Friday, August 26, 2022
Volume 95, Number 34
CapitalPress.com
$2.50
Capital Press
EMPOWERING PRODUCERS OF FOOD & FIBER
Sierra Dawn McClain/Capital Press
Tiff any Monroe and son Tom-
my Lee in a hazelnut orchard.
‘NO NOBLER OCCUPATION’
How Tiff any Monroe became a voice for Oregon agriculture
By SIERRA DAWN McCLAIN
Capital Press
J
UNCTION CITY, Ore. —
Tiff any Monroe drove her
UTV through an orchard
of hazelnuts — old Jef-
ferson variety trees on the
right, rows of young Pol-
lyOs on the left.
Her 2-year-old, Tommy Lee, was
perched on her lap, giggling as he
put his small hands beside his moth-
er’s fi ngers on the steering wheel.
“Are those your fi lberts?” Mon-
roe asked Tommy Lee, slipping
one hand off the wheel to point to
the young trees her son had helped
plant and water.
The little boy grinned and
nodded.
Monroe is a fi fth-generation
farmer, co-owner of Monroe Farms
in Junction City and one of a hand-
ful of young Black farmers in the
state.
She is also the president of Lane
County Farm Bureau, president
of Lane Families for Farms and
Forests, grassroots coordinator
for Oregonians for Food & Shel-
ter, executive secretary of the
McKenzie Business Association,
co-chair of the Environmental
Equity Committee on Gov. Kate
Brown’s Racial Justice Council
and a member of the Black Food
Fund.
“What hasn’t she been a part
of?” joked Bryan Harper, her
brother. “No matter what she
dives into, she is really eff ective at
creating some form of infl uence.”
Mary Anne Cooper, vice pres-
ident of government aff airs at the
Oregon Farm Bureau, echoed Harp-
er’s sentiment, calling Monroe “one
of the most important voices in agri-
culture right now.”
Sierra Dawn McClain/Capital Press
See Monroe, Page 11
Tiff any Monroe, with her son balanced on her hip,
greets one of her family’s cows.
Groups petition Oregon to regulate dairy air emissions
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
SALEM — A coalition of 22 environ-
mental, public health and animal welfare
groups is petitioning Oregon regulators
to adopt new rules targeting air pollution
from large-scale dairies.
The petition, fi led Aug. 17 with the
state Environmental Quality Commission,
seeks to create a dairy air emissions pro-
gram that would apply to farms with 700
or more mature cows, which the federal
Environmental Protection Agency defi nes
as a “large” operation.
Under the program, proposed and exist-
ing dairies would be required to obtain an
air quality permit and curb harmful emis-
sions. They include ammonia, methane,
hydrogen sulfi de and particulate matter,
among others.
Opponents argue the proposal is mis-
leading, and would include family farms
that can ill aff ord more costly regulations.
Emily Miller, staff attorney for Food
and Water Watch, estimated the proposal
would apply to 91 dairies in Oregon. That
is 39% of all Grade A dairies and have
84% of all cows.
“For too long, the state has sat idly
by while Oregon mega-dairies have been
spewing toxic pollution into the air,
wreaking havoc on our natural resources,
climate and communities,” said Miller, the
petition’s lead author. “This head-in-the-
sand approach must change.”
The commission has 90 days to respond.
Confi ned animal feeding operations
such as dairies are jointly regulated by
the state’s Department of Agriculture and
Department of Environmental Quality.
However, the agencies are only respon-
sible for ensuring the manure handled by
CAFOs does not contaminate surface or
ground water.
As early as 2008, a state-convened
Dairy Air Quality Task Force recom-
mended a dairy air emissions program in
its report to ODA. Fourteen years later,
Miller said, almost nothing has been done.
“Meanwhile, these operations keep get-
ting bigger and bigger, and keep emit-
ting more pollution into Oregon’s atmo-
sphere,” she said. “This program is long
overdue.”
Food and Water Watch’s analy-
sis of state and federal data shows dair-
ies with more than 2,500 cows in Oregon
See Air, Page 11
Emerald ash borer catches attention of nursery industry
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
CANBY, Ore. — The recent dis-
covery of emerald ash borer in Ore-
gon came as a shock to the system
for nursery manager Joe Dula.
“It was like, ‘Holy crap, this
is bad,’” said Dula, who runs the
nearly 200-acre Moana Nursery in
Canby, 45 miles southeast of where
the highly destructive pest was
found in Forest Grove. “You know
you’ve got a problem coming.”
Almost immediately, Dula was An adult emerald ash borer.
on the phone with Jeff Stone, exec-
utive director of the Oregon Associ- invasive insect has decimated tens
ation of Nurseries, which represents of millions of North American ash
the state’s $1 billion industry. They trees in 30 states, according to the
both knew what this could mean for USDA.
The discovery in planted ash
producers.
Native to Asia, the fi rst U.S. trees at a middle school parking
sighting of emerald ash borer came lot in Forest Grove — a suburb of
in Michigan in 2002. Since then, the Portland — marks the fi rst sighting
Oregon Department of Agriculture
of emerald ash borer on the West
Coast.
“This was always a pest we
hoped would never get here,” Stone
said.
Moana Nursery specializes in
growing trees, shrubs and perennial
plants suited for the desert climate
of Reno, Nev., where the company
is based and operates three garden
centers.
While ash trees don’t make up a
large percentage of sales compared
to oaks and maples, Dula said they
are popular with commercial and
residential landscapers because they
are hardy, durable and eye-catching
for their fall colors.
Dula said they will now likely
quit selling ash trees as customers
become wary of potentially intro-
ducing emerald ash borer.
“I’m not going to be gambling
with the ash trees,” he said. “I’m
going to be gambling with the oaks,
maples and other varieties.”
How the pest got to Oregon
remains a mystery. Stone said there
is no evidence to suggest it arrived in
nursery stock. “We’re pretty careful
See Borer, Page 11