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CapitalPress.com
October 6, 2017
People & Places
Olives take root in Oregon
Dawn Monagon
helps bring new
crop north to
Willamette Valley
Western
Innovator
By ALIYA HALL
Associated Press
BILLINGS, Mont. — U.S.
Interior Secretary Ryan Zin-
ke has closely followed his
boss’ playbook, encouraging
mining and drilling on public
lands and reducing the size of
national monuments that Pres-
ident Donald Trump called a
“massive land grab” by his
Democratic predecessors.
Except, that is, in Montana.
In Zinke’s home state, the
former congressman who has
long harbored higher political
ambitions is recommending
Trump create a new national
monument out of the forests
bordering Glacier National
Calendar
Experience: Grew up on
a small farm and has been
growing olives in her orchard
for over 15 years.
Hometown: Monmouth,
Ore.
Education: She took
classes and worked at
Western Oregon University
for several years. Her late
husband, Larry, graduated
from there.
Aliya Hall/For the Capital Press
Dawn Monagon and her late husband, Larry, of Victory Estates in Keizer, Ore., were the first olive
growers in Oregon. The olive industry in Oregon encompasses 50 acres, but acreage is expected to
multiply in the next couple of years.
said of the people planning the
expansion. “They’ve done a
very thorough and disciplined
due diligence.”
The planting will be in ei-
ther the Medford or Roseburg
area, and data is being col-
lected to see where the olives
would grow best. Caceu said
the final decision on the loca-
tion will be made next spring.
Although a project of this
size would barely make it
on the radar in California or
Spain, where olives are a ma-
jor crop, Caceu said there is
potential to take olive acreage
to “much higher than 250 pret-
ty quickly.”
“People come over and
talk to me and say, ‘I’ve been
thinking about olives and I
have this many acres,’” he
said. “I’ve had at least five
to 40 (people) approach and
show interest.”
While there is interest in
growing olives, Caceu said
one obstacle gets in the way
— and it’s a big one.
“That obstacle is the
cold-hardiness of olives and
the cold temperatures in Ore-
gon,” he said.
Park, to the disappointment of
a company that wants to drill
for natural gas there.
A couple hundred miles
away, where rocky bluffs line
the Missouri River, he decided
to leave intact a 590-square-
mile monument that for 16
years has stirred the kind of
impassioned local opposition
that Zinke cited in justifying
changes to monuments else-
where.
And he wants to curb min-
ing along Montana’s border
with Yellowstone National
Park. That could discourage
development of two proposed
mines that supporters say
would offer higher paying jobs
than tourism.
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1400 Broadway St. NE, Salem, OR
97301 or emailed to newsroom@
capitalpress.com.
Saturday, Oct. 7
Oregon’s Bounty: A Celebration
of the Harvest. 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m.
Oregon State Capitol, 900 Court
St. NE, Salem. The Oregon De-
partment of Agriculture and Oregon
State University will again team up
to offer a taste of locally grown food
and an opportunity to purchase
from local vendors. The “Crop Up
Luncheon and Market Showcase,”
held at Salem’s State Capitol Park,
climaxes a series of similar events
held around the state this summer.
ODA will also present a Farm to
School Producer Award to Rickreall
Dairy for its dedication to providing
nutritious food to schools and ed-
ucating kids in the process. Cost:
$10 for the luncheon. Tickets must
be purchased by Oct. 6 at http://bit.
do/CropUp Website: www.oregon-
capitol.com
Hood River Hops Fest. Noon-
8 p.m. Columbia Lot, Fifth and
Columbia, Hood River, Ore. The
family-friendly event features more
than 50 breweries with more than
60 fresh-hop beers, plus a variety
of food vendors, live music and a
Capital Press Managers
Joe Beach ..................Editor & Publisher
Elizabeth Yutzie Sell .... Advertising Director
Carl Sampson ................Managing Editor
Jessica Boone ........ Production Manager
Samantha McLaren .... Circulation Manager
Dawn Monagon
Oregon west of the Cas-
cade Range is famous for its
mild winters, Caceu said.
However, there are regular-
ly two to four nights of be-
low-freezing
temperatures
each year. When that happens,
young olive trees under 10
years old can suffer damage
that kills them to the ground.
“It doesn’t damage the
roots,” Caceu said, “but ef-
fectively you’re back down to
zero, starting from scratch.”
Oregon State University
researchers are trying to over-
come this challenge by study-
ing which olive tree cultivars
are the most cold-hardy, and
attempting to improve propa-
gation techniques.
Javier Fernandez-Salva-
dor, OSU Marion and Polk
County Extension agent, leads
the project with his team:
Neil Bell, OSU Marion and
Polk County Extension agent;
Heather Stoven, OSU Yamhill
County Extension agent; and
Victoria Binning, OSU Marion
County Extension agent.
Fernandez-Salvador de-
scribes the project as his
“baby,” and said that they are
looking at potting the culti-
vars and keeping the trees in a
greenhouse for the winter.
“We want to make an af-
fordable, small structure for
plants before moving them
outside,” he said. “We think by
potting we’ll get better results.
We are trying to transform that
into hard data.”
The project will also eval-
uate systems that haven’t been
successful in the past, and will
be planting small trees in fields
as well.
“We expect a lot of culti-
vars not to survive,” Fernan-
dez-Salvador said.
Beyond cold hardiness, the
team will research other fac-
tors, such as dry farming ver-
sus irrigation and flat versus
sloped land.
He said that because people
have lost investments in the
past the team wants to avoid
recommending anything, but
rather provide hard science
to help growers decide if they
want to plant the crop.
After this project, Fer-
nandez-Salvador will apply
for funding to evaluate the
agronomics of growing olive
Family: She and Larry Mo-
nagon had one son, Michael.
Her extended family helps
her run the olive orchard.
trees. He said it’s hard to sell
the crop fresh, and milling
olives for oil provides added
value.
Paul Durant of Red Ridge
Farms in Dayton, ore., oper-
ates the state’s largest com-
mercial olive oil mill. He said
olive oil is a niche product
that works best sold directly
to the consumer market.
“That drives more aware-
ness and that’s where the
growth will be,” he said.
“The food industry here in the
Northwest elevates the food
experience and connects to
growers. It is really limitless
in a lot of ways.”
Monagon said she thinks
the industry will continue
to grow, and hopes she and
her husband helped inspire
people to start planting olive
trees.
“I would like to keep farm-
ing viable and interesting in
Oregon, and if the olive in-
dustry can do that, that would
be great,” she said.
Interior chief wants smaller monuments, but not at home
By MATTHEW BROWN
Established 1928
Board of directors
Mike Forrester
Steve Forrester
Kathryn Brown
Susan Rana
Mike Omeg
Corporate Officer
Heidi Wright
Chief Operating Officer
For the Capital Press
KEIZER, Ore. — Dawn
and Larry Monagon planted
the first olive trees in Oregon
in 2002, defying the conven-
tional wisdom that the trees
couldn’t survive north of Cal-
ifornia.
“We have a nice piece of
property that can grow any-
thing big or small, and it’s
suited for experimental stuff,”
Dawn Monagon said. “Some-
one mentioned olives, and
my husband loves olives. So,
we thought, Why not check it
out?”
Despite being told by Cal-
ifornia olive growers that the
crop would never survive
in Oregon, the Monagons
thought they’d give it a try.
“(We were told) they’ll
never survive a winter. Well,
surely they’ve done that,” she
said.
The Monagons established
Victory Estates on their five
acres, and began to produce
and mill olive oil. Her hus-
band died last year.
“Our (operation) is small
and different than industrial
ones. We wanted it to grow
and be an industry that took
off,” Monagon said. “We took
pride in watching and seeing
what worked and what didn’t.”
There are now 50 acres of
olives for oil production in Or-
egon, and that number could
soon multiply, with a project
in the works to plant 200 acres,
Bogdan Caceu, executive di-
rector of the Olive Growers of
Oregon, said. He said he could
not identify the growers plan-
ning the expansion.
“All I can say is it’s a larg-
er player that has its fingers in
a number of crops and also in
the tourism industry,” Caceu
Capital Press
collectible mug. Sponsored by the
Hood River County Chamber of
Commerce. Website: hoodriver.org/
hops-fest/
Hoop House Production Work-
shop. 9 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Western Ne-
vada College Fallon Campus, 160
Campus Way, Fallon, Nev. Taught
by a seasoned professional with a
background in research and com-
mercial production, the workshop is
ideal for intermediate or advanced
growers. Attendees will learn about
best practices that apply to all hoop
house production, the eight most
profitable crops, best practices
for vining, fruiting and leafy crops
and advanced practices and tech-
niques for hoop house production.
Website:
www.wnc.edu/special-
ty-crop-institute
Saturday-Sunday
Oct. 7-8
Alpaca Harvest Fest. 10 a.m.-4
p.m. Alpacas of Oregon, 21345 SW
Aebischer Road, Sherwood, Ore.
Help EasyGo Farm and Alpacas
of Oregon celebrate the bountiful
harvest of colorful alpacas and
beautiful fleece. Get up close to
the alpacas — hand feed them and
meet the babies, females, herdsires
and “fiber boys” — less expensive
alpacas for fiber artists, compan-
ions and pasture mowers. Shop
for sweaters, gloves, scarves and
more. Website: www.easygofarm.
net/AOOHarvestFest
The decision was based on
Zinke’s belief that “some plac-
es are too precious to mine,”
his spokeswoman said last
month.
Zinke, a rumored candi-
date for U.S. Senate in 2018
or governor in 2020, appears
to be carving out an exception
for Montana from Trump’s
agenda to open more public
lands to natural resources de-
velopment. Whether it stems
from Montana pride or polit-
ical ambition in a state where
conservation has bipartisan
appeal, the results have ran-
kled both sides in the debate
over managing millions of
acres of public lands in the
U.S. West.
“It’s totally favoritism,”
said Land Tawney, president
of the conservation group
Backcountry Hunters and An-
glers.
Tawney is a friend of
the president’s son, Don-
ald Trump Jr., and his group
threw its support behind Zin-
ke’s nomination last winter.
But he said the Interior
secretary’s recommendations
to scale back four large mon-
uments in the West, including
Bears Ears in Utah, represent
a “sellout to industry” that’s
putting public land and wild-
life at risk. Zinke also called
for shrinking two marine
monuments in the Pacific
Ocean.
“We’re happy he recog-
nizes the importance of the
Badger
Two-Medicine,”
Tawney said, referring to the
203-square-mile area south
of Glacier that Zinke recom-
mends be a monument. “Plac-
es that are very similar in
fashion, like Bears Ears, he’s
not quite protecting. ... You
can’t talk out of both sides of
your mouth.”
Zinke
spokeswoman
Heather Swift declined to
comment on how he came
to recommend a monument
designation for Badger-Two
Medicine or whether he was
treating public lands in Mon-
tana differently than else-
where.
GASES / WELDING / SAFETY / FIRE
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Tuesday, Oct. 10
Wednesday, Oct. 11
Saturday, Oct. 14
Living Peacefully with Beavers.
6-8 p.m. Cabela’s in Marysville,
Wash. Beavers, and how to live
with them, will be the topic of three
seminars in October sponsored by
Snohomish Conservation District
and Beavers Northwest. While
beavers can cause headaches
for landowners, they can also be
invaluable for protecting and pre-
serving water resources and wild-
life habitat. If beavers are causing
issues on your property, there may
be solutions available to help you to
live peacefully alongside them. The
October seminars are taught by
local beaver experts Alex Pittman
and Ben Dittbrenner and will cover
the benefits that resident beavers
provide, cost-effective devices that
can help you manage the impact of
beaver flooding on your property,
and technical and financial assis-
tance available from Snohomish
Conservation District and Beavers
Northwest. Cost: Free. Website:
http://scdbeavers.eventbrite.com
Sustainable Community Stew-
ards Volunteer Training. 6-9:15 p.m.
McCollum Park, 600 128th St. SE,
Everett, Wash. Cost: $30 Website:
http://bit.ly/2hjyXC4
Northwest Farmers Union 2017
Convention 8 a.m.-11 p.m. Walla
Walla Community College, 500
Tausick Way, Walla Walla, Wash.
The Northwest Farmers Union
annual convention, which hosts
producers and supporters of agri-
culture from around Washington,
Idaho and Oregon, is an event
that has a multitude of educa-
tional speakers, farmer/rancher
speakers/attendees,
honorary
awards and general networking
and camaraderie. The event is
our gathering for our membership
to come together and enact our
grassroots policy for the upcom-
ing year as well as help guide the
many programs that we work to
implement for our membership.
Members can vote on changes
to the policy and structure of the
organization as well as take part
in leadership opportunities and
network with other leaders from
around the region. Cost: $50
Website: www.nwfu.org
Capital Press ag media
Sunday, Oct. 15
If you see a misstatement,
omission or factual error in a
headline, story or photo caption,
please call the Capital Press
news department at
503-364-4431, or send email to
newsroom@capitalpress.com.
Tuesday-Thursday
Oct. 10-12
Oregon Vegetation Manage-
ment Association, Seaside Civic
and Convention Center, 415 First
Ave., Seaside, Ore. Hours for the
event are 10-6 p.m. Tuesday, 8
a.m.-6 p.m. Wednesday and 8 a.m.-
noon Thursday. Website: ovma.net
Thursday, Oct. 12
Living Peacefully with Beavers.
6-8 p.m. Stanwood PUD, 9124
271st St. NW, Stanwood, Wash.
Beavers, and how to live with
them, will be the topic of three
seminars in October sponsored by
Snohomish Conservation District
and Beavers Northwest. While
beavers can cause headaches
for landowners, they can also be
invaluable for protecting and pre-
serving water resources and wild-
life habitat. If beavers are causing
issues on your property, there
may be solutions available to help
you to live peacefully alongside
them. The October seminars are
taught by local beaver experts
Alex Pittman and Ben Dittbrenner
and will cover the benefits that
resident beavers provide, cost-ef-
fective devices that can help you
manage the impact of beaver
flooding on your property, and
technical and financial assistance
available from Snohomish Con-
servation District and Beavers
Northwest. Cost: Free. Website:
http://scdbeavers.eventbrite.com
St. Boniface Annual Chicken
Dinner. 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Sublimity
School cafeteria, 376 E. Main St.,
Sublimity, Ore. The church’s an-
nual chicken dinner fundraiser will
include children’s games, a country
store, crafters and vendors in the
gym. The church archives and mu-
seum will also be open. Cost: Adults
$14, children 6-12 $5
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Index
California ................................ 9
Dairy .................................... 15
Idaho .....................................11
Livestock ............................. 15
Markets ............................... 13
Opinion .................................. 6
Oregon ................................ 14
Washington ......................... 10
Correction policy
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Press staff and to our readers.
We want to publish corrections to
set the record straight.