Capital Press
EMPOWERING PRODUCERS OF FOOD & FIBER
Friday, October 29, 2021
Volume 94, Number 44
CapitalPress.com
$2.00
Brad Carlson/Capital Press
The Malad River near its
confl uence with the Snake
River outside Bliss, Idaho.
WAIT AND SEE
Boise River Dams Challis
Ontario
Boise
Area in
detail
Arrowrock
Dam
IDAHO
Lucky Peak
na
Dam
ke
Mountain
Home
R i v er
S
Brad Carlson/Capital Press
Boise River Watermaster
Rex Barrie on Oct. 1 at
the Star, Idaho, diversion
for the Canyon County
Canal.
Council
Idaho
S
TAR, Idaho — Rex Bar-
rie viewed the Boise
River as it crawled under
the bridge that straddles
it near Star, Idaho.
It was Oct. 1 — the
fi rst day of the new water year —
and Barrie, the Boise River’s water-
master, was inspecting diversions
that feed water to irrigators.
“As the season winds up,
demand is less,” Barrie said. “So we
can reduce fl ows and keep water in
the reservoirs.”
Doing that will be crucial to
next year’s irrigation season. For 84
the Boise River — and rivers like
it around the West — 2022 could be
a make-or-break year for irrigated
agriculture. This year’s drought and
high heat left most of the region’s
rivers and reservoirs running low,
and farmers have their fi ngers
crossed that the winter will bring
a lot of rain and a hefty snowpack
in the mountains that will replenish
them through next summer.
The Boise River is fed by three
major reservoirs — Anderson
Ranch, Arrowrock and Lucky Peak.
All of them had above-average
Oregon
By BRAD CARLSON
Capital Press
Sn
ak
Western farmers hope to bounce back from an exceptionally dry year
Anderson
Ranch Dam
Twin Falls
See Water, Page 11
Capital Press graphic
Farmers skeptical of Inslee-Murray plan, oppose breaching dams
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
Matthew Weaver/Capital Press File
Michelle Hennings, executive director
of the Washington Association of Wheat
Growers, says farmers oppose breaching
the Snake River dams.
Farmers hope the benefi ts of the Colum-
bia-Snake river system don’t get lost as two
of Washington’s top Democrats “assess”
breaching four dams on the lower Snake
River.
U.S. Sen. Patty Murray and Gov. Jay
Inslee want a joint federal-state process to
consider salmon recovery, including poten-
tially breaching the four dams on the lower
Snake River, long targeted by environmen-
tal groups.
Murray and Inslee say they will engage
in “robust” outreach to communities across
the region. Recommendations will be made
by July 31.
Washington wheat farmers rely on the
system to move their crop to customers
around the world, said Michelle Hennings,
executive director of the Washington Asso-
ciation of Wheat Growers.
“We remain strongly opposed to any
eff orts to breach the lower Snake River
dams, which would cause undue harm to
the food supply, weaken vital agricultural
exports and remove a critical clean energy
source — all without necessarily mov-
ing the needle on desired salmon recovery
eff orts,” Hennings said.
“It is critical that wheat growers have a
meaningful seat at the table,” she said.
The association plans to work directly
with Murray, Inslee and the rest of the
state’s congressional delegation to “ensure
our voice is heard and that removal of the
dams remains off the table,” she said.
“Time and time again, federal and state
eff orts to evaluate the economic and envi-
ronmental impacts of breaching the lower
Snake River dams have come to the same
conclusion: dam removal is an extreme —
and unnecessary — measure that would
not only destroy a critical transportation
network for agricultural exports, inputs ...
but would also harm the environment and
impact power supply and reliability,” said
Glen Squires, CEO of the Washington Grain
Commission. “We remain committed to
fi nding collaborative, science-based salmon
recovery plans that consider the impacts on
See Dams, Page 9
Hazelnut growers weather ice, heat to successful harvest
SALEM — Freshly harvested hazelnuts
arrived by the truckload at Chapin Dehy-
drating LLC, where they are washed and
dried for packaging.
Bruce Chapin, who runs the receiving
station north of Salem, is so far pleased with
what he sees. He anticipates the crop will be
roughly on par with last year’s record haul of
61,000 tons, despite challenging conditions
that have kept Willamette Valley growers on
their toes.
“We had a very dry summer,” Chapin
said. “As a result, we’re seeing smaller nuts
coming in here.”
In addition to the heat
and drought, a major ice
storm in February severely
damaged some orchards,
with branches or, in some
cases, whole trees breaking
under pressure.
Bruce
A shortage of workers at
Chapin
the USDA National Agri-
cultural Statistics Service
means the industry did not receive its annual
crop forecast, but hazelnut growers say they
are seeing decent yields and good quality
after weathering a diffi cult year.
“I think we were basically fl ush or maybe
Courtesy of Tim Aman
See Hazelnuts, Page 11
Wooden totes are fi lled with hazelnuts recently har-
vested at Aman Bros. LLC in Mt. Angel, Ore.
TIME TO PLAN
for next year.
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By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press