10 CapitalPress.com
October 9, 2015
Oregon
Producer: Two more sheep killed
Incident in area of
Mount Emily pack
By ERIC MORTENSON
Capital Press
A sheep producer said two
more sheep were found dead in
the area where Oregon wildlife
officials confirmed five attacks
by the Mount Emily wolf pack
in Northeast Oregon.
Jeremy Bingham of Utopia
Land & Livestock sent photos
to the Capital Press of sheep
he said were found dead Sept.
30, five days after Oregon De-
partment of Fish and Wildlife
turned down his request for le-
thal control against the Mount
Emily pack.
The department confirmed
five attacks on Bingham’s
sheep and guard dogs, one in
June and four in August, but
said Sept. 25 it wouldn’t au-
thorize killing wolves because
nearly a month had passed
since the last attack, the pack
had moved to another part of
its known range and non-lethal
measures appeared to be work-
ing.
ODFW reports confirm
wolves killed at least seven
sheep and a guard dog in at-
tacks investigated June 22,
Aug. 4, Aug. 15, Aug. 24 and
Aug. 27. Under Phase 2 of Or-
egon’s wolf recovery plan, le-
thal control can be authorized
after two confirmed “depreda-
tions,” or one confirmed attack
and three attempts.
It’s unclear whether the lat-
est report of dead sheep will
factor into ODFW’s actions.
An ODFW spokeswoman
said Bingham did not request
an investigation and officials
have not seen the carcasses.
The department will investi-
gate if Bingham requests it,
the carcasses are located and
the initial evidence indicates
wolves may have been respon-
sible, spokeswoman Michelle
Dennehy said in an email.
“Any decision regarding
lethal control of wolves will
be made based on the circum-
stances of each situation and
within the guidelines of the
current rules and plan. There-
fore, we could not speculate at
this time what ‘would’ happen
if more depredation occurs —
it is solely dependent on the
actual circumstances of the sit-
uation,” Dennehy said.
Bingham said reporting it
wouldn’t make a difference.
“What you have to under-
stand (is) they are not going
to take lethal action no matter
what this year,” he said in a
text.
Airspace change threatens to
disrupt Christmas tree harvest
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
Christmas tree farmers in
the vicinity of Salem, Ore.,
hope a change in federal air-
space designation won’t com-
plicate upcoming helicopter
harvests of their crop.
Over the summer, the Fed-
eral Aviation Administration
increased the radius of “Class
D” airspace around the Salem
Municipal Airport from about
four miles up to eight miles in
some areas.
This expansion would
impede harvests of Christ-
mas trees in the area because
helicopters would come un-
der stringent restrictions that
would effectively prevent
most flights when visibility is
low — a common occurrence
during the cloudy autumn
months.
“We realized it would shut
the growers down,” said Ter-
ry Harchenko, president of
Industrial Aviation Services, a
Salem aviation firm that serves
farmers.
Roughly 2,600 acres of
Christmas trees on multiple
farms are included in the larger
“Class D” airspace, said Ben
Stone, whose family operates
BTN of Oregon, a farm near
Salem.
“That’s a big area,” Stone
said.
Growers have a narrow
window of five to six weeks
to harvest trees, so compa-
nies such as BTN of Oregon
wouldn’t have time to switch
Mateusz Perkowski/Capital Press
A helicopter unloads a bundle of Christmas trees into a truck
in this Capital Press file photo. A change in federal airspace
designations threatens to disrupt such helicopter harvests around
Salem, Ore., unless revisions are approved by regulators.
their harvest plans this year,
he said.
The farm doesn’t have suf-
ficient tractors, roads or work-
ers to cut and haul the trees by
ground, nor could such opera-
tions be accomplished quickly
enough to meet holiday de-
mand, Stone said.
“We’ve farmed with heli-
copters for 30-plus years,” he
said.
Due to protests from pilots
and others affected by the air-
space change, the FAA agreed
to scale back the expansion
— under a new proposal, the
radius of “Class D” airspace
around the Salem airport will
increase by up to one mile.
However, due to the public
notice and comment process,
growers fear the revision will
not be finalized in time for this
year’s harvest.
“Helicopter harvest is very
critical to what we do,” said
Bryan Ostlund, executive di-
rector of the Pacific Northwest
Christmas Tree Association. “I
refer to the Christmas tree har-
vest as controlled chaos and
this is going to make it even
worse.”
There is a possibility that
harvest disruptions can still be
avoided.
Agricultural aviators may
be able to operate under a
“letter of agreement” that al-
lows them to fly in the “Class
D” airspace during periods of
cloudiness and reduced visi-
bility, as long as they follow
certain conditions.
Rob Broyhill, air traffic
manager at the Salem airport’s
control tower, said he’s draft-
ing a “letter of agreement”
that he expects to have done
by Oct. 15. The proposal must
still be approved by FAA offi-
cials, he said.
Harchenko of Industrial
Aviation Services said the out-
cry from pilots and growers,
as well as intervention from
Oregon’s congressional del-
egation, will hopefully allow
the problem to be resolved in
a timely manner.
“It could have been a real
disaster if everybody wouldn’t
have gotten with it,” he said.
Growers should also sub-
mit comments on the scaled-
back “Class D” airspace pro-
posal, which was published in
the Federal Register on Sept.
21 and can be found online,
Harchenko said.
The original expansion
occurred after an FAA review
determined the change was
needed to improve the safety
for pilots operating on instru-
ments around the airport, ac-
cording to the Aircraft Owners
and Pilots Association.
Capital Press File
Wheat industry and Oregon State University officials say after
several retirements at the Columbia Basin Agricultural Research
Center it will take time to forge new relationships between re-
searchers and growers.
Wheat growers
called to engage
with new CBARC
Three scientists have
retired in last two years
By GEORGE PLAVEN
EO Media Group
The Columbia Basin Agri-
cultural Research Center has
seen plenty of turnover in just
over two years.
Three longtime scientists are
now gone from the Pendleton
station, including former di-
rector Steve Petrie, who left in
2013 for a job in the private sec-
tor. Agronomist Dan Ball and
plant pathologist Richard Smi-
ley also retired, taking decades
of knowledge and experience
with them.
Local wheat farmers depend
on CBARC — run by the Ore-
gon State University College of
Agricultural Sciences — for the
latest information on new crop
varieties and growing tech-
niques that can help them save
money and increase production.
After losing so many fa-
miliar faces, university and in-
dustry leaders say it will take
time to forge new relationships,
but they remain committed to
working together.
Blake Rowe, CEO of the Or-
egon Wheat Growers League,
wrote a column for the October
edition of Oregon Wheat Mag-
azine reminding growers they
too have a role in outreach.
“There’s new people, new
personalities. It’s just a lot of ad-
justment to a lot of new stuff,”
Rowe said in an interview with
the EO Media Group. “You
have to expect these growing
pains.”
Some of the new research-
ers at CBARC are not only
from out of town, but out of
the country: Valtcho Jeliazkov,
who replaced Petrie as director,
grew up in Bulgaria, while Judit
Barroso, who filled Ball’s posi-
tion, earned her doctorate at the
Institute of Agrarian Science in
Madrid, Spain.
Darren Padget, a Sherman
County wheat farmer and chair-
man of the Oregon Wheat Com-
mission, said it’s crucial for
CBARC staff to continue meet-
ing with growers in the field to
better understand the region’s
unique climate and cropping
systems.
“That’s probably the biggest
concern I have,” Padget said.
“There’s a lot to learn, and they
really have to lean on the grow-
ers to understand it.”
About half of Oregon’s
wheat assessment — every
grower is assessed a nickel per
bushel — goes toward research
with OSU labs and extension.
The assessment was just a little
more than $2 million in 2014,
though drought and lower
yields are anticipated for 2015.
As money gets tight, Padget
said every dollar becomes
closely scrutinized. And like
anything else, change can lend
itself to uncertainty.
“We just want to make sure
those dollars are targeted where
you get the greatest rate of re-
turn,” Padget said. “We’re con-
stantly providing input on what
we want.”
In addition to Pendleton,
CBARC operates a field station
in Moro not far from Padget’s
farm. Erling Jacobsen, the Moro
farm manager, also recently re-
tired. Padget is part of the com-
mittee charged with finding his
replacement.
Farmers to be contacted
for CEAP survey
rop-41-2-7/#4
Federal designation
around Oregon airport
may restrict helicopters
PENDLETON — Eastern
Oregon farmers can expect a
call from the National Agri-
cultural Statistics Service be-
tween October and February
2016 as part of a national sur-
vey on management and con-
servation practices.
The Conservation Effects
Assessment Project, or CEAP,
gathers information from
growers in order to determine
the effectiveness of existing
conservation practices, and
improve programs that can
help farmers protect their land,
water and soil.
NASS representatives will
visit eligible farms to learn
about things like production
practices, fertilizer and manure
applications and pest manage-
ment. As with all NASS sur-
veys, the information collected
is kept private by law.
Andrea Mann, district con-
servationist with the Natural
Resources Conservation Ser-
vice in Pendleton, said several
local farmers were contacted
at the end of September and
believed the call to be a scam.
She wants producers to be as-
sured the survey is legitimate.
The CEAP survey will be
conducted over two years,
with a second survey period to
be conducted from September
2016 through February 2017.
The information will ultimate-
ly serve as a tool not only for
farmers, but for legislators and
the public in crafting sound
conservation policies.