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CapitalPress.com REAL Oregon seeking applications for next class Second group will begin in November By GEORGE PLAVEN Capital Press A program designed to incubate new leaders in Or- egon agriculture and natu- ral resource management is seeking applications for its second class, scheduled to begin in November. The Resource Edu- cation and Agricultural Leadership program, better known as REAL Oregon, was established in 2017 and graduated its first class in March. Participants have the chance to learn about farming, fishing and forestry during a series of five sessions held state- wide, while also network- ing with professionals in the field. REAL Oregon is de- signed to help members grow into leaders through training in board gover- nance, communication, conflict resolution, pub- lic policy work, critical thinking, government in- teraction, media relations, public speaking and pre- sentations. Applications for Class 2 are due July 27. The cost is $5,000 per person, of which half is paid by busi- ness sponsors. “We expect it to be a fairly competitive pro- cess,” said Greg Adding- ton, REAL Oregon direc- tor. The REAL Oregon board of directors will review applications in August and announce members of Class 2 in Sep- tember. Addington said the program will accept up to 30 people. Applica- tions can be found online at www.realoregon.net. Bill Buhrig, REAL Or- egon board chairman, said graduates from the first class are already making their presence felt around the state, serving on vari- ous boards and commis- sions. Alumni are also serving on the board and helping to recruit future members. “I hope it’s a testament to what we put together that people want to come back and help make this program even better,” Buhrig said. July 13, 2018 U.S. hop acreage forecast at record high By DAN WHEAT Capital Press YAKIMA, Wash. — U.S. hop acreage is forecast at a record 53,282 acres this year, up 4 percent over last year, with new acreage and plant- ings entering full production. The 2018 forecast for Washington is 39,273 acres, which is 71 percent of total U.S. acreage, according to a July 2 report from the Na- tional Agricultural Statistics Service. Idaho is projected at 8,217 acres, or 15 percent of the to- tal, and Oregon is projected at 7,849 acres, or 14 percent. Idaho shows the largest in- crease in acreage, up 1,224 acres, or 17.5 percent. Mike Gooding, president of Gooding Farms north of Wilder, Idaho, and vice chairman of the Idaho Hop Growers Commission, said the state’s additional acreage this year primarily consists of hops contracted two years ago that are finally being es- tablished. “A lot of times, growers are not able to establish all acres in one season,” Good- Northwest hop acres harvested While Washington state still dominates in total hop acres harvested annually, Idaho was the fastest growing region with an increase of more than 119 percent in 2018 compared to 2014. Washington Oregon Idaho 37,444 38,438 39,273 32,158 28,858 5,410 6,612 7,765 7,851 7,849 4,863 5,648 6,993 8,217 3,743 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 Source: USDA NASS ing said. “And we have a couple of new growers in the area. They established part of their acreage last year and part this year.” Washington state is up 835 acres, or 2 percent, and Ore- gon acreage is unchanged. Expansion of small craft breweries fueled an increase in aroma hop varieties for Alan Kenaga/Capital Press several years but that’s slowed as the rate of craft brewery growth has slowed and larger brewers have lost market share to other bever- ages. Plantings of the super high alpha varieties of Zeus and Columbus/Tomahawk have increased due to con- cern about a possible up- coming deficit of alpha for larger brewers globally, said Jaki Brophy, a Hop Growers of America and Washington Hop Commission spokes- woman in Moxee. “It’s questionable whether a 4 percent increase in acre- age for 2018 was truly need- ed, given continued softening in the craft sector and over- all flat beer growth global- ly,” said Peter Mahony, vice president of supply chain and purchasing for John I. Haas Inc., a leading grower, pro- cessor and researcher of hops based in Yakima. “But with craft’s big ap- petite for U.S. aroma hops, at least we are not seeing a further expansion of aroma acreage but rather flat-lined with varietal rebalancing go- ing on,” Mahony said. The increase in high al- pha is in direct competition with Germany, which is also expanding acreage, he said. Germany is the world’s larg- est producer of high alpha hops. Cascade was the top U.S. hop variety in production for years and a workhorse for craft breweries but has been dropping for two years and now is No. 3, Mahony said. The big gainer is the aro- ma variety Citra, now No. 1, at 6,652 acres and up 30 percent, he said. The high al- phas of Zeus and Columbus/ Tomahawk are No. 2 at 6,102 acres and the aroma variety Centennial has dropped to No. 4 at 4,864 acres. Corrections for Cascade and Centennial were antic- ipated, and they likely will drop further over the next two years, he said. “It’s good to see correc- tions occurring fairly quickly, which will help to bring these varieties back into balance,” he said. “Simcoe is another leading proprietary aroma variety which also appears to have caught up with demand and will see a reduction.” Gooding said he expects a sizable percentage of Crys- tal, a public hop variety for which demand has dropped, to be rotated out in Idaho next year. NASS reported Crystal acreage in Wash- ington, Oregon and Idaho is down this year. Reporter Brad Carlson con- tributed to this story. Nonprofit files plan to remove four Klamath dams By GEORGE PLAVEN Capital Press Four hydroelectric dams blocking fish passage along the lower Klamath River in southern Oregon and northern California are slated for re- moval under a “Definite Plan” filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The dams — J.C. Boyle, Copco No. 1, Copco No. 2 and Iron Gate — were built between 1911 and 1962, and are currently operated by PacifiCorp with a combined generation capacity of 169 megawatts. FERC is now considering a proposal to transfer the proj- ect’s license to the Klamath River Renewal Corporation, a nonprofit organization that intends to decommission and tear out the dams. If regu- lators approve the transfer, dam deconstruction could be- gin by 2021, opening access for salmon and steelhead to around 400 miles of habitat in the Klamath River and its tributaries. The Klamath River Re- newal Corporation, or KRRC, formed in 2016 as part of the amended Klamath Hydroelec- tric Settlement Agreement, signed by the U.S. Depart- ment of the Interior, along with the states of Oregon and California, PacifiCorp, local tribes, government agencies, irrigation districts, commer- LEGAL Associated Press File Iron Gate Dam spans the Klamath River near Hornbrook, Calif. Associated Press File Copco No. 1 dam on the Klamath River near Hornbrook, Calif. cial fishing and conservation groups. Together, they appointed the KRRC to take ownership and eventually demolish the dams as part of the settlement. Mark Bransom, executive director of the KRRC, is a for- mer instructor at Oregon State University and senior vice president in water resources and environmental manage- ment for CH2M Hill Cos., a Colorado-based engineering firm. He said the 2,300-page Definite Plan submitted June 28 to FERC is a “major mile- stone” in the dam removal process. ODESSA PUBLIC DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY CALL FOR BIDS – PROPERTY SALE NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that separate sealed bids will be received by the Odessa Public Development Authority (OPDA) for purchase of a 28,000 sq. ft. industrial building located at 206 W. Railroad Ave, Odessa, WA 99159. Legal Description: Tract 1 Odessa Union Sp Steel Flathouse B/170 Adjoining 12 Ft North Line Qcd 457023. This building was once a grain storage flat house then converted to a large warehouse/office space in 2006. Restrooms and office space occupy 3,000 sq. ft. of the building. Additional 60’ of property extends west of the building. The site would be suitable primarily for industrial or ag-related commercial/industrial development as permitted by zoning. Sealed bids will be received until 12:00 noon (PDT) August 20, 2018 at which time they will be held until opened and publicly read aloud at the OPDA Board Meeting, August 20, 2018, 7:00 p.m., located at the Odessa Hospital Guild Room, 503 Amende St., Odessa, WA 99159. Bids shall be mailed prior to bid opening to P.O. Box 763, Odessa, WA. 99159 or hand delivered prior to bid opening to: 207 W. First Avenue, Odessa, WA no later than 12:00 pm on August 20, 2018. All bids must meet a minimum price of $305,000 to be considered. Questions regarding the project may be directed to Stacey Rasmussen, stacey@odessapda, 509-348-0090. Odessa Public Development Authority, Kim Ramm, President 28-2-3/999 3995 Brooklake Rd. NE • “We believe we have pro- vided FERC with everything they have requested to this point,” Bransom said. The plan describes in de- tail how the KRRC will draw down reservoirs and remove the dams, while also protect- ing fisheries, rehabilitating construction sites and miti- gating community impacts — such as replacing a water supply pipeline for the city of Yreka, Calif., that crosses the Klamath River near the upstream end of the reservoir behind Iron Gate Dam. The project cost is esti- mated at around $398 mil- 28-1/106 lion, though Bransom said the KRRC will begin soliciting to hire a construction contractor some time in the next month, which will determine the “guaranteed maximum cost.” The KRRC has a total bud- get of up to $450 million, with PacifiCorp ratepayers contrib- uting $200 million and $250 million coming from Califor- nia Proposition 1, a $7.5 bil- lion statewide water bond that voters passed in 2014. Removing the four dams should benefit migratory salmon and steelhead, Bran- som said, not only boosting upstream passage but improv- ing water quality by restoring a more free and natural flow to the river. “It’s not hard to appreciate that the Klamath River is a working river,” Bransom said. “It has been overtaxed with regard to allocation of water and other resources in the ba- sin.” That has led to decades of conflicts and lawsuits seeking to balance water for fish and water for 230,000 acres of irrigated agriculture within the Bureau of Reclamation’s Klamath Project. In 2017, a federal judge ruled in favor of two Califor- nia tribes, ordering additional flows in the Klamath River to flush away a deadly salm- on-killing parasite known as C. shasta. The bureau released 38,425 acre-feet of water from Upper Klamath Lake in April and 50,000 acre-feet in May to comply with the order, which delayed water for farm- ers and ranchers until June. Though the dams target- ed for removal on the lower Klamath River do not hold any water for irrigation, Bran- som said it may ultimately benefit farmers and ranchers in the long run. “If the water quality can be improved through dam removal and (create) a more natural flow regime in the river, the flushing flows and dilution flows held in Upper Klamath Lake may or may not continue to be required,” he said. “That is water that could be held in the Klamath Project for agricultural purposes.” Scott White, executive di- rector of the Klamath Water Users Association, said he wants to believe that is true, though nothing has been guar- anteed in writing. White said irrigators are frustrated to see the Klam- ath Hydroelectric Settlement Agreement revived and mov- ing forward, while the Klam- ath Basin Restoration Agree- ment — another hard-fought agreement that would have guaranteed water for agricul- ture — has been left for dead after Congress failed to ap- prove the deal in 2015. The Klamath Tribes also filed another lawsuit earlier this year seeking an injunc- tion to retain more water in Upper Klamath Lake to pro- tect two endangered species of sucker fish. A hearing in that case is scheduled for July 20 in a federal courtroom in San Francisco. “The path we’re going down with litigation is not working, and it’s never going to work,” White said. “Until the parties can sit down and talk about these issues face to face, this basin is just go- ing to continue to spiral out of control.” Brooks, OR 97303 Vintage & Antique Tractors Parades & Tractor Pulls Swap Me et & Quilt Show 15 VIntage machinery & Implement Museums Great Food & Family Fun! Kids 12 & under FREE! $12.00 General Admission .COM MFG OF BRUSH MULCHERS | STUMP GRINDERS | DRAINAGE PLOWS BOOM MOWERS | PTO GENERATORS | AUGER BITS & DRIVES TRENCHERS | TREE SPADES | TREE SAWS | LIMB SHEARS AND MORE www.PowerlandHeritagePark.com ELLIS EQUIPMENT 800-949-2336 28-25-2/102 4
