Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Capital press. (Salem, OR) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 5, 2018)
October 5, 2018 CapitalPress.com 7 Denied pesticide, oyster growers face disaster Farmers to challenge ban on insecticide use By DON JENKINS Capital Press Southwest Washington oyster growers face an eco- nomic emergency after being barred from spraying a pes- ticide into Willapa Bay and Grays Harbor, a Washington State University research sci- entist said Friday. Kim Patten, stationed at WSU’s research station in Long Beach and an ally of the growers, said the neonicoti- noid insecticide imidacloprid was the only practical way growers had to control ghost Don Jenkins/Capital Press Burrowing shrimp, such as this one taken from Willapa Bay, undermine the mud underneath oysters, causing them to sink and suffocate. The Washington De- partment of Ecology has rejected a plan to spray the shrimp. shrimp. The shrimp burrow in tide flats and cause oysters to sink in the mud and suffocate. “I don’t see anything else on the horizon that will work at the level growers consider useful,” Patten said. “One of the real threats is the loss of family farms.” The Washington Depart- ment of Ecology announced Thursday it won’t issue a permit to the Willapa Grays Harbor Oyster Growers As- sociation to spray 500 acres. The department said there was mounting evidence that imida- cloprid would harm such spe- cies as Dungeness crabs and disrupt the food chain for fish and birds. The shellfish industry is the largest private-sector employ- er in Pacific County. A Uni- versity of Washington study found that growers produced $12.2 million worth of oysters in 2013. The growers association, New hop farm touts innovations representing a dozen farmers, said Friday it will appeal Ecol- ogy’s denial to the Pollution Control Hearings Board. The association accused Ecology of bowing to opposi- tion to pesticides and “hiding behind” moves in Europe and Canada to ban imidacloprid over concerns that neonico- tinoids applied to land crops harm bees. “This decision and the gla- cially slow process that pro- duced it were clearly driven by the political winds of the mo- ment,” the association’s pres- ident, Ken Wiegardt, said in a written statement. In 2015, Ecology issued the growers a permit to spray 2,000 acres. The growers abandoned the plan because of activist, consumer and media backlash. The growers scaled back the proposal, but found Ecology less receptive this time. The department noted that the European Union banned imidacloprid in April and Health Canada this month pro- posed phasing it out for agricul- tural use. The Environmental Protection Agency expects to finish reviewing imidacloprid next year. Although imidacloprid is widely used on land, Patten said that as far as he knows imidacloprid has not been used in aquatic applications. It was meant to replace carbaryl, which growers gave up in 2013 after using for 50 years. Registering imidacloprid to spray in water took a decade, Patten said. “When we started this process, this chemical did Boise National Forest slates fall prescribed burns By BRAD CARLSON Capital Press By DAN WHEAT Capital Press Dan Wheat/Capital Press The new Dauenhauer picking machine at Wenas Hop Co., Yakima, Wash., where hop cones are separated from vines. themselves from the heat.” Hops are cooled on concrete floors in U.S. systems, some of which have ambient air tubes underneath the floors to aid in cooling. The German system allows a mix of ambient air, air returning from cooling boxes and air from the heating units, all of which can be humidified. “We customize the air for that right mix for optimum qual- ity,” McGree said. The only other farms in the U.S. with such German kilns and conditioning systems are in Yakima, Idaho and Michigan, he said. Wenas Hop Company has a new but standard Dauen- hauer picking machine, separat- ing cones from vines in a build- ing separate from the drying and cooling. The company has 15 year- round workers and with season- al workers rises to 100 employ- ees for spring planting, training and stringing of trellis. It’s at 55 employees during fall harvest. About two-thirds of the workforce are H-2A-visa for- eign guestworkers. “Labor is short and being out here we’re on the edge of where people look for work,” McGree said. “We’re the only hop farm out here in Wenas Valley and the neighbors are still getting used to us. “This facility operates at a very high level of performance because of a group of very tal- ented people from owners to management,” McGree added. “We think the future is bright. We wouldn’t have built this company otherwise.” 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 Grass Expertise. LET’S TALK! 40-3/100 P.O Box 365 • 101 Industrial Way, Lebanon, OR 97355 The Boise National Forest in October plans prescribed burns in 13 areas totaling about 2,600 acres to reduce fire-fueling vegetation and improve wildlife habitat. The burns will be on Boi- se National Forest land, BNF spokeswoman Stephaney Kerley said. Burns are slated through November. Access to areas within or adjacent to burn operations may be restricted temporarily for public safety. Prescribed fires can burn out understory vegetation and brush. BNF planned fall pre- scribed burns include these ranger districts: Idaho City Alder Ridge (100 acres): Horsethief (360 acres): About one mile east-north- east of Horsethief Reservoir. Westside Restoration Unit 39 (25 acres): On Na- tional Forest System Road 435 along West Mountain about 10 miles west of Cas- cade, Idaho. Crawford (100 acres): About 4 miles east of Cas- Cottonwood II Rx (1,000 acres): About 17 miles north- east of Boise along NFS roads 203 and 377 in Cotton- wood Creek drainage north of Arrowrock Reservoir. Emmett Administrative piles: 1 to 2 acres at Garden Valley work center. For more information and to apply for this job Please visit http://apply.gkmachine.com HR direct line 503-776-9402 39-2-3/106 40-2/108 Pacific Building Systems is a pre-engineered metal building manufacturer based in Woodburn, Oregon. Our growing organization is seeking a metal building sales account executive that can be responsible for professionally representing the performance, service, sales, and marketing functions for all of the products and services that PBS provides. Qualifications and Skills MUST HAVE AGRICULTURE SALES EXPERIENCE IN THE WILLAMETTE VALLEY AREA • A minimum of 2 years experience in agriculture sales or equivalent. • Knowledge in construction or related field, with a minimum of 2 years experience is preferred. • Must be proficient in the use of computers and a variety of software programs. • Excellent communication and listening skills are required to work efficiently with all levels of staff and customers. To apply email resume to: sandyt@pbsbuildings.com Mountain Home 1. Primary Purpose Working as an integral part of our Counter Sales team you will perform a variety of customer service duties related to part sales, service and repair. 2. Essential Duties and Responsibilities • Maintain customer goodwill by greeting and acknowledging all customers • Assist customers in choosing the appropriate parts, service and repairs • Accurately record all sales and service transactions • Assist in keeping parts department clean and orderly • Supply service technicians with parts as required • Manage inventory and stock levels GK Machine offers a complete benefits package; including: • Competitive base pay • Medical, dental, vision, life, accident, and disability insurance • $10,000 paid life insurance policy for each employee • 401K Savings Plan • Flexible Spending and Dependent Care Accounts • 7 paid Company Holidays • Competitive paid time off (PTO) GREENWAY SEEDS Seedsman Cascade Full Time ~ Day Shift ~ Salary D.O.E. 2 years’ experience preferred ~ Ag/Farm Experience a Plus Over 40 Years Experience Alan Greenway, cade, off NFS Road 22 adja- cent to Crawford Guard Sta- tion and northeast of Davis reservoir. Lower Johnson Thinning (95 acres): About seven miles south of Yellow Pine, Idaho. Yellow Pine Blowdown (40 acres): About 62 miles from Cascade and adjacent to Yellow Pine. Rainbow Point (19 acres): About 25 miles northwest of Cascade. SALES / CUSTOMER SERVICE DORMANT SEED YOUR PASTURE GRASS IN NOVEMBER. YOU WILL HAVE FAR LESS WEEDS IN THE SPRING. Caldwell, Idaho • Alan Greenway, Seedsman Cell: 298-259-9159 • MSG: 298-454-8342 One mile north of Placer- ville, Idaho. Amber (300 acres): Two miles east of Idaho City, Ida- ho. Buckskin (200 acres): About three miles east of Idaho City. Little Ophir (100 acres): Four miles west of Pioneer- ville, Idaho. Mores South-Granite Creek (250 acres): Three miles east of Idaho City. Our innovative Industrial & Agricultural Manufacturing Company is seeking new employees in our Parts Department 38-4-3/106 YAKIMA, Wash. — Harvest is wrapping up in the nation’s largest hop region, the Yakima Valley, as it is for the area’s new- est player a dozen miles to the north. Wenas Hop Company is finishing its third harvest in the Wenas Valley, north of Selah, where hops hadn’t been grown for 50 years. It had been hay fields and was where large, contiguous parcels of land could be found, says Mike McGree, co-owner and manager of the 530-acre farm. It’s the northern-most hop farm in the state, he believes. Anheuser-Busch has long operated a much larger farm farther north near Bonners Fer- ry, Idaho, and there are several small farms in British Columbia. But the most notable things about Wenas Hop Company are hop yards and facilities that are all new. It also has only the fourth German-designed and -built kiln and cooling systems in the U.S., making it more efficient and more consistent in producing high-quality product, McGree said. “We’ve built this as a multi-generational company and despite vagaries of the mar- ket we’re doing this for the long term,” he said. McGree, Eric Desmarais and brothers Mike, Dave and Dennis Richardson, longtime friends, began growing hops together in 2008 to benefit St. Joseph-Marquette Catholic School in Yakima. Over seven years they raised $1 million for the school. Desmarais, a hop grower for more than 40 years, still has a separate farm, CLS Farms in Moxee. McGree had been in management for another hop company for 15 years. The Richardson brothers entered new ventures after selling their trucking business and “bring a significant amount of business acumen,” McGree said. “In 2015, the St. Joe’s thing had been a success and we all sat down and market prices at that point were at a place where we could very responsibly do what we’ve done,” McGree said. They formed the company that year, investing more than $5 million, and harvested their first crop in 2016. “We are in excess of 1 mil- lion pounds (in annual produc- tion). If the market is strong, we intend to grow with the market,” McGree said. The system, designed and built by Wolf Manufacturing, Wolnzach, Germany, has two, 7-by-7-meter kilns, each rising vertically through three floors. The kilns are heated by propane burners. U.S. kilns are horizontal, taking more space and requiring more heaters. “We can dry the same amount of hops with about two- thirds of the propane of a U.S. facility,” McGree said. “That’s the biggest of our efficiencies.” The other big feature is wood conditioning boxes, where cones cool after they come out of 100-plus degrees in the kilns. “The conditioning boxes are the secret sauce that give a very consistent and high-qual- ity hop,” McGree said. “Big commercial air mixers provide just the right type of air the hops need to rest and rejuvenate not have a bad rap,” he said. Ghost shrimp and mud shrimp are native species col- lectively called burrowing shrimp. A parasite has sharply reduced the West Coast pop- ulation of mud shrimp. Ghost shrimp are not affected by the parasite. Patten said the number of ghost shrimp is growing dra- matically in Willapa Bay. The shrimp are particularly trouble- some in the bay because of the number of oysters grown there. “Everybody has lost ground in Willapa Bay,” he said. Patten has experimented with crushing and blasting out the shrimp, which burrow a three feet below the surface. Nothing practical enough to use for an entire farm has emerged, he said. 40-2-4/HOU
