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About Baker City herald. (Baker City, Or.) 1990-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 10, 2020)
Business AgLife B Thursday, September 10, 2020 The Observer & Baker City Herald Small-business & Ag HAPPENINGS Farmers on the front line EO Media Group Deadline here for workshop on destination marketing ENTERPRISE — The Northeast Oregon Economic Development District is offering a new online workshop for business owners called “Destination Creation.” The work- shop begins Sept. 15, but the registration deadline for the workshop is Thursday, Sept. 10. The workshop aims to show merchants how to make their businesses a destination for consumers from beyond their immediate marketplace and one they’ll frequent during the time of cornonavirus and after. The worksop coats $399, but by using the code “NEOEDD” participants can get the course for $175. Scholarships are available for business owners in Baker, Union and Wallowa counties who have a low-to-mod- erate incomes. Contact Lisa Dawson via email at lisadawson@neoedd.org or phone 541-426-3598 for scholarship information. The program consists of eight chapters and a bonus session. Learning materials, including webinars, are available online for up to six months following the class via the Destination University portal. The sessions will take place from 5-7:30 p.m. Sept. 15, 17, 22, 24 and 29 and Oct. 1, 6 and 8. To register, visit https://tinyurl.com/NEOEDDcourse. To learn more, visit https://tinyurl.com/ NEOEDDcourseinfo. Trade Adjustment Act programs help firms, workers SEATTLE — When an American worker loses their job due to competition created by international trade, the Trade Adjustment Act provides funding for that worker to be retrained for a new job. A cousin to that program is the Trade Adjust- ment Assistance for Firms program. Instead of retraining workers, the federal program retrains companies, from farms to manufacturers, that are facing revenue losses because of trade. The TAAF provides a dollar-for-dollar match up to $75,000 for businesses to bring in outside expertise to help them better compete. The Northwest Trade Adjustment Assis- tance Center runs the TAAF for Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Alaska. Compa- nies can use the assistance to help with mar- keting, expanding into new markets, devel- oping new products and more. David Holbert, the CEO of the assistance center, said the center can help companies refine their plans for staying competitive or give them confidence the strategy will work. The center submits an application on the client’s behalf to the Economic Devel- opment Administration of the U.S. Depart- ment of Commerce, and once the applica- tion is approved, the program will provide matching grant funds to the firms providing outside expertise to the client. Once approved, the assistance center works with companies for a span of five years. According to documents the center pro- vided, 11 companies in Oregon took advan- tage of the TAAF funding between 2011- 15, and each saw positive outcomes through either expanding or stabilizing their busi- ness. On average, they saw a 21% increase in sales. Firms interested in receiving TAAF funds can visit nwtaac.org or call 206-622-2730. Photo courtesy of Kevin Duling Volunteer firefighters with the Juniper Flats Rural Fire Protection District in Maupin help recently to battle the White River Fire, which now is about 17,500 acres and threatens private farms and ranches. Wildfires threaten agricultural land By George Plaven Capital Press SALEM — Josh Duling left his family’s 5,000-acre wheat farm near Maupin for a horseback trip in the Wallowa Mountains on Aug. 20. At the time, the White River Fire was relatively small, burning 1,500-2,000 acres in the Mount Hood National Forest. When Duling returned on Aug. 25, flames had jumped out of the canyon, fanned by high winds, and were creeping toward private farms and ranches. “Everything was just a smoky haze,” Duling said. “You couldn’t see more than 300 yards in front of you when we got home.” Sparked by lightning on Aug. 17, the White River Fire has since grown to more than 17,000 acres and is 70% contained. Duling, a fourth-genera- tion farmer and member of the local Juniper Flats Rural Fire Protection District, sprang into action. He and fellow volunteer firefighters have been working around the clock digging fire breaks and dousing hot spots to protect their neighbors’ land and homes. Duling’s farm was spared. Though wheat harvest is fin- ished, most growers in the area use no-till farming practices, leaving stubble in fields to help retain the limited moisture and soil organic matter for future crops. If consumed by fire, it would take years to replenish that soil health, Duling said. In Eastern Oregon, the Indian Creek Fire started Aug. 16 in rural Malheur County and has burned 48,128 acres. It is now 75% contained. Bill Romans, a cattle rancher near the small town of Westfall, about an hour’s drive west of Ontario, said the fire burned roughly half of his Bureau of Land Manage- ment grazing allotment. While he did not lose any cattle, he won’t be able to use the allot- ment for at least three growing seasons until the vegetation has a chance to grow back. Romans said he does not yet know if the BLM will allow him to fence off and use the part that didn’t burn, which would help with grazing for next year. “Of course, it’ll be reduced numbers or staying in there less time,” he said. “We’ll put our heads together and see what we can get done.” Scott Seus, of Seus Family Farms in Tulelake, California, said the impact of wildfires stretches beyond just acres burned. Protecting workers from unhealthful smoke has been another challenge for growers in Southern Oregon and Northern California. In particular, the state of Cali- fornia has a law requiring farms to provide workers with N95 masks if the air quality index — which monitors five major pollutants — exceeds 151. The Caldwell Fire, which burned more than 80,000 acres near Lava Beds National Mon- ument in July, required Seus to track down masks for his crews harvesting and weeding fields of mint and other row crops. But with the corona- virus pandemic, masks were already tough to find and expensive, selling for as much as $3.88 each online. “The N95 mask is one that we use in pesticide applica- tions,” Seus said. “There was a big drive to try and acquire those masks from farmers and get them to hospitals. Farmers gave up masks early in the season for COVID-19. When we needed them, we couldn’t get a hold of them. “It’s frickin’ 2020,” he added. “It’s been a hell of a year.” Wallowa County Chamber seeks new leadership USDA predicts record hazelnut crop in Oregon By Bill Bradshaw SALEM — This year’s Oregon hazelnut crop could be the largest ever, as more young trees across the Willamette Valley reach maturity. The USDA National Agricultural Statis- tics Service released its annual production forecast Aug. 25, predicting growers will harvest 71,000 tons of hazelnuts. That’s 61% more than last year’s total of 44,000 tons, and 39% more than the previous record of 51,000 tons in 2018. Oregon produces almost all U.S. hazel- nuts — or filberts — though the state accounts for just 5% of global supply. Turkey, the world’s largest hazelnut pro- ducer, exported 338,200 tons between Sept. 1, 2019, and Aug. 23. This year’s anticipated spike in pro- duction coincides with a 20% increase in mature orchards, from 50,000 acres in 2019 to 60,000 acres in 2020. Farmers have almost tripled hazelnut acreage in the Wil- lamette Valley since 2010, spurred by the development of new varieties resistant to Eastern Filbert Blight, a tree-killing fungal disease. The total acreage planted is approaching 85,000, meaning another 25,000 acres will begin producing a crop in the near future. Terry Ross, executive director of the Hazelnut Growers Bargaining Associ- ation, said prices are not yet set for the 2020 crop. Last year, growers received 83 cents per pound. In 2018, the industry set a three-tiered pricing system that ranged from 62 to 91 cents per pound, depending on variety. ENTERPRISE — The Wallowa County Chamber of Commerce has started the search for new leadership as longtime Executive Director Vicki Searles retires. The chamber’s Board of Directors announced last week it would hire a new executive director this fall. Searles, who has been with the chamber for 20 years, will have her last day at the end of this month. “I’m ready to move on to EO Media Group new adventures,” she said. Chief among her “new adventures” is her new posi- tion as a realtor with Wal- lowa Mountain Properties — just across the hall from the chamber offices. Still, Searles said she’ll miss her time at the chamber. “I am very grateful to all who have helped and sup- ported me over the years,” she said. “There are too many to share out of fear of missing anyone; how wrong that would be. I look for- ward to seeing a great future Staff photo by Bill Bradshaw/EO Media Group Vicki Searles, executive director of the Wallowa County Cham- ber of Commerce, sits outside the chamber offices Friday, Sept. 4. Her tenure with the chamber is over at the end of the month. in the next 20 years for the chamber. Wallowa County is special.” The chamber began prepa- rations for the transition last spring, but the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic caused a delay. The chamber instead put its attention on business and community health. Since then, the chamber formed a hiring committee tasked with the develop- ment of a strategy to hire a director and to release a job announcement. Big tippers: Alaska man joins push to aid restaurant workers By Mark Thiessen Associated Press ANCHORAGE, Alaska — It was a busy Taco Tuesday at Midnight Sun Brewing Co. in Anchorage, Alaska — a blessing these days at any restaurant — when a guy at a table with three bud- dies wanted to chat with their waitress. “I wasn’t totally paying attention, to be honest,” lead server Angelina Backus recalled. “And then all of a sudden he pulled out his wallet and he’s pulling out five $100 bills.” The conversation customer Jack Little was trying to have with Backus was about the Venmo Challenge, a social media trend in which people around the country use the online payment app to send money to a friend, who builds up a bankroll for big tips. The pandemic has deci- mated restaurants and their employees nationwide. The National Restaurant Associa- tion says it’s been the hardest hit industry. “According to our anal- ysis, the industry has lost more than $165 billion in sales since March and is on track to lose $240 billion by the end of the year,” association spokes- woman Vanessa Sink said. The industry also lost 6.1 million jobs in March and April, about half of the 12 million positions at places offering food and drink, Sink said, citing U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics figures. Little, who works for a telecommunications com- pany, heard about the tip chal- lenge and decided to see what he could do for servers in Anchorage. He took to Face- book and Instagram, asking friends to send 50 cents or a dollar, whatever they could spare, to his Venmo account. “My friends have been incredibly generous,” he said. The account to help wait staff has reached nearly $7,000. Little started by giving $500 tips to five separate waiters or waitresses across the city. One of his latest totaled $1,000. He said the luck of the draw determines who gets the money.