July 22, 2016
Idea could
lead to deal
on Idaho
ield burning
changes
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
BOISE — An EPA oficial
has loated an idea he believes
could solve the disagreement
between Idaho farm and en-
vironmental groups over pro-
posed changes to the state’s
crop residue burning program.
The idea was immediately
supported by environmen-
tal groups and public health
advocates involved in nego-
tiations over the proposed
changes, which state regula-
tors say are needed to avoid a
large reduction in the number
of allowable burn days for
Idaho farmers.
“It’s a perfect idea because
it really meets the needs of
both groups,” said Patti Go-
ra-McRavin, who represents
safe air advocates on Idaho’s
crop residue burning program
advisory committee. “This
idea absolutely works. It
brings a common-sense solu-
tion. It’s fair, it’s balanced and
it’s simple.”
Idaho farmers burn be-
tween 40,000 and 50,000
acres most years.
Farmers can get permis-
sion to burn their ields from
the Idaho Department of En-
vironmental Quality only if
small particulate matter and
ozone levels aren’t expected
to exceed 75 percent of the
national standard for those
pollutants during the burn day.
Because the federal ozone
standard was tightened Oct. 1,
the number of allowable burn
days in some parts of Idaho
could be reduced by a third
to half unless the state’s crop
residue burning program is
changed.
To avoid a large reduction
in allowable burn days be-
cause of the new ozone stan-
dard, DEQ has proposed loos-
ing Idaho’s ozone standard to
90 percent of the federal stan-
dard while leaving the state’s
standard for small particulate
matter, known as PM 2.5, at
75 percent of the federal stan-
dard.
Environmental and air ad-
vocacy groups objected.
Mike McGown, EPA’s re-
gional smoke management
coordinator and a member
of the advisory committee,
sent an email to Idaho De-
partment of Environmental
Quality oficials July 13 pro-
posing leaving the current
PM 2.5 standard in place for
all pollutants, unless ozone
levels are expected to exceed
that level. In that case, DEQ
would reconsider the burn de-
cision based on the criteria of
the ozone standard being 90
percent of the federal standard
and the PM 2.5 standard being
60 percent.
CapitalPress.com
5
Bailey named grass-roots coordinator for ag, timber group
By ERIC MORTENSON
Capital Press
Nursery owner Angela
Bailey began work July 18 as
the new grass-roots coordina-
tor for Oregonians for Food
and Shelter, the ag and timber
lobbying group.
Executive Director Katie
Fast said the OFS board went
through a planning process
with stakeholders to review
the group’s work and focus,
especially since the 2015 re-
tirement of Paulette Pyle,
the organization’s revered
and well-known connection
to legislators and regulatory
agencies.
The review process made
it clear there was a gap in
working with producers who
need to be telling their story at
the local level, Fast said.
“We’re challenged around
GE (genetically engineered)
crops, aerial spraying and pes-
ticides in general,” she said.
“We want to focus on working
with people on a community
level, and give them the tools
to engage around the issues,”
Bailey, owner of Verna
Jean Nursery near Gresham,
Ore., has the experience to do
that, Fast said.
Bailey, known to friends as
“Angi,” served as the Oregon
Farm Bureau’s second vice
president in 2015 and won
the Outstanding Farm Bu-
reau Woman Award during its
2014 annual meeting. She’s
also a graduate of the Amer-
ican Farm Bureau’s commu-
nications “boot camp,” She’s
been active with the Oregon
Association of Nurseries and
other groups.
She and her husband, Lar-
ry, have two daughters. Bai-
ley hadn’t planned a career in
the nursery business but took
over the nursery in 2005 after
her mother died unexpected-
ly. The nursery specializes in
ornamental trees, including
Japanese maples and monkey
puzzle trees.
Angela “Angi” Bailey
PNW cherry harvest enters inal stretch
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
WENATCHEE, Wash.
— Pacific Northwest cher-
ry growers have harvested
more fruit this season than
they predicted last spring.
A total of 19.2 million,
20-pound boxes of cherries
had been shipped as of July
17, surpassing a May 25
five-state forecast of 18.3
million.
Harvest is done in Ida-
ho and Utah and will wrap
up in Washington, Oregon
and Montana by Aug. 10 at
probably just less than 20
million boxes, making it
the fourth largest in history,
said B.J. Thurlby, president
of Northwest Cherry Grow-
ers, the industry promotion-
al arm in Yakima.
Washington
typically
produces 80 to 85 percent
of the crop. High-elevation
cherries on Stemilt Hill,
south of Wenatchee, and
above Hood River, Ore., are
usually the last to be picked.
Hot weather in early June
and several rains reduced
the crop by about 1 million
boxes, but overall the sea-
son has been relatively good
weather-wise, Thurlby said.
Late Bing had great quality
and Skeena were “possibly
the best I’ve ever eaten,” he
said.
There were some “pretty
severe losses” to rain, said
Roger Pepperl, marketing
director of Stemilt Growers
LLC in Wenatchee, the na-
tion’s largest sweet cherry
grower.
It was one of the better
years on fruit size, quality
and flavor with quality be-
ing real nice if “fruit was let
ripen as we did at Stemilt,”
Pepperl said.
The greatest difficulties
were from heat in April
causing a flash bloom,
which compressed the har-
vest of different varieties
and kept prices low in the
middle of the season, hurt-
ing grower returns, he said.
A lot of volume was
shipped in late June through
middle July from varieties
that were two to three weeks
earlier than normal, he said.
“We did the best to hold
prices up for our grow-
Dan Wheat/Capital Press
Guadalupe Gonzalez packs cherries at Blue Bird Inc.’s new Wenatchee, Wash., plant on July 13. The Paciic Northwest cherry harvest
will close out a good season in a few weeks at nearly 20 million boxes.
ers, but it’s hard when
people (competitors) low-
er their prices,” Pepperl
said.
Labor is more expensive,
which puts a lot of pressure
on price, he said. It’s tough
for growers to make money
on $1.99 per pound retail
prices, he said.
Domestic
promotions
reached more than 20,000
stores the week ending
July 16 and prices averaged
$2.60 per pound, Thurlby
said.
Labor was tight in or-
chards and packing sheds,
Pepperl said.
Labor was shortest ear-
ly in the season and some
growers in Prosser didn’t
pick because they had no
pickers, Thurlby said.
Some fruit that would
have gone fresh market was
late and went to processors
for ice cream and yogurt for
less return, he said.
Labor was “painfully
tight” in the first half of the
season through June 25 but
improved when school was
out in California, freeing
pickers to come north, he
said. Packing sheds needed
more workers when they
added night shifts, he said.
Records were set of
700,000 boxes harvested
in May and 12.3 million in
June. The season tied last
year for 14 million boxes
shipped by the Fourth of
July.
The holiday typically
brings high volume sales.
From start to finish, the
season is seeing the best de-
mand in the past five years,
he said.
Peak
harvest
was
651,000 boxes on June 27.
There were a total of seven
days of more than 500,000
boxes per day spread over
a window of 19 days. Daily
volume is now dropping be-
low 200,000.
Exports are running a lit-
tle better than normal at 32
percent, Thurlby said. The
big ones are China at 1.4
million boxes, South Korea
at 980,000 and Taiwan at
450,000.
Dan Wheat/Capital Press
The packaging side of Blue Bird Inc.’s new 42-lane cherry line in
Wenatchee, Wash., July 13. It replaces lines destroyed by wildire
a year ago.
Biochar conference explores its use in forestry, agriculture
Capital Press
The status and future of
biochar is the subject of a four-
day conference in August.
The conference, titled “The
Synergy of Science and Indus-
try: Biochar’s Connection to
Ecology, Soil, Food and Ener-
gy,” happens Aug. 22-25 at Or-
egon State University in Cor-
vallis. Registration costs $375
for the full conference; $250
for students and nonproits;
$150 for one-day attendance.
Biochar is essentially char-
coal produced by a pyrolysis
process of heating biomass in a
low-oxygen environment. The
biomass fuel can include such
things as logging slash or ield
straw, which is why it draws
interest from the timber and ag
industries,
Researchers and industry
advocates say biochar has mul-
tiple uses in agriculture and
forestry. It can provide a quick
ix to depleted soil by reducing
acidity, retaining moisture and
storing carbon. Conference
Chair Tom Miles, founder of
T.R. Miles Technical Consul-
tants Inc., in Portland, said it’s
already used by vineyards in
drought-stricken California.
In Japan, biochar develops
the strong root systems needed
to transplant rice. Commer-
Online
More conference information, including schedule and regis-
tration details: http://usbi2016.org
Additional information is available through the Northwest
Biochar Working Group: http://nwbiochar.org
cial cannabis growers favor
biochar for the same reason,
Miles said.
In Eastern Oregon, OSU
dryland cropping agronomist
Stephen Machado is in the
third year of researching bio-
char’s use on Columbia Basin
wheat and pea crops.
One application of biochar
continues to produce a “nice re-
sponse” in test plots, Machado
said.
Wheat yields increased 20
to 33 percent and pea yields
increased at a similar rate,
Machado said. Soil pH also im-
proved.
“I’m a true believer,” Mach-
ado said.
He cautioned that not all
biochar products are the same,
however. The chemistry of the
biomass material used to make
biochar and the chemistry of the
soil on which it will be applied
must be considered, he said.
Miles, the conference chair,
said biochar increasingly is used
in bioswales to ilter stormwater
or to capture pollutants, and has
been shown to remove phospho-
rous from dairy manure.
Research is progressing on
multiple fronts, and entrepre-
neurs are jumping into bio-
char production.
ROP-32-52-2/#17
By ERIC MORTENSON
Biochar made from bluegrass
screenings is shown in this
photo. An upcoming conference
will focus on research involving
the substance.
Where History Comes Alive!
The Great Oregon Steam-Up
July 30-31 and August 5-6
his
s for t
Join u tional
Educa event!
UN
and F
A COMPLEX OF HERITAGE MUSEUMS
OPEN WED.-SUN. 9AM TO 5PM
SPONSORED IN PART BY AMTRAK AND COVANTA
*Photos by
Ron Coop
er Photog
raphy
• ACTION! Trains, Tractors, Threshing Machines,
Steam-Powered Engines
• KID FUN! Prizes, Kid Tractor Pulls, Tractor Parade
• HISTORY COMES ALIVE! Quilts, Heritage Museum,
Steam Engines, Cars, Trucks, Farm Equipment
www.antiquepowerland.com
Exit 263 off I-5 between Woodburn and Salem
• SHOPPING! Swap Meet, Flea Market, Souvenirs
• FOOD & ENTERTAINMENT! Including Ice Cream
made with Steam Power
30-1/#7