June 8, 2018
CapitalPress.com
7
Demonstration shows modern forestry advances
By ALIYA HALL
Capital Press
By MITCH LIES
For the Capital Press
For most of the past three
years, Jonathan Sandau was
content working as a dis-
trict aide for U.S. Rep. Kurt
Schrader, D-Ore.
But when the Oregon Farm
Bureau announced earlier this
year that former Govern-
ment Affairs Specialist Jenny
Dressler was leaving, Sandau
saw an opportunity on the
horizon.
In February, Sandau made
the leap from national to state
politics, joining the Farm Bu-
reau as its newest government
affairs specialist.
“This was a huge opportu-
nity for me,” Sandau said. “I
have always wanted to bal-
ance politics and agriculture,
and you can’t blend agricul-
ture and politics more than in
Farm Bureau.” Sandau added
that few opportunities would
have pulled him away from
Schrader’s office. “But this is
one of them,” he said, “if not
the only one.”
Dressler, who joined the
Farm Bureau in December of
2014, left in March to take a
position with the Salem lob-
bying group Public Affairs
Counsel.
Sandau, 28, comes by his
enthusiasm for politics and
agriculture naturally. He holds
a bachelor’s degree from the
University of Portland in po-
litical science, and he was
raised on a fifth-generation
family farm just east of Sa-
lem.
His work in politics in-
cludes a six-month intern-
ship with Schrader’s office
in Washington, D.C., and
work on former Gov. John
Kitzhaber’s re-election cam-
paign in 2014, in addition to
the three years he spent as a
district aide.
Still, his immersion in state
politics was a bit daunting,
as he started with the Farm
Bureau midway through this
year’s session.
“It was trial by fire,” he
said. “The short session was
a good introduction into what
state politics looks like and
how it is done.”
Sandau, whose family has
belonged to the Farm Bureau
for as long as he can remem-
ber, said he has enjoyed get-
ting to know legislators and
the dynamics in play around
the Capitol. And he has en-
joyed his visits with Farm Bu-
reau members.
“Getting out on folks’
farms and seeing first-hand
how the issues impact them is
something I think is critically
important for us and for pol-
icy makers to do. The more
we can build those bridges be-
tween the farming community
and legislators, the better,”
Sandau said.
“Agriculture in Oregon has
an excellent story to tell, and
that story is not on the fore-
front of people’s minds,” he
said.
“So, we have to work at
telling the story that what we
are doing is good, that what
we are growing is socially,
economically and environ-
mentally responsible, partic-
ularly when the perception is
sometimes otherwise. And at
the Farm Bureau, we have a
very credible, authentic and
well-branded voice to help
folks tell their story.”
Sandau, who is married
and lives in South Salem, said
he hopes one day to get back
to farming, and said if the op-
portunity arises, he could see
a future in politics, as well.
“Right now, though, this is
where my focus is,” he said,
“and I can’t imagine a better
position to be in.”
Aliya Hall/For the Capital Press
Kacie Hillery operates one of the Ponsse machines, moving
harvested logs onto a pile. The logs will be repurposed as either
studs or wood chips by Oregon companies Western Cascade
Industries and Thompson Timber Co.
“It’s a really great oppor-
tunity,” she said. “The big-
gest thing is for (the commu-
nity) to see that we care about
what we do, and we want to
give back to the community
and eco-system.”
Another aspect of the
demonstration was to show
how technologically ad-
vanced the industry has be-
come. In about 30 seconds,
the Finnish Ponsse harvester
can cut a tree and section it
to the length mills require.
The smaller branches with
needles are left for soil pro-
tection.
Kacie Hillery, an oper-
ator at Miller Timber Ser-
vices, has been running the
machines since September.
She said it was a challenge at
first, but has become muscle
memory.
“It’s like a video game,”
she said.
Hillery didn’t think a ca-
reer in the forestry industry
would be a possibility for
ning one side of the forest
shows the difference.
“Contrast is important,” he
said. “It’s a good way to learn
and show the actual practice
of forestry. You can already
see more light through the
trees, the crowns have lifted.
It’s already changed for the
better.”
Walker said her passion
has been “reconnecting the
community with the indus-
try.”
Her goal was to have com-
munity members interact and
gain exposure to an industry
that is integral to the state.
For Mattioda, who is also
on the board of the REAL Or-
egon program, which helps
the natural resource indus-
tries tell their story, foresters
are just farmers on a longer
time frame.
“We’ve dealt with the ur-
ban-rural divide and it was
amazing how many people
don’t understand what we
do,” he said. “We’d like the
community to see our opera-
tions, ask questions and learn
the benefit economically and
environmentally. We need to
re-engage in a positive man-
ner. If we don’t tell our story,
who is? I’m proud of what
we’re doing.”
George Fox University lands USDA
grant for improving energy efficiency
Research to assist
small farmers,
winemakers
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
Port of Portland
Wheat bound for overseas pours into the hold of a ship at the
Port of Portland. U.S. Wheat Associates leaders say they are
increasingly concerned about President Donald Trump’s tariffs
on foreign-made goods and what it might mean for U.S. wheat
exports.
U.S. Wheat on tariff
turmoil: Patience
starting to run out
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
U.S. Wheat Associates
leaders say they are con-
cerned about the impacts
of U.S. tariffs on steel and
aluminum, which would hit
“some of our closest allies
and trading partners.”
The U.S. Department of
Commerce is also investi-
gating imports of automo-
biles and parts, the value of
which far exceeds steel and
aluminum imports, and pri-
marily affect major wheat
export markets such as Mex-
ico, Japan, the European
Union and Canada, accord-
ing to U.S. Wheat.
“The patience is starting
to run out in the ag world,”
Mike Miller, U.S. Wheat
chairman and a Ritzville,
Wash., farmer, told the Cap-
ital Press.
U.S. Wheat is the over-
seas marketing arm of the
industry.
“We’re so vulnerable in
regards to retaliation,” Mill-
er said. “We don’t have a
single gun in the fight. You
can’t say, ‘No, you can’t re-
taliate against wheat or pork
or whatever.’”
Other U.S. Wheat leaders
agree.
“It is dismaying to see
that common sense has not
yet prevailed in preventing
these protectionist mea-
sures,” said Vince Peterson,
president of U.S. Wheat, in a
press release.
U.S. Wheat spent decades
in critical markets such as
Mexico, Japan and Europe
because the organization is
committed to lasting trading
relationships between over-
seas milling and processing
sectors and U.S. farmers,
Peterson said.
“If this administration
isn’t careful, decades of ef-
forts by our farmers could be
wasted,” Peterson said.
Trump’s
“ambitious”
bilateral trade agreement
agenda — “which was
promised and which we all
look forward to” — may
never get off the ground be-
cause no nation would be
willing to take the political
risks necessary to negotiate
an agreement with the U.S.,
the organization said.
Miller cites slowing
North American Free Trade
Agreement
negotiations,
Chinese trade concerns,
Trump’s upcoming sum-
mit with North Korea, EU
tariffs, Transatlantic Trade
and Investment Partnership
negotiations between the
U.S. and the EU and the
Trans-Pacific Partnership.
Japanese
customers
want the U.S. back in the
TPP trade deal, from which
Trump withdrew in January
2017.
The Japanese, however,
have a plan to proceed with-
out U.S. involvement, Miller
said.
“That’s pretty unnerv-
ing,” he said.
George Fox University,
a private Christian school
based in Newberg, Ore., is
reaching out to small farm-
ers and vintners in the Willa-
mette Valley after receiving
a $100,000 Renewable Ener-
gy Development Assistance
Grant from the USDA.
Students and faculty in the
university’s College of Engi-
neering will use the grant to
help agricultural producers
become more energy effi-
cient, conduct energy audits
and consider renewable en-
ergy options on the farm or
vineyard.
The university is collabo-
rating with Spark Northwest,
a Seattle-based nonprofit
organization dedicated to
renewable energy develop-
ment. Funding will be pro-
vided by the USDA over two
years, beginning this fall.
Bob Harder, dean of the
College of Engineering at
George Fox, said students
will also benefit by becom-
ing more widely recognized
in the state as viable contrib-
utors to the growing needs of
agriculture.
“George Fox is located
right in the heart of a ver-
dant countryside surround-
ed by agricultural endeav-
ors of all kinds — berries,
grapes, nuts, dairy and hops
— which provides us with
a significant opportunity to
get to know and serve our
neighbors, an advantage we
have over some of the other
engineering programs locat-
George Fox University
Bob Harder, dean of the Col-
lege of Engineering at George
Fox University.
ed in more urban parts of the
state,” Harder said in a state-
ment.
Founded in 1885 as a
school for Quakers, George
Fox offers bachelor’s de-
grees in more than 40 ma-
jors, 13 master’s and doctor-
al degrees and six seminary
degrees. More than 4,000
students attend classes at the
main campus in Newberg,
south of Portland.
The university’s foray into
agricultural outreach began
two years ago, when school
President Robin Baker gave
a presentation about enhanc-
ing the value of George Fox
among local communities.
As part of that initiative,
one goal was to “develop
solutions to real-life chal-
lenges in the Northwest
through effective cross-dis-
ciplinary collaboration be-
tween students, professors
and the marketplace.”
Harder said the universi-
ty saw a “clear alignment”
between the needs of the
USDA Rural Development
agency and the strengths of
their engineering program.
The College of Engineering
— led by associate professor
Chad Stillinger, and with en-
couragement from Jill Rees,
USDA Rural Development
economic coordinator for
Oregon — decided to ap-
ply for the grant, which it
received earlier this spring.
“In looking at our sur-
roundings, it became obvi-
ous that one of our regional
stakeholders was the agri-
cultural industry,” Harder
said. “Through this grant our
students will get the unique
opportunity to interact with
owners of small farms and
vineyards, understand their
energy needs and use their
technical engineering ca-
pabilities to assist them in
diagnosing energy waste as
well as propose efficiency
measures and renewable en-
ergy options.”
Harder said the grant
also positions the universi-
ty for future USDA funding
at the “energy-food-wa-
ter-climate nexus,” includ-
ing precision agriculture,
field drones and sensors
and digitizing data.
Erin McDuff, a spokes-
woman for USDA Rural De-
velopment in Oregon, said
the program is available not
only to farmers and ranch-
ers, but rural communities
where farmers and ranchers
live and work to help them
thrive.
The renewable ener-
gy development program
specifically is designed to
help businesses save mon-
ey on their utilities, which
will make them stronger
and more resilient, McDuff
said.
“We’re also hoping to
bring that innovation and
new technology into those
communities and make
them more successful,” she
said.
George Fox was the only
university in Oregon to re-
ceive the grant this year.
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Farm Bureau
lobbyist finds
job a good fit
23-3/100
Mitch Lies/For the Capital Press
The Oregon Farm Bureau’s
new government affairs spe-
cialist, Jonathan Sandau, grew
up on a fifth-generation family
farm and spent most of the past
three years as a district aide
for U.S. Rep. Kurt Schrader,
D-Ore.
PHILOMATH, Ore. —
Simon Babcock, forestry
teacher at Philomath High
School, compared the thin-
ning of Downing Forest to
Christmas morning.
“I’m ecstatic,” he said.
“It’s been needing to hap-
pen.”
On June 1, the Forestry
and Natural Resources Club
organized a demonstration
with Miller Timber Services
to thin half of the 10-acre
certified forest behind Philo-
math Middle School. Using
a Ponsse harvester, Miller
Timber Services had thinned
5 acres by the end of the day.
The demo was open for ele-
mentary and high school stu-
dents, as well as community
members.
“Forest thinning is the
process of taking trees out
to make the forest healthi-
er,” Katelin Walker, forestry
instructor and FFA adviser,
said. “They’re cutting down
dead and diseased trees that
aren’t quality timber.”
This method is more envi-
ronmentally sustainable than
clear cutting, which is more
commonly criticized, Walker
said.
her, but as the technology
advanced, it has enabled all
genders to be in the field.
“The nature of the indus-
try is changing,” Matthew
Mattioda, manager and for-
ester at Miller Timber Ser-
vices, said. “Jobs that were
never considered because
they needed brute strength
now need finesse — the tech-
nology changed that.”
One of the Forestry and
Natural Resources Club
members, Kelsey Looper,
has been considering enter-
ing the forestry industry. She
said her favorite thing about
the club is how much she’s
learned.
Mattioda said over 60 per-
cent of the company’s work-
force are millennials, and
often don’t have a forestry
background.
He said the company
training teaches the “why”
they’re doing something, not
just what to do.
“What you leave behind
is more important than what
you take out,” he said.
The logs will be used ei-
ther for studs or wood chips.
Even though the forest
could be thinned one more
time before its next rotation,
Mattioda said that even thin-