REGION
Thursday, August 25, 2016
East Oregonian
Page 3A
Harvest links Gilliam County City priority
farmers to flour mills of Asia list ready for
PENDLETON
Despite challenges,
family stays in the
ield to feed world
public input
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
By ERIC MORTENSON
EO Media Group
CONDON — It’s a limited
palette this time of year in the
Columbia Plateau counties.
Blue sky above brown fallow,
with combines of John Deere
green or Case IH red moving
in slow, shrinking circuits
around golden wheat ields.
It’s an empty landscape,
most ways you look. Few
buildings and no trafic. And
in that emptiness, you can lose
track of the broader world. The
wheat kernels tumbling into the
hopper on Chuck Greenield’s
combine are the reminder of
the connection. From Gilliam
County, with fewer than 2,000
people, it will go to lour mills
in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan
and the Philippines.
“Feed the world,” Green-
ield says.
It is a diminished group
of farmers who can make a
living doing that. Greenield’s
employer, Marc Pryor, said the
county had about 150 wheat
farmers in the 1970s. Now he
estimates the number is in the
teens. It’s a classic example
of the economy of scale: Like
most crops, wheat’s narrow
proit margin makes it critical
to spread input, equipment and
labor costs over more acreage,
and it forced many farmers to
get bigger or get out.
In 1950, Oregon had 34,000
farms of one to 49 acres. Now
it’s down to 21,800 in that
size category. The state lost 8
percent of its farmers between
the 2007 Census of Agriculture
to the next one in 2012.
The weather, crop diseases,
equipment breakdowns and the
market don’t care. Wheat that
sold for $7 a bushel one year
brings $5 the next. There may
be enough rain to germinate
and nourish a dryland wheat
crop through the bone-dry
summer, and there may not.
“It’s pretty tough right now,”
Pryor says.
He’s 66 and trying to
maintain the farming operation
that lourished under his father,
Earl Pryor, now retired. His
stepmother, Laura Pryor, was
the Gilliam County judge for
many years. The family busi-
ness, now called Prycor LLC.,
Eric Mortenson/Capital Press
Chuck Greenield, who turns 72 in September, is ield manager for the Pryor family in
Gilliam County. In his 35th harvest season, he calls it “a good way of life.”
“As far as I’m
concerned, this is
a good way of life.
It’s not always bad
to sit and listen to
the combine.”
— Chuck Greenield,
ield manager for the Pryor
family in Gilliam County
farms about 3,500 acres. Marc
Pryor monitors the farm from
Los Angeles, where he lives
and has a business, and returns
home to Condon for harvest.
Marc Pryor is president of
an engineering forensics busi-
ness, which involves inding
out why materials, products,
structures or components fail,
or don’t work like they should.
Farmers have their own struc-
tural problems.
Some are putting land into
conservation reserves and
making money that way, Pryor
says, but that takes land out of
production and limits expan-
sion possibilities. Estate taxes
can make it dificult to pass
farms along to heirs, and in
some cases the previous gener-
ation still needs to be supported
by the farm’s revenue. A strong
U.S. dollar can make U.S.
wheat more expensive than
competitors’, crucial to Paciic
Northwest producers whose
wheat is exported.
But to people who question
the business, Pryor has a ready
Eric Mortenson/Capital Press
Operator Justin Waggoner swings his Case IH combine
into wheat growing outside Condon. Despite its rural
roots, Columbia Plateau wheat is exported to Asia.
answer. “Well, we produced
over six million pounds of
food this year, what have you
done?”
“And it’s in our blood,”
Pryor adds. “That’s why we’re
still doing it.”
Chuck Greenield, the
combine driver, talks about
the same thing. He turns 72 in
September and is the Prycor
ield manager. He’s worked for
the family 35 years.
“You’re kind of indepen-
dent, you don’t have to deal
with a lot of people,” he says.
“If you work in a factory,
you’re basically a number.”
He glances over, taking his
eyes off the machine’s spin-
ning header for a second.
“As far as I’m concerned,
this is a good way of life,” he
says. “It’s not always bad to sit
and listen to the combine.”
His
grandson,
Justin
Waggoner, is driving the red
Case IH combine. He went to
school to learn welding, but
returned to the wheat ields.
“I didn’t ask him to come
back,” Greenield says. “He’s
got farming in his blood.”
Greenield and his grandson
circle in to the trucks to unload.
Truck driver Buster Nation,
who says he’s “16 running
on 17,” manipulates an auger
transferring wheat from a
smaller truck to a larger one,
which will haul the load to a
grain elevator.
The teen says he didn’t
know how to do anything
when he started this summer;
now he can operate every piece
of equipment out here.
“This is one of the best
learning experiences I’ve ever
had,” he said.
MISSION
New exhibit celebrates Happy Canyon
Also features saddle bronc
champ Jackson Sundown
East Oregonian
In celebration of the 100th anniversary
of Happy Canyon Indian Pageant and Wild
West Show, a new exhibition at Tamástslikt
Cultural Institute will highlight its history.
In addition, the exhibit features the 100th
anniversary of Jackson Sundown winning
the saddle bronc inals at Pendleton
Round-Up.
“Jackson
Sundown and
Happy Canyon:
A
Century
Later”
opens
Friday, Sept. 2
at the museum,
which is located
off
Interstate
84, Exit 216
near Wildhorse
Resort & Casino,
Mission. There
is no admission
charge during
the First Friday
event.
The exhibi-
tion, created and curated by staff, historians
and collectors, includes artifacts, photos,
and written stories. Visitors will learn about
Jackson Sundown’s championship run and
the history of Happy Canyon, including
the story and participation by the Umatilla
Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian
Reservation.
Named Oregon’s oficial outdoor
pageant ive years ago, Happy Canyon
is presented nightly during Pendleton
Round-Up.
Roy Raley, the irst Round-Up presi-
dent, believed the community and visitors
needed irst-class entertainment during the
evenings after the rodeo. Working with
local tribal members and historians, Raley
EO ile photo
Jason Hill and Becky Waggoner, doctor and nurse in the Happy Canyon Night
Show, attempt to save a man during a past performance. The show, which
is celebrating its centennial year, is featured in a new exhibit at Tamástslikt
Cultural Institute.
wrote the script, planned the scenery and
directed the irst pageants.
Today’s pageant begins with the
portrayal of the early American Indian
culture. It shows the two cultures clashing
as emigrants, seeking a new life, come
to the frontier. Fighting breaks out, then
peace comes and the scene changes to that
of a wild frontier town. The show ends
with a patriotic lourish.
Jackson Sundown, a well-known
horseman and Nez Perce tribal member,
was a crowd favorite. In 1911, he made
the Round-Up’s saddle bronc inals.
Competing against George Fletcher, a
black man, and John Spain, who was
white, the competition ended in contro-
versy and protest.
Sundown made the inals again in
1915 — placing third. The third time was a
charm for Sundown, as he inally won the
inals in 1916.
The exhibit runs through Oct. 29.
Tamástslikt is open Monday through
Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Regular
admission is $10 for adults, $9 for seniors,
$6 for youths ages 6-17, free for ages 5 and
under.
For more information, call 541-429-
7700 or visit www.tamastslikt.org.
Submit community news information to: community@eastoregonian.com or drop off to the attention of Tammy Malgesini at 333
E. Main St., Hermiston or Renee Struthers at 211 S.E. Byers Ave., Pendleton. Call 541-564-4539 or 541-966-0818 with questions.
Over the next four months, the public will get a
chance to tell the Pendleton City Council whether it
should stay the course or reshufle the deck in favor
of new priorities.
After a priorities committee met a second time
Monday, mayor-elect John Turner released a set of 12
priorities for the 2017-2019 biennium, which Turner
and members of the committee will show to residents
with the goal of cutting the list down to four or ive
for the council to approve in January.
The latest draft of the priority list mostly changes
grammar and phrasing from the original draft the
committee made Aug. 15, but there are a few key
differences.
The committee changed “support UAS range
economic development” to the more general
“increase economic development activities.”
The Eastern Oregon Regional Airport and its
unmanned aerial systems range have been a focus of
the council in recent years, even earning a spot on its
2013-2015 goal list.
Turner said the broadening the priority was less
about deemphasizing the airport and more geared
toward making sure they weren’t “handcuffed” to
any particular industry.
The other major change the committee made took
the opposite tack — reining a goal that originally
was much broader.
The irst list featured a general statement about
fostering “special relationships” with the Round-Up,
Happy Canyon, Umatilla County and other commu-
nity organizations. The priority now singles out
the Round-Up and Happy Canyon and promotes
expanding their capacities for current and future
events.
Turner said Round-Up General Manager Casey
Beard, who is on the committee, told fellow members
that his association was interested in expanding their
property beyond their current “campus.”
Both the Round-Up and the city own several
properties west of nearby Southwest 18th Street and
have looked into co-developing the land.
“What’s good for the Round-Up is good for the
city of Pendleton,” Turner said, quoting City Manager
Robb Corbett.
With a list of priorities now in hand, members of
the committee will now ask the public to rank their
top ive priorities, which will be considered when the
list is pared down.
Turner said priorities that don’t make the cut will
still receive attention from the city, but the top priori-
ties will get more notice from the council.
The list of 12 will be presented to community
groups, local government bodies and the public
at-large through public meetings.
Turner and two new councilors will join the
council at its irst meeting Jan. 3.
———
Contact Antonio Sierra at asierra@eastorego-
nian.com or 541-966-0836.
HERMISTON
New bottle recycling
center opens Friday
East Oregonian
Hermiston’s new center for recycling cans and
bottles will open Friday.
The BottleDrop Redemption Center, operated
by the Oregon Beverage Recycling Cooperative, is
located at the former Goodwill building at 740 W.
Hermiston Avenue. It will be staffed and open seven
days a week from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.
As members of the recycling cooperative,
Wal-Mart, Safeway, Fiesta Foods, Rite Aid, Bi-Mart
and Big Lots in Hermiston will no longer be required
by the state to take bottles and cans at their stores after
Sept. 9.
Customers will be offered three different ways to
redeem deposits. The center’s self-serve machines will
accept up to 350 containers per customer per day. Staff
can accept and hand-count up to 50 containers per
person. And regular customers can open a BottleDrop
Account.
The account offers pre-labeled bags that customers
can drop off at the center 24 hours a day for staff to
count. Within 48 hours the deposit money will be
available in the customer’s account, which they can
redeem for cash at participating grocery stores or use it
to pay for groceries.
The Oregon Beverage Recycling Cooperative said
in a news release that the Hermiston center will be
the state’s 16th BottleDrop center after the legislature
approved a statewide rollout in 2013.
“You really have to experience one of our clean,
spacious BottleDrop Redemption Centers to appreciate
this whole new level of returning bottles and cans,”
John Andersen, President of OBRC, said in a statement.
“We are excited for Hermiston residents to see how fast
and convenient collecting your refund can be.”
Meacham wolves kill calf
East Oregonian
MEACHAM — A 450-pound calf was killed
by wolves on private land near Meacham Creek,
according to the Oregon Department of Fish &
Wildlife.
The animal was found injured and lying partially
in a pond on a forested cattle pasture Aug. 20. It had
numerous bite marks on its backside consistent with
a canine, and wolf tracks were seen around the edge
of the pond. The calf died minutes later.
The attack happened within the Meacham Pack’s
territory in the southern portion of the Mount Emily
Unit. The pack had at least ive total wolves as of the
end of 2015.
This is the irst conirmed wolf depredation in
Umatilla County since May 20.