NEWS
A8 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
WEDNESDAY, MAY 6, 2020
We love our kids
HH fi le photo
The Department of Motor Vehicles offi ce in Hermiston
shortly after its opening in 2018.
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan
Plastic cups shoved into the fence at the tennis courts at Hermiston High School off er a message of encouragement from the
school’s staff .
Blueberry production in Eastern Oregon
could get a boost from HAREC research
By JADE MCDOWELL
NEWS EDITOR
City slickers might think
farming involves just stick-
ing seeds in the ground
and deciding how much
to water them, but anyone
who works in agriculture
knows it’s a lot more com-
plicated than that.
“I wish it were that
easy,” horticulturist Scott
Lukas said.
Lukas is one of many
researchers at the Hermis-
ton Agricultural Research
and Extension Center who
help area growers refi ne
their craft. This spring, he
started a three-year research
project testing the most effi -
cient way to acidify soil for
organic blueberry crops.
Eastern Oregon is ideal
in most ways for growing
blueberries, Lukas said,
including its climate. How-
ever, one of the big reasons
Hermiston isn’t famous for
its blueberries is that the
plants need a pH of about
4.5 to 5, and local soils are
more of a 7.5 on the scale (a
seven is neutral). If farmers
have a more cost-effective
way to acidify their soil,
it could mean more blue-
berries grown in Eastern
Oregon.
“About 10% of the
state’s (blueberry) acreage
is on the east side, and I
think there’s a lot of room
to expand on that,” Lukas
said.
The research, which
is funded by the United
States Department of Agri-
culture’s organic transi-
tions program, could also
be applied to other regions
of the country with similar
soil.
HAREC, which is one of
Oregon State University’s
extension centers across
the state, serves nearly half
a million acres of farm-
land in Eastern Oregon and
Washington’s
Columbia
Basin. At any given time,
the Hermiston station’s
researchers are conducting
Photo contributed by Scott Lukas
Blueberry plants growing at the Hermiston Agricultural Research and Extension Center will
be used in a series of experiments on how to create the best soil conditions for their growth.
Photo contributed by Scott Lukas
Specialized irrigation systems at the Hermiston Agricultural
Research and Extension Center allow for very targeted
watering regimes in diff erent parts of the experiments.
a variety of experiments
involving everything from
preventing specifi c plant
diseases to the best way to
drip-irrigate onions.
Lukas helps farmers
fi nd the most cost-effec-
tive ways to increase the
yield and quality of high-
value irrigated crops, while
reducing negative envi-
ronmental impacts. He
has done research around
reducing the amount of
fertilizer running off into
groundwater, for example,
which helps farmers save
money by wasting less fer-
tilizer, while also protect-
ing the critical groundwater
management area.
In order to facilitate
research on many crops at
once, each individual plot
PET OF THE
W EEK
Little Meno is approx 1 1/2 years old, he is
blind and weighs only 4.8 pounds. He needs
a home with little to no stairs, and no small
children due to his size. He does love to have
a small dog companion to play with. He enjoys
cuddling and being carried around. He needs
someone who is experienced with blind dogs.
MEET
MENO
Mark Sargent, DVM • Brent Barton, DVM
Eugenio Mannucci, DVM, cVMA • Jana von Borstel, DVM, cVMA
Small and Large Animal Care
Mon: 8-6
Tue - Fri: 8-5
Sat: 8-12
Emergency Service
541.567.1138
80489 Hwy 395 N
Hermiston
www.oregontrailvet.com
Due to the
COVID-19
pandemic, animal
shelters need
our help more
than ever. Please
donate to your
local shelter, or
offer to foster an
animal in need.
If interested please go to fuzzballrescue.com and fill out an application.
If you are not able to adopt, but would like to foster or donate, visit fuzzballrescue.com
or you can mail in donations to Fuzz Ball Animal Rescue, PO Box 580, Hermiston, OR 97838
at HAREC has the ability
to have its own irrigation
regime, with a dozen differ-
ent options.
While Lukas’s current
blueberry research will
go on for three years, the
plot he is setting up will
run other blueberry experi-
ments for two decades.
“Maybe in fi ve years,
the needs of the blueberry
growers will be something
else,” he said.
His current research is
divided up into 12 different
experiments with adjusting
soil pH, each of which will
be run four times, using dif-
ferent rows in order to make
sure the results of the exper-
iment hold true through dif-
ferent variables.
“It’s a very intensive
chemistry lesson,” he said.
The lessons learned will
be passed on to area grow-
ers for their benefi t. If all
goes well, it could mean
more blueberry crops pop-
ping up around the Colum-
bia Basin in the future, and
more success for current
blueberry farmers.
License reinstatement
program helps Umatilla
County residents
By JADE MCDOWELL
NEWS EDITOR
A Hermiston resident has
her driving privileges back
for the fi rst time in more
than two decades, and she
hopes her story can help oth-
ers in similar situations.
Sheena Tarvin said she is
now enrolled in the state’s
Driver’s License Reinstate-
ment Program, which was
created several years ago
but only became available in
Umatilla County in August.
“My license is freed up,
and that’s huge,” she said.
“What a blessing.”
Oregonians who had
their license suspended
for nonpayment of tick-
ets can contact the Depart-
ment of Motor Vehicles
at 503-945-5000 to deter-
mine which circuit courts
have judgments against their
license. They can then call
the Oregon Department of
Revenue’s Other Agency
Accounts line at 503-945-
8199 to make a $200 down
payment and set up a pay-
ment plan to pay off the rest
of the sanction against their
license over time.
Once they’re enrolled in
the program, the Department
of Revenue will notify the
circuit court where the sanc-
tions were applied, and the
court can notify the DMV
that those sanctions can be
lifted, as long as the person
doesn’t miss any payments.
Tarvin was profi led in the
Hermiston Herald in Feb-
ruary as the Oregon Legis-
lature discussed a bill that
would prevent residents
from losing their driver’s
license over nonpayment of
traffi c tickets. That bill was
one of many that fell by the
wayside when a walkout
ended the session early.
Tarvin owed a little more
than $1,000 on what at one
point had been a $9,000
debt. The debt started in
1998 at age 18, when she
didn’t pay a ticket for not
wearing a seat belt and it got
sent to collections. Then she
got another ticket for driving
on a suspended license.
High medical bills for
the premature birth of her
daughter, followed by a drug
addiction, divorce, unem-
ployment and homeless-
ness, all got in the way of
paying the growing debt.
Tarvin eventually got clean
and got housing, but she said
not being able to drive her-
self to places like counsel-
ing appointments, support
groups and court dates made
that recovery process much
more diffi cult.
When she got her $1,200
stimulus check at the end of
April, she said, she rushed
to the DMV to pay off the
last $1,100 of her debt, even
though there were a lot of
other things she also needed
the money for. The DMV
informed her that instead
she could pay just $300 now,
and then set up a $100-per-
month payment plan to fi n-
ish up the rest.
“Once you sign up, they
will free up your license, as
long as I keep my payments
up — and they are going to
be kept up,” she said.
Tarvin said she hopes
by sharing her story, other
people might be inspired to
check if they are eligible for
the Driver’s License Rein-
statement Program, which
applies to people whose
license was suspended
because they have a sanc-
tioning debt from an Oregon
circuit court.
For more information,
visit oregon.gov/DOR/pro-
grams/gov-research/Pages/
license-reinstatement.aspx.