12 CapitalPress.com
April 14, 2017
Hop farmers make improvements for clean water
By GAIL OBERST
For the Capital Press
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Salmon-Safe, a nonprofit
organization that sets stan-
dards for best practices has
certified a growing number of
hops growers in the region.
Since 2012, Alluvial,
Sodbuster, Annen Brothers,
Goshie and Crosby hop farms
in Oregon have joined the
ranks of the certified, follow-
ing a growing demand from
craft breweries for eco-friend-
ly ingredients.
In Washington, Roy Farms,
Green Acre Farms, BT Loftus
Ranches, Cowiche Canyon
Britt Farm and Perrault Farms
are certified. In British Co-
lumbia, Hooh Hops and Left
Fields are certified, and so is
the Sierra Nevada Estate Hop
Farm in California.
Why target hop growers in
the effort to improve North-
west waters? The Willamette
and Yakima valleys, home to
90 percent of U.S. hops, are
also key watersheds for wild
salmon, according to Dan
Kent of Salmon-Safe. A farm
can earn certification using
various methods to reduce
its impact on the watershed.
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Among those strategies: Re-
ducing pesticides that are
harmful to fish and wildlife,
restoring stream buffers, re-
ducing irrigation water use,
creating areas for native
plants, and ensuring that there
is no runoff or erosion. Cer-
tification is often in conjunc-
tion with organic certification
or other whole-farm plans.
And, apparently, the mar-
ket is demanding fish-friendly
ingredients. Among breweries
now using hops from Salm-
on-Safe certified farms are
Deschutes, Full Sail, Hop-
works Urban, New Belgium,
Sierra Nevada, Widmer, Wor-
thy Brewing and many oth-
ers.
In 2015, Hopworks Ur-
ban Brewery in Portland took
the concept one step fur-
ther, revised its wastewater
treatment, and earned Salm-
on-Safe certification for its
entire brewery.
Salmon-Safe innovations
on the farm vary. Annen
Brothers, for example, in-
stalled an updated compost-
ing system that keeps rotting
vines and leaves from wash-
ing into nearby streams, and
Gail Oberst/For the Capital Press
Blake Crosby uses solar power, wind turbines and reduced pesti-
cides on his Salmon-Safe hops farm.
stores cleaned-up water for
reuse.
Sodbuster Farms uses drip
irrigation and has reformulat-
ed chemical applications to
its 900 acres of hops, halting
runoff into the nearby Willa-
mette River. Sodbuster Presi-
dent Doug Weathers said he
applies the same regimen to
all of the 1,200 acres of ha-
zelnuts and grass seed on his
farm, earning the farm Wil-
bur-Ellis’ Technology Grow-
er of the Year award.
Salmon-Safe projects on
Crosby Hop Farm added to
its credentials as a B Cor-
poration, a designation for
companies that have a pos-
itive impact on society and
the environment. Solar pan-
els and wind turbines pow-
er cold storage for Crosby’s
T-90 hop pellets. Reduced
pesticide use and expanded
plantings for pollinators and
along streams improved wa-
ter quality.
Hops are not the only
operations looking to meet
Salmon-Safe standards. More
than 85,000 acres on nearly
500 farms on the West Coast
have been certified in the past
20 years.
For more information
about Salmon-Safe, visit the
web page at www.salmon-
safe.org, or call the Portland
office, 503-232-3750.
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