12 CapitalPress.com
May 12, 2017
‘There’s an impact to the historic social fabric’
LAND from Page 1
is a concern especially in areas with
“amenity values.” Daggett’s sce-
nic Wallowa County is an example,
“Where the primary reason to live out
there is to be there, and the secondary
reason is to farm,” Johnson said.
Ag property purchased to be a recre-
ational site, he said, inflates land values
and makes it more expensive for farm-
ers and ranchers to buy or rent.
New owners who aren’t interested
in farming themselves might gain more
revenue by enrolling land in the feder-
al Conservation Reserve Program, in
which they receive payments for taking
it out of production, rather than leasing
crop land to other farmers, said Walter
Powell, a Condon, Ore., wheat farmer.
In that case, there’s a reduction to the
farming infrastructure: the seed and fer-
tilizer dealer, the equipment store, local
employment and more, Powell said.
Jim Wood, a cattle rancher near
Post, in Central Oregon, said the big-
gest threat to high-desert cattle ranching
is the fragmentation of grazing ground.
Ranching in his area requires big acre-
age to be ecologically and economical-
ly sustainable, and segmentation or de-
velopment for other uses cuts into that
and increases land prices, Wood said.
“If you overgraze, this landscape is
quick to be unforgiving, and you’re go-
ing to be out of business,” he said.
Oregon’s land use laws — adopted
to preserve farm and forest land from ur-
ban sprawl — generally preclude rapid,
wholesale development of agricultural
land. Statewide, counties approved 473
houses on farmland in 2014 and 522 in
2015, the most current figures provid-
ed by the Oregon Department of Land
Conservation and Development.
Daggett, whose Wallowa County
property was sold, acknowledges an ar-
gument could be made that the “highest
and best use” of her family land could
be as a “view property.”
But ownership changes can ripple
deep in rural communities.
“This is very personal for me,” said
Daggett, who was Wallowa County’s
planning director in the late 1990s and,
ironically, now sells real estate. She said
her son had hoped to run cattle on the
family land, but now leases land from
others. “Like a sharecropper,” Daggett
said.
The giddy buyer who called her hus-
band in the Caymans has yet to build a
dream home on the property. It appears
someone is leasing the pastures.
“There’s an impact to the historic
social fabric, there’s this disruption so-
cially,” Daggett said.
“It’s more than a question of who’s
buying,” she said. “It’s who’s buying,
and then what?”
Big properties
Some of the listings carried by
Whitney Land Co. are breathtaking.
Eric Mortenson/Capital Press
Sue Doroff, president of Western Rivers Conservancy in Portland, said traditional
uses can be retained and rural communities can benefit when farms and ranches
change hands. Her group bought the Murtha Ranch along the John Day River
and sold it to the state, which developed it into Cottonwood Canyon State Park.
The Pendleton, Ore.-based real estate
company specializes in farm and ranch
properties, especially big ones.
Until the owner took it off the mar-
ket this spring, one of Whitney Land’s
offerings was called the Kinzua Ranch,
in Wheeler County: More than 39,000
acres with a $28 million asking price.
The property included much of what
used to be the timber holdings and for-
mer community of Kinzua, a company
mill town that ceased operation in 1978.
Timber industry reps have expressed
interest, but the property hasn’t sold yet.
Whitney Land Co. has other big
properties to sell, including the Maurer
Ranch at Clarno, along the John Day
River, which is listed for $19.7 million.
It includes more than 29,000 deeded
acres plus 18,000 acres of Bureau of
Land Management and U.S. Forest
Service grazing leases, which hold sig-
nificant value.
The property has been in the same
family for more than 90 years, has
been used for cattle, grain and hay pro-
duction, and includes nine fenced pas-
tures and eight miles of river frontage.
The owners may break it into smaller
parcels and sell it that way, said Todd
Longgood, a Whitney broker.
While cautious about characterizing
possible clients, Longgood said Oregon
farms and ranches catch the attention of
what he called “corporate ag” or “in-
tense ag” buyers. Some potential buy-
ers are looking for “longterm holds,”
figuring the land will increase in value
and they can resell later; others pursue
crop land “knowing there will always
be a market for food.” Some buyers
bring with them the resources to devel-
op or expand irrigation systems, critical
for high-value crops.
“In the corporate ag world, there is
more money available for ag land than
there is supply,” he said.
Sales add up
At Portland State University, land
use and urban planning professor Me-
gan Horst is assembling ground-break-
ing data on Oregon farm and ranch
sales. Working with a graduate research
assistant, she asked county clerks for in-
formation on sales from 2010 to the end
of 2015 of land zoned Exclusive Farm
Use, or EFU.
Horst is compiling land sales in the
eight agricultural regions defined by
the Oregon Department of Agricul-
ture. In Northeast Oregon, 360,265
acres of EFU land sold during the
2010-15 time period. In the Willa-
mette Valley, 169,572 acres sold, and
along the Coast, 13,397 acres sold.
Oregon has slightly more than 17
million acres of farmland. Over the
six-year study period, the acreage
sold in the three ag regions analyzed
so far amounts to only 3.2 percent of
the state’s total farmland.
In some cases, however, signifi-
cant money was involved. According
to Horst’s figures, the median sales
price per acre of Willamette Valley
EFU land was $21,909. On the coast,
it was $10,299, while in Northeast
Oregon the median price per acre
dipped to $2,451. The values include
permanent crops such as orchards and
vineyards and other infrastructure.
Individual sales raise as many
questions as they answer. In the
Northeast Oregon ag region, an entity
called Antone Acquisitions LLC ap-
parently paid $25 million for 12,000
acres. The company is listed in Or-
egon corporation records, but little
other information is available. The
company’s registered agent, who ap-
pears to be with an asset management
firm in Portland, did not return a call
from the Capital Press seeking infor-
mation.
Meanwhile, Horst is still assem-
bling data on land sales in the Co-
lumbia Plateau, southeast Oregon,
southern Oregon, central Oregon and
the mid-Columbia regions, where ag
production ranges from wheat, hay and
cattle to tree fruit, vegetable seed and
winegrapes. Horst hopes to finish and
publish the project next fall.
Groups: Ecology failed to uphold Clean Water Act
CAFO from Page 1
A coalition of environmen-
tal groups allege Ecology has
fallen short of upholding the
federal Clean Water Act.
The two sides agreed to
combine their grievances into
one appeal and also agreed on
a list of legal issues to raise.
One complaint by the envi-
ronmental groups is that Ecol-
ogy failed to identify the dair-
ies that need CAFO permits.
According to Ecology, dair-
ies that discharge pollutants into
groundwater or surface water
must have a permit. Since Ecol-
ogy maintains that pollutants
seep from manure lagoons, the
rules potentially apply to all 229
dairies in the state with more
than 200 cows. Smaller dairies
are exempt unless Ecology de-
termines they are a “significant”
source of pollutants.
As of May 8, 16 dairies with
a total of 37,170 mature cows
and heifers had obtained per-
mits, according to Ecology. The
USDA’s National Agricultur-
al Statistics Service estimated
Washington had 395,000 dairy
cows and heifers last year.
According to Payne, agricul-
ture department inspectors will
notify farmers if they should
apply for a permit. Ecology will
follow up if the farmer doesn’t
apply for a permit, she said.
The dairy industry alleges
that Ecology’s disregard for
NRCS standards and demand
for more soil tests lacks scientif-
ic backing. The industry also al-
leges Ecology failed to consider
reduced yields, loss of acreage
and increased production and
operating costs before adopting
the rules.
Environmental groups al-
lege Ecology should have set
strict limits on residual nitrate
and phosphorous levels in the
soil and water. They also com-
plain Ecology failed to mitigate
against climate change and to
provide enough information
on the permit’s development to
non-English speakers and com-
munities of color.
Horst said the sales
figures compiled so far
raise issues Oregonians
ought to be discussing.
Among them: Who has
access to agricultural
land, and what hap-
Megan
pens if food production
Horst
is concentrated in the
hands of the few who
can afford to buy large swaths of land?
The research follows a study Horst
co-authored with five others: “The Fu-
ture of Oregon’s Agricultural Land.”
The report, produced by Oregon
State University, PSU and Rogue
Farm Corps, an advocacy group, noted
that the average age of Oregon farmers
is now 60.
“As older farmers retire over the
next two decades, over 10 million
acres, or 64 percent of Oregon’s agri-
cultural land, will pass to new owners.
How that land changes hands, who ac-
quires it, and what they do with the land
will impact Oregon for generations,”
the authors wrote.
Creating a park
In Portland, Sue Doroff nods in
understanding at some of the concerns
expressed over Oregon farm and ranch
land sales. People “go to their fearful
place” pretty quickly when they hear
of big acreages listed for big money,
she said.
Doroff is a co-founder and presi-
dent of Western Rivers Conservancy,
which has had a very public role in sig-
nificant farmland transitions.
In 2008, Western Rivers bought
the 8,000-acre Murtha Ranch, along
the John Day River 25 miles north of
Condon, for $7.9 million. The pur-
chase included an 8,000-acre BLM
grazing lease. The organization then
began selling the ranch in stages to the
Oregon Parks and Recreation Depart-
ment for the same price, completing
the process in 2011.
Cottonwood Canyon State Park,
one of the largest in the state, opened
two years later. The ranch’s barn, cor-
rals and other infrastructure are incor-
porated into the park. Hunting and
fishing are allowed in the park, and
a grazing management plan is in the
works.
The sale cost Gilliam County some
property tax revenue as the land went
from private ranch to tax-exempt pub-
lic park. County Assessor Chet Wilkins
said the property was mostly low-val-
ue range ground that was specially as-
sessed. The approximate total yearly
tax loss to Gilliam County is $2,080,
Wilkins said in an email.
In 2014, Western Rivers again
bought John Day River property, this
time the 14,148-acre Rattray Ranch,
and its 10,530-acre BLM grazing lease.
Western Rivers is primarily con-
cerned with improving water quality
and river habitat for salmon and steel-
head runs, but Doroff said there are
“lots of opportunities” for compatible
conservation work, crops and livestock
grazing.
“When we take sensitive lands and
make them better, it takes some of the
stress off the ecosystem,” she said. The
Rattray Ranch purchase will provide
public river access, hopefully reducing
trespassing problems that bothered oth-
er landowners. That and the park open-
ing also bring more economic activity
to nearby Condon, as visitors choose
places to stay and eat.
Even though there is some “parsing
of the landscape” through sales, Doroff
said big buyers are likely to continue
traditional uses such as grazing cattle
and growing wheat.
“Who is going to spend that much
and not generate some revenue from
it?” she asked. “The adjustments are
smaller than the fear.”
Traditional uses
Tom Peterson lives in The Dalles
and commutes 90 miles a day to and
from his job at Cottonwood Canyon
State Park, where he’s the park manag-
er. When Western Rivers Conservancy
bought the Murtha Ranch and resold it
to the state parks department, honoring
the traditional, public uses of the prop-
erty that were at the top of people’s list
“from the get go.”
In community meetings, “hunting
and fishing definitely came up,” he said.
“We tried to listen as best we could.”
There were other considerations.
Making a park out of what had been a
private ranch meant a lot more people
would be on the land, with an accom-
panying increased risk of injury, fire,
trespassing or other incidents. Gilliam
and Sherman counties, which border
the park, have only about 2,000 people
each.
“If you add on a bunch of medical
calls and fire calls, that’s a huge under-
taking for a small community that runs
on volunteers,” he said.
Peterson meets with the county pub-
lic safety departments to plan for and
mitigate problems. So far there have
been only a handful of incidents.
Planning for a grazing pilot proj-
ect is underway and it could begin in
spring 2018, Peterson said. He believes
it would be the first grazing lease in a
state park, and said it is important for
the department to pull it off. “We want-
ed to hold true to our promise about
preserving historic uses,” he said.
Grazing would take place in Esau
Canyon, up off the river and about
four miles downstream from the park’s
campground. Peterson said properly
managed grazing could control weeds,
help restore native grasses and reduce
the fuel load in case fire sweeps the
canyons.
“I think we’ve got to do it, study it,
and see if it’s an advantageous way of
taking care of the land,” Peterson said.
‘Whatever happens has to
have some bipartisan support’
BILL from Page 1
Kamala Harris of California — hope their
proposal can be part of a larger bipartisan im-
migration reform package, she said.
Such a package would please the American
Farm Bureau Federation, spokesman Mace
Thornton said.
“We continue to believe a comprehensive,
bipartisan bill would be the best way to secure
the kind of reform our farmers need,” Thornton
said in an email.
Frank Gasparini Jr., executive vice presi-
dent of the National Council for Agricultural
Employers, told Capital Press he’s always hap-
py when anyone in Congress tries to improve
the labor situation but that Feinstein’s bill, like
others, addresses only pieces of the problem.
“We are not going into a lot of effort to
push those bills because we need something
to stabilize the current workforce and make it
legal but also to improve H-2A (guestworker
program) for longterm flow,” said Gasparini,
a board member of the Agriculture Workforce
Coalition.
Year-round labor for dairies and herders,
not just seasonal work, needs improvement, he
said. The pathway to citizenship in Feinstein’s
bill is a “tough sell” in the House, and House
bills are tough to get through the Senate, he
said.
“We need a full fix solution by working
together,” he said. “Whatever happens has to
have some bipartisan support.”
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