August 18, 2017
CapitalPress.com
11
Oregon
OWA educates, advocates for Oregon agriculture
By ALIYA HALL
Capital Press
Political
dispute costs
irrigation
district
$1.9 million
Lawmaker claims
project funding
vetoed as political
retaliation
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
SALEM — A political dis-
pute over new taxes on health
care in Oregon is being blamed
for an irrigation district losing
$1.9 million to pipe an open
canal.
Lawmakers approved mon-
ey for the Bradshaw Drop Irri-
gation Canal Piping Project in
July as part of a broader spend-
ing bill, but Gov. Kate Brown
has now vetoed funding for
that project and several others
in Southern Oregon.
Rep. Sal Esquivel, R-Med-
ford, said he agreed to vote for
the health care taxes — giv-
ing the proposal the necessary
three-fi fths majority to pass
the House — in return for the
spending projects.
Since then, however, Es-
quivel has thrown his support
behind an effort to refer the
health care taxes to voters as
part of a ballot initiative.
In retaliation, Brown has
vetoed several projects that are
important to his district, Es-
quivel said.
“She’s vindictive toward
me,” he said. “She’s politiciz-
ing good projects just for vin-
dictiveness.”
A spokesman for the gover-
nor did not respond to a request
for comment, but in her written
announcement of the vetoes,
Brown said, “The cornerstone
of all negotiations, whether
they occur in a public or private
arena, is the implied covenant
of good faith and fair dealing.”
While it’s disappointing the
“political feud” has caused the
state funding to fall through,
the Rogue River Irrigation
District is still expecting to be-
gin piping its canal in autumn
2018, said Brian Hampson, the
district’s manager.
The irrigation district still
has $3.4 million available from
the U.S. Bureau of Reclama-
tion to pipe 1.2 miles of the
3.3-mile canal, he said.
This portion of the piping
project is more complicated
due to environmental studies
and logistical complexities,
which is why it’s expected to
cost more than the remainder
of the project, Hampson said.
The $1.9 million from the
state government would have
been dedicated to the more
straight-forward task of replac-
ing 2.1 miles of canal with pip-
ing, he said.
It’s unclear how the irriga-
tion district will now pay for
that segment, but Hampson
said he’s hopeful to “quit all the
political crap” and fi nd fund-
ing for the project on its own
merits.
Currently, the open canal
is leaky, resulting in losses of
water that could otherwise be
dedicated to irrigation or left
in-stream for fi sh habitat.
By pressurizing the irri-
gation system, farmers will
be able to convert from fl ood
irrigation to more effi cient
sprinklers, saving water while
reducing sediment runoff.
Eventually, the irrigation
district also expects to evaluate
using the pressurized water to
generate hydroelectric power.
Courtesy of Oregon Women for Agriculture
The state offi cers for Oregon Women for agriculture are, from left, Dona Coon, past president; Tracy Duerst, treasurer; Debbie Crocker,
president; Helle Ruddenklau, vice president; Mary Hood, second vice president; Emily Duerst, secretary; and Jessica Hanna, correspond-
ing secretary. OWA is a multi-generational association that educates the public about agriculture.
Aliya Hall/Capital Press
Signs along major Oregon
roads and highways identify
crops that are grown. The
concept of the idea came in the
1970s from an original Oregon
Women for Agriculture member,
Pat Roberts.
Mallory Phelan, vice pres-
ident of operations at Oregon
Aglink, said that the associa-
tion appreciates their partner-
ship with OWA to promote the
crops farmers and ranchers are
growing.
“Thanks to the two orga-
nizations, the road crop signs
have vast reach all across the
state and are appreciated by
Oregonians as well as those
passing through from other
states,” she said.
The organization fi rst
formed when farm women in
the Willamette Valley spoke
up against the shutdown of
grass seed fi eld burning.
Now, the association focus-
es on all aspects of agriculture,
and its mission is “Working
together to communicate the
story of today’s agriculture.”
“I feel it’s really important
that we tell our story. Gener-
ally, most people don’t un-
derstand it,” Debbie Crocker,
OWA president, said. “We
educate on our side, so when
we do communicate, we’re
communicating the facts and
the public is understanding
agriculture better.”
The signs have been a vi-
sual way for OWA to do just
that.
“(We’ve had) really, re-
ally good responses online
and having people talk to us
personally,” Coon said. “One
woman was so excited to
know what was going on that
she sent in a $100 donation to
have more signs made.”
With the infl ux of visitors
to Oregon for the solar eclipse
on Aug. 21, farmers have been
calling OWA asking for more
signs to display.
There are eight OWA chap-
ters spread across the state
with about 300 members.
Crocker got involved in
OWA 35 years ago. She was
inspired to take a leadership
position after seeing what
“great representatives” the
past presidents were, she said.
Along with the signs and
advocacy, OWA also hosts an
annual fundraising auction —
last year was its 30th anniver-
sary — and has a legislative
committee of volunteers to
speak on behalf of agriculture
at the state Capitol.
Tillamook County enacts new wetland process
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
Wetland restoration proj-
ects on farmland will have to
clear a new hurdle in Oregon’s
Tillamook County to ensure
they don’t disrupt agricultural
practices. However, the coun-
ty’s newly enacted ordinance
isn’t expected to block wetland
projects as much as steer them
to the least-contentious areas,
experts say.
“Nobody’s intention was
that we never see another wet-
land project in Tillamook,” said
Mary Anne Nash, public policy
counsel for the Oregon Farm
Bureau.
Landowners
throughout
most of Oregon are allowed
outright to convert properties in
“exclusive farm use” zones into
wetlands, allowing them to sell
credits to offset development
on wetlands elsewhere.
Wetland restoration projects
have been prominent in Til-
lamook County, where moist
conditions are prevalent, but
the conversions have also been
controversial.
In some cases, opponents
criticize such projects for tak-
ing farmland out of production.
Restoring wetlands by re-
moving levees or making oth-
er land modifi cations can also
reduce drainage and increase
groundwater tables on sur-
rounding properties, impairing
their agricultural value, said
Nash.
“In our mind, this is like any
other non-farm use moving into
a farm zone,” she said.
In 2016, Oregon lawmakers
considered a bill that would in-
crease local government scru-
tiny of wetland projects across
the state. Ultimately, the legis-
lation — Senate Bill 1517 —
was approved after being pared
down to affect only Tillamook
County.
Tillamook County’s com-
missioners have decided to take
advantage of that statute by
enacting the recent ordinance,
under which wetland projects
will be subject to a “conditional
use” review.
Before such permits are ap-
proved or denied, the parties in-
volved could go through a “col-
laborative process” to resolve
potential confl icts.
Farm and conservation
groups will also be helping to
create an “inventory” of Til-
lamook County’s wetlands
and areas where such projects
might be suitable.
The inventory will be use-
ful in guiding wetland proj-
ects away from “hot spots”
where they’re likely to clash
with neighboring farmers, said
Nash.
Area in
detail
Cannon
Beach
101
53
CLATSOP
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Manzanita
Pacific Ocean
Associated Press File
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown has
vetoed state funding for an
irrigation project after Rep. Sal
Esquivel, R-Medford, supported
a vote on health care taxes.
Along most of the inter-
states, highways and major
roads that bisect Oregon’s
farmland, signs have sprouted
prominently identifying the
many different crops that are
grown.
The organization behind
the signs is Oregon Women
for Agriculture, an association
founded in 1969 to educate the
public about the economic and
ecological importance of agri-
culture.
“We’re about education,
and people didn’t really under-
stand what they were driving
past, and it’s important to us
for them to know what it was,”
said Dona Coon, former OWA
president and daughter-in-law
of Pat Roberts, who initial-
ly created the concept of the
signs.
OWA has partnered with
the nonprofi t Oregon Aglink,
which produces the signs.
OWA then distributes the signs
to farmers across the state at
no cost to the farmers. There
are more than 200 identifi -
cation signs across the state,
according to Oregon Aglink’s
website.
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TILLAMOOK
Tillamook
101
Pacific
City
YAMHILL
22
Sheridan
18
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City
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