Capital press. (Salem, OR) 19??-current, August 24, 2018, Page 3, Image 3

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

    August 24, 2018
CapitalPress.com
USDA announces new
strategy to improve
forest conditions
Washington judge blocks
shooting wolf to protect cattle
By DON JENKINS
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
The fury and intensity of
the 2018 wildfire season has
sparked a renewed push for
more active management of
federal forests.
Three days after visiting
the site of the 229,651-acre
Carr fire — which has killed
six people and destroyed more
than 1,000 homes near Red-
ding, Calif. — USDA Secre-
tary Sonny Perdue announced
a new strategy for treating
overstocked forests to reverse
the trend of increasingly large
and destructive “megafires.”
Perdue outlined the plan in
a 28-page report Aug. 16 at the
U.S. Capitol, joined by U.S.
Forest Service Interim Chief
Vicki Christiansen and a bi-
partisan group of senators in-
cluding Ron Wyden, D-Ore.,
Maria Cantwell, D-Wash.,
Steve Daines, R-Mont., and
Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska.
“On my trip to California
this week, I saw the devasta-
tion that these unprecedent-
ed wildfires are having on
our neighbors, friends and
families,” Perdue said. “We
commit to work more close-
ly with the states to reduce
the frequency and severity
of wildfires. We commit to
strengthening the stewardship
of public and private lands.”
The strategy, titled “To-
ward Shared Stewardship
Across Landscapes,” calls for
the Forest Service to coordi-
nate with states to prioritize
restoration projects where
they can have the greatest
benefit on the landscape, with
states convening local part-
ners to discuss what condi-
tions look like on the ground.
According to the Nation-
al Interagency Fire Center in
Boise, Idaho, wildfires burn
twice as many acres each year
as they did 40 years ago. From
1983 to 1992, fires burned an
average of 2.7 million acres
per year, while the latest 10-
year average shows fires are
now burning 6.5 million acres
per year. The 2018 wildfire
season is on pace to eclipse
that total, reaching 5.9 million
acres as of Aug. 20.
Statistics from the NIFC
also show fires are getting
bigger on Forest Service land
across the West. Over the past
decade, there have been 2.5
times more fires of at least
1,000 acres, 3.5 times more
fires of at least 10,000 acres,
and 3.6 times more fires of at
least 10,000 acres, compared
to the 1980s.
As of Aug. 20, The NIFC
reported 109 large fires in 12
states, including 13 in Ore-
gon, 11 in Idaho, 10 in Wash-
ington and 10 in California.
Large fires are defined as
burning 100 acres or more of
timber, and 300 acres or more
of grass and rangeland.
Christiansen, the interim
Forest Service chief, said the
situation calls for a new ap-
proach to land management.
“We will use all the tools
available to us to reduce
hazardous fuels, including
mechanical treatments, pre-
scribed fire, and unplanned
fire in the right place at the
right time, to mitigate (wild-
fires),” Christiansen said.
USDA: Small farms bear
greater food safety costs
Larger growers can
spread costs over
bigger revenue base
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
Complying with the Food
Safety Modernization Act
will consume a much larger
chunk of small farmers’ rev-
enues compared with their
larger counterparts, according
to USDA.
Fresh produce grow-
ers with annual sales above
roughly $3.5 million can
expect to devote less than a
third of 1 percent of revenues
on complying with the feder-
al statute, which was enacted
in 2011, according to a recent
USDA study.
Meanwhile, those with
less than $500,000 in annual
sales will likely spend about
6-7 percent of their revenues
to meet FSMA requirements,
such as water testing, worker
training and recordkeeping,
the study found.
The added expense may
prompt some smaller farmers
to stop growing fresh produce
crops affected by FSMA,
or convince them to sell off
their operations altogether,
said John Bovay, the study’s
lead author and an assistant
professor at the University of
Connecticut.
“Clearly, farms aren’t op-
erating on huge profit mar-
gins, especially small farms,”
Bovay said. “Consolidation is
definitely an option.”
When comparing farms by
size, the cost of complying
with FSMA increases sharp-
ly as farms attain revenues of
about $500,000, after which
the expense mounts more
slowly and then levels off
Photo courtesy of
Washington State University
Small farmers will spend up to 7
percent of their revenues com-
plying with the Food Safety and
Modernization Act, compared to
0.3 percent for large growers,
according to USDA.
once revenues hit about $3.5
million, the study said.
In effect, the total costs of
training workers or testing
water are relatively fixed, but
bigger farms can spread those
expenses across a larger reve-
nue base, Bovay said.
“Compliance cost increas-
es with revenue, but at a de-
creasing rate,” he said.
When the rules associated
with FSMA are fully imple-
mented in 2022, the actual
cost for large farms may ac-
tually be less than the 0.3 per-
cent estimated by the study.
That’s because large
growers have already been
required by major retailers
to adopt food safety practic-
es that will be mandated by
FSMA, Bovay said. “It’s go-
ing to accentuate the advan-
tage the big guys have, be-
cause the big guys are already
complying.”
Because following the
law’s mandates will probably
cause a small reduction in the
supply of fruits and vegeta-
bles, the associated increase
in prices will help mitigate
costs for the farming industry
as a whole, he said.
Grass Expertise.
LET’S TALK!
Over 40 Years
Experience
WHEN SEEDING
GRASS WITH AN AIR
TRUCK, APPLY HALF
OF SEED NORTH/
SOUTH & THE OTHER
HALF EAST/WEST TO
AVOID OPEN SKIPS
Alan Greenway,
Seedsman
34-3/108
Caldwell, Idaho • Alan Greenway, Seedsman
Cell: 298-259-9159 • MSG: 298-454-8342
Capital Press
OLYMPIA — Two envi-
ronmental groups obtained a
court order Monday barring
the Washington Department
of Fish and Wildlife from
killing a male wolf in the
Togo pack to stop attacks on
cattle in Ferry County.
Thurston County Superior
Court Judge Chris Lanese is-
sued the temporary restrain-
ing order at the request of
the Center for Biological
Diversity and Cascadia Wild-
lands. The order will remain
in place until at least Aug.
31, when the court will hear
more arguments and consider
extending the order.
Lanese’s order shelves, at
least temporarily, a lethal-re-
moval policy that Fish and
Wildlife worked out with its
Wolf Advisory Group, an
18-member panel that rep-
resents ranchers, hunters,
conservationists and ani-
mal-welfare advocates.
State Rep. Joel Kretz,
whose northeastern Washing-
ton district has lived with the
consequences of wolf reviv-
al, said the ruling undercuts
a policy meant to reconcile
livestock production and
wolf recovery.
“It’s all out the window
now,” he said. “I’m the most
frustrated I’ve ever been in
14 years of being a legislator,
maybe my whole life, over
this thing.”
The hearing came about
Monday because the two
environmental groups won
a commitment in Lanese’s
court last spring from Fish
and Wildlife to give a one-
day notice before killing
wolves. The pack was blamed
for attacking a calf Saturday,
its third depredation in 10
days. The department an-
nounced early Monday that it
would target the pack’s only
known male wolf beginning
at 5 p.m. The notice gave the
groups time to file their ob-
jection.
At a hastily arranged
hearing in a nearly empty
courtroom, Lanese grant-
ed the retraining order. He
cited a law that suggests no
one will suffer substantial
harm by delaying the agen-
cy’s actions, but that the two
environmental groups would
suffer irreparable injury if the
wolf were shot.
Cattle Producers of Wash-
ington President Scott Niel-
sen said he was angered but
not surprised by the ruling.
“This is what we thought
would happen,” he said.
“It’s really bothersome
that Thurston County is
now telling us how to man-
age wolves,” Nielsen said.
“It will have an unintended
effect on social tolerance in
this area.”
The Center for Biological
Diversity and Cascadia Wild-
lands argue the department’s
policy on killing wolves to
stop attacks on livestock is
illegal because it was devel-
oped with too little scientific
and public review.
“Wolves are part of Wash-
ington’s wildlife heritage,
and agency management of
these magnificent animals
should be based on science,
follow the law and allow for
full public input,” Cascadia
Wildlands legal director Nick
Cady said in a written state-
ment.
Fish and Wildlife devel-
oped the protocol through
an informal and expensive
process. The department paid
a consultant, Francine Mad-
den, $8,000 a day to lead
Wolf Advisory Group meet-
ings and coax people with
differing viewpoints into a
consensus.
The policy obligates
ranchers to employ non-le-
thal preventive measures, but
committed wildlife managers
to consider “incremental re-
moval” if the measures fail.
The department adopted the
policy in hopes that interven-
ing after three depredations
within 30 days or four dep-
redations in 10 months will
save livestock and require
shooting fewer wolves to de-
ter attacks.
“We’ll continue to work
with the producer to de-
ploy non-lethal preventive
measures,” Fish and Wild-
life wolf policy coordinator
Donny Martorello said after
Monday’s hearing. “Unfor-
tunately, I would expect con-
flict between livestock and
wolves to continue.”
Fish and Wildlife argued
in court that shooting one
wolf would not damage wolf
recovery in Washington. The
pack has at least two adults
and two pups, maybe more
adults and pups. The depart-
ment said it intended to kill
the male and leave the female
alone to increase the chances
the pups would survive.
Washington culled wolf-
packs in 2012, 2014, 2016
and 2017.
OSU field day highlights mechanical cultivation tools
About 100 attend
inaugural event
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
Until recently, managing
weeds at Gathering Together
Farm meant using cultivation
technology circa the 1950s.
John Yeo, cultivation
manager and agronomist at
the 65-acre certified organic
farm in Philomath, Ore., es-
timates they were spending
$3,000 per month on labor
just to pull weeds. In that
sense, he said investing in
new mechanical equipment
was a no-brainer.
The farm purchased an in-
row weeder earlier this sum-
mer from Kult-Kress Culti-
vation Solutions, which Yeo
was on hand to demonstrate
Thursday during the first me-
chanical cultivation field day
at Oregon State University.
About 100 people attend-
ed the daylong event, host-
ed by the OSU Small Farms
Program. The lineup includ-
ed speakers, vendors and
demonstrations at the univer-
sity’s vegetable research farm
in Corvallis.
Yeo said he was excited to
see the knowledge of culti-
vation being resurrected, and
passed along to the next gen-
eration of farmers.
“That’s the focus of this
workshop,” he said.
Gathering Together Farm
grows more than 300 variet-
ies of 50 different vegetable
crops. But as an organic op-
eration, Yeo said they cannot
use herbicides to treat weeds,
meaning they must rely on
mechanical tools.
Eliminating weeds be-
tween rows of crops is the
“holy grail” of mechanical
George Plaven/Capital Press
Steve Heckeroth, CEO of Solectrac in Albion, Calif., shows the company’s electric eFarmer tractor
during the first mechanical cultivation field day at Oregon State University.
cultivation, Yeo said, and al-
ready the Kult-Kress weed-
er is paying dividends. The
equipment hooks onto his
tractor, raking the soil to dis-
rupt weeds without harming
the vegetable seedlings.
The equipment cost about
$1,000 per row, Yeo said, but
will quickly pay for itself in
labor savings.
“It’s not going to eliminate
it, but it will dramatically re-
duce the amount,” he said.
Clare Sullivan, a small
farms extension agent for
OSU based in Redmond,
helped to organize the field
day with assistance from a
two-year Sustainable Agri-
culture Research and Educa-
tion grant through the USDA.
Mechanical cultivation
has always been a component
of integrated weed manage-
ment, Sullivan said, but with
a decrease in labor and rising
production costs, it is becom-
ing more important for small
and organic farmers to be-
come more efficient.
Sullivan said she hoped
growers would find inspira-
tion at the field day by seeing
firsthand how new equipment
works, and how they can inte-
grate the tools on their farms.
“I’m really hoping they
have some ‘aha!’ moments,
seeing how some of these
tools work in the field,” she
said.
Joe Sutton, chief operating
officer of Sutton Ag Enter-
prises, an equipment dealer
and manufacturer based in
Salinas, Calif., said Europe
is well ahead of the U.S. in
accelerating mechanical res-
toration equipment.
“Their labor problems and
cost of labor is much more
extensive than it is here,”
Sutton said, adding that it
costs as much as $45 per hour
to hand-weed in some parts
of Switzerland. “That’s why
they’re so much more ad-
vanced there.”
Sutton Ag Enterpris-
es builds 30 percent of the
equipment it sells in-house,
while also serving as the sole
U.S. distributor for 15 Euro-
pean companies, such as Ste-
ketee finger weeders out of
the Netherlands.
“It all comes down to la-
bor and saving time,” Sutton
said. “If you can mechanical-
ly treat and save the time, it’s
always going to be a plus.”
Weekly fieldwork report
Ore.
Item/description (Source: USDA, NASS; NOAA)
• Days suitable for fieldwork (As of Aug. 21)
7
• Topsoil moisture, surplus
0
• Topsoil moisture, percent short
89%
• Subsoil moisture, surplus
0
• Subsoil moisture, percent short
85%
• Precipitation probability
33-50% Above
(6-10 day outlook as of Aug. 21)
GREENWAY SEEDS
3
Wash.
Idaho
Calif.
6.3
0
71%
0
65%
6.9
0
69%
0
65%
7
0
70%
0
70%
33-50% Above/
33% Below
Normal
40-50% Above