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September 4, 2015 CapitalPress.com 13 Oregon Some Oregon wheat regions do better than others in dry year For the Capital Press Despite the fact wheat yields were down substantially in the Willamette Valley and in areas of Eastern Oregon, for the most part, Oregon wheat growers weathered this sum- mer’s drought in reasonable fashion, according to the state’s top cereal agronomist. “I think overall things turned out OK, even given the dry weather that we had,” said Oregon State University Extension Cereals Special- ist Mike Flowers. “For many people, we had more average yields and better test weight than what we had feared going into harvest.” Looking across the state, Flowers said growers in Wasco and Sherman counties and in the Pendleton area were able to pull in average crops. “Then, going up into the Walla Walla Valley, they caught some really timely rains,” Flowers said. “So even though they had a lower than average rainfall, when they did get the rain, it came at the right time. I would say they also cut close to an average crop.” Then there were the down areas. In the Willamette Valley, which accounted for about 100,000 of the state’s 900,000 wheat acres in 2015, yields were down about 20 percent, Flowers said. “For winter wheat, most of the guys in the valley are look- ing for somewhere in that 120 to 130 (bushel-an-acre) range. I would say on average that this year we were probably closer to somewhere between 100 and 110,” Flowers said. Yields in the drier areas of the east side apparently took even bigger hits. “And as you get into the drier areas — Morrow, the western side of Umatilla — those guys are the ones that really got hurt,” Flowers said. He estimated that their yields were down between 40 and 50 percent and, in some cases, even more. “When you only get 10 inch- es (of rain a year) and you knock 3 inches off of that, it makes a big difference,” he said. Protein levels also fluctuated across the state, Flowers said, but, in general, stayed low. “While yes, we do have ar- eas that had high protein, we had large areas that had normal protein levels,” Flowers said. “I don’t think we are in that bad of shape as far as protein goes, compared to where we worried we would be.” In soft white wheat, growers like protein levels of between 8.5 to 10 percent, Flowers said. Anything over 10 generally will need to be blended. Looking forward, Flowers said the biggest need now for Oregon wheat is rain. “Let’s just hope that we get some of this rain they are call- ing for,” he said on Aug. 26. “This is the second year that we are going into a dry fall, so rain is important.” Budget meter keeps running higher for Oregon wildfire costs By HILLARY BORRUD Capital Bureau SALEM — Oregon has yet to burn through its fire- fighting budget, despite on- going catastrophic wildfires around the state. In what now appears to have been a prudent decision, lawmakers and a committee of forest landowners agreed earlier this year to more than double the amount of money budgeted for the Oregon De- partment of Forestry to fight fires to a total of $50 million annually. “I’m pleased we did it,” said Sen. Bill Hansell, R-Ath- ena, a member of the bud- get-writing Ways and Means Committee. “We had been warned that fires this summer, with the kind of moisture that was predicted, could be pretty high.” The size of the Canyon Creek fire in Grant County and the Grizzly fire in north- eastern Oregon “are well over 120,000 acres and growing,” he said. “And I think we’ve probably got another several weeks or so at least until we get some good rain.” As of Thursday afternoon, the Canyon Creek Complex near John Day had burned nearly 85,000 acres and the Grizzly Bear Complex had burned more than 68,000 acres in the Umatilla Nation- al Forest and private land in Oregon and Washington state. An additional 17 large wild- fires continued to burn in oth- er areas of the state Thursday, according to an interagency fire tracking website. Oregon relies on a unique system to pay wildfire fight- ing costs. Property owners with land classified as forest Marissa Williams/EO Media Group A portion of the Canyon Creek Complex wildfire lights up the sky. The state of Oregon has budgeted $50 million to fight fires this year, and has insurance to pay for expenses above that. pay a state assessment to help cover firefighting costs in addition to money the Legis- lature appropriates from the general fund. The state has also purchased an insurance policy most years since 1973 to help cover firefighting costs. After two severe fire sea- sons, however, the state’s in- surance deductible more than doubled from $20 million to $50 million. When lawmak- ers and forest landowners decided to purchase the pol- icy earlier this year, they had to prepare to spend up to $50 million before they could tap into the $25 million insurance policy. Rod Nichols, a spokesman for the Oregon Department of Forestry, said this week that the agency estimated its net spending this year at $26 million, when expected reim- bursements from the Feder- al Emergency Management Agency and other sources are factored in. Oregon spent an estimated total of $63 million to fight the wildfires, and fire officials so far expect to re- ceive approximately $15 mil- lion in reimbursement from FEMA and $22 million from other federal sources. “The main thing everyone is focused on now is getting the fires out,” Nichols said. “We cannot not respond to fires, so we just have to do it. That said, we’re spending a lot of money obviously from those figures.” The state has to pay con- tractors in a timely manner, for example, to ensure they remain in business and can continue to work on the fires, Nichols said. At the start of fire season, the Oregon Department of Forestry had 500 seasonal firefighters, 220 fire engines, 15 bulldozers and 14 aircraft. The state also had access to three 188 private contract hand crews, inmate hand crews from state prisons, three incident management teams and National Guard he- licopters. Oregon has since pulled in resources including addition- al fire crews, aircraft and fire managers from other states and Canadian provinces to fight the wildfires. “Basically, the cupboard is bare, though some of the large fires are winding down and resources are starting to return from them,” Nichols wrote in an email. Eric Mortenson/Capital Press Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, left, and federal Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack heard wildfire updates Aug. 28 at the Northwest Inci- dent Coordination Center in Portland. Wyden seeks change in Forest Service wildfire budgeting By ERIC MORTENSON Capital Press PORTLAND — Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden said free- ing up federal natural disaster money to fight fires, rather than dipping into the U.S. Forest Service’s operating budget, is the primary thing he wants to accomplish when Congress re- convenes in September. Speaking during a briefing at the Northwest Coordina- tion Center, which coordinates the air and ground response to wildfires in Oregon and Wash- ington, Wyden said there is bi-partisan support in the Sen- ate for the idea. “We can’t have business as usual any longer,” Wyden said. “The business as usual has been that fire prevention always gets shortchanged. “I have no higher priori- ty this fall than of getting this fixed,” Wyden said. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, attending the briefing with Wyden, said 52 percent of the Forest Service’s budget is eaten up by fire sup- pression work, compared to 16 percent in 1995. At this rate of increase, responding to wild- fires will take two-thirds of the agency’s budget within a few years, he said. The Forest Service has seen a 115 percent increase in per- sonnel assigned to fight fires, and a 38 percent decrease in people assigned to do every- thing else, Vilsack said. As Wyden and Vilsack spoke, forest and rangeland officials have counted 3,382 fires in Oregon and Washington since June 1, with 1.4 million acres burned. Three firefighters died in Washington, and doz- ens of homes and outbuildings have been destroyed in the two states. To date, the fires have cost an estimated $370 million to fight, with nearly 11,000 fire- fighters deployed. Fire manag- ers have counted nearly 60,000 lightning strikes this summer. Wyden said much of the West has “just been slammed” by what he called a “terrible trifecta” of drought, high tem- peratures and an enormous build-up of fuel on the forest floor. The legislation he favors would treat the largest fires as natural disasters, on par with hurricanes and floods and eli- gible for response and recovery funding from such agencies as FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency. That would free up Forest Service money for its intend- ed purpose such as increased thinning and salvage logging, which would reduce the inten- sity of fires by eliminating fuel. Wyden, a liberal Democrat, said one of the key supporters is Wyoming Sen. Mike Enzi, a conservative Republican. The Obama administration strongly supports the proposal, Wyden said. During the briefing, Wyden and Vilsack were told the fire season is projected to last through October. Heavy rain was predicted to hit western Oregon and Washington the weekend of Aug. 29-30, but it wasn’t expected to reach the eastern side of both states, where the fires are raging. In- stead, the system was likely to kick up fierce windstorms east of the Cascades, which could cause “extreme” fire behavior, said John Saltenberger, fire weather program manager for the Northwest Coordination Center. Saltenberger said the first six months of 2015 were the warmest six-month period on record in the West since 1895. Fire season began about a month early; there were even some fires in the Oregon Coast Range in January, when the coast is normally socked-in and drizzly. BUYING 6” and UP Alder and Maple Saw Logs, Standing Timber www.cascadehardwood.com Sesquicentennial farms honored at state fair Three farms located in Umatilla County By GEORGE PLAVEN EO Media Group PENDLETON — The origi- nal 1840s farmhouse still stands at James Monroe Hemphill Farm south of Pendleton, used now for storage rather than a home that raised nine children on the rural Oregon countryside. Since 1865, the Hemphill family has farmed this 800-acre homestead along Birch Creek. Colin Hemphill, 34, is the fifth-generation farm manager, growing 650 acres of wheat and raising 30 head of cows. “I could never think of my- self doing anything else,” he said. Farming has changed sig- nificantly over the last 150 years, but the Hemphill farm remains a family legacy. The Oregon Century Farm & Cen- tury Ranch Program will honor the Hemphills, along with two other Umatilla County farms, celebrating their sesquicenten- nial during an event Saturday at the Oregon State Fair in Salem. JK Adams Ranches, of Ad- ams, and AB Lieuallen Century Ranches, of Athena, have also reached the 150-year mark under continuous family ownership. The Hemphill farm was established by James Monroe Hemphill and his wife, Elizabeth, in 1865. James Monroe was born in New Hampshire and initially came west to California during the 1849 Gold Rush. The Hemphills married in Stockton, California, and came immediately to Oregon. They began raising sheep and sold chickens for $1 each to min- ers in the nearby ghost town of Granite. Chuck Hemphill, 70, is the fourth-generation farmer and Colin’s father. He has since re- tired, but still lives near the farm with his wife, Dinah. “To us, it’s worth more than a farm because it’s our family’s history,” Chuck Hemphill said. Oregon Century and Sesqui- centennial Farms will be hon- ored at 11 a.m. at the state fair, in the Garden Tent on the west side of the fairgrounds. Oregon now has 1,175 Century Farms and 33 Sesquicentennial Farms statewide. 36-2/#4N 36-7/#24 By MITCH LIES