INSIDE: ALL-NEW INNOVATIONS SPECIAL SECTION
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FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2018
The West’s
VOLUME 91, NUMBER 7
Weekly
WWW.CAPITALPRESS.COM
$2.00
CULTIVATING
SMALL
FARMS
George Plaven/Capital Press
Nate and Janis Newsom, of Bear
Branch Farms near Stayton,
Ore., will soon be hard at work
planting roughly 900 tomato
plants in the farm’s greenhouse.
Northwest farms by value of sales, 2012
The majority of Northwest farms are small with sales less than $10,000 annually, according to
the U.S. Census of Agriculture. Percent of total farms by value of sales per state:
<$9,999
$10,000-
49,999
$50,000-
99,999
Oregon
8
5.1
$100,000-
499,999
Washington
7.3
64.4%
9
4.9
> $500,000
Idaho
8.1
65.8%
55.7%
12.5
3.7
Total
farms:
35,439
17.6
Total
farms:
37,249
14.1
Total
farms:
24,816
6.1
17.6
Land-grant universities reach
out to bolster small farms
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
n a frosty Saturday morning in February, Nate and Janis Newsom fin-
ished building two new hoop houses that will soon be used to grow fresh,
certified organic produce at their Bear Branch Farms near Stayton, Ore.
“Thankfully it wasn’t windy,” said Janis Newsom, wearing a wool
hat and Carhartt overalls. But the weekend work is not done. The couple
must also plant 900 tomato plants in the nearby greenhouse, which they hope to har-
vest by mid-May.
Farming brought the Newsoms and their nine kids to Oregon from Southern Cal-
ifornia three years ago. They fell in love with the 17-acre property along Bear
Branch Creek in the Mid-Willamette Valley, and spent their life savings to start a
small family farm.
Turn to FARMS, Page 12
O
Northwest farms by
market value of land
and buildings, 2012
Farms in all three states combined
were valued at more than $90.7 billion,
according to the U.S. Census of Ag.
Capital Press
ONTARIO, Ore. — Scotts
Miracle-Gro Co. is reporting
a large decline in the num-
ber of genetically modified
creeping bentgrass plants in
Malheur County.
The plant, used on golf
courses, was genetically
engineered by Scotts and
Monsanto Co. to withstand
applications of glyphosate,
the active ingredient in Mon-
santo’s Roundup weed killer.
It took root in Oregon’s
Malheur and Jefferson coun-
ties after escaping field tri-
als in 2003. A small number
of the plants have also been
detected in Canyon County,
Idaho.
Some farmers and irriga-
tion districts worry the plants
could clog irrigation ditches
and affect shipments of crops
to nations that don’t accept
traces of genetically modified
organisms, or GMOs.
Danielle Posch, a senior
research specialist with Scotts,
told members of the Idaho-Or-
Oregon
Washington
Idaho
$1-199,999
$200,000-499,999
$500,000-999,999
$1 million-1.99 million
$2 million or more
7,486
14,775
7,462
2,872
2,844
9,700
15,162
6,299
2,851
3,237
8,680
7,787
3,406
2,148
2,795
Sources: USDA ERS; 2012 Census of Agriculture
Alan Kenaga/Capital Press
“It becomes a relationship with the community.
They’re able to trust we’re doing the right thing
with their produce.” — Nate Newsom, Stayton, Ore., farmer
GE creeping bentgrass in Malheur County drops 42 percent
By SEAN ELLIS
Number of farms
Value
Sean Ellis/Capital Press File
A GMO creeping bentgrass
plant grows in an onion field
south of Ontario, Ore., last year.
egon onion industry during
their annual meeting last week
that the number of GMO bent-
grass plants found in Malheur
County last fall dropped by 42
percent compared to the same
time in 2016.
“In 2017, we saw a sig-
nificant reduction in the total
number of glyphosate-tol-
erant creeping bentgrass
plants,” she said.
Similar data for Jefferson
County isn’t yet available.
Posch said the reduction
in Malheur County was like-
ly due to the Environmental
Protection Agency’s approv-
al last year of a special local
need label for the use of glu-
fosinate to control the plant.
Glufosinate is the most
effective herbicide for con-
trolling the GMO bentgrass
but before the special need
label, it couldn’t be used over
waterways.
The plants require nearly
constant moisture and can be
found mostly near canals and
irrigation ditches.
Turn to BENTGRASS,
Page 12
Oregon uplists marbled
murrelet to ‘endangered’
life, which is overseen by the
commission, must complete
“survival guidelines” for the
PORTLAND — Oregon’s marbled murrelet by June.
wildlife regulators have “uplist-
Those guidelines are ex-
ed” the marbled murrelet from pected to further restrict log-
a threatened to an endangered ging in the bird’s suitable
habitat, if existing protocols
species, which will likely re-
sult in stricter logging
for state forestland are
found to be insuffi-
limits on state forest-
land.
cient.
The Oregon
Though
Ore-
gon’s version of the
Fish and Wildlife
Endangered Species
Commission voted
Act only applies to
4-2 to upgrade pro-
tections for the coast-
property owned by
A marbled
al bird at its Feb. 9
the state government,
murrelet
some private forest-
meeting in Portland.
land owners worry
The change to
endangered status means that the uplisting will effectively
scientists at the Oregon De-
Turn to BIRD, Page 12
partment of Fish and Wild-
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press