Friday, March 26, 2021
CapitalPress.com 3
Company applies to plant
solar, wind project on farmland
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
Bill Breneman/EO Media Group File
Dense smoke caused by wildfires along the Santiam
Canyon blocks the sunlight. Oregon lawmakers are
considering a legislative package to reduce future
wildfire risk with targeted forest treatments.
Oregon lawmakers
consider ‘all-lands’
approach to wildfire risk
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
Oregon would empha-
size reducing fuels in
high-risk forests near
communities and key
environmental resources
as part of broader legisla-
tion aimed at mitigating
wildfire hazards.
A crucial aspect of the
proposal involves steer-
ing forest treatments
toward where they’re
most needed, regardless of
property ownership.
“We are taking an all-
lands approach here,”
said Dylan Kruse, gov-
ernment affairs director
for the Sustainable North-
west nonprofit organiza-
tion. “Immediately, we’re
going where there’s the
most urgent need.”
Though the Oregon
Department of Forestry
would take charge of the
planning and implemen-
tation, the agency would
rely on help from Oregon
State University and other
entities.
The targeted approach
would likewise rely on
state money while “lever-
aging” funds from the fed-
eral government.
At its core, the legisla-
tion is aimed at selecting
where and how to conduct
forest projects that would
be most effective, Kruse
said.
“We know we can’t
treat all the forest acreage
we want to in this state,
so we have to narrow
down and prioritize where
we get the best return on
investment,” Kruse said
during a recent legislative
hearing.
The U.S. Forest Service
has developed a “quantita-
tive wildfire risk assess-
ment” that indicates about
5.6 million acres in Ore-
gon need fuels treatments,
he said.
Under the legislation,
projects would begin in
the four highest risk cate-
gories, with an eye toward
protecting human life,
property and critical infra-
structure, as well as water-
shed health and habitat
restoration.
For projects to be under-
taken on federal lands, they
would have to undergo
analysis under the National
Environmental Policy Act
and exclude roadless areas,
riparian reserves and other
sensitive sites.
The
ODF
already
engages in “shared stew-
ardship” projects with the
U.S. Forest Service and
other agencies, so the pro-
posed legislation would
accelerate this approach,
said Jeff Burns, the depart-
ment’s partnership and
planning director.
In February, the agency
requested
collaborative
project proposals from
across the state and received
93 applications for roughly
$20 million, he said. The
ODF is funding 37 of those
proposals with $4 mil-
lion from the state’s emer-
gency board — enough to
treat 7,000 acres — but has
another 56 “shelf-ready”
projects as a result.
Under the most recent
version of Senate Bill
248, one of the bills
being considered, ODF
would receive $20 mil-
lion to implement new
projects in the 2021-2023
biennium.
The current proposal
would serve as a type of
“pilot project” that lays
the groundwork for future
treatments and partner-
ships, said Kruse.
Of the 5.6 million acres
identified as requiring
management by the For-
est Service, about 65% are
on federal lands, 25% are
owned by small woodland
owners, 6% belong to state,
local and tribal govern-
ments, and only 4% are on
industrial timber properties,
said Kyle Williams, forest
production director for the
Oregon Forest & Industries
Council, a timber group.
“Our federal lands are
struggling. They’re over-
stocked, overgrown and
underutilized,” Williams
said.
To increase the resil-
iency of forests and pre-
vent wildfires, the problem
can’t be categorized into
“silos” of land ownership
but must be considered in
terms of the entire land-
scape, he said.
A state council next week
will have public hearings on
plans to build solar panels
and erect wind turbines on
thousands of acres of farm-
land in Benton County in
south-central Washington.
Scout Clean Energy of
Boulder, Colo., would lease
72,295 acres. While 6,860
acres would be “perma-
nently impacted,” the rest
could remain in agricultural
production, according to the
company’s application to the
Washington Energy Facility
Site Evaluation Council.
The project has encoun-
tered
opposition.
Two
county commissioners have
said they oppose it. Up to
244 wind turbines would be
visible in the Tri-Cities, as
well as neighboring Frank-
Capital Press File
Wind turbines line a ridge in a wheat field north of Helix,
Ore. A Colorado company proposes to put up to 244 tur-
bines on farmland to the north in Benton County, Wash.
lin and Walla Walla counties
and Oregon.
Wheat farmer Chris
Wiley, one of 69 landown-
ers who have signed lease
agreements, said the sta-
ble annual income will help
farmers keep farming.
“This is definitely a way
to keep family farms in the
family for generations,” he
said.
“As far as taking farm-
land out of production, it’s
pretty negligible,” Wiley
said. “We’ve weighed the
pros and cons, and we’ve
decided we’re in favor of it.”
Scout Energy, owned
by private investment firm
Quinbrook
Infrastructure
Partners, has been putting
together the parcels for sev-
eral years.
Rather than seek approval
from a county hearings
examiner, the company last
month opted to apply to the
state council, an unelected
board of public employees
that makes recommenda-
tions to Gov. Jay Inslee.
In its application, Scout
Energy said the wind and
solar project will help the
state have carbon-neutral
electricity by 2030, a sig-
nature goal of Inslee’s cli-
mate-change agenda.
Rep. Brad Klippert,
R-Kennewick, said Mon-
day he opposes the project,
saying wind turbines have
marred Central Washing-
ton’s landscape. He called
handing over the decision to
Inslee “tragic.”
“When so many of my
constituents say they oppose
something, I listen,” he said.
“Now it’s a decision that
will be shoved down the
local area’s throat.”
Regulatory changes in store for meat
industry under new administration
By SIERRA DAWN McCLAIN
Capital Press
New rules and regula-
tions are headed for the meat
industry under the Biden
administration.
“We’re gonna see a lot of
new rules,” Andrew Harig,
a policy expert at FMI, the
Food Industry Association,
told attendees at the virtual
2021 Annual Meat Confer-
ence Tuesday.
The
meat
industry,
experts say, should be pre-
pared for changes surround-
ing supply chains, trace-
ability, salmonella tracking,
labeling and antitrust issues.
Supply chains
On Feb. 24, Biden issued
an executive order on Amer-
ica’s supply chains requir-
ing the secretary of agricul-
ture and other officials to
investigate supply chains for
“agricultural commodities
and food products.” By next
February, officials must sub-
mit findings and recommen-
dations to the president.
Later this year, farmers
will have an opportunity to
comment on what’s good
and bad about their supply
chains.
Sierra Dawn McClain/Capital Press File
A plant manager walks through rows of carcasses at a
meat processing facility. Experts say the meat industry
should be prepared for a slew of regulatory changes un-
der the new administration.
“As drafted, it’s a big,
broad rule,” said Harig of
FMI.
He said the rule could
lead to cross-regulation
between FDA and USDA.
“Once the genie’s out of
the bottle, it’s hard to stuff it
back in,” he said.
Casey Gallimore, director
of regulatory and scientific
affairs at the North Ameri-
can Meat Institute, called the
proposal “unworkable.”
The rulemaking is not
finalized, and Gallimore
encouraged producers to
contact FDA.
Salmonella
Producers can also expect
the administration to crack
down on salmonella.
“I’d argue salmonel-
la’s the biggest issue fac-
ing the industry today,” said
Gallimore.
Salmonella prevalence
in beef is low, so upcoming
standards likely won’t be too
stringent on beef. Under the
Food Safety and Inspection
Service’s proposal, within a
52-week window, FSIS will
review the most recent 48
samples. Two or fewer pos-
itive salmonella samples
would meet performance
standards; three or more
would fail.
A similar proposal is
underway for pork, but
the final version won’t be
released until 2022. It’s
expected to have three cat-
egories: pass, fail and
warning.
When a company fails
a salmonella test, it will be
published in a public disclo-
sure database — Gallimore
calls it a “naughty list.” This
already happens in the poultry
industry.
Traceability
On Sept. 23, prompted
by section 204 of the Food
Safety Modernization Act,
the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration issued a pro-
posed rule on traceability.
If adopted, the rule,
called “Requirements for
Additional
Traceability
Records for Certain Foods,”
will require everyone along
the meat supply chain to
keep more detailed records.
Farmers would have eight
more data factors to track.
Washington overtime bill gets House hearing
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
OLYMPIA — Farmwork-
ers said Tuesday they are
worried about losing money,
joining employers in asking
lawmakers to add a limited
harvest-season exemption to
Washington’s coming agri-
cultural overtime law.
Uriel Vargas, a farm-
worker, said that if farms
can’t afford paying time-
and-a-half after 40 hours,
workers will have to move
around to maintain their
incomes.
“Please change this bill
and keep us at one place
and not have to get a second
job somewhere else,” Var-
gas asked the House Labor
and Workplace Standards
Committee.
The committee took tes-
timony on Senate Bill 5172,
which phases in overtime
pay for all farmworkers.
The bill passed the Senate
and got its first hearing in
the House on Tuesday.
The bill responds to the
state Supreme Court’s ruling
in November that declared
denying dairy workers over-
time wages after 40 hours
was unconstitutional. The
decision opened the flood-
gate for lawsuits seeking
back pay and to expand the
ruling to other farm sectors.
The 5-4 ruling commits
dairies to immediately pay
overtime. The Senate bill,
however, gives dairies pro-
tection against the back-pay
lawsuits.
For other farms, the over-
time threshold will be 55
hours beginning Jan. 1,
2022. The threshold drops to
48 hours on Jan. 1, 2023, and
finally to 40 hours on Jan. 1,
2024.
The bill has the support
of labor groups such as the
United Farm Workers and
Familias Unidas por la Jus-
ticia, an independent farm-
worker union.
Farm lobbyists are not
opposing the bill, but they
are focused on adding a pro-
vision to permanently lift
the overtime threshold to 50
hours for 12 weeks chosen
by the farm.
Washington State Labor
Council government affairs
director Joe Kendo said the
seasonal exemption would
undermine the protective
nature of the court’s ruling
and the overtime law.
“The purpose of over-
time is to limit the exposure
of workers to the physical
demands of work,” Kendo
said.
Other
farmworkers
besides Vargas said that
they’re were more worried
about their pay checks than
overtime hours.
The weather and crops
dictate the hours — some-
times 20 and sometimes 60
in a week, said Ignacio Diaz,
a Quincy farm owner and
farm employee.
“We cannot control that,”
he said. “As a small business
owner I know I can’t afford
overtime for my employees.”
Farmworkers are paid
overtime in a handful of
states. No state has handled
the issue like Washington,
where a one-judge majority
discarded a 61-year-old law,
leaving lawyers, lobbyists
and legislators to clean up.
By a legislative act, Cal-
ifornia has been phasing in
overtime for several years.
Beginning next year, farms
with more than 25 workers
must pay time-and-a-half
after 40 hours. Smaller farms
will get there in 2025.
Being a customer-
member means a
lot. This year it
pays even more.
It’s no secret that it pays to be a Northwest Farm Credit
Services customer-member. This year patronage dividends
total $177 million. Because when we do well, our customers
benefit. That’s the Northwest Farm Credit difference.
800.743.2125 | northwestfcs.com
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