A4 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 27, 2016
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AgriNorthwest to buy Boardman Tree Farm
Trees will eventually be replaced and land
will return to conventional agriculture
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Staff Writer
AgriNorthwest, a farm
operator based in the
Tri-Cities, has entered into
an agreement to buy the
Boardman Tree Farm from
GreenWood Resources.
Part of the 25,000-acre
tree farm already sold to a
local dairy that will raise
approximately 8,000 cows
south of Homestead Lane.
The rest will now go to
AgriNorthwest,
which
farms mostly potatoes and
other irrigated crops.
The deal is expected to
close soon. Terms were not
disclosed.
In
the
meantime,
GreenWood
Resources
will continue to harvest
what trees are left under a
leaseback agreement. The
Collins Companies oper-
ates a sawmill at the tree
farm, and Columbia For-
est Products runs a veneer
mill that helps make deco-
rative plywood.
Logs are also sold for
pulp and biofuel. ZeaChem,
a company located at the
nearby Port of Morrow,
used sawdust from the tree
farm to make ethanol.
The tree farm has also
hosted “A Very Poplar
Run” since 2011, with 5K
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Agape House in Hermiston.
Don Rice, director of
North American operations
for GreenWood Resources,
said the decision to sell the
property has been met with
mixed emotions.
“It has become a com-
munity feature,” Rice said.
“We have a lot of photog-
raphers who come out, es-
pecially in the fall, to take
pictures.”
The Boardman Tree
Farm spans six miles
along Interstate 84, and
another 13 miles south of
the highway. It includes
roughly 6 million hybrid
poplar trees that can grow
to more than 100 feet tall.
The trees are harvested in
12-year cycles.
,WFRXOGWDNH\HDUVWR¿Q
ish milling all the remaining
trees, Rice said, depending
on the market conditions.
He is hopeful GreenWood
Resources can continue to
provide trees from its other
locations to keep the local
6T$)) 3H2T2 %< (.-. H$55,6
Rep. Greg Walden, right,
listens to swing shift team
leader Richard Lewellen talk
about the veneer production
line at the Greenwood
Resources tree farm Friday
near Boardman.
),/( 3H2T2
Nearly one-third of the 25,000-acre Boardman Tree Farm is being sold to the Willow Creek
Dairy.
sawmill and veneer mill
operating. Together, those
businesses employ about
100 people.
The tree farm itself has
20 employees, along with
another 50-60 contractors.
Rice said they were not ac-
tively marketing the prop-
erty, but AgriNorthwest
approached them about ac-
quiring the land.
“We believe they made a
fair offer,” he said.
Prior to becoming a tree
farm, the area was used for
agriculture. The trees came
in 1990, and GreenWood
Resources bought the prop-
erty in 2007. But Rice said
they won’t be planting
again in spring.
“Things change over
time,” he said. “This will
BRIEFCASE
H&R Block to give
away $32 million
8498 or visit www.hr-
block.com.
With tax season upon
us, H&R Block is offering
taxpayers a chance to win.
As part of its efforts
to encourage taxpayers
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the season, H&R Block
is giving away $32 mil-
lion through its 1,000
Win $1,000 Daily Sweep-
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the season, taxpayers help
protect themselves from
tax refund fraud.
To be eligible for the
drawing, taxpayers must
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H&R Block by Monday,
Feb. 15.
The Hermiston H&R
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at the Hermiston Plaza,
860 S. Highway 395. To
schedule an appointment,
people can call 541-567-
Boardman gets ready
for awards banquet
Love is in the air as
the Boardman Chamber
of Commerce is using a
French romantic theme for
its annual awards banquet.
The event is Friday, Feb.
12 with the social hour be-
ginning at 6 p.m., dinner at
7 p.m. and the awards and
a live auction following.
The events is at the Port of
Morrow Riverfront Center,
2 Marine Drive, Boardman.
Tickets are $35 each. In
addition, sponsorships are
still available for the event,
which provides an oppor-
tunity to be included in ad-
vertising and marketing.
For more information,
call 541-481-3014.
Wood announced it sold
roughly one-third of the
tree farm — 7,288 acres
— to Willow Creek Dairy,
which was established in
2002 on land leased by
Threemile Canyon Farms
located on the other side
of the Boardman Bombing
Range. That sale closed for
$65 million.
The dairy will now be
located along the southern
boundary of the tree farm,
near the Finley Buttes
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closely to the highway,
which marks the property’s
northern boundary.
VOLUME 110 ɿ NUMBER 4
Gary L. West
Editor
gwest@hermistonherald.com
541-564-4532
Tammy Malgesini
Jade McDowell
Community Editor
tmalgesini@eastoregonian.com
541-564-4539
Reporter
jmcdowell@eastoregonian.com
541-564-4536
Sam Barbee
Jeanne Jewett
Sports Reporter
sbarbee@hermistonherald.com
541-564-4542
Multi-Media Consultant
jjewett@hermistonherald.com
541-564-4531
3rinted on
recycled
newsprint
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continue to be a valuable
asset to the community and
economy.”
Todd Jones, president
of AgriNorthwest, said the
company has been farming
in the Columbia Basin for
more than 50 years and is
looking forward to adding
the Boardman property to
its operations.
In December, Green-
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