find the right miJ of chemistries. There are a lot of compleJities (in- volved).” This year’s trial includes some eJperimental onion va- rieties that could have resis- tance to thrips. The varieties come from New MeJico State Universi- ty’s onion breeding program, which wants to see how they perform in an area with strong thrips pressure, and the early results are encour- aging, Reitz said. “We seem to be seeing lower numbers of thrips on some of these eJperimental lines,” he said. If any of the varieties do have genetic resistance to thrips and that trait can be bred into commercially ac- ceptable lines, that would help onion growers in this region immensely, Reitz said. “It would have huge benefits all around, helping growers’ bottom line as well as avoiding problems like insecticide resistance,” he said.