The Columbia Press
November 26, 2021
3
Warrenton’s F&B Logging company wins honors
The Columbia Press
F&B Logging of Warrenton
was honored last week for its
ethical logging practices and
innovation.
The company, owned by
Mike Falleur, received an
Award of Merit from the
Northwest Oregon Regional
Forest Practices Committee.
The award recognizes forest
operators who, while har-
vesting timber or doing other
forestry work, protect natural
resources above and beyond
what’s required by the Ore-
gon Forest Practices Act.
“He runs a ground-based
Mike Falleur
Left: The F&B crew
hooks a pump up to
a settling pond.
harvesting operation and so
is very concerned about his
footprint on the job,” said
Ashley Lertora, a steward-
ship forester for Oregon De-
partment of Forestry.
The company has decided
to innovate rather than sub-
scribe to the status quo, she
said.
ODF made a video of some
of F&B’s operations. Instead
Healthy crabs lead to on-time season opener
Crabbers of the early
1900s were limited to
Oregon’s Commercial
6-inch and larger male
Dungeness Crab Sea-
crabs with a closed sea-
son will open Dec. 1,
son in the fall.
the first on-time open-
Today’s regulations
ing in seven years.
are nearly identical to
The season frequent-
those in place in 1905.
ly is postponed when
West Coast Dunge-
the crab are scrawny
ness crab landings are
or soft. Ocean condi-
stronger today than at
tions, food availability
any time in history.
and molt/reproductive
Since the fishery was
timing all can affect
established, Oregon has
meat quality and the
consistently been one
hardening of shells.
of the largest producers
Photo courtesy ODFW
The decision to open
of Dungeness crab.
on time was made Nov. A crabber pulls in a loaded trap during a
Since 1995, the fishery
19 by the Oregon De- previous season.
has operated under a
partment of Fish and
limited-entry permit system,
Wildlife. Commercial fisher- brought in $72.7 million, the
which caps the number of
men can begin setting gear second highest grossing on
vessels allowed to participate
at 8 a.m. Nov. 28; they can record. Average annual land-
at 424.
begin pulling gear at 9 a.m. ings in Oregon are about 17
Another measure to con-
million pounds.
Dec. 1.
trol the fishery was the im-
Last year, Astoria’s crab
“All eyes will now turn to
plementation of pot limits in
the skies and the weather ra- fleet brought in 1.77 million
late 2006, which designated
dar maps as December draws pounds.
the amount of gear each per-
Dungeness crab have been
closer (and) while fishermen
mitted vessel could use (three
and buyers work to agree landed commercially on the
tiers of 200, 300 or 500 pots).
on a starting price,” wrote West Coast since 1848, when
The policies were, in part,
the Oregon Dungeness Crab San Francisco fishermen be-
designed to reduce overcapi-
Commission on its Facebook gan the fishery.
talization and excess effort in
The current foundation
page.
the fishery.
The commercial crab fish- for regulations in the fish-
Today, an average of 315
ery is Oregon’s most lucrative ery concerning size, sex, and
permits are issued for Dunge-
season were established over
single-species fishery.
ness each year.
The
2019-20
season 100 years ago.
The Columbia Press
of allowing water used during
the harvest operation to flow
into pristine streams and sen-
sitive fish habitat, the compa-
ny uses a volumn pump with
a hose to capture water in
the settling ponds, filtering it
through vegetation or logging
slash to remove sediment.
“This is the first operator
we’ve seen doing this,” said
Lertora. “This logging crew
does an exceptional job of
monitoring themselves.”
Falleur said he’s interested
in protecting the environ-
ment and also wants to keep
his crew busy.
“I want it done the right
way,” Falleur said. “I’m a
fisherman. I don’t want the
fish to go away. You want ev-
erybody to be able to catch a
salmon.”
Falleur & Bergerson Log-
ging was founded in 1966 by
Falleur’s father and uncle.
Eventually, his dad bought
out his uncle and, much later,
Falleur bought the business
from his father.
“I started working for him
when I was probably 8 years
old,” he joked.
He began logging before he
could drive and has been a
full-time logger since he was
18.
Falleur and his crew will be
honored Jan. 5 at an Oregon
Board of Forestry meeting in
Salem.
Others in the logging indus-
try to receive awards:
• The top honor – for Op-
erator of the Year -- went to
Aaron Silbernagel, owner of
All Around Logging of Stay-
ton for his work helping small
landowners salvage logs and
reforest in the wake of the
2020 Beachie Creek Fire.
• Andrew Marshall, owner
of Marshall Logging in Til-
lamook, was given an Award
of Merit for work he did to
protect a popular hiking trail
and trees targeted to remain
while harvesting a highly vis-
ible timber tract on Oregon
State University’s McDon-
ald-Dunn Experimental For-
est near Corvallis.
The award recipients were
selected from among nomi-
nees sent in by landowners,
Oregon Department of For-
estry staff and others.