Capital Press
EMPOWERING PRODUCERS OF FOOD & FIBER
Friday, July 30, 2021
Volume 94, Number 31
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PIPE DREAM
Matthew Weaver/Capital Press
Alice Parker, longtime advocate for new Columbia Basin Project water delivery to farmers, in the new EL47.5 pumping station outside Warden, Wash.
Alice Parker a cornerstone of the
Columbia Basin Project expansion
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
W
Matthew Weaver/Capital Press
Alice Parker holds a family photo
of herself with her husband, Ike, on
their porch in Royal City in 1968.
ARDEN, Wash. — Alice Parker
waited a long time to see more
water from the Columbia River
delivered to farmers in Eastern
Washington.
On a recent June afternoon, she fi nally saw
her dream transformed into reality.
Parker toured the immense waterworks at
the new EL 47.5 pump station near Warden,
Wash. It’s a modern engineering marvel, push-
ing water through nearly 9 miles of pipeline
from the East Low Canal to irrigate more than
8,500 acres of farmland to the east. The water
comes from the Columbia River at the Grand
Coulee Dam, over 60 miles away.
Equally impressive is the diminutive,
88-year-old Parker.
“I think I’m fi ve-two. They say I’m not,”
she laughed. “They say I keep shrinking.”
She’s how every grandmother should be,
constantly ready with a hug and a hearty laugh
or a bit of wisdom.
She’s also an example of a farmer’s patience.
And persistence. Farmers and others say her
eff orts are the main reason the new pump sta-
tion, which is critical for farmers in the region,
exists.
For decades, area farmers relied on water
from the aquifer below, until it got so low
their wells became unreliable or ran dry. The
only way they could raise high-value crops
profi tably in the region, which gets about 13
See Parker, Page 9
ALICE
PARKER
Member, Colum-
bia Basin Devel-
opment League
Executive Board
Age: 88
Hometown:
Karval, Colo.
Current loca-
tion: Royal City,
Wash.
Education: High
school; Hugo,
Colo.
Survey shows Oregon Christmas tree supplies down, prices up
PORTLAND — A survey
of Oregon Christmas tree
growers shows the indus-
try continues to fi nd its foot-
ing after years of oversup-
ply that fl ooded the market
with cheap trees, forcing
hundreds of farms to go out
of business or switch to less
labor-intensive crops.
Growers cut and sold
3.44 million trees in 2020,
down 27% compared to
2015, according to the sur-
vey conducted by the USDA
National Agricultural Statis-
tics Service.
The number of farms
growing Christmas trees
also fell from 690 to 490, and
total acreage was reduced
from 41,223 to 31,124
during the same period.
Lower supplies, in turn,
have allowed prices to
rebound signifi cantly for
growers. The average price
per tree has almost dou-
bled, from $17.90 in 2015
to $31.06 in 2020. The total
value of sales increased
26% from $84.5 million to
$106.9 million.
In short, growers are cut-
ting fewer trees but mak-
ing more money, said Casey
Grogan of Silver Bells Tree
Farm in Silverton, Ore.
“There’s not as many
(trees) as there used to be,”
Grogan said. “That’s what’s
increasing the price of
them.”
Silver Bells Tree Farm
is a wholesale producer
of Christmas trees, with
about 400 acres of Noble
and Nordmann fi rs. Grogan
also serves on the Oregon
Department of Agriculture’s
Christmas Tree Licens-
ing Committee, and is a
past president of the Pacifi c
Northwest Christmas Tree
Growers Association.
See Survey, Page 9
Oregon makes big water investments in 2021
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
A devastating drought helped
compel
Oregon
lawmakers
to spend big on water legisla-
tion in 2021, investing in long-
range planning as well as specifi c
projects.
Natural resource organiza-
tions have applauded the Legis-
lature’s focus on resolving water
quantity and quality problems but
warn that it can’t rest on its lau-
rels, since these challenges won’t
be solved in a year.
“There’s still a lot of work
that needs to happen,” said April
Snell, executive director of the
Oregon Water Resources Con-
gress, which represents irrigation
districts.
The Legislature allocated
more than $538 million for water
investments during this year’s
session. That included $275 mil-
lion in federal coronavirus relief
funding for infrastructure proj-
ects, which was largely directed
toward municipal improvements.
Agriculture-related projects
also received money — including
$14 million to upgrade Wallowa
Dam and $10 million for piping
water canals in the Deschutes
basin.
A fund for water supply
See Water, Page 9
Matuesz Perkowski/Capital Press
Lawmakers made major investments
in Oregon water projects and plan-
ning this year.
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Capital Press