September 21, 2018
CapitalPress.com
7
Oregon farmers aim to clean up ditch regulations New PNW
Legislative work
group plans to
introduce bill in
2019 session
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
Cleaning out seven miles
of ditches isn’t the most en-
joyable task on John Scharf’s
farm, but it’s not one that can
be neglected without conse-
quence.
Unless silt is removed
from the ditches on a roll-
ing basis, they’d eventually
fill with dirt. Even before
then, the tile lines that drain
his fields near Amity, Ore.,
would clog and water would
“blow out” holes in the
ground that are hazardous
for machinery.
“We don’t do it any more
than we have to because it’s
expensive, but it’s part of
farming,” Sharf said. “We do
it annually any year we can
afford it, because if you put
it off, it gets worse.”
Scharf recently spoke at
a legislative work group,
which is looking at introduc-
ing a bill to streamline regu-
lations for ditch cleaning in
2019.
Mateusz Perkowski/Capital Press
Farmer John Scharf explains the drainage of tile lines from his
fields near Amity, Ore., into a ditch. Ditch cleaning is complicated
in Oregon by a removal limit of 50 cubic yards of material per year
from designated wetlands.
The problem is that un-
der Oregon law, Scharf and
other growers are limited to
removing 50 cubic yards of
material from ditches in ar-
eas that have been designated
wetlands.
In effect, that cap prevents
Scharf from cleaning out
all the silt that’s necessary,
meaning the backlog of accu-
mulated dirt keeps mounting.
“I don’t want to jeopardize
my tile lines,” he said. “If the
outlet is plugged, you’ve got
a problem.”
While the Department of
State Lands, which regulates
wetlands, ostensibly allows
for the maintenance of ag-
ricultural drainage ditches,
many are considered “chan-
nelized streams” that fall
under the agency’s jurisdic-
tion, said Mary Anne Cooper,
public policy counsel for the
Oregon Farm Bureau.
If those channelized
streams are judged to con-
tain “essential salmonid hab-
itat,” even removing 50 cubic
yards a year requires a permit
from DSL, she said.
In recent years, the Farm
Bureau has noticed an up-
tick of enforcement activities
by DSL over ditch mainte-
nance — in one case, pulling
blackberries was considered
removing vegetation from a
waterway, Cooper said.
The increase seems to
mostly stem from com-
plaints by neighbors or other
state agencies, she said.
Farmers who want to
remove more than 50 cubic
yards while avoiding regu-
latory problems can apply
for a “general permit” from
DSL to work in a waterway,
Cooper said. Even then,
they’re currently limited to
100 cubic yards of materi-
al, which often “does not
scratch the surface” of nec-
essary maintenance.
Removing more than 100
cubic yards would require an
“individual permit” from the
agency, which involves no-
tifying the U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers, the Oregon De-
partment of Fish and Wildlife
and clearing steep regulatory
hurdles, she said.
“An individual permit is
an incredibly complicated
process to go through,” Coo-
per said.
Scharf is conducting a
“pilot project” to demon-
strate to DSL that more than
100 cubic yards can safely
be removed from ditches in
the late summer or early fall,
but the Farm Bureau hopes
to obtain broader relief
during next year’s legislative
session.
Eric Metz, planning and
policy manager for DSL,
said the agency is mandat-
ed by law to protect the wa-
ters of the state, so it tries to
avoid, minimize or mitigate
work in waterways.
“When we roll it out by
the letter, it’s very awkward”
when applying permit re-
quirements for ditch clean-
ing, he said during an Aug.
28 meeting of the legislative
work group in Salem, Ore.
The agency feels it’s do-
ing a good job following the
letter of the law but it’s not
aiming to interfere with farm
operations, Metz said. “But
we also know there are fish
in those ditches, so there’s
the dilemma.”
During the meeting,
Cooper of the Farm Bureau
pointed out that ditch main-
tenance never occurs in wet
conditions and there are en-
vironmental benefits to the
work.
Growers have been keep-
ing ditches functional for
about 100 years, preventing
them from filling up, she
said. “That habitat won’t ex-
ist if we don’t resolve these
issues.”
Nurseries eye e-commerce opportunities
Buying plants
online is expected
to be increasingly
common
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
Mateusz Perkowski/Capital Press
Nursery industry professionals recently gathered at the Farwest Show in Portland, Ore., to learn about trends in the business. The
possibility of using e-commerce to reach consumers was discussed at the event.
If consumers choose to
pay for a direct delivery,
rather than pickup at a retail-
ers, that’s an also option for
most plants.
While venture capital or
private equity firms would
expect to quickly reap a high
return on such a investment,
Bower & Branch instead
relies on companies experi-
enced with the seasonality
and other vagaries of selling
nursery stock, Raisch said.
“It’s an effort within the
industry to create this, as op-
posed to outsiders from other
industries,” he said.
Ornamental plants pose
unique challenges for e-com-
merce because the product is
highly perishable — requir-
ing regular light and water
— and prone to losing its
blooms and other quality
markers during transport,
said Robin Cross, an agricul-
tural economist who’s stud-
ied the nursery industry.
“You can’t store them in
an Amazon warehouse for
three months in a box, then
ship them,” Cross said.
Using the traditional
“nursery to garden center”
distribution method would
seem to solve this problem,
though retailers such as Am-
azon have made inroads with
smaller, easily shippable
plants such as cactuses, he
said.
Pulling individual orders
for online buyers may be
challenging for growers, but
the problem would be mit-
igated as they build scale,
Cross said.
The nursery industry is
also highly adaptable and
flexible in assembling orders,
with some companies pulling
from as many as 2,700 differ-
ent varieties, he said.
Bower & Branch pays
growers more for putting to-
gether complicated orders
and has also developed a way
for them to deal with smaller
orders, Raisch said. “We help
them with that because we’ve
been through that before.”
Raisch said nursery pro-
ducers shouldn’t think they
“have to” get involved in
e-commerce, but rather that
they “get to” take advantage
of a new opportunity.
“The greatest cost is not
having a sale,” he said.
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
The U.S. Forest Service
has named a new regional for-
ester for the Pacific Northwest
covering Oregon and Wash-
ington.
Glenn Casamassa, a long-
time Forest Service employ-
ee and former supervisor of
the Arapaho and Roosevelt
national forests and the Paw-
nee National Grassland in
Colorado, took over Sept. 17
at the Port-
land office. He
succeeds Jim
Pena, who re-
tired July 3.
Casamassa
is a 30-year
veteran of the
Glenn
Forest Service.
As the region- Casamassa
al forester, he
will oversee 16 national for-
ests, two national scenic areas,
the Crooked River National
Grassland in Oregon and two
national volcanic monuments.
In a statement released by
the Forest Service, Casamassa
said he is committed to work-
ing with agency employees,
tribes and local communities
to share stewardship of public
lands across the two states.
“Being good neighbors and
setting a standard of excel-
lence for public and customer
service are priorities for the
region in working alongside
the people who care for, val-
ue, and depend upon these
lands,” he said.
Casamassa earned his
bachelor’s degree in for-
est ecology from Utah State
University, and completed
post-graduate work in log-
ging system engineering at
the Oregon State Universi-
ty College of Forestry. He
began his career as a for-
estry technician, working
as a seasonal firefighter on
the Tonto National Forest in
Arizona.
Casamassa landed his
first permanent job in the
Tongass National Forest in
Alaska, and from there went
to work on the Wasatch-
Cache National Forest in
Utah. He has also served as
district ranger of the Moab
and Monticello ranger dis-
tricts on the Manti-La Sal
National Forest, and was the
regional environmental coor-
dinator for the Forest Service
Intermountain Region, span-
ning portions of Utah, Col-
orado, Wyoming, Idaho and
Nevada.
Casamassa also worked as
a legislative affairs specialist
in Washington, D.C., head-
quarters. Forest Service Inter-
im Chief Vicki Christiansen
said Casamassa has played a
leading role in reforming reg-
ulations at the national level,
and brings with him “tremen-
dous land management and
conservation leadership expe-
riences.”
FLAT CARS- THE BETTER BRIDGE
• Lower Cost • Custom Lengths up to 90’
• Certified Engineering Services Available
• Steel Construction
Contractor
License # 71943
Office: 541-451-1275
Email: info@rfc-nw.com
www.rfc-nw.com
38-1/100
P.O Box 365 • 101 Industrial Way, Lebanon, OR 97355
WE SPECIALIZE IN BULK BAGS!
Pre-order your Baumalight generator now for delivery in 8 weeks and get an 8% discount.
.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
ELLIS EQUIPMENT 800-949-2336
37-3-4/102
PORTLAND — As Tom
Fessler thought about the fu-
ture of his family’s nursery,
he couldn’t help but notice
the growing importance of
e-commerce to the overall re-
tail industry.
“The mil-
lennial gen-
eration, that’s
how they buy
things, so we
want to get a
hold of them,”
said Fessler,
Sid
co-owner of
Raisch
Wo o d b u r n
Nursery
&
Azaleas in Woodburn, Ore.
Earlier this year, the nurs-
ery agreed to become one of
five wholesale suppliers to
Bower & Branch, an online
seller of nursery stock.
Fessler said he expects
the site to be a long-term
investment for his family’s
company and doesn’t have
“grandiose ideas” about an
immediate sales surge, but
would be satisfied if Bower
& Branch eventually gener-
ated 10 percent of its reve-
nues.
“I don’t think it’s going to
eliminate garden centers,” he
said. “I think it’s going to be
in addition to that.”
About 85 garden centers
have signed up as members
of Bower & Branch, serving
as the “last mile provider” of
care for plants before they’re
picked up by customers, said
Sid Raisch, the company’s
president and CEO.
The arrangement earns
retailers a commission while
increasing the selection of
plants they offer without
saddling them with a larg-
er unsold inventory, said
Raisch, who recently gave
a presentation on the topic
at the Farwest Show in Port-
land, Ore.
Bower & Branch has
found that roughly 50 per-
cent of its sales come during
hours that garden centers ar-
en’t typically open, showing
there’s a demand for e-com-
merce in nursery stock, he
said.
“People are now expect-
ing to buy that way, and
that’s a big driver,” Raisch
said. “Our industry cannot
hold back people’s desire to
buy that way.”
The company aims to ex-
pand its decentralized “sup-
ply and distribution model”
— under which its trucks de-
liver online orders to garden
centers for pick-up — to ad-
ditional retailers and whole-
sale suppliers, he said.
regional
forester
announced
BAGS:
• Seed Bags
• Fertilizer Bags
• Feed Bags
• Potato Bags
• Printed Bags
• Plain Bags
• Bulk Bags
• Totes
• Woven Polypropylene
• Bopp
• Polyethylene
• Pocket Bags
• Roll Stock & More!
HAY PRESS SUPPORT:
• Hay Sleeves
• Strap
• Totes
• Printed or Plain
• Stretch Film
(ALL GAUGES)
WAREHOUSE
PACKAGING:
• Stretch Film
• Pallet Sheets
• Pallet Covers
LOCATIONS:
Albany, Oregon (MAIN OFFICE)
Ellensburg, Washington
CONTACT INFORMATION:
Phone: 855-928-3856
Fax: 541-497-6262
info@westernpackaging.com
.......................................................
CUSTOMER SERVICE
IS OUR TOP PRIORITY!
w w w. w e s t e r n p a c k a g i n g. c o m
38-1/100