Capital Press
A g
The West’s
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 22, 2017
Weekly
VOLUME 90, NUMBER 51
WWW.CAPITALPRESS.COM
$2.00
Promotional campaign focuses on social media
and the Millennial generation
# ChristmasTree
Checkoff
faces test
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
I
n a humorous video viewed more than
300,000 times on Facebook, a Christmas tree
grower named Mark ridicules his own lack of
social media skills.
Bantering with his daughter in a field of grow-
ing trees, Mark repeatedly mistakes the names of
several popular social media applications: “Face
Face” instead of Facebook, “Snaptalk” instead of
Snapchat, “Tweezer” instead of Twitter.
The video concludes with a positive message,
as Mark tells the viewers, “Forget all that. Get your
family together, head out and pick a real Christmas
tree!”
The light-hearted video also illustrates a re-
al-life dilemma for the Christmas Tree Promotion
Board, which produced the video as part of its new
social media-driven promotional campaign, “It’s
Christmas. Keep It Real.”
Checkoff takes off
The board was launched by USDA in 2015 at the
request of farmers who wanted to raise funds for in-
dustry promotions and research with a “checkoff”
fee of 15 cents per tree, generating roughly $1.8
million a year.
But unlike the young consumers who are tar-
geted by its promotional campaigns, some farmers
who pay for the program are indifferent to social
media. This year, the board invested $1.1 million
in promotions.
“All these social media things they’re doing, I
don’t have a clue,” said Bob Schaefer, manager of
Noble Mountain Tree Farm near Salem, Ore.
Rank/state
1.
Ore.
2.
N.C.
3.
Mich.
$127.4
89.3
Christmas trees grow in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. The Christ-
mas tree industry will vote whether to continue a research and
promotion program next year. BELOW: Farmer Betty Malone
speaks about the Christmas tree checkoff.
22.8
22
4. Penn.
5.
Photos by Mateusz Perkowski/Capital Press
Sales ($ millions of dollars)
16.2
Wis.
6. Wash.
12
7.
Vir.
10.1
8.
Ohio
9.
Calif.
5.4
10. Conn.
4.4
7.1
Top 10
Christmas tree
states, 2014
Total cut trees sold and to be
sold, by value of production.
Source: 2012 Census of Agriculture, USDA
Alan Kenaga/Capital Press
“Where I get my information is not where my kids get their information.”
Turn to CHECKOFF, Page 12
Betty Malone, farmer in Philomath, Ore.
Washington spent $15,000 to shoot wolf, much more to avoid it
Funds ran out for
cost-sharing deals
“Certainly, we’d like to be able to help as many individuals
with the uptake of those non-lethal tools.”
Donny Martorello, WDFW wolf policy coordinator
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
Courtesy Washington Dept. of Fish and Wildlife
A dead calf discovered in Ferry County, Washington, Aug. 24
was confirmed as a wolf depredation.
The Washington Depart-
ment of Fish and Wildlife
spent $15,097 to kill a wolf last
summer in the Sherman pack,
about one-tenth the amount
that was invested in keeping
the pack from attacking live-
stock, according to a depart-
ment report released Dec. 15.
WDFW paid $134,170 for
range-riders and other pre-
ventive measures in the pack’s
territory in northeast Washing-
ton. Conservation Northwest,
an environmental group, con-
tributed another $12,880 for
range-riders.
The report does not tal-
ly costs or losses incurred
by ranchers, but some of the
state’s spending was depen-
dent on producers employing
additional safeguards.
WDFW might have spent
more on deterrence, but it ran out
to money to enter into cost-shar-
ing agreements with ranchers,
according to the report.
WDFW wolf policy coor-
dinator Donny Martorello said
Monday that there is no way to
know whether more spending
could have prevented the pack
from killing calves.
“Certainly, we’d like to be
able to help as many individ-
uals with the uptake of those
non-lethal tools,” Martorello
said. “The demand is starting
to exceed the resources.”
Washington has a growing
wolf population, particularly
in northeast Washington. The
report details efforts to safe-
guard up to 1,300 cow-calf
pairs on 10 grazing allotments
that overlapped the Sher-
man pack’s territory in Ferry
County.
Turn to WOLF, Page 12
GOP tax bill includes provisions for farmers, ranchers
Congress passed massive
overhaul Wednesday
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
Agriculture should come out ahead
in the massive GOP tax overhaul
passed by Congress Wednesday, ac-
cording to a tax policy expert with the
American Farm Bureau Federation.
Patricia Wolff said she has been
tracking the proposal for a year and
half, and believes most farmers and
ranchers will see a tax break due to
lower rates and wider brackets that
will go into effect Jan. 1.
Wolff pointed to a number of pro-
visions included in the final version of
the bill that she said will help produc-
ers match their income with expenses.
For example, cash accounting is con-
tinued under the law, which she said
provides greater flexibility as opposed
to accrual accounting.
“You count your income when you
receive it, and you record your ex-
penses when you make a payment,”
Wolff said.
Growers have huge input costs, yet
their incomes can vary greatly from
year to year depending on things like
weather, markets and plant diseases.
Provisions such as cash accounting
that match income with expenses
are critical to helping farms even out
those yearly swings, Wolff said.
A new provision also allows for
pass-through businesses — S-cor-
porations, Limited Liability Compa-
nies and partnerships where income
is claimed on the owners’ personal
Turn to TAX, Page 12
Manuel Balce Ceneta/Associated Press
President Donald Trump speaks about
the passage of the tax overhaul bill
Dec. 20 on the South Lawn at the White
House in Washington.
Christmas early deadlines
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