Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 17, 2008)
Heppner Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon Wednesday, September 17, 2008 - FIVE NRCS announces local EQIP 2009 application cutoff Local farmers and ranchers interested in finan cial and technical assistance for conservation measures on their working lands have until October 3 to apply for Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQ1P) funding for federal fiscal year 2009. “EQIP is a voluntary conservation program to provide incentives to farm ers, ranchers, and foresters to improve and enhance the condition of water, soil, and other natural resources on private working lands,” says Tom Bennett. “With the onset of the new Farm Bill the program has changed a little providing an opportu nity not only to individual farmers and ranchers but also group projects with organizations.” T here are many practices available for each different land use and here are just some highlights. For irrigated and dryland farmers there are incentives for the use of GPS guidance systems or overlap reduc tion spray systems, the use of cover crops, or precision nutrient management. Ir rigators also have incen tives which include water management and structures that allow better water man agement such as the conver sion from flood to sprinkler irrigation. Ranchers have in centives which include new seedings, cross fencing, water developments, and grazing management. In centives on Vineyards and Orchards include the use of onsite weather stations for irrigation and pest manage ment and intensive nutrient management. Improved Forest Health and fire risk reduction can be achieved with incentives that include forest stand thinning, seed ing and tree planting. The USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) accepts applications for EQ1P year- round. Funding decisions, however, are made at cutoff points during the year. Ap- plications received before October 3 will be given priority for 2009, in the fol lowing counties: Umatilla, Morrow, Gilliam, Grant, and Wheeler. Interested parties should contact their local USDA-NRCS to apply. In Heppner, the USDA/NRCS service center located at 430 W Linden Way. NRCS also has offices in Pendleton, Condon and John Day. For more informa tion about EQ1P, including local ranking information, enrollment requirements and program payments, please visit the Oregon NRCS web site at: http://www.or.nrcs. usda.gov or contact your local NRCS office. C o F I S C T V iltio n G ä r d C l l O f t h e Year award given to Verrall By Kay Proctor Lyle Verrall of 630 N. Main Street, Heppner, has been awarded the first “Conservation Garden of the Year” recognition by the Heppner Garden Club. Part o f G ard en Club’s conservation pledge states “I pledge to protect and conserve the natural resources o f the planet Earth..... so that we may become caretakers of the air, water, forests, land and wildlife.” Members strive to meet that pledge and de cided to establish this new' recognition to honor others who do, too. Verrall, who is re tired from the Corps of En gineers, purchased his home in 1987 and had a traditional grass yard, vegetable garden and a monthly water bill to prove it. He couldn’t live with the idea of just letting the yard go to weeds to save money, so he came up with a plan that is “something I can live w ith.” A few years ago, he rototilled the lawn, laid down black plastic and spread a thick layer of gravel over his entire yard. Spray ing a few weeds that pop up is needed only occasion ally. Other projects fol lowed, but not all at once. Cy clone fencing has been built by Larry Kennedy in phases. Lyle has several ‘islands’ put in throughout the gravel mulch bordered by brown landscape blocks and filled with a variety o f plant ings. Lyle’s favorite ‘island’ holds a 90 gallon pond that The remodeling project underway at Pioneer Memorial Hospital is “on schedule," according hos is home to a school of gold pital CEO Victor Vander Does. The remodel, which includes three private rooms, two semi-pri fish, albino catfish and algae vate rooms, a tub room, and a solarium/dining room, should he linished around mid-November. eaters with a turtle statue The changes were made to accommodate a long term care facility . Photo hy Autumn Morgan named “Brownie” guarding over them. Stored away is an unused 110 gallon pond form that if Lyle does not put to use, he may sell. Plantings include Alberta Spruce, a tomato plant, butterfly bushes and colorful poppies and wild- flowers that reseed them selves. Trees include birch, horse chestnut, spruce and Hospital remodel project on schedule Oregon East Symphony presents gala opening weekend aaaæii- K ornaci Qhop Cylinder Assembly Hold-Down Parts nnenucf Adjuster Lever Spring m menci Secondary Shoe if you're experiencing any of these symptoms, stop by for 0 FREE BRAKE We re proud to service domestic and - — cars import (ON M OST VEHICLES) and trucks. Supermarket pricing promOes Free senice i narranti a price torent/huQget. contract »itti four purchase. A ij J i ,1 _ 25,000 Mile Warranty on Brake Parts and tabor Pie feature ttie largest selection of tires in stock that tit your rehicle. Installée tutta/! __ UIMTMIIIICTMFIUI m Les Schwab Tire Center 124 North Main St., Heppner 6 7fi-948l The Oregon East Symphony will start its 2008-2009 concert season with two very special con certs. On Saturday, Octo ber 4th at 7:30 p.m. in the historic Vert Auditorium, conductor Kenneth Woods will lead the Symphony in a performance of Oregon composer Ernest Bloch’s rarely performed Suite for Cello and Orchestra. Cellist Parry Karp returns to the Vert stage for this perfor mance. To round out the weekend, join Kenneth Woods and Parry Karp with special guests Suzanne Casey, Adam Lamotte and David Yang on Sunday, October 5th at 2 p.m. at the Pendleton Center for the Arts. Tickets for the Satur day concert are $20/$ 16 for adults and S17/$ 14 for se niors. Tickets for the Sunday concert are $12. Tickets for both these events are avail able through the Oregon East Symphony office, call (541) 276-0320, or email i n f o ld oregoneastsy mphony. org., or at the door. Season tickets for 2008-2009 are still available starting at just $46 for the entire year. Lyle Verrall was awarded the Conservation Carden of the Year award by the Heppner Garden Club. -Contributed Photo a maple that was a gift from Lyle’s sister. One of Lyle’s favor ite activities is to watch fam ilies of birds at the feeder in one of his ‘islands’ from his comfortable, shady front porch. Future plans are to attract more fine, feathered friends with a bird habitat; Hinton Creek borders his property providing fresh wa ter and berry bushes already provide cover. Having faced health challenges, Lyle’s goal is to “live long enough to fix this up.” He credits several who have helped him put his water conserving plans into reality; Cheryl McBride, Erik Skaggs, Dewey Har vey. Verrall enjoyed helping others when he could and states that he is “now the old man" that others help although his enthusiasm for life, and gardening, proves he is still young at heart. The Conservation Garden of the Year recogni tion is co-sponsored by the Heppner Garden Club, Pet tyjohn’s Builders Supply, Miller and Sons Excavating and Heppner TV. New bathrooms to be installed at Willow Creek Lake The Willow Creek Park District is putting in new bathrooms at the W illow ( reek Lake. Concrete pre-fabrkated bath room will he put in on Thursday with a sidewalk around them. Photo ln David Sykes Armato, Pranger named season winners for NEOJGA Northeast Oregon Junior Golf Association season winners Mag gie Armato and Joe Pranger led in overall points earned for the NEOJGA. The NEOJGA provides competitise golf tourna ments in North East Oregon for Jr. Golfers ages S through 18. (.oil tournaments were held twice a month during the sum mer. Golfers from all over participated in tournaments held in l nion. Baker ( its. La Grande, Pendleton and Echo. Logan Greih placed second in his division. Contributed Photo
