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Friday, April 30, 2021
Volume 94, Number 18
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Farmers in three states pitch in to fund Northwest potato research
Bringing experts together
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
O
THELLO, Wash. — On a recent
April morning, high winds and
blowing dust forced Washington
State University researcher Mark
Pavek and his team to delay plant-
ing this year’s experimental potato crop.
Instead, they worked in the research shed at
WSU’s farm near Othello, hand-cutting seed
potatoes to prepare to plant a crop that will ulti-
mately help thousands of farmers across the
Pacifi c Northwest.
Pavek is part of a unique research eff ort. Much
of his work, and that of other Northwest potato
researchers, is fi nanced by the Pacifi c Northwest
Research Consortium, which includes the potato
commissions in Idaho, Oregon and Washington.
The 9-year-old consortium just might be the
future of funding for agricultural research — the
region’s farmers helping to fi nance researchers
who work directly with them.
At stake is the Pacifi c Northwest’s $2 billion-
a-year potato crop.
“We’re going to solve problems for (growers)
if they have problems that need solving, and they
all do,” Pavek said. “Every year, there’s a new
problem that comes up.”
Matthew Weaver/Capital Press
Washington State Uni-
versity potato special-
ist Mark Pavek .
Andy Jensen, manager
of the Northwest Potato
Research Consortium
Using grower assessments, the three potato
commissions contribute $1.5 million through
the consortium each year. They then decide
which projects to fund and encourage cooper-
ation among researchers at the region’s three
land-grant universities — Washington State,
Oregon State and the University of Idaho.
The cooperative eff ort was needed, partici-
pants say.
“Over the course of the last few decades,
the universities have gradually had fewer and
fewer scientists working on each crop,” said
Andy Jensen, the consortium manager.
Each state might have had several experts
in plant pathology, entomology or agronomy
working on potatoes 40 years ago, he said.
Gradually, they lost those faculty positions or
decided not to fi ll them.
Through the consortium, experts around
the region obtain funding for their research
and work together, avoiding any duplication of
eff orts.
“We see what the other commissions are
doing because we’re all doing it together,” Jen-
sen said.
That cooperation also makes researchers’
See Research, Page 9
Getty Images
Wolf population continues to rise in Oregon
Latest population
estimate documents
173 wolves statewide
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
SALEM — Oregon’s gray wolf
population continued to climb in
2020, with at least 173 individuals
documented by year’s end, accord-
ing to state wildlife offi cials.
The Oregon Department of Fish
and Wildlife released its annual
Wolf Conservation and Man-
agement report April 21, which
includes a minimum known count
based on verifi ed evidence such as
tracks, sightings and remote cam-
era photographs.
The 2020 population is a 9.5%
increase over the end of 2019,
when ODFW recorded at least 158
wolves.
Wolves started returning to Ore-
gon in 1999 following campaigns
decades earlier to eradicate the
species across the West. The Wen-
aha pack was the fi rst to become
re-established in the far northeast
corner of Oregon in 2008, and the
population has been slowly but
steadily rising every year over the
past decade.
“While northeast Oregon con-
tinues to host the majority of the
state’s wolf population, dispersal
to other parts of Oregon and adja-
cent states continues,” said Rob-
lyn Brown, ODFW wolf program
coordinator.
A total of 22 packs were also
documented in 2020, the same
number as in 2019. Of those, 17
qualifi ed as breeding pairs, hav-
ing an adult male and adult female
with at least two pups that survived
to Dec. 31.
Under the ODFW wolf plan,
management is divided into east-
ern and western zones. In East-
ern Oregon, wolves now fall under
Phase III of the plan, which means
the population has reached at least
seven breeding pairs for three con-
secutive years.
West of highways 395, 78 and
95, wolves are still under Phase I
of the plan, and will not move into
Phase II until there are four breed-
ing pairs for three consecutive
years.
The diff erent phases determine
how local wildlife biologists and
ranchers may respond to wolves
that habitually prey on livestock
— a standard known as chronic
depredation.
ODFW
See Wolves, Page 9 Oregon gray wolf
Report: Gebbers workers safer in farm housing than at home
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
Farmworkers in housing provided by Geb-
bers Farms were less likely to get COVID last
summer than co-workers who lived in the com-
munity, according to testing by the Washington
Health Department.
The Central Washington fruit company
faces a $2 million fi ne for allegedly break-
ing emergency rules and potentially expos-
ing 2,700 foreign farmworkers it housed to the
coronavirus.
The unpublished report, obtained by the
Capital Press, concludes that orchard workers
were actually safer in Gebbers housing than in
private housing.
The diff erence, according to the report,
could be explained by several factors, includ-
ing “successful prevention eff orts at the farm-
worker housing sites.”
Gebbers came under scrutiny and criticism
after two H-2A workers, a 37-year-old Mex-
ican and 63-year-old Jamaican, died in July.
Both died of COVID, according to the Depart-
ment of Labor and Industries.
L&I excoriated Gebbers in a late December
press release, reporting that an “anonymous
caller” in July feared “hundreds” of workers at
one camp had COVID.
According to the health report, 3,013
orchard workers were tested between late May
and late August and 178 tested positive, or 6%.
Among workers living in the community, 12%
tested positive. Among workers in company
housing, 4% tested positive.
Another 249 workers had symptoms but
See Housing, Page 9
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