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CapitalPress.com
December 8, 2017
Ranchers slowly return to grazing land scorched by 2015 Soda Fire
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
Area in
detail
84
Ontario
IDAHO
Ore.
Idaho
52
55
21
Boise
Nampa
45
84
k
Sna
78
e R
i
r
ve
Idaho and Oregon ranch-
ers have just recently started
to resume grazing their cattle
on some of the 279,000 acres
of prime range land scorched
two years ago by the Soda
Fire.
The fire burned 84 pastures
on 40 U.S. Bureau of Land
Management grazing allot-
ments. Most of the damage
was done in Owyhee Coun-
ty southwest of Boise, with
some of it occurring near Jor-
dan Valley, Ore.
As part of BLM’s post-
fire restoration plan, ranchers
were not allowed to graze
their animals on those allot-
ments for at least two growing
seasons following the blaze.
Grazing has resumed this
fall on 48 affected pastures
and BLM officials expect
to make decisions on the re-
maining 36 pastures by the
end of December, said Pe-
ter Torma, BLM’s Soda Fire
project manager.
Ted Blackstock is one of
many ranchers who lost large
swaths of their traditional
grazing land to the fire.
“It wiped out all of our
feed for that year and the next
year,” he said. “It’s been very
expensive for our ranch, hav-
ing to find all that feed.”
Blackstock was able to
get back on one of his allot-
ments this fall and will also
be able to use some range
this winter that was damaged
by the fire.
67
95
The Soda Fire
burned 279,144
acres in 2015.
N
20 miles
Capital Press graphic
BLM
Owyhee County rancher Ted Blackstock, left, and other ranchers discuss a fire map with BLM firefighting officials during the Soda Fire,
which scorched 279,000 acres in southwestern Idaho and part of Oregon in 2015.
“It’s good to be back home
again,” he said. “The grass is
coming back really well.”
The lightning-caused fire
burned rapidly and it burned
hot, Torma said.
“There really weren’t these
unburned islands or pastures
that were not burned,” he said.
“Whatever it went across, it
burned 100 percent of it.”
The fire also killed hun-
dreds of cattle.
“It was a pretty devastating
fire,” said BLM spokesman
Michael Williamson. “A lot
of ranchers had to drastically
adjust what they were doing”
because of it.”
BLM officials have un-
dertaken several treatment
efforts aimed at restoring the
land and the agency’s resto-
ration plan includes making
the landscape more resilient
to fire in the future.
That plan includes 30
miles of targeted grazing fuel
breaks, which will begin this
spring and will be accom-
plished using producers who
graze cattle in those areas.
The idea is to create a 200-
foot buffer on each side of
roads, with the grass grazed
down to a 2-inch stubble
height, said Lance Okeson, a
BLM fuels program coordi-
nator.
With the fuel breaks, “The
rate of a fires’ spread is going
to be drastically reduced,” he
said.
The targeted grazing fuel
breaks are designed to pre-
vent another big fire, said
Lara Douglas, manager of the
BLM’s Boise district office.
BLM has used this tactic
before but never on this scale
or without extensive fencing,
Okeson said.
“We’re trying to devel-
op these techniques with the
operators on the landscape,
without a bunch of extensive
fencing,” he said. “We’ve
done some small-scale stuff
like this but we’re trying to
take it a little farther than
that.”
The grazing fuel breaks
are part of the BLM’s plan to
protect the millions of dollars
of restoration work that has
already been done, Okeson
said.
“From day one of the plan,
it was, we’re going to do all
these restoration efforts and
we’re also going to have a
strategy to protect them,” he
said.
Oregon dairy changing hands after regulatory problems
Willamette Valley Cheese Co. will continue operating next to farm
A dairy farm associated
with a well-known Oregon
cheese company is being
LEGAL
Attorney:
DAVID B. BECKHAM
319 Sixth Avenue SW
Albany, OR 97321
legal-47-3-1/999
IN THE CIRCUIT COURT
OF THE STATE OF OREGON
FOR THE COUNTY
OF MARION
Probate Department
IN THE MATTER OF THE
ESTATE OF
Harold L. Hayes, Deceased
No. 17PB08210
NOTICE TO
INTERESTED PERSONS
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN
that the undersigned has
been appointed Personal
Representative of the above
estate. All persons having
claims against the estate are
required to present them to
the undersigned Personal
Representative in care of the
undersigned attorney at: 319
Sixth Street SW, Albany, OR
97321 within four months
after the date of the first
publication of this notice, as
stated below, or such claims
may be barred.
All persons whose rights
may be affected by the
proceedings in this estate
may obtain additional infor-
mation from the records of
the Court, the Personal Rep-
resentative, or the attorney
for the Personal Represen-
tative.
DATED and first published
November 24, 2017.
Personal Representative:
DORIS M.Hayes
1064 Camelot Dr. S.
Salem, OR 97306
sold off following repeated
failures to follow wastewater
regulations.
Volbeda Farms near Sa-
lem, Ore., violated the terms
of its “confined animal feed-
ing operation” permit nu-
merous times over several
years, prompting the Oregon
Department of Agriculture to
revoke the permit.
Violations included dis-
charging waste into nearby
waterways and not complying
with the dairy’s animal waste
plan, said Wym Matthews,
manager of the agency’s
CAFO program.
“This was an operational
LEGAL
PUBLIC LIEN SALE
U-STORE SELF STORAGE
Salem, Oregon
Sat, December 9, 2017 10AM
1501 Hawthorne Ave NE
Keyla Almestica Looney, 2C54;
Tina Barlow, 1A04; Gordon R
Bean, 2A65; Debra L Bennett,
2B46; Darrin Cragle , 1G17; Tammy
Delfino, 1E43; Carmen Rocio
Duran Ramirez, RJ14; Linches
Esetok, RE14; Amanda Frechin,
2C65; Michell Graves, 1C41;
SheaAnn Greaves, 2A50; Amber
Jones, 1B15; Jonathon Jones,
2B56; Kevin M Lent, Y1-1; Andrew
McMillan, 2E06; Sam Means, 2B58;
Lynn Medina, 1F06; Joselyn
Oropeza, 2C37; Christy Packer,
1C24; Dustin Patee, 1G16; Haley
Potter, RE19; Kimberly Reitzer,
2C52; Erica Salazar, 2C57; Silas
Scott, Y1-8; Shallone Sheets, 2G03;
Jared Sheridan, 1F42; Brian
Siegmund, 2A71, 2A73; Duane W
Stateler, 1F34; Keith Weddle Jr,
1F47; Vincent K Wilson, 2D51;
Kimberly Wollin, 2B25; Luis Zavala
Santana, 2C39
legal-47-3-4/999
failure. It was not a facility
failure, it was the failure of
the operator to manage it cor-
rectly,” Matthews said.
Apart from the permit
revocation, Volbeda Farms
was issued a $90,000 civil
penalty. ODA also obtained
a temporary restraining order
requiring the farm to remove
its animals and clean the fa-
cility.
The agency permits about
260 dairy CAFOs in Oregon,
and most of them comply
with wastewater regulations,
said Matthews. “This was
an anomaly for our program.
This is not something we see
all the time.”
Capital Press was unable
to reach Rod Volbeda, the
farm’s owner, for comment.
The dairy farm is be-
ing bought by Brian Turley,
whose family operates a grass
seed and custom farming
business, with the closing ex-
pected to take place in Janu-
ary.
Turley said he’s familiar
with the dairy industry as his
Mateusz Perkowski/Capital Press File
Darren Volbeda of the Willamette Valley Cheese Co. near Salem, Ore., examines cheeses as they
brine. The adjacent dairy farm is being sold to another farmer, who will be milking Jersey cows at the
facility.
family raised replacement
heifers in the 1990s and cur-
rently provides seed drilling
and hauling services for dairy
farms.
Once the dairy farm re-
ceives a new CAFO permit,
Turley expects to initial-
ly keep 180 to 225 Jersey
cows at the facility, roughly
one-third the number it once
housed at its peak.
Turley became aware of
the opportunity to buy the fa-
cility after hauling away ma-
nure from the farm.
The Willamette Valley
Cheese Co. will continue op-
erating next to the site and
Turley is negotiating about
supplying the company with
milk.
LEGAL
LEGAL
LEGAL
PURSUANT TO ORS
CHAPTER 87
Notice is hereby given that the following
vehicle will be sold, for cash to the
highest bidder, on 12/18/2017. The sale
will be held at 10:00am by
COPART OF WASHINGTON INC
2885 NATIONAL WAY WOODBURN, OR
2017 CHEV CRUZE
VIN = 3G1BE6SM9HS534981
Amount due on lien $3,615.00
Reputed owner(s)
LOGAN R. HEARD & JOE L. HEARD
ALLY FINANCIAL
PURSUANT TO ORS
CHAPTER 98
Notice is hereby given that the following
vehicle will be sold, for cash to the
highest bidder, on 12/11/2017. The sale
will be held at 10:00am by
LITTLE J HOOK INC.
15114 MANNING RD, WOODBURN, OR
2016 FORD FOCUS
VIN = 1FADP3K28GL247245
Amount due on lien $3,320.00
Reputed owner(s)
UTL OR WA CA
PURSUANT TO ORS
CHAPTER 98
Notice is hereby given that the following
vehicle will be sold, for cash to the
highest bidder, on 12/11/2017. The sale
will be held at 10:00am by
DELFIN’S TOWING
1255 SUNNYVIEW RD NE, SALEM, OR
2007 CHEV SILVERADO PU
VIN = 3GCEK13M87G548953
Amount due on lien $4,640.00
Reputed owner(s)
JESSICA L. FORSTER &
SEAN S. MATHERS
legal-48-2-3/999
legal-48-2-3/999
Capital Press
legal-49-2-3/999
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
“We’d like to work out a
deal with them,” he said.
Manure
management
problems aren’t a concern for
the new owners, as they al-
ready apply dairy manure to
multiple fields in the region,
said Brianna Turley, Brian’s
wife.
“We have a lot more acre-
age than they had to apply it,”
she said, noting that the Tur-
leys will also collect and dis-
pose of wastewater from the
cheese facility.
LEGAL
PUBLIC LIEN SALE
U-STORE SELF STORAGE
Albany, Oregon
Sat, December 9, 2017 1PM
1668 Industrial Way SW
Troy Babbit, J017; Teri Barnett,
H063; Chelsey LaMora, H021;
Richard Miano, H006; Minnie
Reimer, E017
legal-47-3-4/999
49-2/102