Friday, August 20, 2021
CapitalPress.com 5
Senator to host virtual town hall discussing River Democracy Act
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden
will host a virtual town hall
to discuss his bill that would
designate 4,700 miles of wild
and scenic rivers statewide.
The proposal, known as
the River Democracy Act,
was developed based on more
than 15,000 public nomina-
tions — hence its name — to
extend protections for water-
ways under the National Wild
and Scenic Rivers System.
If passed, the River
Democracy Act
would
roughly triple the number
of wild and scenic rivers in
Oregon.
Several counties in Eastern
Oregon, however, have raised
objections to the bill, arguing
it would add
new restric-
tions on live-
stock graz-
ing, timber
harvest and
recreation,
Sen. Ron
hindering
Wyden
their
local
economies.
Critics say the bill also
wrongly applies the National
Wild and Scenic River Act
by including small and inter-
mittent streams. According
to one analysis by the Amer-
ican Forest Resource Council,
a timber lobbying group, just
15% of the waterways listed
in the bill are actually labeled
“rivers.”
In a resolution passed
July 21, the Wallowa County
Board of Commissioners
requested that all river seg-
ments in Wallowa County be
removed from the legislation.
The Union County Board of
Commissioners also sent a
letter July 6 to Wyden outlin-
ing its concerns.
Rep. Cliff Bentz, who is
Oregon’s only Republican
member of Congress and
opposes the River Democ-
racy Act, said he spoke with
all 63 commissioners in 20
counties that make up his dis-
trict. Of those, he estimated
all but 10 were “adamantly
opposed” to the bill.
Representatives of Wyden
and fellow Democratic
Sen. Jeff Merkley, the bill’s
co-sponsor, were supposed to
meet Aug. 10 with the East-
ern Oregon Counties Asso-
ciation in Pendleton. Wyden
spokesman Hank Stern said
that meeting had to be can-
celed while the Senate was
working to pass the $1 tril-
lion infrastructure bill.
Instead, Wyden will hold
the virtual town hall at 1 p.m.
Aug. 31 to talk about the
River Democracy Act. Stern
said the senator’s staff will
continue to meet one-on-one
with county commission-
ers to hear their feedback and
suggestions.
“From the fi rst river and
stream nominations more
than a year and a half ago
to this virtual town hall, this
legislation has been shaped
at every step by the best of
the Oregon Way, namely tak-
ing good ideas at the com-
munity level and working
through a public process and
ongoing conversations with
all Oregonians to fi nd com-
mon ground,” Wyden said.
Created in 1968, the
National Wild and Scenic
Rivers System calls for pre-
serving certain rivers with
“outstanding natural, cultural
and recreational values.”
Oregon currently has 2,173
miles of rivers designated as
wild and scenic, or 2% of all
rivers across the state.
The River Democracy
Act also would widen pro-
tective buff ers from a quar-
ter-mile to a half-mile on
both sides of the designated
streams. That would add up
to approximately 3 million
acres, an area about the size
of Connecticut.
Wyden said the bill ensures
that only federal lands are
protected, and will not inter-
fere with existing water rights
and grazing permits.
Land management agen-
cies, including the U.S. Forest
Service and Bureau of Land
Management, would have up
to six years to write a com-
prehensive plan for the newly
designated corridors, work-
ing with local, state and tribal
governments.
The bill also requires land
managers to assess wildfi re
risks in the corridors, and
develop strategies to mitigate
the damage if a fi re burns
near a wild and scenic river.
The virtual town hall
meeting will be hosted by
People’s Town Hall on
Facebook Live, and can
be accessed at https://bit.
ly/3xT1Iam.
IDWR: Spring, summer driest in 97 years
By BRAD CARLSON
Capital Press
The Idaho Department of Water
Resources reports the March-July
period was the second-driest in state
history, behind 1924.
IDWR said 80% of snow teleme-
try stations set minimum-precipitation
records from March through July. Six-
teen of the state’s 44 counties are in an
“exceptional meteorological drought,”
and the Big Wood, Big Lost and Little
Lost river basins in the central moun-
tains may set water-year records for
lowest runoff .
Irrigation supplies were expected
to be adequate in many basins given
decent snowpack, but “shockingly low
precipitation this spring caught fore-
casters completely by surprise,” the
report said.
“This year was a combination of
a bunch of bad things,” said IDWR
hydrologist David Hoekema, who
wrote the report. “We knew of the dry
soil underneath. We didn’t account for
the lack of spring rains.”
A typical spring storm adds to
snowpack at upper elevations while its
low-elevation rain fl ushes snowpack to
rivers, aquifers and reservoirs — minus
whatever water fi lls the soil profi le.
Brad Carlson/Capital Press
A canal near Kuna, Idaho, in mid-Ju-
ly. Demand for irrigation water has
been strong this year, one of the dri-
est on record.
IDWR said this year’s runoff was well
below expectations.
Natural fl ows fulfi ll water rights
until runoff ends and users rely more
on reservoirs. An early end to runoff
has made junior water right holders
turn to stored water sooner.
“Storage is being used much ear-
lier,” Hoekema said.
Even in the Boise River Basin,
where snowpack was around 90% of
normal, the drop in natural fl ow and
shift to reservoirs occurred about a
month early, Hoekema said.
Meanwhile,
prolonged
hot
weather in June and July — with
more expected this month — has kept
demand high.
“Farmers got hit on two sides,” he
said. “Crops were more thirsty than
normal, and they were not planning on
this low water supply.”
Most Boise-area crops have had suf-
fi cient water to this point, but with res-
ervoir levels dropping faster than usual
due to high demand, there is concern
that storage water may run out while
it’s still needed, Hoekema said.
Some producers will be able to get
by on groundwater, he said.
The report said the state’s aquifers
likely will be hit hard this year, and
reservoirs that store more than a sin-
gle season of water “may be depleted
to levels that may take several years to
recover.”
“There is growing concern among
water managers that Idaho may be
entering into a multi-year drought
period,” the report said.
Drought has hurt non-irrigated
farms.
“This drought is really unprece-
dented in that we had a reasonable snow-
pack in the winter, but the record-set-
ting heat and dryness of spring resulted
in an unforeseen extreme drought,” the
report said, “especially in the dryland
agricultural regions of northern Idaho.”
WSDA
An Asian giant hornet attacks a paper wasp nest at
a home in Blaine, Wash. The Washington State De-
partment of Agriculture identifi ed the hornet Aug.
12 from a photo sent in by the resident.
Asian giant
hornets
OSU appoints new leader for statewide proving elusive
outreach and extension programs
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
Ivory
Lyles
Silvia
Rondon
extension program at Tennes-
see State University in Nash-
ville — both of which are his-
torically Black colleges and
universities. Lyles has also
served as associate vice presi-
dent for agriculture and direc-
tor of the cooperative exten-
sion service at the University
of Arkansas at Little Rock,
and held extension leadership
roles at Ohio State University
and University of Tennessee.
He is a member of the
National Association of
County Agriculture Agents,
National Association of
Extension 4-H Agents and
national
4-H
Diversity
Design team, and serves as
program committee chair-
man for the national Exten-
sion Committee on Organiza-
tion and Policy.
Rondon named interim
HAREC director
OSU has also appointed a
new interim director at the Herm-
iston Agricultural Research and
Extension Center.
Silvia Rondon, a longtime
professor and entomologist at the
station, will take over the position
previously held by Clive Kaiser,
who recently stepped down to
join the faculty at Lincoln Uni-
versity in New Zealand.
Kaiser was named interim
HAREC director in September
2019 after former director Phil
Hamm retired. A national search
will begin this fall to fi ll the job
permanently.
HAREC serves 500,000 acres
of irrigated agriculture in Oregon
and Washington’s Columbia
Basin, where farmers produce
more than 200 diff erent crops.
The station’s research pri-
marily focuses on fi nding
ways to make growers more
effi cient and profi table. This
includes identifying new
crops and growing practices
tailored for the region; breed-
ing and evaluating new plant
varieties; management of
pests and diseases; and other
environmental issues, such as
water quality.
For Rondon, it is her sec-
ond promotion this year. She
was also appointed director of
OSU’s Integrated Pest Manage-
ment Center in May.
Though the center is based
in Corvallis, Rondon has
remained in Hermiston and
continues to oversee the ento-
mology program at HAREC.
Two Asian giant hor-
nets gave the slip to the
Washington State Depart-
ment of Agriculture over
the weekend, foiling an
attempt to electronically
track them to their nest in
Whatcom County.
The department cap-
tured one hornet Aug. 12
and a second one Aug. 13
near Blaine, where a resi-
dent last week reported a
hornet attacking a paper
wasp nest, about a quar-
ter mile from the border
with Canada.
The department tied
electronic devices to
the hornets and released
them Friday. The hornets
hung out for a couple of
hours before fi nally fl y-
ing away, department
spokeswoman Karla Salp
said.
The hornets went into
heavy vegetation, and
their pursuers lost the
signal, she said.
Eff orts to pick up the
signal resumed Saturday.
The department found
one electronic device, but
the hornet was no longer
attached. “The hornet got
out of it,” Salp said.
The department was
continuing to search for
a signal from the second
device Monday. The bat-
tery on the device should
last about two weeks,
Salp said.
The Asian giant hor-
net photographed by
the Blaine-area resident
was the fi rst live sight-
ing this year. The hor-
net was about two miles
from where the depart-
ment eradicated a nest
last October.
Asian giant hornets,
which prey on pollina-
tors, were fi rst spotted in
North America in 2019 —
in Whatcom County and
across the border in Brit-
ish Columbia.
The state agriculture
department and USDA are
out to eradicate the pest.
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CORVALLIS — Oregon
State University has appointed a
new leader to oversee statewide
outreach and extension programs.
Ivory Lyles was named Vice
Provost for University Extension
and Engagement and director of
OSU Extension Service, eff ec-
tive Sept. 30.
He takes over for Anita Aza-
renko, who served for more than
two years in an interim role fol-
lowing the retirement of Scott
Reed in 2019. Azarenko is now
retiring after nearly 35 years at
OSU.
“I am very pleased to join
OSU and I look forward to help-
ing support the needs of Orego-
nians and communities statewide
by working with university col-
leagues, the Oregon Legislature,
local counties and community
partners throughout the state,”
Lyles said in a statement.
OSU’s Division of Exten-
sion and Engagement includes
the Extension Service and Offi ce
of Professional and Continuing
Education, serving all 36 Ore-
gon counties and the Confed-
erated Tribes of Warm Springs
Reservation.
The division’s programs are
built around seven focus areas
including 4-H youth develop-
ment; agriculture and natural
resources, including the Small
Farms and Master Gardener
programs; family and commu-
nity health; forestry and natural
resources; OSU Open Campus;
Outdoor School; and Oregon Sea
Grant.
The university also runs 11
agricultural research and exper-
iment stations, strategically
located in diff erent growing
regions around the state.
Lyles comes to OSU from
the University of Nevada-Reno,
where he had been the associate
dean for engagement and direc-
tor of extension since 2017. He
oversaw about 300 employees
and a budget of $40 million. Pre-
viously, Lyles was a profes-
sor, dean and director of land
grant programs at Alcorn
State University in Lorman,
Miss., and led the cooperative
“Dr. Lyles has a long his-
tory of outstanding leader-
ship in extension and engage-
ment positions in universities
in multiple states, and he is a
national leader in this domain
as well,” said Edward Feser,
OSU’s provost and executive
vice president. “I’m delighted
he is joining OSU’s leader-
ship team.”
Lyles has a doctorate in
agricultural education, com-
munity and rural develop-
ment from Ohio State.
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
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