8 CapitalPress.com August 21, 2015 Oregon Experts offer pesticide alternatives in fight against SWD Oregon State Fair prepares for its 150th anniversary By ZANE SPARLING Capital Press SALEM — Spokesman Dan Cox has a message for prospective attendees of this year’s Oregon State Fair: It’ll be fun. “Fun is the No. 1 thing we have to offer Oregonians,” he said. In honor of the fair’s 150th anniversary, general admission tickets will cost just $1.50 for kids and adults on the event’s opening day, Friday, Aug. 28. A fireworks display will be held nightly. For agriculture fans, the fair’s biggest draw may well be the return of the Western Dairy Expo, and Jersey breeders are having their Western National in Salem, and expect to bring about 200 head of cattle to the fair, according to Dairy Super- intendent Paul Lindow. Farmers will exhibit more than 100 Holsteins and 65 spe- cialty breeds, including Brown Swiss, Guernsey, Milking Short- horn and Ayrshire. All six breeds will compete for the title of Su- preme Overall Champion, and the winning cow’s owner will take home a $750 grand prize. Lindow, whose family has exhibited at the state fair since 1923, said families should re- member that an expo is not the same thing as a petting zoo. “If people ask, most exhib- itors don’t have a problem with petting,” he said. “There will also be six animals in individual stalls. If they want to be petted, they’ll stick their head out and let you. There are some pretty friendly animals in there.” In the same vein, all dogs are welcome at the fair, except in the concert venue and livestock barn. Dog Town — a showcase of canine competition, agility and health and training expertise — has been relocated to a more central area this year. “I haven’t seen a comment on cats,” said Cox, the spokes- person. Musical performances will be held on 10 out of the 11 days, including four country acts, a faith group and Portland alternative rock band Ever- clear. About 6,000 seats will be available on a first come-first served basis at no extra charge for each performance at the L.B. Day amphitheater. VIP reserved seating is avail- able for $25 to $35, depending on the show. So far, tickets for comedian Gabriel “Fluffy” Igle- By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI Capital Press Zane Sparling/Capital Press Workers dig up a tree root in preparation for the Oregon State Fair, which opens Friday, Aug. 28. More than 400 temporary workers were hired to staff the fair for its 150th anniversary. sias have been the most popular, according to Cox. At 7 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 5, the Fair’s Historic Horse Sta- dium will host a special perfor- mance of the BlackPearl Friesian Dance Troupe, a choreographed horse show set to music, The stadium was resurfaced early in 2015 to improve the footing. Gerry Frank’s Chocolate Layer Cake Competition, which is itself celebrating its 56th anni- versary, has been moved to the Creative Living Stage in Colum- bia Hall at 2 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 6 Frank takes at least one bite out of every cake and keeps up a steady stream of entertaining commentary, according to Cox. He also keeps a bottle of Pep- to-Bismol by his side, in case of emergencies. “I think for folks who live in urban areas.… it’s a great opportunity to appreciate the ag role, which maybe doesn’t get its due,” Cox said. “If someone misses out on this part of the story and Oregon’s history, then they’re really missing out.” Land board moves ahead on Elliott Forest sale By HILLARY BORRUD Capital Bureau SALEM — The Oregon State Land Board voted unani- mously Aug. 13 to move ahead with a plan to sell the Elliott State Forest to a buyer who will agree to conservation and job creation mandates. The goal is to sever the con- nection between the forest and a state trust fund that provides money for K-12 public educa- tion. Currently, the state has a mandate to raise revenue from timber sales from the forest for schools. However, the listing of endangered species in the forest and subsequent environ- mental lawsuits forced the state to scale back timber harvests in recent years, to the point where the state lost money on the op- eration. Under the plan the State Land Board approved Thursday, the state could select a buyer by December 2016 and close on the sale by December 2017. Department of State Lands director Mary Abrams during the State Land Board meeting Thursday in Salem that the new plan has the potential to resolve in 26 months an issue “that has frustrated the board, as trustees, for almost two decades.” The state could extend the deadline by one more year if necessary to finalize financing for a deal, Abrams said. The land board is composed of the governor, sec- retary of state and state treasurer. The state lost approximately $5 million on the Elliott State Forest over the last two years, and state officials expect the for- est will continue to operate with an annual deficit of $500,000 to $1 million indefinitely under the status quo. Environmental groups and individuals said during testi- mony Thursday they want the Elliott State Forest to remain in public ownership, whether that means the federal government or a state agency. The state faces the challenge of finding a buyer who can pay fair market value for the 84,000 acres in the Elliott forest, which is required because of the connection to the state school fund. “We’re actually going to be asking for three appraisals and then a review appraisal to ensure we come up with a number that is truly defensible,” Abrams said of the property value. Jim Green, deputy executive director of the Oregon School Boards Association, told the State Land Board members they were “actually in violation of your fiduciary responsibility” because the forest is currently losing money from the school fund. “You have a role as the trustees of the common school fund to ensure you get the high- est value for the common school fund going forward.” The protocol the land board approved on Thursday will re- quire any buyer of the forest to purchase the entire property and allow public access for hiking, fishing, hunting and other recre- ation on at least 50 percent of the land. The buyer will also have to protect older timber stands in 25 percent of the forestland from harvest, and ensure at least 40 direct and indirect jobs are creat- ed annually over the next decade from logging, reforestation, rec- reation or other activities. Finally, the buyer must main- tain 120-foot stream buffers in all areas with salmon, steelhead or bull trout and areas upstream. Potential buyers now have 14 months to formulate pro- posals, although they must no- tify the state of their interest by Dec. 15. Environmental groups said during testimony Thursday they hope to raise money from a combination of private and public sources to purchase the forest, then possibly transfer it to a public owner. A bill that would have established a state system to protect trust land such as the Elliott State Forest, House Bill 3474, died in committee earlier this year but some people said they hope lawmakers to revive the proposal in 2016. Seth Barnes, director of forest policy for the Oregon Forest Industries Council, said the land board should con- sider that the timber industry remains an important part of the economy in the southwest region of the state. “I was just encouraging them to keep in mind the tim- ber revenue jobs that come off these properties are incred- ibly important to Oregon,” Barnes said after the meeting. Barnes said the plan approved Thursday could reduce annual timber harvests on the Elliott State Forest from 40 million board feet down to 20 million, and each 1 million board feet of timber harvested directly creates approximately 11 jobs. Josh Laughlin, interim exec- utive director of Eugene-based Cascadia Wildlands, said the group wants the state to require that any buyer allow public ac- cess to the entire forestland. “We support you working with land trust organizations and other organizations to make the common school fund whole,” Laughlin said, but he added that Oregonians want to keep the forest in public ownership. Concerns about the contin- ued efficacy of pesticides are leading farmers to look for al- ternatives in their fight against the spotted wing drosophila, expert say. New weapons are needed due to worries that the insect will eventually develop a tol- erance to commonly-used pes- ticides, said Amy Dreves, an Oregon State University Exten- sion entomologist specializing in integrated pest management. “People are looking for what else is out there,” she said. Dreves was recently joined by experts from Washington State University and the Na- tional Research Council of Italy in discussing biological controls for the invasive fruit fly during an Aug. 4 workshop organized by the Northwest Center for Alternatives to Pes- ticides in Eugene, Ore. Aside from pesticide resis- tance, farmers are also cautious about traces of insecticides that can affect their ability to export crops, known as maximum residue levels, said Beverly Gerdeman, an entomology re- search associate at WSU. “It gives other countries a great deal of power about what’s brought into their coun- try,” she said. Growers are currently con- fident they can control the fly with regular applications of organophosphates and py- rethroids, but spotted wing drosophila has disrupted the biologically-based “integrated pest management” approach to managing insects, Gerde- man said. “Right now, we have no such thing as IPM for spotted wing drosophila,” she said. Even so, experts are devel- oping ways to reduce their reli- ance on chemicals in suppress- ing the fruit fly. “My mission is to find ways to tackle this beast,” Dreves said. “There’s hope out there. There are things happening.” The flies thrive in humid conditions, which farmers can reduce by using drip irrigation instead of overhead sprinklers, she said. “They are not sun baskers.” Pruning the canopy of crops, such as caneberries, can im- prove aeration to the detriment of the spotted wing drosophila, she said. Researchers are still examining the best pruning techniques to avoid harming the crop. “If you prune, you’re reduc- ing your humidity and habitat, but if you prune too much, you’re reducing your yields,” she said. Thoroughly harvesting ear- ly season fruit will eliminate refuges from which the spe- cies can launch new offensives against mid- and late-season crops, Dreves said. “That becomes the breeding source for the next harvest,” she said. It’s possible that cultivating or raking the soil between crop rows will help remove or de- stroy the debris where the flies can fester, she said. “We’ve got to think of some ground applications,” Dreves said. Similarly, farmers can try to limit spotted wing dro- sophila populations in nearby sites where they lay eggs on wild-growing plants such as Himalayan blackberry, dog- wood and honeysuckle, she said. Placing a large number of traps within those “non-crop egg-laying sites” can kill the in- sects and steer them away from marketable fruit, but if farmers opt to remove the plants, they should replace them with flow- ering species, she said. Parasitic wasps that feed on the fruit flies also require flowers for nectar and pollen, Dreves said. Emilio Guerrieri, an en- tomologist with the National Research Council of Italy, said he’s identified 10 types of parasitic insects that spe- cifically prey on spotted wing drosophila in China, where the pest originates. Another 9 have been found in South Korea. However, this method of control is complicated by reg- ulatory hurdles, he said. “It’s virtually impossible to take anything alive out of China.” Spotted wing drosophila is also susceptible to existing “generalist” predators that eat other insects, but these often appear once populations are high, said Gerdeman. It may be possible to build up the numbers of these pred- ators by releasing non-pest in- sects before spotted wing dro- sophila becomes a problem, she said. “There are a lot of things out there to help us out.” In some cases, farmers are netting their crops after bloom to prevent the insects from in- filtrating fruit, while others use special vacuums to collect the flies. Those options are expen- sive, though, and may not pen- cil out financially for all grow- ing systems. Vacuuming does provide a “real time” sample of what in- sects are in the field, regardless of whether they’re attracted to the bait in a trap, said Gerde- man. “It does not work with at- tractivity at all,” she said. “It’s more of an indiscriminate.” Regularly setting lures and traps to monitor fly populations allows growers to identify “hot spots” in their fields and eval- uate how well treatments are working, Dreves said. Oregon Farm Bureau seeks calendar photo submissions scape — anything that depicts the beauty, culture, enjoyment, technology or tradition of fam- ily farming and ranching in all parts of Oregon. “With summer harvest in full swing, farmers markets bursting with agricultural bounty, and many county fairs and on-farm festivals going on, August is a great time to cap- ture scenes of Oregon agricul- ture,” said Anne Marie Moss, communications director for the Oregon Farm Bureau. High-resolution, horizon- tal-format images — both close-ups and panoramic views — are needed of all types of ag- riculture in all seasons. Subject ideas include farmers markets; county fair scenes; close-ups of fruits, vegetables, flowers, farm animals, crops in the field; planting and/or harvesting shots; portraits of farmers, ranchers, farm families; and farm scenes in all seasons. Photographers with imag- es selected for month pages in Oregon’s Bounty will receive a photo credit in the 2016 calen- dar and copies of the calendar. There is no limit to the number of photos that can be submitted. Photographers can email their digital photo(s) to annemarie@oregonfb.org or put the image(s) on a CD and send it via postal mail to Anne Marie Moss, Oregon Farm Bureau, 1320 Capitol St. NE, Suite 200, Salem, OR 97301. Photo criteria and contest rules are available at http:// www.oregonfb.org/calendar/. For more information, contact Moss at annemarie@ oregonfb.org, 503.399.1701. ROP-34-2-1/#7 SALEM — The Oregon Farm Bureau is seeking photos for its 2016 Oregon’s Bounty calendar. The deadline for entries is Sept. 15. The award-winning calen- dar celebrates all aspects of Oregon agriculture: products, people, planting/harvest, land- 34-4/#4X