July 21, 2017
CapitalPress.com
3
OSU research, extension to lose 17 positions
Reduction
will likely be
achieved through
retirements, job
changes
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
Oregon State Universi-
ty’s agricultural research and
extension programs stand to
lose the equivalent of 17 posi-
tions under a budget recently
approved by state lawmakers.
However, the outlook is
much improved from earli-
er this year, when a budget
proposed by Gov. Kate Brown
would have resulted in an even
sharper reduction of research
and extension positions, ac-
cording to university leaders.
The Legislature approved
a 4.7 percent increase, to $66
Mateusz Perkowski/Capital Press
Dan Arp, left, dean of Oregon State University’s College of
Agricultural Sciences, speaks with Scott Reed, director of OSU’s
Extension Service, about state funding for the programs.
million, for OSU’s agricultur-
al experiment stations and a
4.6 percent increase, to $47.7
million, for the OSU Extension
Service in the 2017-2019 bien-
nium.
Due to the increasing cost
of salaries and benefits, though,
each program would need an
increase of 7.9 percent just to
maintain current service levels.
The equivalent of 17 po-
sitions must be cut due to the
funding gap, but the university
doesn’t expect to lay off re-
searchers or extension agents.
Rather, positions will be left va-
cant as people retire or change
jobs, said Dan Arp, dean of the
OSU College of Agricultural
Sciences.
“We will be able to manage
this with the normal attrition,”
Arp said.
In early 2017, when the
state government was facing
a $1.8 billion budget shortfall,
Brown recommended keeping
OSU’s agricultural research
and extension budgets flat.
Under that scenario, OSU
would have probably been
forced to lay people off, said
Arp. “It would have been diffi-
cult to manage that by attrition
alone.”
In OSU’s 2015-2017 bud-
get, the agricultural research
and extension programs re-
ceived a hefty funding boost
that allowed for hiring new
faculty dedicated to several
priorities: working landscapes,
water, value-added products,
workforce development and
food safety.
Those “priority” research-
ers and extension agents won’t
be affected by the reduction
in positions, said Scott Reed,
director of OSU’s Extension
Service.
“This is not a last in, first
out budget management thing,”
Reed said.
Losing the equivalent of 17
positions is nonetheless a hin-
drance for OSU, particularly
since researchers bring in addi-
tional money from grants, said
Arp.
“Fewer positions, fewer
people out there leveraging
dollars,” he said.
Similarly, as there are fewer
extension agents, those who re-
main employed by OSU must
cover larger service areas and
are spread more thinly across
the state, said Reed.
Fortunately, voters in 26
counties have approved tax
districts that raise funds for
extension through modest
property tax increases, he
said. “That’s because of the
support of the citizens of the
state.”
In the 2017 legislative ses-
sion, OSU also secured the
authority to sell $9 million in
bonds to help pay for a new
27,000-square-foot Fermen-
tation Sciences and Research
Center on the edge of its cam-
pus in Corvallis.
The university can only
sell those bonds once it rais-
es a matching $9 million in
matching funds.
The Tillamook County
Creamery Association has al-
ready pledged $1.5 million to
the new building, which will
feature dairy, wine and beer
fermentation plants as well as
joint cold storage and retail
facilities.
Construction of the center
is expected to begin within a
year and a half.
Hazelnut group picks Oregon
Aglink’s Horning as CEO
Feds’ assurances on Puget Sound
tribe’s reach pleases farm group
By ERIC MORTENSON
Capital Press
Geoff Horning, who di-
rected Oregon Aglink for
the past 11 years, has been
chosen CEO of Oregon Ha-
zelnut Industries, which
represents one of the state’s
fastest growing agricultural
sectors.
“Mom always said I was
a little nuts, and I suppose
that is official now,” Horn-
ing joked in an email an-
nouncing the change.
Horning starts Sept. 1.
He replaces Polly Owen,
who is retiring and applauds
her replacement.
“I’m good with it,” said
Owen, who will stay on for
a time to help Horning tran-
sition into the position. She
said hazelnut growers and
processors did a national
search and called Horning a
“wonderful” choice.
He will be introduced
Aug. 2 at the Nut Growers
Society Summer Tour. The
event includes an orchard
tour in the Tangent area fol-
lowed by a hazelnut-orient-
ed trade show and luncheon
at the Linn County Expo
Center in Albany.
Horning is an Oregon na-
tive and a graduate of Lin-
field College. Before join-
ing Oregon Aglink, a private
nonprofit that promotes
agriculture and attempts to
bridge the urban-rural divide
with programs and events,
he managed trade shows and
publications for the Oregon
Association of Nurseries.
In taking the hazelnut
position, Horning joins a
Tribe leader: No
reason for alarm
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
A Washington farm group
says it’s relieved federal of-
ficials have made clear that a
north Puget Sound tribe’s new
constitution doesn’t expand the
tribe’s jurisdiction to privately
owned farmland, a concern that
the tribe’s chairman says was
overblown.
The Interior Department
approved July 7 a proposal by
the Swinomish Indian tribe to
delete references in its constitu-
tion to reservation boundaries
set in 1873. Instead, the con-
stitution will more generally
describe the tribe’s territory to
Don Jenkins/Capital Press
include “accustomed fishing A farm harvests alfalfa in Skagit County, Wash. The Interior Department has OK’d a broader definition
grounds.”
of a Puget Sound tribe’s jurisdiction, but has assured farmers, businesses, homeowners and county
Bureau of Indian Affairs officials that the new definition doesn’t expand the tribe’s authority over non-tribal lands.
Northwest director Stanley
County officials went to
Cladoosby said that the BIA
Speaks told the tribe in a letter jurisdiction isn’t expanded be-
that the constitutional amend- yond the boundaries of the res- merely confirmed that the tribe Washington, D.C., and lobbied
has no interest in controlling Interior Department officials,
ment won’t expand the tribe’s ervation,” Baron said.
asking for a statement that the
The tribe has had a con- farmland.
territory. The letter responded
“Hopefully, people’s fears agency doesn’t view the tribe’s
to concerns of farmers, home- tentious relationship with ag-
owners, businesses and Skagit riculture, worsened by What’s will now be relieved,” he said. new constitution as an expan-
“The Swinomish has zero sion of authority.
County commissioners that Upstream, a tribe-organized
“I think this was a good
the tribe would use the new campaign to restrict farming jurisdiction over ag land, and
description of its authority to near water, The campaign was we want to keep it that way,” outcome for us,” said county
gain control over land outside funded by a grant from the En- Cladoosby said. “Agriculture Commissioner Ron Wesen, a
vironmental Protection Agen- is a necessary, important indus- dairy farmer.
its 7,000-acre reservation.
Wesen said expanded tribal
try to the economy of Skagit
Skagit Family Farmers di- cy.
jurisdiction could hinder the
“People would like to be- County.”
rector Gerald Baron said Friday
Cladoosby said the constitu- operations of drainage systems,
that Speaks’ letter satisfied the lieve we are anti-ag,” tribe
Chairman Brian Cladoosby tional amendment clarifies that which make farming possible
group’s worries.
“What it does, as far as said Friday. “We just want peo- the tribe has jurisdiction over in much of the county. Tide-
we’re concerned, is make clear ple to understand ag has a re- its members exercising their gate maintenance has been the
that the position of the federal sponsibility like everybody else hunting, fish and gathering source of litigation between the
treaty rights off the reservation. tribe and a drainage district.
government is that the tribe’s for the environment.”
segment
of
Oregon agri-
culture
that
has
grown
dramatically
in the past two
decades and
Geoff
potentially
Horning
could become
more of an in-
ternational player. Oregon
produces an estimated 99
percent of U.S. hazelnuts
and appears poised to grab
a larger share of the world
market from Turkey, by far
the largest production area.
Horning cautioned that
he faces a “huge learn-
ing curve” in his new job
but hopes to help position
the industry “to be what it
should be on the internation-
al scale.” Oregon produces
3 to 5 percent of the world’s
hazelnuts but the majority
of production is of in-shell
nuts, which are popular as
a snack in markets such as
China. Industry observers
have mused for years about
adding value by increasing
kernel production; shelled,
dry-roasted Oregon hazel-
nuts sell for $7.99 a pound in
stores such as Trader Joe’s.
Conversations
with
growers and processors
made it clear “an opportu-
nity does present itself,”
Horning said. He called ha-
zelnuts “one of the most ex-
citing segments of Oregon
agriculture.”
“I don’t have a big agen-
da to come in and change
everything,” he said. “It’s
fair to say the hazelnut in-
dustry is going through im-
mense growth.”
Scotts claims significant progress in killing GE bentgrass in Oregon
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
ONTARIO, Ore. — Scotts
Miracle-Gro Co. is reporting
significant progress in elimi-
nating genetically engineered
creeping bentgrass plants
from Malheur and Jefferson
counties in Oregon.
“We’re making a tremen-
dous dent in the population
of bentgrass right now,” said
Danielle Posch, a senior re-
search specialist with Scotts.
She was hired by Scotts in
March to coordinate efforts
to control the plant with local
farmers, ranchers and irriga-
tion districts.
The creeping bentgrass
was genetically engineered by
Scotts and Monsanto Corp. to
withstand applications of gly-
phosate, the active ingredient
in Monsanto’s Roundup weed
killer, which makes it hard to
kill.
It took root in Malheur and
Jefferson coun-
ties after escap-
ing field trials in
2003 and some
farmers worry
the plants could
Danielle
clog irrigation
Posch
ditches and af-
fect shipments
of crops to nations that don’t
accept traces of genetically
modified organisms.
Malheur County farmer
Dan Andersen said Scotts is
making real progress in con-
trolling the plant.
“They’re doing a good job
of staying right on top of it,”
said Andersen, co-chairman
of a working group of farm-
ers, irrigation district repre-
sentatives and others that was
created in Malheur County
to coordinate with Scotts in
its continuing efforts to try to
control the plant.
Eastern Oregon farmer
Bruce Corn, a member of the
Owyhee Irrigation District’s
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Posch said efforts to fight
the plant got a significant
boost earlier this year when
the Environmental Protection
Agency approved a special
local need label for Reckon,
an herbicide that is effective
in controlling the bentgrass.
The special label will al-
low growers and irrigation
districts to spray glufosinate,
the active ingredient in Reck-
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herbicide for killing the bent-
grass, over water during the
growing season.
That chemical previous-
ly could only be used over
waterways, such as canals,
during a period before the be-
ginning of the growing season
or after canals were dry.
The plants weren’t grow-
ing during those times, which
made it harder to kill them be-
cause they didn’t take up the
chemical, Posch said.
Being able to use Reckon
over waterways during the
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board of directors, agrees.
He said he used to have
several of the plants on his
property “but it’s really hard
to find one on my place
now. There’s definite prog-
ress. I think so far Scotts is
doing a pretty good job on
it.”
Andersen is not overly
hopeful the plant will ever be
eradicated from the area, “but
I think we’ll be able to get to
a point where it’s minor and
very manageable,” he said.
“But we’re still going to have
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entire year is a game-changer
in efforts to combat the GE
creeping bentgrass, Posch
said.
“In my opinion, it’s a god-
send,” Andersen said.
Scotts has also started a
voucher program that pro-
vides growers with the plant
on their property with free,
2.5-gallon containers of
Reckon.
For more information
about that program, contact
Posch by email at danielle.
posch@scotts.com.