Friday, May 7, 2021
CapitalPress.com 7
Willamette Valley bracing for drought after record dry April
ST. PAUL, Ore. — A record dry
April is accelerating drought condi-
tions and hampering water storage
throughout much of the typically
rain soaked Willamette Valley.
Nearly all of Western Oregon
received just 25% or less of normal
precipitation last month, accord-
ing to the West Wide Drought
Tracker, making it the driest April
on record in large portions of the
region stretching from Portland to
Eugene.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engi-
neers, meanwhile, is struggling to
refill 13 Willamette Basin reservoirs
in time for peak summer demand.
As of May 4, the combined system
was 64% full, setting the stage for a
difficult water year.
“We collaborate with a lot of
agencies, partners and stakeholders
to try and balance all of the compet-
ing demands and comply with the
law,” said Erik Petersen, project
operations manager. “As we head
into more marginal water years, it
becomes increasingly difficult to
satisfy everyone’s interests.”
The Willamette Valley Proj-
ect, in particular, is designed to
Brenda
Frketich
hold back water
for flood control
during the rainy
spring and winter
months. The water
is then released
downstream
to
augment flows for
fish, wildlife and
agriculture in the
summer.
“If we don’t get precipitation
that comes in the form of rain in
February, March and April, we’re
going to have a tough conservation
season,” Petersen said.
Petersen said the Corps struck a
deal with the National Marine Fish-
eries Service and Oregon Depart-
ment of Fish and Wildlife to hold
back more water this spring, drop-
ping below minimum required
streamflows in the Willamette River
near Albany and Salem to provide
more water later in the summer
when it’s needed.
Despite the looming deficits,
irrigators anticipate they will still
receive their full water allotments
for the year.
Brent Stevenson, general man-
ager of the Santiam Water Control
District in Stayton, Ore., said that
while officials are watching water
Getty Images
Nearly all of Western Oregon received just 25% or less of normal
precipitation last month, according to the West Wide Drought Track-
er, making it the driest April on record.
levels in Detroit Lake, he does not
expect much of an impact.
“The drought will change flows
into Detroit, but typically unless
it’s really severe, it doesn’t affect
discharges,” Stevenson said. “We
are at this point expecting normal
deliveries.”
In addition to providing water
for the city of Stayton, the dis-
trict delivers irrigation water from
the North Santiam River for about
17,000 acres of farmland.
The U.S. Drought Monitor now
Wildfire season will arrive
early in much of West
By BRAD CARLSON
Capital Press
Wildfire forecasters say
early summer-like condi-
tions in much of the West
will likely set the stage for
a busy peak
season.
“ W e
have had a
pretty dry
spring in
the Pacific
Northwest,
Nick
especially
Nauslar
on
the
east side,
so drought has increased
across a good portion of
the region,” National Inter-
agency Fire Center mete-
orologist Nick Nauslar
said in an interview. “With
that, fuels are drying, and
at times we’ve seen fuel
conditions more indicative
of what you would see in
June or July in the last few
weeks.”
Drying
fuels
and
expected
above-normal
temperatures mean cen-
tral and eastern parts of
the Northwest should see
a fairly active summer fire
season that starts early, he
said.
NIFC in its National
Significant Wildland Fire
Potential Outlook for May
through August said cli-
mate forecasts indicate con-
ditions that are warmer and
drier than normal are likely
for much of the Plains and
the West into summer.
“Drought is expected to
persist if not worsen and
David Halterman/USFS
Wildfire season will arrive early this year, forecasters
predict.
expand across the West and
in the northern and south-
ern Plains into summer,”
the report said.
The risk of significant
fires — those burning more
acres than the median num-
ber — is above normal in
several Western regions.
In much of the North-
west, fuel moisture dropped
to unusually low levels but
early snowmelt increased
access
for
prescribed
burning.
NIFC said significant
fire potential is expected
to increase to above aver-
age in June across cen-
tral Oregon and into south-
east Washington, and
continue through August.
Above-normal potential for
significant fires is expected
by August in southwest
Oregon.
North-central Idaho and
northwest Montana have
adequate
precipitation
thanks to frequent, timely
storms and cool weather
that helped the area pre-
serve snowpack at middle
elevations, the report said.
Northern California and
Hawaii have above-nor-
mal potential for significant
fires from June through
August in most mid- and
upper-elevation
areas,
NIFC said.
The fire potential is
above normal in south-
ern California in July and
August, away from the des-
erts and the San Joaquin
Valley.
In the northern Great
Basin,
NIFC
expects
above-normal fire poten-
tial to increase by July and
August in parts of Idaho
and Wyoming.
Despite cold fronts and
some precipitation in April,
severe to extreme drought
continues over much of
Nevada and parts of central
Idaho, where winter precip-
itation was lower. Drought
likely will persist through
spring, with warm and dry
weather to return to much
of the Great Basin in May.
shows most of the Willamette Val-
ley in moderate to severe drought,
which is affecting agriculture in
other ways.
Tim Winn, who grows about
1,000 acres of grass seed and veg-
etable seed crops in rural Benton
County, said that without rainfall
to build up soil moisture he was
forced to begin irrigating weeks
ahead of schedule.
“We got started just in the nick
of time before conditions became
too stressful on the crop,” said
Winn, who is water committee
chairman for the Oregon Farm
Bureau.
Last month, Winn said, he
planted about 150 acres of veg-
etable seed crops in areas where
he does not have access to irriga-
tion. For those dryland fields, he
said the plants barely have enough
water to emerge from the ground.
“Wherever dryland farming
takes place, it’s all a matter of tim-
ing and luck when it comes to how
each year pans out with regards to
enough soil moisture,” Winn said.
Brenda Frketich, who grows
grass seed, vegetable seed and
hazelnuts on her family’s farm
near St. Paul, Ore., said she also
relies on April showers that typi-
cally provide a much-needed shot
of ground moisture.
“For us this year, everything we
can irrigate, we are irrigating,” she
said. “It’s definitely on the earlier
side, compared to years past.”
It is still too early to say if
grass seed yields or quality will
be reduced, Frketich said. But she
would certainly welcome any rain
to help the grass seed crop.
“We’re definitely behind com-
pared to a normal year,” Frketich
said.
KWUA motions to reopen lawsuit, resolve
questions around Klamath operations
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
KLAMATH FALLS, Ore.
— As the Klamath Basin
braces for a historically dry
year, the region’s water wars
have once again spilled into
court.
The Klamath Water Users
Association filed a motion
April 19 to reopen a lawsuit
against the U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation, seeking clar-
ity on legal issues that may
determine future irriga-
tion water availability in the
Klamath Project.
Last month, the bureau
announced its lowest water
allocation for Klamath Proj-
ect farmers on record at
33,000 acre-feet, less than
8% of normal demand.
Paul Simmons, KWUA
executive director, said there
is nothing irrigators can do to
change this year’s dire situa-
tion. Instead, the association
is asking a federal judge to
rule on future project oper-
ations, and what obligations
the bureau has to protect sev-
eral species of endangered
fish.
“KWUA wants to estab-
lish sideboards that will con-
trol future years’ operations
in a more reasonable way,”
Simmons said.
The bureau is in charge of
managing the project, which
provides water for 230,000
acres of irrigated farmland in
Southern Oregon and North-
ern California.
Under the Endangered
Species Act, the bureau must
also consult with the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service
and National Marine Fish-
eries Service to ensure the
project does not threaten the
survival of endangered Lost
River and shortnose suckers
in Upper Klamath Lake, and
threatened coho salmon in
the lower Klamath River.
Every five years, the agen-
cies issue what is known as a
Biological Opinion, or BiOp,
that includes a detailed oper-
ations plan for the project to
comply with the ESA.
The most recent plan was
issued in 2019. Not long after
it was released, the Yurok
Tribe in California, along
with the Pacific Coast Fed-
eration of Fishermen’s Asso-
ciations and Institute for
Fisheries Resources, sued,
arguing greater protections
were needed for fish.
Ultimately, the govern-
ment agreed to go back and
revise the BiOp and the case
was suspended. A three-
year interim plan was put
in place in April 2020 that
avoided a worst-case sce-
nario for farms, according to
the KWUA.
Now, the association
wants Judge William Orrick
to lift the suspension and
bring the case back to court.
A hearing is scheduled for
May 26.
In its motion, KWUA
claims the bureau is not
adhering to the interim plan.
Specifically, “augmentation
flows” released in May 2020
for salmon downriver were
not supposed to cause long-
term harm to project farm-
ers, but in fact have resulted
in less water and delayed the
2021 irrigation season.
USDA says relocated agencies will not move back to D.C.
LEGAL
PURSUANT TO ORS
CHAPTER 87
Notice is hereby given that the
following vehicle will be sold,
for cash to the highest bidder, on
05/10/2021. The sale will be held
at 10:00am by
COPART OF WASHINGTON INC
2885 NATIONAL WAY WOODBURN, OR
2016 MAZDA MAZ 4DR
VIN = JM1BM1W70G1281387
Amount due on lien $1,515.00
Reputed owner(s)
GLORIA EVE WOOD
OREGON COMMUNITY CREDIT UNION
LEGAL
PURSUANT TO ORS
CHAPTER 87
Notice is hereby given that the
following vehicle will be sold,
for cash to the highest bidder, on
05/10/2021. The sale will be held
at 10:00am by
COPART OF WASHINGTON INC
2885 NATIONAL WAY WOODBURN, OR
2014 AUDI 7PQ 4DR
VIN = WAU2MAFC8EN134721
Amount due on lien $1,555.00
Reputed owner(s)
ELIZABETH SARA MITCHAM
members are needed.
“That would give some
clarity and certainty to peo-
ple,” he said. “Any decision
that’s made has to be based
on data, on evidence and on
humanity.”
LEGAL
PURSUANT TO ORS
CHAPTER 87
Notice is hereby given that the
following vehicle will be sold,
for cash to the highest bidder, on
05/10/2021. The sale will be held
at 10:00am by
COPART OF WASHINGTON INC
2885 NATIONAL WAY WOODBURN, OR
2020 TOYOTA COROLLA 4DR
VIN = 5YFHPRAE5LP027721
Amount due on lien $1,835.00
Reputed owner(s)
METLIFE
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essential to serving well
the needs of our country,”
Smith Evans said.
Ramaswamy agreed,
saying the leaders at
NIFA and ERS can work
with the Under Secre-
tary for Research, Edu-
cation and Economics
and determine where staff
LEGAL
Notice of Public Hearing
Oregon Sweet Cherry
Commission
Proposed Budget
As required by ORS 576.416, the Oregon
Sweet Cherry Commission (OSCC) will hold
a public meeting for the purpose of receiving
comments on the Commission’s proposed
budget for the next fiscal year. Those who
wish to attend can join via conference call.
Date: May 26, 2021 Time: 10:00 am
Zoom: Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/97591861289
Meeting ID: 975 9186 1289
Call-In number: 1 253 215 8782
Copies of the proposed budget are available at
the commission office, 1827 NE 44th Ave, Suite
315, Portland, Oregon 97213.
Any questions may be referred to the Oregon
Sweet Cherry Commission office at 503-274-5458.
S243244-1
D.C., noting many bought
homes and are establishing
their families in the new
location.
The COVID-19 pan-
demic has demonstrated
employees’ ability to work
from home anywhere,
Ramaswamy said.
Damage done by the
move continues to rever-
berate, Ramaswamy said.
“The agencies continue
to have significant chal-
lenges as a result of the relo-
cation,” he said. “They’re
not able to fill positions.
... They’re still struggling,
they’re still limping along.
It’s going to take several
more years to get back to
normalcy.”
“Recognizing the reality
that the agency now oper-
ates in two cities, the ERS
administrator should have
the authority to determine
which functional positions
are best placed in Wash-
ington or Kansas City,”
former ERS administra-
tor Katherine Smith Evans
said.
“Such authority will also
help the ERS administra-
tor to ensure a staff at least
as diverse as the agency
had pre-2020, which is
S242782-1
Agriculture
Secre-
tary Tom Vilsack will not
reverse the Trump adminis-
tration’s relocation of two
USDA agencies.
Vilsack is trying to
minimize disruption and
rebuild the workforce after
USDA moved the National
Institute of Food and Agri-
culture and Economic
Research Service to Kan-
sas City, Mo., in 2019, an
agency spokesman said.
“The secretary has been
clear that some staff will
be located in Kansas City,
some will be in the Wash-
ington, D.C. area, and oth-
ers — especially hard-
to-fill positions — could
be anywhere else around
the country thanks to our
embrace of remote work,
which allows us to go to
the talent,” Matt Herrick,
a USDA spokesman, told
the Capital Press. “Our
staff has been through a
difficult few years and the
last thing we want to do is
uproot families and lives
all over again. Our prior-
ity now is rebuilding trust
and morale, hiring unfilled
positions,
and
rees-
tablishing
scientific
integrity
in our sci-
entific and
Tom Vilsack r e s e a r c h
agencies.”
Sonny Ramaswamy, a
former NIFA director, was
an outspoken critic of the
original move.
“I absolutely, vehe-
mently, positively agreed
that that was the worst
decision that was made,”
he said. “Everything we
built in one fell swoop was
destroyed. It was all politi-
cally motivated, it was not
based on science, it was not
based on data.”
Ramaswamy is now
president of the Northwest
Commission on Colleges
and Universities in Red-
mond, Wash.
He praised Vilsack
as “a responsible man
... never the kind who’s
going to (have) a knee-jerk
reaction.”
Ramaswamy
agreed
that it doesn’t make sense
to immediately “yank”
the relocated employ-
ees back to Washington,
S242783-1
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
Moreover, the associa-
tion claims the interim plan
“simply does not work,” and
the re-consultation process
on a new BiOp is far behind
schedule.
“It is the second extremely
dry year under purported
interim plan operations,
revealing far too many round
pegs for the square holes of
the interim plan,” the motion
states. “The parties do not
need a plan for wet years;
wet years are easy. The par-
ties need a plan for dry years,
and it is now glaring and
apparent that there is no such
functional plan.”
Simmons said the court
should rule that, under the
current interpretation of the
ESA, the bureau has no legal
right to curtail irrigation
water that has already been
contracted for project farm-
ers to protect endangered
fish.
The Trump administra-
tion previously affirmed that
opinion in a 41-page reas-
sessment of project opera-
tions, though that was later
rescinded by new Interior
Secretary Deb Haaland.
“These documents were
issued without govern-
ment-to-government
con-
sultation with affected tribes
and do not reflect the cur-
rent administration’s goals
for long-term water recovery
and economic restoration in
this region,” Haaland said.
While Simmons said he
hopes they will soon be able
to return to a federal court-
room, he emphasized litiga-
tion alone will not solve all
the basin’s problems.
LEGAL
STATE OF OREGON
OREGON ALFALFA SEED
COMMISSION
P.O. BOX 688 ONTARIO,
OREGON 97914
NOTICE OF ALFALFA GROWERS
COMMISSION HEARING
PUBLIC BUDGET HEARING
TO: ALL OREGON ALFALFA
SEED GROWERS
Notice is hereby given that a public hear-
ing will be held pursuant to ORS Chapter
604, Section 14, Oregon Laws 2003, on
Wednesday May 19, 2021 at 12:00 p.m.
at the Oregon Alfalfa Seed Commission
Office, 168 Wellsprings Dr, Ontario, Or-
egon 97914.
The hearing will be upon a proposed
budget for operation of the Oregon Al-
falfa Seed Commission during the fiscal
year July 1, 2021 through June 30, 2022.
At these hearings, any producer of alfalfa
has a right to be heard with respect to
the proposed budget, a copy of which
is available for public inspection, under
reasonable circumstances, in the office
of each county extension agent in Ore-
gon.
Interested persons may comment on the
proposed budget in writing to the Com-
mission business office, address above.
Comments to be received by May 17,
2021.
For further information, contact the
Oregon Alfalfa Seed Commission busi-
ness office; P.O. Box 688, Ontario, Or-
egon 97914, telephone 541-881-1335.
TDD 503-986-4762.
Curt Sisson, Chairman
Oregon Alfalfa Seed Commission
April 17, 2021
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By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
