Friday, January 8, 2021
CapitalPress.com 7
Sue Naumes: A lifelong love of fruit
By SIERRA DAWN MCCLAIN
Capital Press
MEDFORD, Ore. —
Inside a southern Oregon
farmhouse, there are pears
everywhere: a giant, pear-
shaped ceiling light, pear-
print wallpaper and a den
dedicated to vintage pear
labels.
This Medford home
belongs to Sue Naumes, 72,
a retired grower who helped
manage one of the West’s
largest pear companies, Nau-
mes Inc., for decades. The
company was co-founded by
her father, Joe Naumes, in
1946.
“Sue’s been hugely
involved in the ag commu-
nity. She really only got out
of the business because she
had four hip replacements,
and walking over dirt clods
in orchards got too tough,”
said Mike Naumes, Sue’s
brother.
Sue Naumes represents
something true of many
One of Naumes’ most
treasured labels
Sierra Dawn McClain/Capital Press
Sue Naumes flips through one of her binders of original
fruit labels. Naumes has bookshelves filled with dozens
of binders.
farmers: Even when retire-
ment begins, the love of agri-
culture doesn’t end.
Naumes has served on
numerous boards and com-
mittees including the Med-
ford
Irrigation
District
Board, Rogue Basin Water
Users Council Board, Car-
penter Foundation, Walker
Advisory Committee and
Rotary Foundation.
Naumes’ lifelong love of
farming is also evident in
her hobby: collecting vintage
fruit labels, some worth thou-
sands of dollars.
Naumes recalls “grub-
bing around trees” starting at
five years old, but she didn’t
always plan to be a farmer.
She studied political sci-
ence at Santa Clara Univer-
sity, completed law school
at Willamette University and
passed the bar. But the law
didn’t have her heart.
“So I came back to the
family business. It was
something I always loved,”
she said.
In her mid-20s, she
jumped into management at
Naumes Inc. The next few
decades, Naumes managed
crews of 400 to 500 people at
a time in orchards, packing-
houses and juice concentrate
plants.
Her brother, Mike, said
she was the first woman in
many of those positions —
including first female pres-
ident of the Oregon State
Horticultural Society.
“I loved it all,” she said.
She said she enjoyed
problem-solving, working
outside, the variety and the
people.
Then her hip problems
caught up with her, forcing
her to retire in her late 50s.
But that didn’t squelch
Naumes’ passion for farming.
Her den, filled with orig-
inal fruit labels, is evidence
of this.
Naumes recalls that when
she was little, her dad took
her to a packinghouse where
machines painted labels
directly onto fruit boxes.
Decades later, she met a
packinghouse manager who
collected apple labels, further
piquing her interest.
“I got bit by the bug,” she
said.
Naumes has now col-
lected some 6,000 pear and
apple labels. Her favorites,
she says, are early 20th-cen-
tury first edition designs.
Many are stone lithographs.
Naumes trades labels
with the 30-some other col-
lectors in the West; she once
traded around 100 labels in
exchange for one.
“When I got some of those
rare labels I’d been wanting
a long time, I felt like: ‘I’ve
arrived. I can say I’m a real
collector,’” she said, smiling.
Naumes said she loves
“the hunt” — driving thou-
sands of miles, stopping at
orchards, knocking on farm-
ers’ doors and asking if she
can root around in their barns
for old labels. She said she
has made friends with many
growers.
Naumes recently donated
her apple label collection to
Santa Clara University, but
she keeps her pear collection
and uses the labels to educate
the community about the
history of farming.
More work set on Owyhee Reservoir ‘glory hole’
By BRAD CARLSON
Capital Press
Concrete work on the Owyhee Res-
ervoir’s spillway-regulating ring gate,
or “glory hole,” is expected to enter its
second phase in late 2021.
A concrete structure near south-
eastern Oregon’s Owyhee Dam
houses a steel ring 60 feet in diame-
ter and weighing more than a ton. Dif-
ferential valves are used to float or
sink the ring. Sinking it increases out-
flows through three release points in
the dam.
The system’s seals were refur-
bished about a decade ago.
“We learned some things we prob-
ably can improve on next time,”
Owyhee Irrigation District Project
Manager Jay Chamberlin said.
The nearly 89-year-old district
supplies irrigation water to more than
167,000 acres near Adrian, Nyssa
and Ontario, Ore. Phased improve-
ments to the ring gate housing’s exte-
rior concrete will increase durabil-
ity and better protect the internal
structure.
Crews from mid-October to
mid-December built access infra-
structure, restored and added rein-
forcement bars, and dismantled and
replaced a roughly 40-foot section of
concrete crest around the ring gate.
Chamberlin said the district expects
EO Media Group File
Combines harvest soft white wheat in a field north of
Helix, Ore. Wheat prices have increased in recent weeks.
Bureau of Reclamation
The “glory hole” at the Owyhee Reservoir funnels excess water into the
spillway and into the river below the dam.
costs, still being tallied, to be between
$30,000 and $40,000.
He said the project took about three
times longer than expected due to
challenging prep work, weather delays
and coronavirus-related worker short-
ages. Most of the concrete was placed
and finished by hand because access
was difficult.
“The first (phase) was very diffi-
cult,” Chamberlin said. “It went lon-
ger than anticipated because of the
unknowns. But the finished product,
we were very pleased with.”
He said work on the second phase
is expected to start around Nov. 1,
depending on weather and reservoir
levels. Five phases are planned.
Chamberlin said the district plans
to buy a concrete pump, concrete saw
and other equipment to increase effi-
ciency and, ideally, improve a longer
segment in 2021. A total cost of less
than $50,000 is anticipated.
New York judge blocks Trump pesticide rule
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
A federal judge in New York City
has resurrected an Obama administra-
tion rule requiring farmers to enforce a
100-foot halo around pesticide applica-
tions, even if the halo extends outside
the farm.
U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman
ruled Dec. 29 that the Trump adminis-
tration didn’t satisfactorily explain why
it discarded the Obama rule in favor
of restricted areas that end at a farm’s
boundary.
Liman issued a temporary restrain-
ing order barring the Trump rule from
taking effect until at least Jan. 12. The
rule could expose farmworkers to drift-
ing pesticides, he said in a written
opinion.
“The harm is neither remote nor
speculative. Its imminence is detailed in
the studies currently before the court,”
wrote Liman, who was appointed to the
bench for the Southern District of New
York by Trump.
The Environmental Protection
Agency is reviewing the order, an
agency spokeswoman said Wednesday.
The federal Worker Protection Stan-
dard prohibits pesticides from drift-
ing and contacting people. The Obama
EPA in 2015 created “pesticide exclu-
sion zones,” finding the “no-contact”
rule wasn’t enough.
The Trump EPA said the exclusion
zones were unworkable because farm-
ers can’t control property they don’t
own. The new exclusion zones, con-
fined to a farmer’s land, were due to
take effect Dec. 29.
A coalition of farmworker advo-
cates and five states, including Cali-
fornia, have filed separate suits in New
York, claiming the EPA’s reasons for
reversing its policy were too flimsy.
In issuing the temporary restrain-
ing order, Liman said the farmworker
groups are likely to win the suit.
The Obama EPA had cited pesti-
cide-exposure studies to support its
position that exclusion zones were
needed to buttress the no-contact rule.
Liman said White House adminis-
trations can change policies, but that
the Trump EPA failed to provide a rea-
sonable explanation for why the stud-
ies cited by the Obama EPA no longer
applied.
Liman set a hearing for Jan. 8 on
whether to grant a preliminary injunc-
tion against the Trump rule.
Liman issued his ruling in the suit
filed by nine farmworker organiza-
tions, including Pineros y Campesi-
nos Unidos del Noroeste, commonly
known as PCUN and based in Wood-
burn, Ore.
New York, Minnesota, Illinois and
Maryland joined California in the
states’ suit.
Farm groups, including the Amer-
ican Farm Bureau Federation, sup-
ported the Trump exclusion zone rule.
The EPA rule sets minimal federal
standards. States can adopt stricter
standards.
Higher wheat prices likely
have ‘staying power,’
market experts say
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
Wheat prices have hit new
highs for the past 12 months,
and market analysts say they
don’t see a decline any time
soon.
Soft white wheat is about
$6.65 per bushel, according
to Northwest Grain Grow-
ers in Walla Walla, Wash.
USDA shows wheat at $6.40
per bushel on the Portland
market.
“It’s the highest we’ve
been all year,” said Byron
Behne, Northwest Grain
Growers
senior
grain
merchant.
Futures prices are match-
ing highs from the previous
price rally, Behne said.
“To be perfectly honest,
I’m as surprised as anybody,”
said Darin Newsom, market
analyst in Omaha, Neb. “I
have no idea why. Demand
isn’t great. Stocks-to-use is
down from previous years
but not dramatically tight.”
Newsom
originally
thought it could be a brief
spike due to higher trade
volumes, but he now says it
has “staying power” and is
building.
“There’s something going
on fundamentally, particu-
larly in the old crop market
right now, that’s pushing this
market higher,” he said.
It’s difficult to determine
any one reason for the higher
prices, Behne said. It could
just be the end of the year,
concerns about the condition
of the Russian wheat crop or
expected purchases by China
later in the spring, he said.
“I certainly wasn’t expect-
ing this after we had the huge
crop of white wheat in the
Northwest this year,” Behne
said.
Drought in Russia and
China buying more U.S.
wheat after drastically reduc-
ing its purchases of wheat
from Australia “flipped the
landscape,” he said.
Newsom attributes part of
the rise to the weakening of
the U.S. dollar, which is at
its lowest level since April
2019.
The U.S. dollar is cur-
rently equal to 103.26 Japa-
nese yen. Over the past year,
it has ranged from 101.19 to
112.23 yen.
The dollar is equal to .81
euros. In the last year, it was
as high as 0.94 euros.
It is equal to .73 British
pounds. In the last year, it
was as high as 0.88 pounds.
During harvest, wheat
prices were about $4.50 per
bushel, said Glen Squires,
CEO of the Washington
Grain Commission. Gen-
erally, farmers consider
roughly $6 per bushel to be
profitable, he said.
The $2 increase was a
“welcome sign,” Squires
said.
Animal health officials watch for bird flu
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
Bird flu outbreaks this winter in
Asia and Europe resemble the global
spread of avian influenza just before
the disease appeared in Washington
state six years ago,
the harbinger of a
disaster that killed
50 million chick-
ens and turkeys in
the U.S.
Wa s h i n g t o n
State Assistant Vet-
erinarian
Amber Amber Itle
Itle said that poultry
owners should protect their flocks
from wild birds and report sick birds
so they can be tested.
“We’re seeing (worldwide) cases
that very much match what we saw”
in 2014, she said. “We want to be
more vigilant this year.”
Waterfowl have the potential
to spread avian influenza to Asia,
Europe and the Americas as they
migrate south. The virus is deadly
to poultry and can in rare cases be
transmitted to humans.
Bird flu outbreaks were reported
in 15 European countries between
mid-November and early Decem-
ber, according to the World Orga-
nization for Animal Health. Europe
had no new or ongoing bird flu cases
at this time last year.
The pace of European outbreaks
has picked up in the past two weeks,
with new cases reported in the
United Kingdom, Germany, Bel-
gium, Russia and the Ukraine.
Iran, Japan, South Korea and
Laos also have reported recent out-
breaks. New cases last December
were confined to Africa and Taiwan.
World health officials trace the
current European wave of bird flu
to an outbreak in Russia in August.
In response to the virus spreading in
Europe, the USDA has tested 1,850
wild birds in 16 Atlantic flyway
Don Jenkins/Capital Press
Migratory waterfowl can spread avian influenza. Experts say the num-
ber and scope of outbreaks in Europe and Asia resemble conditions
that preceded the virus sweeping through the U.S. in 2014-15.
states since October, but has found
no case of highly pathogenic avian
influenza, a USDA spokesman said
Wednesday. Over the previous year,
USDA sampled 3,670 wild birds in
13 Atlantic states, plus Idaho, Alaska
and North Dakota, but found no bird
flu, the spokesman said.
In 2014, numerous outbreaks in
Europe and Asia preceded bird flu
infecting commercial chicken barns
in British Columbia. Two weeks
later, the virus appeared in wild birds
in Whatcom County in northwest
Washington.
The Washington Department
of Fish and Wildlife is watch-
ing for avian influenza in wild
birds, a department spokeswoman
said Wednesday.
Wild birds from a lake in What-
com County were recently tested,
but none were infected with the
virus, she said.
The USDA in 2015 boasted that
the U.S. had the best biosecurity
measures in the world, but the bird
flu outbreak revealed flaws. Avian
influenza swept through commer-
cial barns, especially in the Midwest.
The USDA paid out about $850 mil-
lion to disinfect farms and indemnify
producers for euthanized poultry.
The USDA now requires large
poultry farms to adopt a govern-
ment-approved biosecurity plan to
qualify for compensation. States
check off on the plans. Itle said every
poultry producer in Washington has
one.