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CapitalPress.com
Friday, August 30, 2019
Hemp boom spurs cross-pollination disputes
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
Mateusz Perkowski/Capital Press File
The state’s burgeoning hemp
industry has led to disputes among
growers about unwanted cross-
pollination.
the male plants from the females once
they begin to flower, said Barry Cook,
founder of the Boring Hemp Co. in Bor-
ing, Ore.
Growing seed traditionally, with-
out the feminization technique, is eas-
ier for breeders, but some farmers plant
the mixed seed without considering the
impact on neighbors, he said.
However, if a market develops in
Oregon for hemp fiber and oilseeds —
used for crushing rather than planting
— farmers will have to plant both males
and females out of necessity, Cook said.
“I think it could potentially complicate
things.”
While growers can pay a great deal
of attention to individual plants to max-
imize CBD in female flowers, it’s tough
to apply the same level of scrutiny to
large fields of hemp, said Jay Noller,
hemp leader at Oregon State University.
“It’s a scale issue,” he said.
In Oregon, there is a valuable market
for smokable hemp flower that’s com-
pletely seed-free and has made some
growers particularly cautious about
exposure to pollen in recent years, said
Cook. “That’s where you’re probably
seeing more of the pressure coming.”
WSU’s AgWeatherNet reorganizes
networks in
Oklahoma,
Brown said.
C r a i g
Oswald
became
the
new
Craig
field mete-
orologist in
Oswald
Prosser on
Aug. 15. He has a master’s
degree in operational fore-
casting from the Univer-
sity of Wisconsin-Madison
and worked for a private
weather company in Utah.
He will interpret forecasts
and forecast models for spe-
cific crops and locations.
A third field meteorolo-
gist, yet to be hired, will be
stationed in Wenatchee.
“Our big focus is pro-
viding better site-specific
weather data and forecasts
and feeding this into our
models and into the Deci-
sion Aid System and any
other support tools growers
might want to use,” Brown
said.
The WSU Decision Aid
System uses current and
historic weather data from
AgWeatherNet for insect
and disease models to help
growers know when to com-
bat pests and diseases.
The 174 stations moni-
tor air temperature, relative
humidity, dew point tem-
peratures, soil temperatures
at 8 inches, rainfall, wind
speed, wind direction, solar
radiation and leaf wetness.
Variables are recorded every
5 seconds
and summa-
rized every
15
min-
utes, provid-
ing a run-
ning record
Jonathan of weather
Contezac a f f e c t i n g
agriculture.
Growers want greater site
specific information. With
improvements in technol-
ogy, stations can be built
for $2,000 and maintained
for $1,000 per year versus
$8,000 and $2,000 in the
past, Brown said.
Growers,
companies,
conservation districts and
others have built an addi-
tional 13 stations for which
AgWeatherNet is managing
data and sending the owners
weather alerts.
“Because of topogra-
phy, this state has complex
weather patterns. Ideally, we
would like to have 500 sta-
tions to give us the resolu-
tion we need,” Brown said.
AgWeatherNet will job
shadow Clearwest Inc., an
agricultural weather fore-
cast company in Wenatchee,
for a year to take over the
service when Clearwest
principals retire, Brown
said.
Run by two retired
National Weather Ser-
vice meteorologists, Clear-
west specializes in forecasts
through the spring frost sea-
son for tree fruit and wine-
grape growers.
‘Adjacent’ aquifers debated
before Court of Appeals
Several Klamath
irrigators
challenge state
regulatory policy
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
Several Klamath Basin
irrigators want the Oregon
Court of Appeals to curtail
water regulators’ authority
to shut down groundwa-
ter pumping from aquifers
that aren’t immediately
next to surface waters.
A three-judge panel
of the appellate court
heard oral arguments in
Salem Aug. 21 that cen-
tered on the Oregon Water
Resources Department’s
interpretation of the word
“adjacent” in this context.
Sarah Liljefelt, attor-
ney for the irrigators,
argued OWRD shouldn’t
have “regulated off” their
four wells to preserve
water in the Sprague River
because they don’t tap into
a groundwater source next
to it.
Under
the
“prior
appropriations” doctrine
of Western water law,
“senior” irrigators with
older water rights can pro-
tect their access to water by
asking regulators to shut
down diversions or pump-
ing by “junior” irrigators.
None of the wells in
question rely on the allu-
vial aquifer alongside the
river and instead depend on
deeper sources of ground-
water, so they shouldn’t
have been required to stop
pumping, the irrigators
argued.
“The water my client is
drawing water from is not
adjacent to the Sprague
River,” Liljefelt said.
The OWRD has com-
mitted a legal error by
adopting a broad under-
standing of the term “adja-
cent” that encompasses
more distant aquifers than
the one immediately bor-
dering the river, the irriga-
tors argue.
“My clients’ argument
is the regulation means
what it says,” Liljefelt said.
The irrigators also con-
tend that OWRD didn’t
account for the limited
ability of groundwater to
pass through the stream
bed
when
analyzing
whether the wells affected
flows in the Sprague River.
In other words, the
agency didn’t base its deci-
sion to shut down pumping
on substantial evidence, as
required by Oregon water
regulations, the irrigators
claim.
“What we’ve argued
is the Oregon Water
Resources
Department
omitted an entire factor
LEGAL
CHERRY AVENUE
STORAGE
31-5-1/103
PULLMAN, Wash. —
Washington State Uni-
versity’s
AgWeatherNet
is reorganizing with new
staff and more weather sta-
tions after a year with no
meteorologist.
Nicholas Loyd left
that position, based at the
WSU Irrigated Agricul-
ture Research and Exten-
sion Center in Prosser, last
August to take a job with
the state Department of
Ecology.
AgWeatherNet is a net-
work of 174 automated agri-
cultural weather stations in
Washington providing cur-
rent and historical weather
data and a range of models
and decision aids for farm-
ers. It normally operates on
an $800,000 annual budget
with 8.5 staff positions but
currently is at 6.5.
No one took Loyd’s place
doing data quality control
and meteorology extension
for a year. David Brown,
55, associate professor of
soil science,
became
A g We a t h -
erNet direc-
tor
last
November.
“I came
David
in after Nic
Brown
was gone.
The whole
weather world was chang-
ing and we needed different
expertise and more meteo-
rological and data syncing,”
Brown said.
He reorganized staff
positions from one meteo-
rologist, two field techni-
cians and one lab engineer
into three field meteo-
rologists. The three will
increase collaboration with
WSU researchers in their
locales and handle main-
tenance of the 174 stations
that field techs had done.
One of the field techs,
Jonathan Contezac, became
field meteorologist in Mt.
Vernon on Aug. 1. Instru-
ment calibration is his
expertise, and he previ-
ously worked for one of the
nation’s best state weather
35-4/101
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
Mateusz Perkowski/Capital Press
The Oregon Supreme Court building in Salem,
Ore., where the state’s Court of Appeals heard oral
arguments Aug. 21 over shutting down groundwater
pumping in aquifers “adjacent” to surface waters.
2680 Cherry Ave. NE
Salem, OR 97301
(503) 399-7454
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34-2-1/999
A heightened emphasis on seed-
free flowers in Oregon’s hemp industry,
combined with booming crop acreage,
is causing legal conflicts among grow-
ers over cross-pollination.
The industry’s focus on generating
cannabidiol — a compound known as
CBD touted for its healthful qualities
— has fueled demand for female hemp
flowers, which generate the substance in
greater abundance.
Male flowers, meanwhile, not only
contain less CBD but their presence
can degrade the quality of female flow-
ers if they become pollinated and prior-
itize growing seeds over producing the
compound.
For that reason, inadvertent polli-
nation of hemp crops between neigh-
bors has spurred litigation alleging large
financial losses from drifting pollen.
“You have the right to farm, but you
don’t have the right to destroy your
neighbor’s opportunities,” said Seth
Crawford, whose Jack Hempicine seed
company is pursuing a lawsuit accus-
ing nearby hemp growers of negligence,
nuisance and trespass for pollination
from a mixed crop of male and female
plants.
Such disputes are partly the result of
the hemp industry’s surging growth in
Oregon, where production has increased
from 100 acres to more than 60,000
acres in five years. A huge spike in acre-
age corresponds with a rush to make
seeds available.
“The number of seed vendors that
have popped up because they see money
is incredible,” said Crawford.
In some cases, people who aren’t
actually hemp breeders have misrep-
resented their seeds as “feminized” —
capable of only sprouting female plants
— even though they weren’t grown with
that technique, said Courtney Moran, an
attorney and president of the Oregon
Industrial Hemp Farmers Association.
“There are males popping up in fields
that people weren’t prepared for,” she
said.
Only non-feminized seed is avail-
able for some strains of hemp, but grow-
ers can then “rogue out,” or eliminate,
Eventually, farmers in Oregon may
decide that increasing efficiency and
yields with mixed male-female fields is
worthwhile, even if it does reduce the
flower’s CBD content, said Jerry Nor-
ton, founder of American Hemp Seed
Genetics, based in Portland, Ore.
“If you chop it all up anyway, what’s
the difference?” he said.
For now, though, the industry’s focus
on seed-free flower means that farmers
should be careful to acquire their genet-
ics from reputable dealers, Norton said.
“It’s really buyer beware. Who are you
getting your seed from, and what are
they telling you?”
Even when growers are careful to
use feminized seed, an occasional hemp
plant will emerge with male flowers that
generate pollen and result in unwanted
seeds, said Crawford of Jack Hempicine.
The solution is for growers to walk
their fields with a trained eye to weed
out the males that may spring up, he
said.
To protect against unscrupulous deal-
ers, growers also want to eventually rely
on OSU-certified seed to ensure they’re
getting what they paid for, he said.
Crawford is also involved in a non-
profit organization, the Oregon Canna-
bis Pinning Association, that’s devising
a pinning map to help maintain isolation
distances between hemp fields and pre-
vent cross-pollination.
“We’re trying to provide it as a way
to initiate conversation between farm-
ers, because that is the only way this is
going to work,” Crawford said.
A new company, Willamette Valley
Assured, is providing an inspection ser-
vice to find and remove male flowers
from within hemp fields.
“Seeing this rapid increase, we know
there’s a need for a third-party quality
control service,” said Mike Baker, the
company’s founder and an executive at
the Pennington grass seed company.
The company’s business model fol-
lows that of similar firms in the grass
seed industry, which commonly relies
on third party services to monitor and
place acres, Baker said.
As the company becomes aware of
hemp fields, it can also coordinate such
information among farmers to ensure
quality, he said.
“It’s all rapidly developing,” Baker
said of the hemp industry. “These new
opportunities don’t come around very
often.”
from their modeling,” said
Liljefelt.
The OWRD countered
that its interpretation of
“adjacent” is plausible and
entitled to deference in
court, since the water can
move between the irriga-
tors’ groundwater sources
and the Sprague River.
The definition of “adja-
cent” isn’t limited to “next
to,” and can include “not
distant,” “relatively near,”
and “close to, but not nec-
essarily touching,” accord-
ing to OWRD.
A well within a mile of a
river is assumed to be adja-
cent for regulatory pur-
poses, though even more
distant aquifers are poten-
tially connected to surface
flows, said Inge Wells,
attorney for the agency.
Beyond one mile, how-
ever, “the impact isn’t sig-
nificant enough to be worth
regulating,” she said.
Several irrigation dis-
tricts in the region inter-
vened in the case to support
the OWRD’s understand-
ing of “adjacent,” argu-
ing the narrower defini-
tion ignores scientific data
about water movement and
would harm senior water
rights.
“It is the prior appropri-
ations system in action,”
said Richard Deitchman,
attorney for the interven-
ing irrigation districts.
As for the model
OWRD used to support
the decision to “regulate
off” the wells, the calcula-
tions were reasonable and
relied on the best available
information at the time, the
agency said.
Aside from questions
of water law, the judges
also face another compli-
cation involving regula-
tory changes in the Klam-
ath Basin.
The litigation involves
wells that were shut down
in 2016, which would
ordinarily render a case
moot unless the situation
is capable of repetition and
likely to evade review.
Since the irrigators chal-
lenged the OWRD’s deci-
sions in court, however, the
agency has adopted new
groundwater rules that will
expire in 2021.
For that reason, the
judges debated whether
it’s worthwhile for them
to still weigh in on the
dispute.
The OWRD argued that
the modeling controversy
was moot but the defini-
tion of “adjacent” was still
worth reviewing.
Liljefelt,
attorney
for the irrigators, said
both questions are worth
reviewing because OWRD
will revert to its previ-
ous rules in 2021 unless
they’re first replaced by
newer regulations.
At this point, though,
it’s uncertain the agency
will adopt newer rules,
she said. “It’s a hypothet-
ical inquiry about what the
department may or may
not do.”
LEGAL
Pursuant to ORS
Chapter 87
Notice is hereby given that the
following vehicle will be sold, for
cash, to the highest bidder, on 9/12/
2019. The sale will be held at
10:00am by
A-1 TRANSMISSION
3653 SILVERTON RD. NE SALEM, OR
1999 FORD F 250 CW VIN =
1FTNW21F8XEB87861
Amount due on lien $5092.00
Reputed owner(s)
DREW CLINTON COOPER
DUSTIN SULLENGER
35-2-1/999
New industry contends with
unwanted pollen in fields