Friday, January 15, 2021
CapitalPress.com 11
Farm Bureau: Duvall says he’s ready to ‘get to a new normal’
Continued from Page 1
forced farmers to dump milk and
plow under vegetables, which
prompted the Farm Bureau to
cooperate with USDA on “farm to
family” food boxes that were dis-
tributed to millions of people, he
said.
The organization also worked to
ensure that COVID-19 restrictions
didn’t bar the entry of farm work-
ers into the U.S. and helped secure
‘HAS IT BEEN A TOUGH YEAR? DARN RIGHT IT HAS. BUT WE
ARE GOING TO PERSEVERE JUST LIKE WE ALWAYS DO.’
Zippy Duvall, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation
funding for personal protective
equipment and expanded housing
for employees, he said.
The nationwide network of state
and county Farm Bureaus donated
more than 1 million pounds of food
and $5 million to various relief
programs, Duvall said. “Isn’t that
impressive? I hope that it makes
Farm Bureau proud, just like it
does me.”
Duvall noted that 2020 had been
a difficult year for him personally
due to the loss of “the love of my
life,” his wife Bonnie, as well as a
bout with COVID-19 during the
summer. During these tough times,
he appreciated the “outpouring
of support from the Farm Bureau
family.”
Despite
these
challenges,
Duvall said he’s ready to “get to a
new normal” to advocate in person
on behalf of AFBF on key issues,
such as representing the farm
industry’s voice in negotiations
over potential climate legislation.
Assuring a sufficient supply of
farm labor and investment in broad-
band and agricultural research are
also top priorities, he said. “Has
it been a tough year? Darn right it
has. But we are going to persevere
just like we always do.”
TIMBER
Timberland: Large companies
are struggling, but industry
leaders say those likely to suffer
most are small woodland owners
Continued from Page 1
demand for workers is two or three times greater than
supply.
Further fueling the crisis: the nation’s nursery industry
has nowhere near enough seedlings to replant those for-
ests, experts say.
Large industrial companies such as Weyerhaeuser are
struggling, but industry leaders say those likely to suffer
most are small woodland owners.
Jim James, executive director of Oregon Small Wood-
lands Association, or OSWA, said about 6,300 acres of
family-owned woodlands statewide burned in 2020, half
of which require replanting.
That gets expensive fast, he said.
Landowners typically plant about 400 seedlings per
acre. A small woodland owner who needs to reforest 80
acres, for example, may need to plant 32,000 seedlings
at an average replanting cost of $335 per acre, totaling
$26,800.
A coalition including Oregon State University Exten-
sion, the OSWA and the Oregon Department of Forestry
has estimated that more than 100 million seedlings are
needed to replant Oregon’s small woodlands alone.
The coalition is working with the nursery industry to
expand seedling production at a mass scale. But many
conifer nurseries say they are already using all their avail-
able infrastructure, and most nurseries interested in grow-
ing conifers lack the necessary acreage.
Even if nurseries do scale up, it will take time before
they can supply seedlings. James of the woodlands associ-
ation said bare root seedlings should be planted when they
are at least two years old.
This also presents a monetary challenge. Experts say
the common practice is for land managers to put down a
50% deposit when they order seedlings.
“A lot of small woodland owners lack the up-front
money,” said James.
University, industry and agency leaders are working to
secure acreage for nurseries and discuss payment models,
but they say it will likely take years to “catch up.”
Why is there a lumber
shortage in the U.S.?
By SIERRA DAWN McCLAIN
Capital Press
Many parts of the U.S. are facing
lumber shortages — and experts say
the problem is acute in the West after
2020’s devastating wildfires.
Industry experts say several events
led to the lumber shortage: COVID-
19 lockdown orders and closures, new
safety protocols that slowed production
at mills and a spike in home remodel-
ing while Americans were quarantined
followed by a massive wildfire season.
“The industry is normally like this
fine-tuned machine. A lot of events (in
2020) disrupted it,” said Cindy Mitch-
ell, senior director of public affairs
at the Washington Forest Protection
Association, or WFPA.
Cumming Corp., an international
cost consulting firm, said wildfires
along the West Coast “have led to a
significant spike in certain material
prices.”
According to the Oregon Forest and
Industries Council, or OFIC, a trade
group representing forestland owners
and wood product manufacturers, last
year’s fires in Oregon alone may have
killed 15 billion board-feet of timber,
enough to build 1 million homes.
The National Association of Home
Builders, or NAHB, reports that
between mid-April and mid-Septem-
ber, lumber prices soared more than
170%, adding $16,148 to the price of a
typical new single-family home. Prices
drifted lower at the start of fall, but
Ryan Brennecke/EO Media Group File
Experts say several factors contribut-
ed to the lumber shortage: lockdown
orders, new safety protocols, a spike
in home remodeling and a massive
wildfire season.
they’re on the rise again.
Mitchell of WFPA and Sara Dun-
can, spokeswoman for Oregon Forest
and Industries Council, or OFIC, both
said the lumber crisis was precipitated
by several events.
Some Western states temporar-
ily shut down construction work at
the start of COVID-19, which in turn
meant some mills had to shut down,
creating a backlog.
New safety protocols within mills
slowed production.
With Americans stuck at home
under shutdowns, remodeling boomed
and people used up much of the exist-
ing lumber supply at a time when mill
production was curtailed.
Then wildfire season hit, wiping out
millions of acres of timberland.
Now, demand for building materials
is even higher from West Coast com-
munities that are rebuilding after fires.
The lumber shortage has had a vari-
ety of impacts.
Construction associations have
reported contractors are showing
increased interest in alternative materi-
als, such as metal framing.
Forestry leaders say higher lumber
prices don’t mean timberland manag-
ers are hitting it big. Instead, experts
say, many timber companies are fac-
ing tight margins because they had
equipment and trees destroyed in fires,
higher input costs and expenses associ-
ated with labor and reforesting.
Lumber shortages also have eco-
nomic consequences for fire victims.
Many U.S. insurance policies limit
the timeframe a person has to rebuild a
home after a fire. With limited supplies
of lumber and few contractors avail-
able, many survivors may not meet their
insurance rebuilding deadlines.
Some state agencies are seeking to
address this. In Oregon, for example,
the state Division of Financial Regu-
lation recently negotiated agreements
with several insurance companies, push-
ing them to extend their timelines to at
least two years after the date of loss.
“The weirdness of (2020) backed up
the whole forestry system,” said Mitch-
ell of WFPA.
WATER
Oregon water allocation may
complicate ‘live flows’ irrigation
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
Oregon irrigators may face complica-
tions from the commitment of about 1 mil-
lion acre-feet of water behind Willamette
Valley dams to in-stream environmental
purposes.
Until now, state water regulators have
treated water released from the 13 dams
as “live flows,” which can be accessed
by irrigators with surface water rights in
affected streams.
Under a federal plan to divvy up the 1.6
million acre-feet of water among irriga-
tors, cities and fish, however, the Oregon
Water Resources Department is expected
to change its approach.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
plan to allocate about 1.1 million acre-feet
for fish and wildlife, 328,000 acre-feet
for irrigation and 160,000 acre-feet for
municipal purposes was recently enacted
into federal law.
Water that’s been allocated for
in-stream purposes would be treated as
“stored water” rather than “live flows”
under the plan, meaning it may no lon-
ger be freely available for irrigation with-
drawals, said Brian Posewitz, staff attor-
ney with the Waterwatch of Oregon
environmental group.
“You can protect it after it’s released.
Nobody else can take it,” he said.
The impact on existing irrigators isn’t
immediate, since the change in stored
water use must still undergo an adminis-
trative process overseen by OWRD.
Calculations of “live flows” ver-
sus “stored water” downstream of the
dams haven’t yet been conducted, so it’s
unknown if the re-allocation will cause
water curtailments to irrigators, Posewitz
said.
“Nobody has a really good handle on
the extent to which that would occur,” he
said.
The allocation of nearly 328,000 acre-
feet of water for irrigation under the fed-
eral plan is seen as a positive development
of agriculture, though the Oregon Farm
Bureau had sought 450,000 acre-feet for
growers.
The Farm Bureau worked closely with
Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., chairman of
the House Transportation and Infrastruc-
Capital Press file photo
An irrigation intake pipe draws water from the Willamette River in this file photo.
A recent federal re-allocation plan for water stored behind 13 Willamette Valley
dams in Oregon could complicate irrigation for some farmers who rely on “live
flows.”
ture Committee, to include the plan in a
broader 2021 appropriations bill that was
approved by Congress, said Gail Green-
man, the group’s national affairs director.
“While the allocation isn’t what the
industry had hoped for, we’re very appre-
ciative of the chairman’s efforts on this
issue,” she said.
The Farm Bureau aims to protect
existing irrigators who rely on down-
stream water from the dams by advocat-
ing they’re first in line to access stored
water, said Mary Anne Cooper, the Farm
Bureau’s vice president of public policy.
Only once it’s clear that existing irri-
gators won’t be negatively affected by
the change should new users be allowed
to benefit from the allocated stored water,
she said.
Generally, the affirmation of the fed-
eral re-allocation plan means OWRD will
have to more closely scrutinize the Willa-
mette Valley’s reservoir system, including
live flows and stored water, Cooper said.
“The resources need to be more tightly
managed,” she said.
Irrigators: ‘Producers
need to have the belief
that it will not be undone’
Continued from Page 1
authorized the Corps’ reallocation plan, it also
requires the agency to abide by “reasonable and
prudent alternatives” developed by the National
Marine Fisheries Service to protect threatened
salmon and steelhead.
The planned water distribution is also con-
tingent on a future “biological opinion” and
“environmental impact statement” related to
Willamette basin dam operations, which are
being conducted under the Endangered Species
Act and National Environmental Policy Act,
respectively.
Building irrigation diversions and convey-
ances is expensive, so such projects should
be undertaken once the regulatory landscape
becomes more well-established, said Gail
Greenman, the Farm Bureau’s national affairs
director.
“Producers need to have the belief that it will
not be undone,” Greenman said.
Waterwatch of Oregon, an environmental
group that filed a lawsuit against the realloca-
tion, no longer opposes the plan based on lan-
guage included in the federal legislation, said
Brian Posewitz, the nonprofit’s staff attorney.
Because the Corps must follow the “reason-
able and prudent alternatives,” the agency can’t
reduce water proportionally among irrigators,
cities and fish during low water years — a key
element of the plan that Waterwatch opposed,
he said. Fish needs must come first in drought
years, according to this interpretation of the law.
“You can’t force the fish to share the pain,
you have to make them a higher priority,” Pose-
witz said.
The legislation also contains a “compro-
mise solution” allowing water allocations to be
changed by up to 10% of the total 1.6 million
acre feet available, contrary to the Corps’ inten-
tion to make those amounts immutable, he said.
In other words, another 160,000 acre-feet
of water could be dedicated to in-stream flows,
Posewitz said.
The Oregon Farm Bureau believes the pos-
sibility of a 10% adjustment also presents an
opportunity for more water to be available to
irrigators, Greenman said.
Despite Waterwatch’s interpretation, it’s not
yet clear the “reasonable and prudent alterna-
tives” will prioritize fish over other water users
in the plan, added Cooper.
“There are too many complexities to be able
to get a certain answer to that question,” she
said.