14 CapitalPress.com
July 29, 2016
Rural Washington county wants to recruit food processors
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
Economic development
oficials in rural Adams Coun-
ty, Wash., want to increase their
chances of recruiting food pro-
cessing companies.
The county, Port of Oth-
ello and the nonproit Adams
County Development Council
are partnering on an $83,000
study to explore developing an
industrial wastewater treatment
facility for the port’s Bruce in-
dustrial site, about 4 miles east
of Othello, Wash.
Researchers
help nursery
industry with
new native
plant goals
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
BOISE — Researchers
will try to develop 10 new
native plant species for the
state’s landscape nursery in-
dustry over the next two years.
The goal is to ind wa-
ter-conserving native plants
that are also aesthetically
pleasing, said Ann Bates, ad-
ministrator of the Idaho Nurs-
ery and Landscape Associa-
tion.
“Native plants are a little
bit hard to sell sometimes,”
she said. “The public may
want them but they are not
the prettiest plants on the lot.
We want to ind native plants
that are more pleasing to the
eye and wanted more by the
consumer.”
INLA received a $99,000
specialty crop grant from the
Idaho State Department of
Agriculture to support the
project. University of Idaho
researchers Stephen Love and
Robert Tripepi are partnering
with the nursery association
on the project.
Love will collect new na-
tive plant germplasm, eval-
uate it and identify promis-
ing native plant species with
commercial potential, while
Tripepi, who specializes in
plant propagation, will build
up large numbers of the plant
seed to help with the commer-
cialization part of the project.
According to the INLA
grant
application,
there
is growing demand for
drought-tolerant landscape
plants in the Intermountain
West but Idaho’s nursery crop
growers face a disadvantage
in competing for this demand
due to a lack of suitable plant
species and materials.
The key is to ind native
plants that are pleasing to the
eye and that consumers will
want, Love said.
“We’re not looking for
something that looks like
sagebrush ... or cactus,” he
said. “We’re trying to ind
plants that create a very
unique and very beautiful
landscape.”
The project will “infuse
new, sustainable plant prod-
ucts into the Idaho nursery in-
dustry,” according to the grant
application. “The short-term
impact will be competitive
placement of the Idaho nurs-
ery industry among increas-
ingly conservation-minded
customers.”
The long-term impact
would be an “increase in wa-
ter-conserving urban land-
scape designs that will de-
crease water usage, thereby
preserving a limited resource
for food production and other
critical needs.”
Tripepi said he will use tis-
sue cultures and stem cuttings
to build up large populations
of the targeted plants to sell to
nurseries.
UI’s native plant project
has been around since 2005,
funded partly by the INLA,
but the $99,000 grant will sig-
niicantly expand the scope
and speed of it, Love said.
Besides bringing in Tripe-
pi, who will help propagate
some of the more dificult
plants, the money will also be
used to recruit a master’s level
student to assist him.
Love said researchers
should “fairly easily reach
that goal” of developing 10
new native plant species over
two years.
In recent years, the county
has been unsuccessful in re-
cruiting food processing com-
panies into the area due to the
lack of infrastructure, said
Stephen McFadden, economic
development director for the
county.
That includes a recent $350
million dairy-related project
that would have created more
than 150 jobs, but required a
treatment facility capable of
handling 1.3 million gallons of
wastewater per day.
“There’s no such thing in
our county,” McFadden said.
“In the past two years, we’ve
really begun to recognize that
we are infrastructure-poor, in
terms of attracting and serving
business and industry.”
The study will be complet-
ed in December. The agencies
received $50,000 from the
state Community Economic
Revitalization Board, and are
sharing the remaining cost.
They had their irst meeting
with engineers last week.
The county owns 90 acres
near the industrial park. The
study will determine whether
it is a feasible site for a plant,
whether another location
would better and the best type
of design, allowing for growth
as new employers are recruit-
ed.
McFadden said the agen-
cies want an environmentally
sound processing facility.
“We want a facility that
will use a water re-use tech-
nology,” he said. “Waste water
will come in from a processor,
the plant will treat the water to
a much higher quality of wa-
ter than what is normally sent
through a processing plant and
then applied to irrigated circles
or sent down the irrigation ca-
nal.”
The port has more than 260
million gallons of water avail-
able per year with the option of
expanding to meet future de-
mand, McFadden said.
Adams is one of the small-
est counties in the state, and is
“distressed” economically, Mc-
Fadden said.
“We have one industry sec-
tor here, really — the industry
is agriculture, that’s it,” he
said. “We’re prime ag ground,
we grow up to 60 different
crops each year, depending
on rotation. With open ground
and the right planning, we
would be a great location for
food processors.”
McFadden hopes to tar-
get East Coast companies
expanding into the Paciic
Northwest or California com-
panies relocating into a more
affordable area.
“We have water, which is
very important to anybody, we
have cheap ground, we have a
new area just opening up here
with plots for sale,” Doyle
Palmer, executive director for
the port district, said.
Time runs out for Oregon timber ballot initiatives
Proposed initiatives
would have
restricted logging,
pesticide spraying
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
Three ballot initiatives that
would have restricted clear-cut-
ting and aerial spraying in Or-
egon have failed to qualify for
the November general election.
One of the petitions, which
would have imposed new limits
on aerial pesticide applications,
was able to obtain the Oregon
Supreme Court’s approval for
its ballot title language.
However, that didn’t leave
enough time for supporters to
collect about 88,000 valid sig-
natures by the July 8 deadline.
The state’s highest court
has yet to rule on the ballot
title for another petition that
would restrict aerial spraying
and logging in landslide-prone
areas.
A third petition to prohibit
clear-cut timber harvests was
withdrawn by supporters be-
cause of legal complications
involving forestland property
value laws.
Joshua Bessex/EO Media Group
The state Department of Forestry keeps a 100-foot buffer along the Nehalem River below the Home-
steader timber sale in the Buster Creek Basin. A ballot initiative that would have banned clear-cutting
in Oregon has failed to qualify for the November general election, along with two other proposed
measures to restrict aerial spraying.
Steve Pedery, a chief peti-
tioner for all three proposals,
said the application process
was started late and further
hindered by legal challenges
from the timber industry.
“Once we ended up in
the court process, the clock
was probably going to run
out on us,” said Pedery,
who is also conservation di-
rector for the Oregon Wild
environmental nonproit.
However, Pedery said he’s
pleased the Oregon Supreme
Court has approved the ballot
title for one of the initiative
petitions, since such lan-
guage is now likely to stand
in future elections.
Oregon Wild is a taking a
long-term interest in enact-
ing timber reforms, possibly
with initiatives on the 2018
or 2020 ballots, said Pedery.
Oregonians for Food
& Shelter, an agribusiness
group, is glad the “extreme
and damaging measures”
won’t be on the November
ballot, but it’s likely the is-
sues will be revived, said
Scott Dahlman, its policy di-
rector.
Similar ideas will also prob-
ably surface in the Oregon leg-
islature again next year, Dahl-
man said.
Lawmakers rejected such
proposals during the 2015
legislative session in favor of
a “more reasoned approach”
once they learned about their
negative consequences, he said.
“We think the people of Or-
egon would do the same if they
were educated on the issue,”
Dahlman said.
Supporters of proposed bans
on aerial spraying in Lincoln
and Lane counties are currently
gathering signatures for ballot
initiatives, he said.
However, time is running
short for the Lincoln County
effort while the deadline has
passed for the Lane County pe-
tition to qualify for the Novem-
ber ballot, Dahlman said. Either
petition could also qualify for
the May 2017 election.
Sara Duncan, public affairs
director for the Oregon Forest
& Industries Council, said the
timber industry has made great
technological improvements to
prevent off-site spray drift.
Aside from a few high-pro-
ile incidents, pesticide spray-
ing in forestry has proven to be
safe, she said.
“We already have stringent
rules and regulations,” Duncan
said.
Water Board OKs $7.2M
for E. Idaho aquifer recharge
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
Tim Hearden/Capital Press
A customer gathers peaches sold by Hughson, Calif.-based J&J Ramos Farms during a peach festival
July 24 in Elk Grove, Calif. The festival is one of several held this summer to tout California’s role as
the nation’s top peach producer.
Festivals promote California’s
peach-production prowess
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
ELK GROVE, Calif. —
Hundreds of people gathered
on a warm Sunday morning
recently to celebrate all things
peach.
At the irst annual Peach
Festival on July 24 in Elk
Grove’s old town, people took
part in games, a pie-eating
contest, a chef’s demonstra-
tion and other activities and
sampled and bought fresh
peaches from numerous local
farms.
The event helped promote
a new year-round farmers’
market that debuted here in
May.
“I think it’s a great idea,”
said Caitlyn Legan of Hugh-
son, Calif.-based J&J Ramos
Farms, which had a steady
line of customers buying its
peaches. “It makes it a lot
busier. There are a lot more
people.”
The event was one of sev-
eral peach festivals held in the
Sacramento area this summer
by the Living Smart Founda-
tion, which sponsors 11 farm-
ers’ markets in the area. Simi-
lar festivals have been held in
Carmichael and Folsom, and
another is planned for Aug. 6
in Roseville.
“California is the No. 1
producer of peaches in the na-
tion,” foundation co-founder
Marie Hall said. “I wanted to
bring light to that and enable
people to be engaged by our
growers.”
California produces most
of the nation’s peaches,
with a 2016 crop forecast at
580,000 tons, up 4 percent
from 2015, according to the
National Agricultural Statis-
tics Service. That was to in-
clude 320,000 tons of cling-
stone and 260,000 tons of
freestone, both up from last
season.
This year’s crop was rat-
ed as good in all areas of the
state, helped by increases in
surface-water deliveries to
growers because of the wet
winter, according to NASS.
Mid-season peaches are in the
middle of harvest, the agency
reports.
“Peaches are everywhere,
from the south all the way
north and to the west and
east,” Hall said.
The peach festivals are
part of a growing effort by
the organization to promote
local crops. Next year, the
group plans to hold two-day
festivals to highlight peaches,
strawberries and stone fruit,
Hall said.
The July 24 event was a hit
with growers, including Ray
Aoyama, whose Parlier, Ca-
lif.-based Aoyama Farms has
been selling at farmers’ mar-
kets since 1979.
“It’s wonderful,” Aoyama
said.
The festival was also pop-
ular with vendors who didn’t
have peaches.
“I have peachy deals, and
it’s a peachy good day,” said
Jody Shepard, whose busi-
ness, Naturiic, was selling
cooking salts and other wares
in a booth at the market.
“I love the peach festival,”
she said. “It’s a wonderful
way to bring people out and
enjoy the day.”
The Idaho Water Resource
Board will invest $7.2 million
in construction improvements
to boost recharge lows for re-
plenishing the Eastern Snake
Plain Aquifer.
Improvements to three re-
charge sites — near Shosho-
ne, Eden and Burley — would
provide for a projected total
of 140,000 acre-feet per year
of winter recharge water, said
Wesley Hipke, recharge project
manager for the Idaho Depart-
ment of Water Resources.
All of the sites have con-
ducted recharge in the past, but
only the site near Shoshone —
the Milepost 31 project — has
recharged over the winter. Re-
charge at the other two sites has
only occurred in the fall and
spring and at variable rates, he
said.
The Water Board was able
to recharge almost 67,000 acre-
feet last winter, including an es-
timated 7,000 acre-feet through
Twin Falls Canal Co., but its
ultimate goal is to recharge
250,000 acre-feet annually.
Aquifer levels have been
declining since the 1950s, with
the aquifer losing 6.1 million
acre-feet between 2008 and
2013, Hipke said.
“This is a really big ship to
turn around,” he said.
The just-approved funding
includes $4.5 million for im-
provements on the North Side
Canal Co. system to bypass
four hydro plants to route wa-
ter to Wilson Lake near Eden
for winter recharge. In the past,
recharge has been limited to
spring and fall due to potential
damage from freezing tempera-
tures, Hipke said.
The project will allow for
delivery of 130 cubic feet per
second. Based on a winter re-
charge period of 120 days, the
project would provide 31,000
acre-feet of water on an annual
basis, he said.
The Water Board also ap-
proved $1.8 million to fund
a new check dam and larger
gates at its own recharge site
at Milepost 31 near Shoshone.
The project will double current
recharge capacity to 400 cubic
feet per second, which would
raise projected recharge deliv-
ery to 96,000 acre-feet annual-
ly, he said.
Another $600,000 was ap-
proved to enhance a new pipe-
line being built by Southwest
Idaho Irrigation District near
Burley to allow for winter re-
charge. The pipeline is being
built to allow the district to use
surface water from the Snake
River for summer irrigation to
reduce groundwater pumping,
he said.
The pipeline is estimated
to cost $15 million, and the
Water Board’s funding is for
additions to the pipeline to set
up injection wells and ensure
the system would work under
winter conditions. The project
would allow for 54 cubic feet
per second of winter recharge
for an annual recharge delivery
of 13,000 acre-feet, he said.
Construction on all three
projects is set to begin in the
fall.
“By increasing the capacity
at Milepost 31 and recharging
all winter long at North Side
Canal Company and Southwest
Irrigation District, we are more
than doubling our winter-time
capacity,” Hipke said.
Carol Ryan Dumas/Capital Press
Wesley Hipke, right, recharge project manager for Idaho Depart-
ment of Water Resources, talks with Idaho Water Resource Board
member Vince Alberdi, left, and Water Board Chairman Roger Chase
during a tour of a recharge project north of Shoshone this spring.