Chris Colson champions an admittedly antiquated and inefficient method of watering crops — flood irrigation.

The Boise-based regional biologist for Ducks Unlimited is part of a movement that recognizes the wildlife and water-supply benefits of flood irrigation, and the need to make certain it continues to be used in floodplains and other strategic locations across the West.

Ironically, his efforts to preserve flood irrigation often tap the same federal dollars that help farmers install high-efficiency pivots, which threaten to render flood irrigation obsolete.

The attraction for Colson and others is that flood irrigation, with its leaky canals and standing water, helps recharge shrinking aquifers and provides migratory birds with a stopover on their annual pilgrimages between the Arctic and points south.

Unlikely partnerships of agricultural landowners, conservationists, government officials and water managers are behind efforts to keep farmers flooding fields in Idaho, Oregon, Washington and California. During the past year, Colson estimates the movement has maintained flood irrigation on roughly 4,000 acres across the West.

“For 15 or 20 years or more, the conservation community has been telling people how wasteful flood irrigation is and convert to sprinkler,” Colson said.

Farmers have relied on flood irrigation — using gravity to spread surface water across fields — for thousands of years.

Since the late 1960s, however, growers have been moving away from flooding in favor of more efficient sprinklers. On average, 120,000 acres in 11 Western states were converted from flood irrigation to sprinklers annually between 1995 to 2010, according to a study of U.S. Geological Survey water-use data.

Conservation funding sources, such as the Environmental Quality Incentives Program under the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, have long supported sprinkler conversions with water-efficiency grants.

But the pursuit of efficiency has had unintended consequences. Migratory wading birds feed in flood-irrigated fields, which have provided an artificial alternative to the natural marshes lost to river damming. And Western aquifer levels have dropped in correlation with the disappearance of flood irrigation — historically a major source of incidental aquifer recharge.

In Idaho’s Eastern Snake Plain, for example, officials say the aquifer has been dropping by 200,000 acre-feet per year on average, due to increased groundwater use and reduced flood irrigation.

Zola Ryan, NRCS district conservationist in Harney County, Ore., says her agency’s goals of improving irrigation efficiency and preserving flood irrigation needn’t be at odds.

Ryan explained efficient sprinklers are ideal for irrigators using groundwater, and watering where benefits of flooding aren’t as pronounced.

“There is a place and time for flood irrigation and a place and time for sprinkler irrigation,” Ryan said.

Colson and his colleagues have been working to understand — and ultimately address — the reasons growers opt to stop flood irrigating.

Often, the problem is the cost of replacing dilapidated head gates or improving canals. Some producers say flood irrigation is simply too labor intensive.

“We’re working with some vendors to develop automated infrastructure, where they can sit in their truck and use their cell phone and open the valves (to flood irrigate),” Colson said.

In Eastern Oregon, Ryan explained many growers quit flood irrigating in the early 1980s, after widespread flooding damaged canals. New wells and sprinklers are becoming increasingly common, she said.

However, NRCS has since 2014 set aside $300,000 a year for a special EQIP program to preserve flood irrigation for benefits to migratory birds in Oregon’s Harney and Lake counties. A half-dozen projects are in the planning stages, Ryan said.

Lake County rancher Joe Villagrana will finish NRCS-funded improvements to retain flood-irrigation later this month. But he’s been working with partners to upgrade his flood-irrigation infrastructure for most of a decade, initially with help from Ducks Unlimited. Villagrana said he’ll soon have the ability to evenly flood irrigate 2,200 acres of meadow grass pasture, and both grass production and water fowl numbers have already risen dramatically on his land.

Without the help, “I probably wouldn’t have done near what I’ve done, and I would have done it over 20 years,” Villagrana said.

In Northern California, Ducks Unlimited regional biologist John Ranlett has tapped U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service funds to help several ranches install pipelines to better deliver water for flood irrigation. Ranlett has also overseen the replacements of weirs — shallow dams across rivers that regulate water levels entering flood-irrigation canals.

“If their infrastructure starts to fail, they’re going to lose the ability to irrigate,” Ranlett said. “Then all of a sudden you lose habitat.”

A couple of years ago, Tim Brockish considered installing an irrigation pivot that would replace failing flood-irrigation infrastructure serving a 40-acre field he owns near Rexburg, Idaho.

Then he learned about the plight of the white-faced ibis — a migratory wading bird known as a “marker bird” by people in the Rexburg area, as its presence marks flood-irrigated fields.

Brockish explained that one of the world’s largest ibis breeding colonies utilizes nearby Mud Lake and Market Lake, and the birds forage in flooded fields by day. The supply of flooded fields, however, is running thin, causing problems for the ibis and other migratory birds in one of the continent’s most critical “staging areas.”

More than a decade ago, experts discovered migratory birds were stopping for a few weeks along the Snake Plain in Idaho and in Eastern Oregon, Eastern Washington and Northern California to feed on insects and grass seed from flood-irrigated fields before heading north to breeding grounds in Canada and Alaska. Malnourished birds often won’t breed.

Ultimately, Brockish chose wildlife over improved irrigation efficiency, partnering with the Teton Regional Land Trust to upgrade his flood system. He obtained a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service grant to replace metal head gates, rebuild canals and build a dike to hold flood-irrigation water longer on the field,

Sal Palazzolo, private lands program manager at the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, said preserving the staging area is a goal of both his agency and Ducks Unlimited, which have a plan to help water fowl by working with the state’s managed aquifer recharge program. Managed recharge involves intentionally injecting surface water into the aquifer to rebuild groundwater levels.

IDFG and Ducks Unlimited have asked the Idaho Department of Water Resources to design its recharge sites to be more like marshes, spilling shallow water over hundreds of acres rather than deep water over a smaller area.

“We’re definitely looking into that,” said Wes Hipke, IDWR’s recharge coordinator, who also sees the potential to combine resources with wildlife organizations on future recharge efforts. “It’s going to have to be on a case-by-case basis.”

IDWR has also agreed to study the potential for a managed aquifer recharge site at the Market Lake Wildlife Management Area.

Palazzolo said efforts are underway to establish a separate EQIP fund in Idaho for flood irrigation projects, and NRCS is mulling an Eastern Idaho water grant under the Regional Conservation Partnership Program that would cover flood-irrigation infrastructure.

Like many producers in his area, Teton County Farm Bureau Federation President Stephen Bagley stopped flood irrigating his ranch in the southern end of Idaho’s Teton Valley during the 1960s.

Now, Bagley is a leader of a coalition working to restore flood irrigation to the valley as a means of resolving a water shortfall that’s becoming increasingly critical.

Groundwater levels have dropped 55 feet in the valley since the 1970s — before flood irrigation was phased out in favor of sprinklers and neighborhoods sprang up on farmland. Miles of unlined canals went unused that had previously recharged the aquifer with water losses exceeding 40 percent.

As a result, surface irrigation rights that once remained in priority through late July have lately been shut off at the beginning of the month.

In December of 2015 irrigators hoping to improve their own water outlook partnered with Farm Bureau, local cities and counties, Friends of the Teton River, Teton County Soil and Water Conservation District, Water District 1, the Henry’s Fork Foundation and others to form the Teton Water Users Association.

The association is pursuing funds to rebuild flood-irrigation infrastructure, which irrigators will use to flood pastures within their existing water rights during peak spring flows. When flows subside, they’ll resume using only efficient sprinklers. The water they bank through canals and flood irrigation should emerge from springs about three months later, when it’s needed most, extending the irrigation season, cooling the river for native Yellowstone cutthroat trout and replenishing dried marshes.

“Hopefully, I’ll have another week or two of irrigation because they won’t have to call for my water as fast,” Bagley said.

Driggs, Idaho, grower Wyatt Penfold said operating margins are razor thin in the valley, and saving a couple weeks of costly storage water from reservoirs would be a huge benefit.

“The only way to keep the lifestyle we’re all used to is to work together,” Penfold said.

Rob Van Kirk, senior scientist with the Henry’s Fork Foundation, has modeled the Teton Valley hydrology, calculating the association must increase annual aquifer recharge by 30,000 acre-feet to meet its goal of restoring water levels to 1975 conditions. The association will soon conduct an assessment of priority sites on which to restore flood irrigation.

Sarah Lien, an attorney for Friends of the Teton River, said the program’s ultimate goal is to apply about 260 cubic feet per second of water from April 15 through June 15.

“If we’re successful, we’re talking about 40 cfs increases in the Teton River,” Lien said. “It’s really new water.”

The project has been awarded a $50,000 U.S. Bureau of Reclamation WaterSMART grant to cover preliminary planning. They also have a pending $250,000 grant application with the Idaho Water Resource Board, which would provide matching funds to tap additional federal grants.

“The surface water every year is gone sooner and we’re more reliant on groundwater,” said Driggs, Idaho, Mayor Hyrum Johnson, who considers the association to be a template for other Western water users to follow. “I believe this organization is a great example of the way that water rights can be managed proactively around the state.”

BEND, Ore. (AP) — State agencies are reminding marijuana producers to limit their use of pesticides in the wake of two recent public health alerts.

The Bend Bulletin reports that a letter from three state agencies warns that cannabis producers whose products test below “action levels” for permitted pesticides may still be violating state regulations if they use pesticides banned by the state Pesticide Control Act.

An action level is a low pesticide measure that the authority requires of testing laboratories as a measure of accuracy. Action levels do not indicate a safe level.

The letter, co-signed Monday by the heads of the Health Authority, Oregon Liquor Control Commission and Oregon Department of Agriculture, says growers that failed test results are referred to the Agriculture Department for further investigation.

SALEM — The Department of State Lands says the sole plan to acquire an 82,500-acre parcel of the Elliott State Forest meets the department’s initial criteria for acquisition.

A spokeswoman for the department said in an email that some details were not “fully developed and will need to be worked out” during the next phase of the acquisition process.

The plan is part of a process that the Department of State Lands has developed to sell the section of the Elliott State Forest.

The department is responsible for managing the land to generate revenue for the Common School Fund, a state K-12 education fund.

Since 2013, the fund has lost money, and as the holder of fiduciary responsibility for the fund, the state says it has to sell the land. It cites lawsuits that challenged its logging on Common School Fund lands where protected animal species live.

The land is not being sold for a competitive bid but for the fixed price of $220.8 million.

Lone Rock Resources, a Roseburg timber company, was the only entity to submit an acquisition plan by the department’s Nov. 15 deadline. A $100,000 deposit was required.

If Lone Rock’s plan is approved by the Land Board, the company intends to partner with the Cow Creek Band of the Umpqua Tribe of Indians to manage the land, according to documents released by the state lands department Tuesday.

Lone Rock will contribute about 87 percent of the equity, while Cow Creek will contribute about 13 percent. Although Cow Creek will have minority interests in an LLC formed to provide the capital to buy the forest, the Cow Creek band will have the right to participate in votes on “major decisions.”

The Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians, assisted by the nonprofit The Conservation Fund, would hold a conservation easement to enforce the four public benefit requirements of the sale.

The public benefits are as follows: that the public have recreational access to half the forest, that 25 percent of old stands remain, that riparian areas are preserved and that the plan create 40 “direct or indirect” jobs for a decade.

Environmental groups have opposed the sale of the land to a private entity and have advocated for keeping it in public hands.

Under a proposed easement agreement, Elliott Forest LLC would reimburse the easement holder up to $5,000 annually for the cost of an independent third-party auditor to verify the promised employment.

The LLC needs to report harvest levels to the Oregon Department of Revenue every year, and those reports can be provided to the easement holder, “with the goal of eliminating the need for audits” if the easement holder — which would be the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians — is satisfied by those reports, according to a draft copy of a proposed employment monitoring easement.

Josh Laughlin, the director of Cascadia Wildlands, a conservation nonprofit in Eugene that’s been one of the leading voices opposing the sale, argued that Lone Rock’s current plan would allow it to clearcut old growth.

“The Lone Rock proposal would ultimately privatize the Elliott State Forest and lock the public out by charging fees to recreate,” Laughlin wrote in an email Tuesday. “And their strategy to protect old trees is toothless. It would allow the timber company to clearcut the remaining valuable old-growth by protecting a subset of younger forest.”

He called on Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, one of the three members of the State Land Board, to oppose the sale.

Jake Gibbs, director of external affairs for Lone Rock, said that the company’s conservation strategy was intended to be “sustainable” and to provide all of the required public benefits while harvesting timber.

He said the company will not know how much board-feet or how many trees it will harvest every year until the company’s foresters “have time to do additional study.”

He said Lone Rock, in partnership with the multiple tribes proposing to manage the land, would be held accountable “now and in the future.”

Gov. Brown is one of three elected officials on the State Land Board.

Treasurer Ted Wheeler and Secretary of State Jeanne Atkins are leaving their offices at the end of the year.

They will be replaced, respectively, by Treasurer-elect Tobias Read, a Democrat and state representative, and Secretary of State-elect Dennis Richardson, a Republican and former state legislator.

The State Land Board is scheduled to make a decision on whether to move forward with the sale at its Dec. 13 meeting. The state lands department is expected to release a staff report on the acquisition plan one week prior to that meeting.

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Environmentalist groups want an injunction to stop logging on roughly 50 acres of private property that was once part of Oregon’s Elliott State Forest.

Three nonprofits — Cascadia Wildlands, Center for Biological Diversity and Audubon Society of Portland — have asked U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken to prohibit tree harvest on the parcel due to hazards to the threatened marbled murrelet.

Logging plans were previously abandoned in the area because Oregon realized it would cause Endangered Species Act violations, but a 355-acre parcel was bought in 2014 by Roseburg Forest Products Co. and its Scott Timber subsidiary for nearly $800,000, according to plaintiffs.

The environmentalists claim that harvesting a 50-acre site, known as the Benson Snake Unit, within that parcel will unlawfully destroy the habitat of marbled murrelets, which occupy old growth trees in the tract.

“The defendants are proposing to do exactly what the state thought it couldn’t,” said Dan Kruse, attorney for the environmentalists, during oral arguments on Nov. 22 in Eugene, Ore.

An injunction is warranted because the plaintiffs are likely to prevail in the lawsuit and logging would irreparably harm the species, he said.

In contrast, there’s nothing to show that the trees would be any less valuable if harvesting is delayed by a year or two, Kruse said.

Roseburg Forest Products counters that an internationally-recognized environmental consulting firm chose a site that’s not occupied by the threatened bird.

“They hired independent experts to determine where the birds might be in the stand and how they’re using the stand,” said Dominic Carollo, attorney for the timber company.

The company will also conduct logging during the autumn and winter, when marbled murrelets are out at sea, in an area that’s not considered critical habitat for the species, the defendants claim.

The case laid out by the plaintiffs doesn’t demonstrate that logging will cause actual “take” of marbled murrelets under ESA, Carollo said.

“At best they’ve proven it’s hypothetical or possible ... which isn’t sufficient,” he said. “They don’t have the facts or the evidence to show there will be death or injury to the marbled murrelet.

Kruse argued that “take” isn’t limited to destruction of nesting areas used by the species.

Under ESA, “take” also occurs when logging disrupts other behaviors necessary to the bird’s life cycle, such as courtship, he said.

Similarly, it can harm people if you bulldoze their living or kitchen while sparing the bed in which they sleep, he said.

Science has shown marbled murrelets need large blocks of habitat to survive, Kruse said.

“Fragmentation has significant impacts on marbled murrelets,” he said.

Sundays

BEND — Public land use and the upcoming 2017 Oregon legislative session dominated the conversation at the 2016 Oregon Cattlemen’s Association annual meeting here earlier this month.

The annual meeting featured a roundtable with Northwest Regional Forester Jim Pena and acting BLM State Director Ron Dunton.

Mike Doverspike of Burns asked Pena if there was any more time for ranchers and the Forest Service to “go back and forth” concerning the grazing requirements in the Blue Mountains Forest Plan Revision. Pena assured the cattlemen that grazing will continue to be a part of the region’s management.

“This is our grazing program, too,” Pena said. “The agency believes and I believe, it is important that grazing continue on national forests.”

But to have a plan that follows a long list of federal laws and can withstand a legal challenge, Pena said the Forest Service doesn’t want to put grazing at risk.

“We are committed to work for everybody, including the grazing community,” Pena said.

Providing adequate habitat for fish and wildlife is also part of the balance the Forest Service seeks, following the guidelines of regulatory agencies like U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service.

“The Forest Service has to have consistent monitoring to demonstrate benefits of grazing to show permittees are in compliance,” Pena said.

But monitoring takes time and costs money — and the Forest Service doesn’t have much of either. He said increasing firefighting costs hurt the other disciplines’ budgets and range management has been the heaviest hit.

In 1990s a movement started for permittees to self-monitor. He said in a recent case concerning bull trout the Forest Service prevailed because the permittee was in compliance.

Skye Krebs grazes on public land in Wallowa County and has served on the Public Lands Council for many years. He said the Oregon Cooperative Monitoring, modeled after a program in Colorado, is a protocol-driven program that directs permittee self-monitoring. Forest Service and BLM range conservationists then ground-truth the data.

“That is a win/win situation for permittees and agency staffing problems,” Krebs said.

Two big concerns by Oregon livestock producers are two proposed monuments – the Owyhee Canyonlands, fought by Malheur County ranchers for several years, and a new proposal to expand the Cascade-Siskiyou monument in Southern Oregon.

With the 2017 Oregon legislative session on the horizon, Rocky Dallum, the OCA political advocate, said the association will be keeping a close eye on water quality and quantity issues and the ongoing discussion of Senate Bill 1010 passed in 1993 that requires the Oregon Department of Agriculture to help reduce water pollution from agricultural sources.

Matt McElligott, OCA member and president of the Oregon Public Lands Council, said

Keep running cows.

“Historically, we know those permittees and agencies that run them have lawsuits against them and those permits shrunk or were taken away. This is not good for these communities in the poorest county in state.”

As for the expansion of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, McElligott said that proposal took the ranching community by surprise.

Lee Bradshaw from Southern Oregon said his permit is in the middle of the proposed expansion. He told Ron Dunton, acting state BLM director, that permittees were not alerted to a public meeting on the proposal.

“We were not notified through the BLM,” Bradshaw said. “My range con knew nothing. Why didn’t we get notified?”

Dunton said the proposal was not from the BLM, it came from what the congressional delegation.

With the 2017 Oregon Legislative session on the horizon, Rocky Dallum, OCA’s political advocate, said the Cattlemen will be watching water quality and quantity issues and the ongoing implementation of Senate Bill 1010 that requires the Oregon Department of Agriculture help reduce water pollution from agricultural sources.

As agricultural operations grow larger and more consolidated, the Wilco farmers’ cooperative is aiming to keep pace.

The company recently merged with another cooperative, Hazelnut Growers of Oregon, and has broken ground on a new processing and distribution facility.

Meanwhile, Wilco has expanded its reach as a farm supplier through a new joint venture agreement with other agronomy companies.

“We gain size and scale,” said Doug Hoffman, the cooperative’s CEO. “Size dictates pricing, sharing of technologies, efficiencies in administration and attracting employees.”

The new facility in Donald, Ore., which will be completed in 2018, marks an expansion for both Wilco and HGO.

The hazelnut company’s current facility in Cornelius, Ore., is roughly 55,000 square feet, with separate buildings for storage and processing.

In the new building, HGO will occupy nearly 120,000 square feet and bring storage and processing under the same roof, reducing material handling and improving productivity.

With the new location, the cooperative will also be more centrally located — roughly 70 percent of its members will be within a 100-mile radius of the plant, said Jeff Fox, executive vice president of the hazelnut division.

“For us, it’s about production efficiency and being close to our grower base,” Fox said.

For Wilco, the new facility means an increase in size from 50,000 square feet at its current agronomy products distribution facility in Mt. Angel, Ore., to about 119,000 square feet.

Because Donald is much closer to Interstate 5, the cooperative expects to save hundreds of thousands of dollars in trucking costs, said Hoffman.

The building is being constructed by a real estate developer who’s shouldering the costs of its exterior, while Wilco and HGO will lease the facility and pay for interior structures, said Fox.

Some hazelnut processing equipment will simply be moved from the Cornelius facility, which will be shut down and sold, he said. “A lot of that equipment is coming with us.”

Wilco offers agronomy services and farm supplies through a joint venture with Winfield Solutions, called Wilco-Winfield, which operates in Western Washington and Western Oregon.

That joint venture is now merging with Valley Agronomics, an agronomy company operating in Southern Idaho and portions of Utah and Wyoming that’s a joint venture between Winfield Solutions and the Valley Wide Cooperative.

The deal reflects a pattern of consolidation throughout the agricultural industry, such as the proposed merger between Monsanto and Bayer, said Hoffman.

“What’s really driving all this is that our farmers are getting larger,” he said.

Though the merger between Winco-Winfield and Valley Agronomics will create some redundancies at the administrative level, Hoffman said he doesn’t expect any lay-offs because employees will be shifted into new positions.

“We’re going to grow the workforce, grow the business,” he said.

Wilco is also opening new farm retail stores in Salem, Ore., and Puyallup, Wash., and is planning a 19th outlet at an undisclosed location.

Last year, the cooperative earned $230 million in total revenues and this year it expects to earn $280 million due to the merger with HGO, Hoffman said,

Wilco typically earns profits of about 3 percent of sales, with the retail division earning the strongest net income, he said. “It’s a good model, it does well.”

It’s the rainy season in Oregon, which means there’s plenty of work for Oregon State University’s new slug expert, Rory McDonnell.

With slugs emerging from their underground hibernation, McDonnell has found that Oregon’s reputation as a haven for the slimy pests is well deserved.

“The populations are very large,” he said.

The number and size of slugs is greater in Oregon compared to McDonnell’s previous post as a research specialist at the University of California-Riverside.

“Sometimes, in California, I felt like I was trying to fit a square peg into a round hole,” he said.

McDonnell assumed his new position as an assistant professor at OSU in mid-July, but autumn is when his research began in earnest.

During the dry season, he got his laboratory equipped and met with farmers afflicted by the prodigious mollusks.

The wet weather has now allowed him to study the slug’s life cycle with the aim of developing efficient ways to eliminate the pests.

Slug activity peaks in fall and spring, so McDonnell is out in the field, checking traps to see which species are most problematic in certain locations.

European brown garden snails are the worst offenders in nurseries, while gray field slugs are the primary culprits in field crops, he said.

Indeed, the gray slug is likely the most prominent slug pest worldwide due to its ability to adapt to a variety of environments and food sources, McDonnell said.

“It can be successful under a wide range of conditions,” he said.

In March 2015, OSU organized a “slug summit” in Salem, Ore., where growers complained that damage from slugs has intensified in recent years.

That complaint prompted the university to seek additional funding from Oregon lawmakers to hire a slug researcher. The Legislature provided an addition $14 million to OSU later that year, allowing the university to fill this slug position and several others.

McDonnell is exploring strategies to fight the pests.

For example, farmers could use extracts from food or slug pheromones to attract them to a certain area of a field that’s treated with a hefty dose of molluscicide. This approach may kill the slugs more effectively than spreading a lesser concentration of molluscicide across an entire field.

McDonnell and other researchers have identified slug attractants that work in the laboratory, and they plan to see if the substance also works outdoors.

“What happens in the lab isn’t necessarily what happens in the field,” he said.

Another technique would involve parasitic nematodes that kill slugs, which are used for biocontrol in Europe.

If such nematodes were found in Oregon, researchers would have to prove to the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service that the parasites don’t affect native species.

“We only want to use tools that are safe and specific to the pest species,” McDonnell said.

KENNEWICK, Wash. — The state’s largest farm labor association, WAFLA, has hired a new chief operating officer and opened a new office and training center in Kennewick.

Both moves are intended to help the former Washington Farm Labor Association with its exponential growth as the largest H-2A visa guestworker provider on the West Coast.

George Zanatta left his position as CEO of Atkinson Staffing, an agricultural and industrial labor contractor in Washington and Oregon, to become COO of WAFLA on Nov. 1. He continues to live in Kennewick and operates WAFLA’s new office and training center at 3180 W. Clearwater Ave.

“George has previous COO experience as well as he is a very experienced bilingual trainer, among many other traits that are important to WAFLA in our mission for growth and serving members’ needs,” said Kimberly Bresler, a WAFLA spokeswoman.

“We are excited to have him on board with us,” she said.

WAFLA will host an open house at the new center from 3 to 6 p.m. Dec. 1. The 2,200-square-foot facility includes audio-visual equipment, a video studio and space to train groups of 50 or more workers and growers.

The facility is closer to the majority of WAFLA’s more than 800 members and 160 client contracts, Zanatta said. It can be used by members for their own training, he said.

WAFLA hired about 10,000 H-2A workers in 2016 for growers mostly in Washington but also in Oregon and Idaho.

“We plan to bring in 12,000 in 2017 and our goal is 25,000 — maybe 50,000 as we grow into other states,” Zanatta said.

“My job is to lay the foundation for a system strong enough to accommodate that,” he said.

A new pilot program next year is complete worker management for a couple of small growers, he said. WAFLA will handle applications, recruitment, transportation, housing, payroll and in-field supervision, he said.

Zanatta, 58, was born and raised in Mexico, obtained a degree in business administration from the University of Mexico in 1978 and said he came to the U.S. illegally for business opportunities in the 1980s. He gained legal status through the Simpson-Mazzoli Act of 1986 and spent years in manufacturing, import-export and advertising, he said. He has done business consulting and coaching through his firm, Results Oriented Strategies, in Las Vegas and later Kennewick.

Zanatta was a motivational speaker at WAFLA’s annual labor conference in Ellensburg, Wash., last February. Any consulting or coaching he does now will be from his position with WAFLA, he said.

Dan Fazio will continue as WAFLA CEO from the association’s headquarters near Olympia. Zanatta will help Fazio with the processing and tracking of H-2A applications with state and federal agencies and coordinating recruitment, transportation and orientation of workers, most of whom come from Mexico. He will help with training and mock compliance audits.

Heri Chapula, WAFLA field services director, also will work in the new Kennewick center. He previously managed WAFLA’s 96-bed Ringold Seasonal Farmworker Housing southwest of Basin City. Greg Vazquez, member relations manager, is in WAFLA’s Yakima, Wash., office.

Sundays

With the federal government seeking public comment on the Columbia-Snake river system, the Washington Association of Wheat Growers reaffirmed their opposition to breaching dams on the Snake River.

“It would be devastating to the industry,” said executive director Michelle Hennings.

Removing the dams would mean the river would not be useful for transporting wheat, Hennings said.

“It is vital that we keep our transportation system intact,” she said.

According to WAWG, the river system is the top wheat export gateway in the United States and the third-largest grain export gateway in the world.

To move the same amount of wheat by road or rail would require 137,00 semi-trucks or 23,900 railcars, increasing fuel consumption, emissions and wear-and-tear on roads and railways.

“Do we really want to put more trucks on the road?” Hennings said. “We don’t want to do that. This is one way to alleviate, if we want to have clean air.”

Roughly $3 billion of commercial cargo moves on the system, giving growers in the Midwest access to international markets.

Barging is one of the lowest cost, most environmentally friendly modes of transportation available, according to WAWG. A typical four-barge tow moves the same amount of cargo as 140 railcars or 538 trucks, and uses less fuel.

WAWG members are attending various scoping meetings put on by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and Bonneville Power Administration. The deadline to comment is Jan. 17.

Some environmental groups claim breaching the dams would “save the environment,” Hennings said.

WAWG is monitoring the situation closely, and hopes to offer insight during hearings about the river system, Hennings said.

“It is very important ag tells their story to the ones who don’t necessarily understand the situation,” she said.

SATURDAY, NOV. 19

Five legislators have been named “Friends of Nurseries” by the Oregon Association of Nurseries, the trade group representing the growers, retailers, landscapers and suppliers who work in the state’s ornamental horticulture industry.

As described in an association news release, honors went to:

Rep. Caddy McKeown, D-Coos Bay, who spoke up for agriculture as the Legislature considered increasing the minimum wage. McKeown also supported the state’s “right to farm” rules and favors improving transportation systems to help move products to market.

Sen. John Lively, D-Springfield, who enjoys a good relationship with nursery producers. He met with industry leaders at a local nursery to discuss the minimum wage issue and other labor problems, and voted against the wage hike.

Rep. Mark Johnson, R-Hood River, known for his bi-partisan approach. He led the effort to create a conditional driver’s license card for residents who are not eligible for a full license and has cast tough votes for the nursery association.

Rep. Brian Clem, D-Salem, considered well-versed in the details of agriculture. He was chief sponsor of a 2007 Estate Tax bill favored by ag, supported the urban and rural reserves land-use process to protect farmland and worked with House Speaker Tina Kotek to make the minimum wage bill less harmful.

Sen. Fred Girod, R-Stayton, a veteran legislator known as a strong supporter of the nursery and greenhouse industry and a respected voice on both sides of the aisle. He takes into consideration how bills would affect agriculture if they became law.

Oregon’s nursery industry is annually the first- or second- most valuable commodity in the state. Sales hit $895 million in 2015. An estimated 75 percent of the nursery plants grown in the state are shipped out of Oregon.

A USDA official, Alexis Taylor, has been nominated to head the Oregon Department of Agriculture, replacing former director Katy Coba.

Taylor is currently the USDA’s Deputy Under Secretary for Farm and Foreign Agriculture Services and will begin serving as ODA director on Jan. 23, once confirmed by the Oregon Senate.

Lisa Hanson, ODA’s deputy director, was a finalist for the position and has served as the agency’s chief since Coba left in October to lead the state’s Department of Administrative Services.

In her position at USDA, Taylor was charged with advocating for international trade policies that benefit U.S. agriculture and led the agency’s Women in Agriculture Initiative, which supports female farmers.

Prior to the USDA, she negotiated provisions that ended up in the 2008 and 2014 farm bills as a legislative advisor to congressional committees.

A graduate of Iowa State University, Taylor was raised on an Iowa farm and served in the U.S. Army Reserve for eight years, including a tour in Iraq.

When Coba announced she was leaving ODA, eight of Oregon’s agriculture industry groups wrote a letter to Gov. Kate Brown, urging her to install Hanson as the permanent agency chief.

However, the Oregon Farm Bureau has welcomed the news of Taylor’s appointment, citing her “track record of success” at the USDA.

“We believe Ms. Taylor’s experience at a high level in Washington, D.C. gives here the background she needs to be successful in helping the industry recognize and overcome its challenges in Oregon,” OFB said in a statement.

LONG CREEK, Ore. — It rained last night, and Sharon Livingston couldn’t be happier about it.

Recently named Agriculturalist of the Year, the welfare of her ranch is never far from her mind.

Born and raised in Long Creek, Livingston, now 77, still works the ranch she grew up on. She leases her Angus and Angus-cross cattle to a local rancher, Jim Jacobs, and helps when she can.

Livingston works seven days a week and doesn’t take vacations outside of work. She’s deeply involved in Oregon agriculture and is the former president of the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association and a member on both the Oregon Board of Agriculture and the Oregon Beef Council.

In recognition, Livingston has been named the 2016 Agriculturalist of the Year by Oregon Aglink. She will receive the award at the annual Denim & Diamonds Dinner and Auction in Portland, Nov. 18.

Livingston is one of only two women who have been president of the cattlemen’s association.

“I taught school for years with men, and if we went through the lunch line and they let me go in front, I would say, ‘Thank you.’ I’m appreciative,” she said. “However, if you choose not to, it’s OK. We’re all working here together.”

Grant County Commissioner Boyd Britton has known Livingston for roughly two decades and speaks highly of her.

“Sharon Livingston is one of the reasons Grant County will always be strong,” Britton said. “She loves the land, and she stands up for the rights of the agricultural community.”

The award is presented by Oregon Aglink, a marketing and public relations association for the agricultural industry founded in 1966. The organization’s goal is to educate urban Oregonians on where their food comes from and how farmers produce it, Aglink Executive Director Geoff Horning said.

Agriculturalist of the Year is “the most prestigious award” in the agriculture industry, he said.

“It’s something that has to really be a career achievement,” Horning said. “It’s really more of an award to present someone who has gone above and beyond over a long period of time.”

It’s for this dedication that Livingston is being honored.

“Sharon has been an extraordinary advocate for Oregon agriculture on so many fronts for her entire life,” Horning said. “She represents everything that is good about our industry and about her community. She’s very selfless, very outgoing and very willing to do whatever it takes to help her industry do better.”

Livingston is appreciative of the recognition, but gets her satisfaction from being a steward of the land, a provider for her community.

“I just try to pay my bills, be a good citizen, honor the Constitution and flag and vote,” she said.

Livingston, like many in the area, is conservative. She said many in the agricultural industry are excited about President-elect Donald Trump and the chance to have a Republican in the White House.

However, she is worried about Trump’s stance against the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which would help the industry export products.

She is committed to helping give agriculturalists a voice in state government in a time where she says they deal more and more with government regulations and oversight. Livingston cites the Agricultural Water Quality Management Act, also known as Senate Bill 1010, as a prime example.

The bill requires the Oregon Department of Agriculture to help reduce water pollution from agricultural sources to improve the health of watersheds throughout the state. Livingston has stayed involved with the board of agriculture to make sure they are able to use water to produce crops and sustain their industry.

“Land ain’t no good without water,” she said, quoting a line from her favorite book, “Half Broke Horses.”

Livingston said she will always be an advocate for taking care of water and using it in a sustainable way.

Livingston has watched the community she grew up in slowly dry out. She said the evidence is all around her: Smaller classes in schools, fewer open businesses and a lack of jobs are all proof Long Creek is hurting.

“It’s a whole different society, a different area, a different community,” she said.

However, Livingston believes the town has a future, which is something that drives her to advocate for the needs of local agriculturalists.

Livingston said she will continue to work in agriculture as long as she can but is uncertain to whom she will pass on the tradition. She lost her husband, Fred, in 1992 to cancer and her oldest son, Clayton, to a heart attack in 2013. Both had been involved in the ranch. She has two other children who have moved away but is hopeful a grandchild will show interest in the tradition.

Livingston said she never intended to get rich and plans to hang on to the ranch as long as she can.

“It’s my life, and it’s what I do,” she said. “I’ll do it as long as I can.”

Portland pot attorney Amy Margolis has joined a Florida firm that is expanding its cannabis law practice group across the U.S. as more states legalize production, sale and use of medical and recreational marijuana.

At least two other attorneys join Margolis in the new Portland office of Greenspoon Marder, which is based in Boca Raton, Fla., and has offices in Miami, New York, Denver, Las Vegas, San Diego and elsewhere. Attorneys Sara Bateman and Kristin Stanckiewicz will work in Portland with Margolis, who joins the law firm as a shareholder.

Margolis is a significant figure in Oregon’s marijuana industry, and the Florida law firm’s expansion into Oregon is part of a noteworthy trend as well. Other Pacific Northwest law firms have agricultural practice lawyers who work with producers and processors on a wide range of business and environmental issues, and some of them have recently added or assigned cannabis work to their ag teams.

Tim Bernasek, head of the agricultural practice group at Portland’s Dunn Carney law firm, said the company’s leadership analyzed the issue thoroughly and decided to take on marijuana work. The decision is consistent with the approach many trade associations have taken, Bernasek said, including the Oregon Farm Bureau.

“The voters have spoken,” Bernasek said. “This is a legitimate agricultural crop and it’s important for people getting into the business to have good legal representation in dealing with, number one, understanding the agricultural regulatory environment that they are now formally a part of.”

It’s important that cannabis producers and entrepreneurs understand the risks of lending and other transactions, because marijuana remains illegal under federal law even though states have legalized it, he said. Some traditional farmers are diversifying into marijuana, and need solid advice.

“That’s the analysis our firm went through,” Bernasek said. “It isn’t a values judgment. If we serve an industry, this is part of that industry. The bigger thing as a legal community, particularly when it’s so tricky and difficult, is people need good legal counsel.”

Veteran attorney David Zehntbauer is Dunn Carney’s point person on cannabis issues.

Margolis, head of the new Greenspoon Marder branch in Portland, founded and was executive director of the Oregon Cannabis Association, a nonprofit professional organization representing growers, processors, dispensaries and other businesses. Margolis has testified and lobbied before the Oregon Legislature and other governing bodies on legalization issues.

Margolis previously worked at the Emerge Law Group, which drafted Measure 91. The measure legalized recreational cannabis use, possession and cultivation in Oregon. Voters approved it in 2014 and it took effect July 1, 2015. Emerge Law, based in downtown Portland, remains focused on cannabis business and regulatory compliance issues.

In a prepared statement issued by Greenspoon Marder, Margolis said she is “thrilled” to join the firm as it expands its national cannabis practice.

“Having represented clients in the cannabis movement and industry for more than fifteen years, I am excited to partner with a firm that has (a) deep bench of experience with heavily regulated industries coupled with a commitment to cannabis reform,” Margolis said in the statement. She did not immediately respond to an interview request.

Greenspoon Marder estimates the recreational and medicinal marijuana market at $5.4 billion annually. Counting results from the Nov. 8 election, 29 states and Washington, D.C. now allow adult pot use in some form, according to the law firm.

On its website, the firm said state votes are “creating an environment of rapid growth in the cannabis industry” even though the federal government still classifies it as illegal. The law firm said it helps businesses “navigate the complex and evolving laws and regulations governing the cannabis industry.”

Online

http://www.gmlaw.com

OLYMPIA — The minimum wage for H-2A visa foreign guestworkers in Washington and Oregon likely will rise 5.44 percent to $13.38 per hour in 2017, making it the highest in the nation, according to WAFLA, formerly the Washington Farm Labor Association.

The rate has been $12.69 for the past year and goes up every Jan. 1 based on government surveys of regional prevailing wages.

“It appears that the large percentage increases and higher wages for field and livestock workers are symptomatic of a dramatic labor shortage nationwide,” said Dan Fazio, WAFLA director.

“It’s good news for workers but very tough for farmers,” he said.

As it increases, it’s increasing farmers’ production costs, he said.

The mandatory minimum wage for H-2A workers, known as the Adverse Effect Wage Rate, is set by the U.S. Department of Labor based on surveys of prevailing wages of domestic workers by region. It is above state minimum wages and intended to prevent wages of domestic workers from being adversely affected by the importation of foreign workers.

The National Agricultural Statistics Service calculates the AEWR, adopted by DOL, from surveys of field and livestock workers conducted during one week each calendar quarter, Fazio said. On Nov. 17, NASS published the third- and fourth-quarter wage rates along with the entire year’s calculations, he said.

Wage surveys conducted by the Washington Employment Security Department are not considered by NASS or DOL but DOL encourages states to do their own surveys, he said.

These rates are not official until issued by DOL, but it looks like California’s AEWR will increase 5.72 percent from $11.89 to $12.57 per hour, Fazio said.

The rate for Idaho, Montana and Wyoming likely will decrease slightly from $11.75 to $11.66 per hour, he said. The rate in Colorado, Utah and Nevada probably will drop from $11.27 to $11 per hour and Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin likely will increase 5.74 percent from $12.02 to $12.75 per hour, he said.

The national average will probably go up 3.92 percent from $11.74 to $12.20, he said.

Washington growers hired 13,641 H-2A workers in 2016, mostly from Mexico, for pruning and picking tree fruit. Often those workers make more than the AEWR on piece rate, which is pay for the volume of fruit they pick.

But at a minimum, growers using H-2A workers must pay all their workers, foreign and domestic, the highest of the AEWR, the prevailing hourly wage, a collective bargaining wage, if applicable, or the state or federal minimum wage, Fazio said. “The AEWR becomes the de facto minimum wage for farmers who use H-2A and pay workers by the hour,” he said.

The H-2A program allows agricultural employers to hire foreign guestworkers on temporary work visas to fill seasonal jobs. Employers must show a shortage of U.S. workers in the area and provide housing, transportation and a minimum wage.

PORTLAND — In the wake of its defeat in passing a $3 billion corporate sales tax measure, A Better Oregon announced Thursday it plans to push for legislation next year to boost state revenue and increase corporate income transparency.

During a press conference Thursday at a Planned Parenthood in Northeast Portland, the union-backed coalition, which sponsored Measure 97, released no details about possible proposals.

Coalition leaders said the 10-to-15-percent cuts to state services that Gov. Kate Brown has said will be needed to balance the 2017-18 budget are unacceptable.

“The issue is our largest corporations are not paying their fair share,” said coalition leader Linda Roman, director of health policy and government relations for the Latino Health Coalition. “We cannot continue to tax working families and small businesses. That is just too large of a burden for Oregonians.”

Coalition leaders’ messages Thursday seemed to echo many of its campaign slogans. But coalition leader Andrea Paluso, executive director of Family Forward Oregon, said A Better Oregon is willing to negotiate with businesses and corporations that opposed the ballot measure on a potential revenue package.

Lawmakers have said they plan to consider a revenue package next year to help fill a nearly $1.4 billion revenue shortfall on maintaining existing services.

Coalition leaders said they plan to unveil A Better Oregon budget in coming weeks, revenue package proposals and legislation to disclose what corporations pay in taxes to the state. Some of the revenue proposals already exist, but A Better Oregon has not yet released them, Roman said. The coalition hopes to work with a bipartisan group of lawmakers on the legislation but was not prepared Thursday to name any sponsors.

The coalition has no existing plans to propose another ballot measure to raise revenue. Leaders are waiting to see what the Legislature will come up with next year.

Coalition leaders will be looking for “real attempts at and success in raising revenue that closes some of our budget shortfalls but also looks to the future,” Paluso said.

“It’s not enough anymore to just stop cutting,” she said. “We actually need to invest in the future.”

One of A Better Oregon’s proposals will aim at making public the amount of taxes corporations pay the state, Roman said.

“Time and time again in this debate as we were really asking corporations to pay their fair share for the common good, as they should, we came up against the fact that there really was a dearth of information about what they actually pay,” said coalition leader Brian Rudiger, deputy executive director for SEIU Local 503, “and we think as we move forward into this 2017 legislative cycle and beyond, that it is going to be critical for legislators and the general public to have more information.”

The coalition is working with lawyers to explore legal options for greater transparency, Paluso said.

“We feel confident there are ways we can require corporations to disclose more about their profits and tax rates,” she said.

Valerie Cunningham, a spokeswoman for the Portland Business Alliance, declined the comment on the proposal at this time. Ryan Deckert, president of the Oregon Business Association, was not immediately available for comment Thursday.

Voters soundly rejected Measure 97 by a 19-point margin. The measure would have levied a 2.5 percent tax on certain corporations’ Oregon sales exceeding $25 million.

The campaign against the measure emphasized that the tax applied only to one type of corporation, leaving out others with equal sales. The “No on Measure 97” campaign also drove home that lawmakers could spend the revenue in any way they chose, and that the tax could cost consumers hundreds of dollars more per year in the form of higher prices and slowed job growth.