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Gilchrist State Forest expands, recreation options unclear
BEND, Ore. (AP) — The Oregon Department of Forestry says the newest state forest will be a working one producing timber but there will also be recreation opportunities.
Gilchrist State Forest Manager John Pellissier said the exact recreation opportunities have yet to be worked out.
“I don’t know (what) our niche is going to be yet,” he told The Bulletin. “It is not a park. It is not a conservation area. It is a working forest.”
The state last month bought 20,477 acres from The Conservation Fund, a national nonprofit that helps agencies protect properties from development. That added to the 5,360 acres that the state bought from the same group last year and to 43,000 acres it bought in 2010 from Fidelity National Timber Resources.
The Gilchrist State Forest is the state’s first new state forest in more than 70 years and cost more than $10 million, paid for with bond money and federal funds. An additional 3,000 acres remain to be purchased from The Conservation Fund.
Randy Drake of the Deschutes County 4 Wheelers said the state forest could be a good place for off-highway vehicles. He said the lower elevation compared with other OHV areas around central Oregon could increase its use.
“This is one place that would be open to use year-round,” he said.
Abbey Driscoll, a spokeswoman for the Department of Forestry, said the agency is waiting for groups to approach it with recreation ideas.
However, the Central Oregon Trails Alliance, a Bend-based nonprofit that builds and maintains mountain bike trails, and the Klamath Trails Alliance, a similar group in Klamath Falls, are concentrating on trails closer to their cities.
The area contained in the new state forest has been heavily logged. Pellissier said in 30 years it could be a steady producer of timber, perhaps 15 million board feet per year.
Driscoll said recreation will be a part of the forest even with the timber harvest.
“It will take some strategic planning,” she said, “but it can be done.”
South Coast farmers learn about opportunities - Coos Bay World
Coos Bay World
Our South Coast growers can produce that. We just have to help connect them with the resources and the buyers, in some cases. Oregon cranberries are a little bit different than those grown in other parts of the U.S. Ours are richer with more natural ...
South Coast farmers learn about opportunities
South Coast farmers learn about opportunities
Seed cleaning business changes with times
WOODBURN, Ore. — Personal relationships are important in business circles, but may count for more in agriculture than most enterprises. It’s a small fraternity and sorority, after all, with membership spanning generations. A mis-step or wrong-headed action between farmers can strain relations for years.
That’s one of the reasons North Valley Seeds’ enduring story deserves a nod. The custom seed cleaning business, involving two families, has ridden the ups and downs of the Oregon grass seed industry for nearly 40 years and is positioning itself for more to come.
The business was formed in 1976 chiefly by Frank Buck, and he brought in farmer Paul Kirsch of nearby St. Paul and his brother, John, as part owners in 1980. John Kirsch eventually left farming, and brothers Cam and David Buck bought their father’s half of the business in 2008. They’ve been partners with Paul Kirsch since.
The business initially offered bulk grain storage in addition to seed cleaning, because wheat was strong in the Willamette Valley at the time. So was perennial rye grass, but most of the commercial seed cleaners were in the south end of the valley.
Paul Kirsch, a grass seed grower, saw the business as a form of vertical integration of his farming operations. He found a like-minded grower in Cam Buck, while David Buck, a full-time CPA, stepped in to handle the financial affairs. Chris Mattson, general manager of the seed cleaning facility, has been with the company 15 years.
The company cleans, custom blends, bags and warehouses seed for a cluster of growers.
Kirsch said he and Cam Buck are customers of the business in addition to being owners, but keep their farms separate and pay the same rate as other growers.
“It’s a real professional relationship, I would say,” Kirsch said. “That’s the beauty of being able to pick your partners. We all have our strengths, the three of us. I knew all of us together would be stronger than just me running the business and still farming.”
Kirsch said he and the Bucks understand the temperament of farmers and run the business accordingly.
“You have to prove yourself over time,” he said. “They are your neighbors. You treat their seed like you treat your own seed, and get it to market in a timely fashion.”
Cam Buck seconds that. Being farmers themselves, he said, they know how important it is to growers and seed companies to “keep quality seed moving out of the valley, so everybody gets paid.”
He believes North Valley has been a stable fixture in the industry.
“We’ve been cleaning and handling seed here in the north part of the valley since the late 1970s,” he said.
Roger Beyer, executive director of the Oregon Seed Council, said North Valley’s principals are “stalwarts” of the industry.
“They’ve been doing it a long time and they know what they’re doing,” Beyer said. “They’re good operators.”
Grass seed has largely recovered from the recession and was Oregon’s fifth most valuable crop in 2014 statistics, with sales of $450 million. But like all of the state’s ag sectors, change is afoot.
Some farmers turned to raising tall fescue instead of ryegrass, while others put in crops such as blueberries and hazelnuts. Meanwhile, the farmers’ co-op Wilco shut down its seed cleaning plant in nearby Donald.
Adjusting to the changes, North Valley put in a new line for cleaning tall fescue seed, which must be kept separate from perennial ryegrass. Tall fescue has gained favor for some uses because it is drought tolerant.
“Some of the guys we clean perennial for also grow tall fescue, but they weren’t coming here” for cleaning,” Kirsch said.
Mattson, the general manager, said over the last two seasons North Valley has doubled its receiving capacity and increased bulk storage by a third. Larger pits allow truckers to dump loads more quickly and return to the field.
Helicopters cleared for Christmas tree harvest
Helicopter pilots have been cleared to harvest Christmas trees around Salem, Ore., in poor weather, but some still fear the new rules will interfere with timely shipments.
Earlier this year, the Federal Aviation Administration effectively imposed new restrictions on helicopters operating near Salem during times of low visibility.
The agency expanded “Class D” airspace around Salem — in which aircraft are more strictly regulated — from roughly four to eight miles.
Christmas tree farmers feared this would prevent their crop from being harvested during the cloudy, rainy days that are common in autumn, thereby delaying shipments and reducing overall sales.
The FAA has since reconsidered the airspace expansion, and re-proposed increasing it by only about one mile around the Salem airport.
However, that regulatory change will take time and will not be finished in time for this year’s harvest.
To avoid hampering Christmas tree operations, the FAA has approved a “letter of agreement” between the air traffic control tower in Salem and helicopter pilots that will generally allow harvest to continue even during low visibility.
Under the agreement, multiple helicopters can fly within the Class D airspace in such conditions as long as they stay below 400 feet and remain in frequent contact with the control tower.
When a plane flying on instruments approaches or leaves the airport, helicopters that pose a potential for collision must land.
The arrangement basically delegates authority over helicopters to the Salem tower from the FAA’s control center in Seattle, which wouldn’t have time to deal with such small aircraft in low visibility conditions, said Mitch Swecker, director of the Oregon Department of Aviation.
However, the rules can still be problematic for Christmas tree farmers if multiple airplanes take off or land at the Salem airport during poor weather, he said.
“It is not ideal. There will always be hiccups for the ag operators, but the FAA and the tower have tried to make it as painless as possible,” Swecker said.
The requirement that helicopter pilots regularly speak with the Salem control tower is troublesome in hilly areas where radio communications are spotty, said Patrick Hall, a helicopter pilot who is harvesting trees for BTN of Oregon, a grower near Salem.
“A lot of the airspace covers areas where you can’t contact the control tower by radio,” he said.
Hall said he’d prefer more relaxed requirements in exchange for restricting the allowable flight ceiling to 100 feet, down from the current 400 feet.
“It doesn’t need to be that much,” he said. “We’re essentially working at the level of tree tops.”
Ben Stone, whose family owns BTN of Oregon, said he’s still concerned about missing shipping windows despite the letter of agreement.
Trucks arrive at the farm ready to pick up trees and drive them to buyers, so even relatively short delays can be disruptive, Stone said.
“If we can’t get them out of the field, there’s no way we can get them on a truck,” he said.
Nonetheless, the situation would be much worse without the letter of agreement, since helicopter operations in the Class D airspace would essentially be shut down during poor visibility, said Tim Raugust, owner of Chehalem Helicopters.
So far, the company has pre-arranged where and when it will be harvesting trees with the Salem control tower, without any holdups in operations, he said. “For us, it hasn’t bothered us.”
Expert: Shippers haven’t abandoned hopes for Port of Portland — yet
Severely diminished container service at the Port of Portland hasn’t yet irreversibly changed shipping strategies, but that pattern won’t hold forever, according to a freight expert.
Importers and exporters largely hope that ocean carriers will eventually return to the port’s container terminal after Hanjin and Hapag-Lloyd pulled out earlier this year, eliminating almost all container service, said Dan Smith, principal of the Tioga Group transportation consultancy firm.
So far, those hopes have prevented shippers from closing distribution centers or making other changes unlikely to be reversed if ocean carrier service returned to the container terminal, Smith said during a Nov. 17 legislative hearing in Salem.
Hanjin and Hapag-Lloyd, which represented more than 90 percent of container traffic at the port, said their decision was based on low productivity, which the container terminal operator — ICTSI Oregon — blamed on work slowdowns by the longshoremen’s union.
The International Longshore and Warehouse Union, on the other hand, faulted inadequate equipment and safety practices as the cause of slowed container movements.
A broader labor contract dispute between ILWU and terminal operators aggravated the situation, with West Coast slowdowns occurring in late 2014 and early 2015 before the issue was settled earlier this year.
Companies that buy from importers and exporters are now using the unpredictability caused by the slowdowns as a negotiating lever, which may lead to some distribution centers becoming uneconomical — thus prompting shippers to close them and divert traffic to other areas, said Smith of Tioga Group.
“We are getting closer to a cliff,” he said.
For now, though, shippers are “coping” by using trucks and trains to send goods to ports in Seattle and Tacoma, Smith said.
Bill Wyatt, executive director of the Port of Portland, said the longshoremen’s union, ICTSI Oregon and the port are still engaged in litigation but they’re also in “significant conversations” and he’s more optimistic about a resolution than six to eight months ago.
Ocean carriers are looking for a signal from ILWU that they’re “welcome to return” to Portland, at which point they’re likely to renew container service at the port, Wyatt said.
While the Port of Portland’s container terminal doesn’t generate large revenues, it was a profitable niche for Hanjin — a major trans-Pacific carrier — until the work slowdowns began, he said. “It is a lucrative market for the right carrier.”
Until container service is restored to Portland, it’s possible that agricultural shippers in Eastern Oregon and Idaho will be helped by reconfiguring the transport of goods from Lewiston, Idaho.
When the container terminal was fully operational, barges moved product from Lewiston to Portland for loading onto ocean liners, but that service has now fallen apart, Wyatt said.
The problem may be mitigated by transloading goods sent on barges from Lewiston onto trains in Boardman, Ore., for shipment to Tacoma, he said.
During the legislative hearing, the possibility of expanding Oregon ports in Coos Bay or Newport to accommodate containers was discussed, but Wyatt said this wasn’t a realistic alternative due to huge investment involved.
“The likelihood of developing another container service in Oregon is unlikely because the capital cost is immense,” he said.
A research team, part of the state’s response to the Hanjin container shipping company ending its calls at Portland this year, last week presented six recommendations during a meeting of stakeholders in Wilsonville.
The initiatives are the result of an effort involving Business Oregon, the Port of Portland, the state departments of agriculture and transportation, and multiple producers and shippers. The recommendations include:
• Establishing a port trucker information system to consolidate and streamline the flow of traffic.
• Truck driver training to expand the pool of available drivers.
• Build satellite container yards to speed up the drop-off, pickup process.
• Expand cold storage facilities for imports, which could make more refrigerated containers available for Oregon exporters.
• New rail intermodal yards to add flexibility to rail and truck container traffic.
• Monitor Columbia River rail and barge service linking Lewiston, Wash., and Boardman, Ore., and be prepared to provide additional public financial support as it expands.
About 19 percent of export containers shipped out of the Pacific Northwest carry agricultural products, according to the port. Rerouting containers to the Seattle area from Portland increases the shipping cost by $500 to $1,000 per container, according to a trade and logistics fact sheet prepared for state officials.
“The loudest screams are not about added cost, but about goods that are not moving,” said Dan Smith of the Tioga Group Inc., a California consulting company hired to assess the situation. “If they don’t move the goods, they’re not in business.”
Reporter Eric Mortenson contributed to this report.
Calf injured in Wallowa County wolf attack
Oregon wildlife officials confirmed a calf found Nov. 11 with bite wounds on its hind legs was attacked by wolves.
The attack happened on a public land grazing allotment in Wallowa County, in Northeast Oregon where most of the state’s wolf packs live. Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife officials investigated and the calf was examined by a veterinarian as well. A rancher found the injured calf.
Numerous wolf and calf tracks and blood were found over a half-mile area where the attack occurred, according to an ODFW report.
Information gathered from tracking collars showed Imnaha pack wolves were 1.5 miles south of the attack area on Nov. 9. The examining vet estimated the attack happened Nov. 10. The pack was blamed for another livestock attack about 10 miles away on Oct. 27.