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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (July 30, 2016)
WEEKEND EDITION BOB HUBBARD OF IONE Enjoy a free pass to the Heritage Station Museum TWO VIETNAM VETERANS REUNITED AFTER 47 YEARS LIFESTYLES/1C BAND DIRECTOR PACKS UP HIS BAGPIPES ATHENA/3A JULY 30-31, 2016 140th Year, No. 206 $1.50 WINNER OF THE 2016 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD BOARDMAN GMO wheat found again in northwest By MATTHEW WEAVER EO Media Group SPOKANE — The USDA is investigating 22 genetically engineered wheat plants found in a fallow Washington state agricultural fi eld. The wheat plants are resistant to the herbi- cide glyphosate, known by the trade name Roundup, according to an Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service notice. “APHIS has taken prompt and thorough action in response to this discovery and has no evidence of GE wheat in commerce,” the notice states. It did not say when or where the discovery was made or reveal the name of the farmer. The GE wheat was developed by the Monsanto Co. and is referred to as MON 71700 and contains the CP4-EPSPS protein, according to the notice. “Due to the small number of affected plants and based on available information about MON 71700 and CP4-EPSPS, (the Food and Drug Administration) has concluded it See WHEAT/12A Staff photo by E.J. Harris A truck drives down Poleline Road between poplar trees on the left and a corn fi eld on the right as the transition begins at the Boardman Tree Farm from trees to food production. It is rocket science for Pendleton grad Receding tree line By ANTONIO SIERRA East Oregonian Sometimes it takes Ryan Lacey longer than expected to grasp things. But once he does, he takes off. Graduating from Pendleton High School with a 4.0 GPA, the top SAT scores in his class and all the other accolades that come with being a top student betrays the fact that Lacey didn’t know how to read until third grade. By the next year he was in the top reading group. “As easy as riding a bike” was more of an adage than a personal truth for Lacey until he was Lacey around 10, when he fi rst learned to ride a bicycle unassisted in the Alvord Desert, a dry lake bed in southeastern Oregon. And it may have taken some time for Iconic poplar tree farm making room for cows, crops By GEORGE PLAVEN East Oregonian Staff photo by E.J. Harris Piles of cut poplar trees sit in a fi eld Friday at the Boardman Tree Farm. remaining trees are harvested. Evans said the transition has gone better than expected since the company took over in February. “It’s a beautiful piece of prop- erty,” he said. “This is a great place to farm.” Terms of the deal, which included both the land and water See LACEY/10A No protection for no man’s land By ALEXA LOUGEE East Oregonian There are 156,000 of acres of land in Umatilla County with no offi cial fi re protection. This land is predominantly in three areas of the county — north of Pendleton, east of Hermiston and south of Pilot Rock — and is known as “no man’s land” among county fi re offi cials. These areas are unpro- tected because those land owners do not pay taxes for fi re coverage. Fires that start in those areas have the poten- tial to become large fi res, like the recent fi re in Gilliam County, that would threaten land and homes owned by citizens within a fi re protected area. As a result, time and resources are often expended outside district boundaries to prevent small fi res from getting out of control. Where possible, district fi re crews will preserve resources by allowing a fi re in no man’s land to burn toward a boundary line and then take action. Most often, land owners are the fi rst responders to fi res on their land and do their best with tractors and equipment, but according to Scott Stanton, fi re chief of the Umatilla County Fire District, their efforts are just not enough. Stanton wants to see the county, landowners and area fi re chiefs sit down and fi nd solutions to the no man’s land issue and the problems unpro- tected land pose. Stanton has at least three possible ways to address no man’s land. One idea is to have current fi re districts adjacent to the lands annex the unprotected area. Landowners would have to fi le the request and then voters would have to approve the annexation. Another solution is to create a new fi re district. The process is similar to annex- ation and requires a vote. A third possibility would be to form a rangeland fi re protection association through the state. In a fi re protection association, landowners agree to serve as volunteer wildland fi refi ghters in case a fi re starts on their lands. There is no fi re station, no paid fi re crew and no tax district. Through forming an See FIRE/12A Umatilla County areas lacking fire protection Area in detail Ore. No official fire district r Parts of county left uncovered by fi re districts 82 R Col u m b i a Umatilla 730 84 Hermiston Stanfield 12 Wash. Wash. Ore. ive Once a captivating landmark along Interstate 84 in Eastern Oregon, the Boardman Tree Farm is quickly disappearing to make way for more conventional crops and cows. GreenWood Resources, headquartered in Portland, sold the land earlier this year and already large swaths of poplars have been cut down and replaced with irrigation pivots. Approximately one-third of the 25,000-acre property is slated to become a dairy farm — permit pending — while the rest was purchased by AgriNorthwest, based in the Tri-Cities. Will Evans, division controller for AgriNorthwest, said the plan is to convert all acreage into cropland as the rights from the Columbia River, were not disclosed. AgriNorth- west grows a variety of local staples, including potatoes, corn, wheat and carrots. Don Rice, director of North American operations for Green- Wood Resources, said it will likely be a few years before all the trees are gone. Part of the wait, he said, is to allow younger trees to fi nish growing before they are ready to be processed. Another part is based on what the markets will bear. The Collins Companies informed Morrow County offi - cials they will permanently shut down the Upper Columbia Mill by the end of October, with most of the facilities’ 67 employees laid off by Sept. 19. However, Rice said the Columbia Forest Products veneer mill is still open, See DAIRY/12A Milton- Ore. Freewater 11 37 Echo Athena Pendleton iver illa R Umat 204 84 207 Pilot Rock UMATILLA 82 74 La Grande MORROW 244 395 Source: Umatilla County Alan Kenaga/ EO Media Group UNION Ukiah 10 miles 84