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2 CapitalPress.com August 28, 2015 People & Places Seeking ways to expand grower opportunities Glenda Humiston to play key role in UC innovation efforts Capital Press Managers Mike O’Brien .............................Publisher Joe Beach ..................................... Editor Elizabeth Yutzie Sell .... Advertising Director Carl Sampson ................Managing Editor Barbara Nipp ......... Production Manager Samantha McLaren .... Circulation Manager Capital Press Entire contents copyright © 2015 EO Media Group dba Capital Press An independent newspaper published every Friday. Capital Press (ISSN 0740-.704) is published weekly by EO Media Group, 1400 Broadway St. NE, Salem OR 97.01. Photo courtesy of USDA Glenda Humiston, the new University of California vice president for agriculture and natural resources, discusses water issues at a confer- ence in Brazil on Aug. 18. She is serving on an innovation panel led by UC President Janet Napolitano. for Sustainable Development in South Africa and the 2006 World Water Forum in Mexi- co City and earned her doctor- ate in environmental science, policy and management from UC-Berkeley in 2009 with research on U.S. Farm Bill policy. Humiston credits her time in 4-H and FFA as a youngster for both her love of agricul- ture and penchant for leader- ship. “I think I am a perfect ex- ample of what 4-H can do,” she said. “It’s where I learned how to run a meeting. It’s where I learned teamwork, how to show something and if I lost, to move on and keep going. I’m the very first per- son in my family to go to col- lege. I was a star greenhand in Colorado.” Having won a national 4-H award, Humiston spent two weeks in Washington, D.C., during the 1976 Bicentennial celebration. “That trip was magical,” she said. “It just opened up a whole world to me.” Humiston also knows what it’s like to struggle financially in farming, she said. Both her parents supplement her family’s ranch income with outside jobs. Humiston comes to the uni- versity from a six-year stint as the USDA’s rural develop- ment director for California, to which she was appointed by President Barack Obama. She replaces Barbara Allen-Diaz, who retired as ANR vice presi- dent in June. At the UC, she’ll oversee 1,350 people in 60 county of- fices, nine research and exten- sion centers and three adminis- trative centers. In her first-day meeting with Napolitano, the two were “on the same wave- length as far as what this po- sition ought to be doing,” she said. In announcing the hire in July, Napolitano called Hu- miston “a great fit for the UC system at a time when drought has heightened the importance of sustainable agricultural practices. “She is a knowledgeable, thoughtful and action-orient- ed leader who will expand the impact” of ANR, whose reach is already global, Napolitano said. Humiston said she wants to take what she’s learned over Western Innovator Glenda Humiston By RYAN M. TAYLOR OWNER, N.D. — Some days, I think I’m about the oldest 45-year-old guy I know. Maybe I am. An “old soul” has been a common description of me, and I take it as a compliment. I’m certain the “oldness” is related to my father being just shy of 49 years old when I was born, and my mother was nearly 38. Having parents a generation beyond the age of the parents of most of my contemporaries was bound to have a soul-aging effect on me. T Feeling my age But I’m feeling my age now because I look at the cal- endar, count back and realize I’ve been writing this Cowboy Logic column for 21 years. How’d that happen? On July 18, 1994, just a week ahead of my 24th birth- Cowboy Logic Ryan Taylor day, Cowboy Logic got its first ink on page six of AgWeek magazine. I’d been writing freelance news stories for Ag- Week and they asked me for something a little lighter to run on the editorial page. I had to be an old soul for them to give a 24-year-old cowboy free rein on 600 words worth of ink and newsprint every week. Kind of like leafy spurge, but hopefully more appreciat- ed, it spread from there. North Dakota Horizons magazine picked it to run on their glossy pages four times a year. I reached Canadian farmers and ranchers with the Western Pro- ducer published in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. I’m in the Capital Press out in Salem, Ore.; the Cattle Business Weekly in Philip, Calendar Saturday, Aug. 29 Farwest Nursery Show, 8 a.m.-4: .0 p.m., Oregon Conven- vice president for agriculture and natural resources Age: 56 Family: Wife Grace Flannery; one grandchild Website: http://ucanr.edu the years and help improve growers’ economic outlook by seeking new opportunities in international trade and form- ing better relations between urban and rural communities. She told of attending a re- cent two-day economic sum- mit in San Jose, at which the words “agriculture,” “natural resources” and “water” were rarely mentioned. “It was as if our policy- makers … somehow think the California economy is living on some barren rock in outer space,” Humiston said, adding there’s a lack of knowledge among urban leaders of how ag and natural resources un- derpin the economy. In addition to her work on the innovation panel, Humis- tion Center, Portland. Aug. 29-Sept. 7 Oregon State Fair, 10 a.m.-11 p.m. Oregon State Fair- grounds, Salem. Thursday, Sept. 10 Oregon State University Dairy Open House, 10 a.m.-. p.m. OSU Dairy, Corvallis, Ore. The OSU Dairy has been converting to a grazing-based operation. Thursday-Friday, Sept. 17-18 California Poultry Federation Annual Meeting and Confer- ence, 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monterey Plaza Hotel, Monterey, Calif. Thursday-Sunday, Sept. 17-20 Mount Angel Oktoberfest, 11 a.m.-11: 55 p.m., Mount Angel, 1-855-899-6..8. Mount Angel’s Oktoberfest will celebrate 50 years of festival, bringing together .50,000 people to celebrate the harvest. Something for everyone. Saturday-Sunday, Oct. 3-4 Alpaca Harvest Fest, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Alpacas of Oregon, Sherwood, Ore., 50.-628-202.. Two farms, one convenient location. If you’re curious about starting a fiber farm or breeding fiber animals — sheep, goats, alpacas, llamas — we’ve raised them all and love to talk about them. Second generation Spice of life My mother wrote a column for about 30 years in our local weekly paper called “Mean- while, Back at the Ranch,” right up until her passing. She wrote them out in longhand on a yellow legal pad and I think she got $20 a column. Someone rather innocently asked her once what she had to pay to get that space in the paper. They figured it was like buying advertising. They were pleased to find out that she ac- tually got paid a little for writ- ing it! I’ve always liked life best when it’s had a lot of variety. I had the variety of all that ranching entails from day to day, and combined that with communications work for a beef cooperative in seven states and two Canadian prov- inces; a sales career in animal health for a major corporation; 10 years serving as a state sen- ator and two years as the mi- nority leader; and a fellowship with a foundation that allowed me to study Norway’s oil de- velopment policies, travel to ton will have a key role in Na- politano’s Global Food Initia- tive, which seeks to align the university’s research, outreach and operations to figure out how to nutritionally and sus- tainably feed a world popula- tion expected to reach 8 billion by 2025. Her work will often take Humiston out of the country. She was in Brazil last week at- tending a forum on water and said she will likely visit Mex- ico in her first year on the job. “I’m a firm believer that there’s room in our system for all types of agriculture,” Hu- miston said. “What’s import- ant to us here at ANR is that we’re developing the research that will enable that ag to be as sustainable as possible.” the old country and even heli- copter out to a drilling platform in the middle of the North Sea. To say the least, my life has been blessed with variety. A new adventure Now, my wife and family and I are embarking on a new adventure as the appointed state director for the U.S. Depart- ment of Agriculture’s Rural De- velopment agency. We’ll still have cows and horses, and the ranch will never be for sale, but I am stepping away from writ- ing my Cowboy Logic column as I start my new work. I leave several hundred columns and three books of my past columns in my wake, a website to find them, www. mycowboylogic.com, and 21 years of good memories. I’m not going too far, so we’ll see you around. And if we meet on a gravel road, I’ll smile and give the customary wave from the top of the steering wheel. Happy trails, folks. Sevenoaks has been growing for 37 years CORVALLIS, Ore. — When Mike Ridling and Scott Anderson bought Corvallis-area Sevenoaks Native Nursery in 2006, there were not many wholesale native nurser- ies in Oregon. They began selling to the few Portland and suburban-area nurseries that sold natives, but grow- ers closer to the metro area soon en- tered the market. Ridling and Anderson re-evaluat- ed their markets and, although they continue to sell to the Portland area, that market makes up fewer of their sales than before. About half of Sevenoaks’ sales is bare-root stock to contractors and businesses conducting restoration projects that require native plants. These projects include highway con- struction where disturbed areas are re- planted with native trees and shrubs. Conservation groups continue to be a staple of Sevenoaks’ sales. Watershed councils, conservation districts and other groups also pur- chase nursery natives for planting along creeks and rivers and in upland areas, to conserve water or improve its quality, create shade and prevent erosion. Some of the bare-root stock also goes to nurseries that grow the plants in larger containers. The other half of Sevenoaks’ sales is container stock, much of which also goes to restoration proj- ects. The demand for larger and larg- er container plants is increasing, An- derson said. As a result, Sevenoaks is expanding their 5-gallon container sales and is growing larger trees. When they first purchased the business, Ridling and Anderson began improving the looks of their products and increased their vari- eties from 150 to nearly 400 native plants, all grown on the nursery’s 16 acres. Federal construction projects To Reach Us N. California Tim Hearden .................... 5.0-605-.072 E Idaho John O’Connell ................. 208-421-4.47 I’ve been pleased, too, that a handful of papers and maga- zines around the Western U.S. and Canada have been willing to pay me for writing. Every dollar earned was welcome, es- pecially that year I sold the steer calves for 62 cents a pound. The columns, and the speak- ing jobs that came from them, helped skid the ranch across the thin ice of the lean times. For the Capital Press POSTMASTER: send address changes to Capital Press, P.O. Box 2048 Salem, OR 97.08-2048. News Staff Residence: Novato, Calif. S.D.; and the Nebraska Fen- cepost, Ogallala, Neb. I’ve had papers and mag- azines in Kamloops, British Columbia; Great Falls, Mont.; and Boise, Idaho, dedicate space to Cowboy Logic over the years as well. It’s probably run in a few papers that never minded tracking me down to send a little remuneration for my words, and that’s OK. By GAIL OBERST Periodicals postage paid at Portland, OR, and at additional mailing offices. Toll free ............................. 800-882-6789 Main line ........................... 50.-.64-44.1 Fax ................................... 50.-.70-4.8. Advertising Fax ................ 50.-.64-2692 Occupation: University of California It’s the end of the trail for Cowboy Logic column For the Capital Press Established 1928 Board of directors Mike Forrester ..........................President Steve Forrester Kathryn Brown Sid Freeman .................. Outside director Mike Omeg .................... Outside director Corporate officer John Perry Chief operating officer By TIM HEARDEN OAKLAND, Calif. — In a meeting with her new boss on her first day on the job, Glen- da Humiston took a bold step. “I suggested I should be active on her innovation council,” said Humiston, who has been the University of California’s vice president in charge of agriculture and nat- ural resources since Aug. 3. The panel she was vol- unteering for was a group of business leaders and investors assembled by UC President Janet Napolitano last year to look for innovations in en- trepreneurship and technolo- gy that can be applied in the commercial sector. For Humiston, the panel is a great way to explore the opportunities for developing agricultural technology, she said. “When you look at tech- nology and the things of agri- culture, they come together in California,” she said. Humiston, 56, has spent her career looking for ways to enhance farmers’ econom- ic opportunities and bridging urban-rural divides. After growing up on her parents’ cattle ranch in north- western Colorado and having been a Peace Corps volun- teer in Tunisia, she had what she called her “dream job” in the early 1990s as executive director of the now-defunct Sonoma County Farmlands Group working on farmland preservation. “I’ve pretty much stayed in that (type of) work,” Humis- ton said. In 1998, then-President Bill Clinton appointed her as USDA under secretary for natural resources and envi- ronment, a position she held until 2001. She had key roles in the 2002 World Summit Capital Press along Interstate 5, Army Corps of Engineers, buffer zones in forested areas, farmers working on conser- vation plans, landowners who want to landscape natives for drought tol- erance — all of these projects and activities are increasing the demand for native plants. Sevenoaks was founded in 1978 by Ron and Barbara Cameron, who developed the raised sand-bed sys- tem still in use today. Walking past the long bed of small aspens, Mike spots a weed and pulls it effortless- ly from the sand bed, roots and all. Aspens are still one of the nursery’s mainstays. The nursery grows about 150,000 aspen seedlings every year. Scott and Mike met at the Univer- sity of Oregon and connected their passion for native plants to a business plan. Mike worked for a year with the previous owners and then Scott joined for the last few months before they took over the business. Idaho Carol Ryan Dumas .......... 208-860-.898 Boise Sean Ellis .......................... 208-914-8264 Central Washington Dan Wheat ........................ 509-699-9099 E Washington Matthew Weaver .............. 509-688-992. Oregon Eric Mortenson ................ 50.-412-8846 Mateusz Perkowski .......... 800-882-6789 Graphic artist Alan Kenaga ..................... 800-882-6789 To Place Classified Ads Ad fax .............................. 50.-.64-2692 or ...................................... 50.-.70-4.8. 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