YAKIMA, Wash. — With the United States moving to normalize relations, Cuba is a potential market for Washington tree fruit but probably not for some time and not in large volumes.

Cuba only has 11 million people and more than five decades of communist control has resulted in a poor economy and very little middle class, said Chris Schlect, president of the Northwest Horticultural Council in Yakima.

“Down the road when their economy takes off and they get more of a middle class, it should be a good market,” Schlect said.

A turn to democracy or at least some sort of mixed communist-capitalist system, like China or Vietnam, and an increase in tourism would help that happen, he said.

“Tourism is what they have to sell and builds their economy. I envision a huge surge in tourism, of people going who haven’t been there in decades and a build up of resorts,” he said.

Steve Appel, a wheat farmer and president of the Washington Farm Bureau, was part of a Clinton administration trade mission to Cuba in 1999 that preceded a change in law in 2000 that allowed some agricultural exports to Cuba.

Along with other commodities, it resulted in Pacific Northwest apples and pears going to Cuba for a few years.

Northern Fruit Co. Inc., East Wenatchee, sold small amounts of apples to Cuba in 2002 and 2003. The company’s operations manager, Doug Pauly, said he would like to sell there again. If Cuba can develop its economy, it could be a solid market like other Latin American countries of about 200,000 boxes of apples annually, he said.

That would be about $4 million at current prices of about $20 per box. The Dominican Republic leads the region at about 500,000 boxes, roughly $10 million.

“Every new market opportunity is a good market opportunity,” said Rebecca Lyons, export marketing manager of the Washington Apple Commission in Wenatchee. She said she knows of no Washington apple company shipping apples to Cuba since Northern Fruit did. Sales were complicated by Cuba having to pay in dollars through a third party, she said.

Lyons, Schlect and Kevin Moffitt, president of The Pear Bureau Northwest in Portland, all attended a trade show in Cuba in 2002.

The Northwest sold 2,154, 44-pound boxes of pears to Cuba in 2002 and doubled that by 2005, Moffitt said. The U.S. tightened regulations on credit and shipments dropped back to about 2,000 boxes for several years before ending in 2012, he said.

Cuba is allowing some small businesses to open and people to sell produce outside of official stores, Moffitt said. It is building some wealth, although small.

“As people are lifted out of poverty, more will be able to afford pears and apples,” he said. “The retail segment will need to be developed a lot before large volumes can go there.”

It will probably be seven to 10 years before enough middle class emerges in Cuba for it to become a target for Northwest cherries, said B.J. Thurlby, president of Northwest Cherry Growers in Yakima.

A good comparison is Vietnam, he said, which is merging communism and capitalism, developing “a very nice little middle class market for cherries” this year at 35,000 boxes.

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — A watchdog group is challenging the environmentally friendly “green lumber” certification for Plum Creek Timberlands, one of the nation’s biggest landowners and timber producers.

The Center for Sustainable Economy, based in Lake Oswego, Oregon, filed the complaint Thursday with a nonprofit group that verifies whether timber producers follow standards for environmentally responsible logging, including replanting after harvest, protecting water and biological diversity, and complying with environmental laws and regulations.

The complaint covers Plum Creek logging in Oregon’s Coast Range, citing 11 civil citations over the past six years for violating state logging regulations, including four citations for exceeding the clear-cutting limit of 120 acres. The complaint includes Google Earth images showing landslides in areas stripped of trees by Plum Creek.

The company also was cited for failing to protect riparian zones along fish-bearing streams, allowing logging road drainage into a stream and failing to notify state regulators of changes in logging operations.

Seattle-based Plum Creek did not immediately respond to requests for comment. On its website, it states prominently that all its timberlands are certified by the nonprofit Sustainable Forestry Initiative.

“We have long conducted our business with a strong commitment to the environment,” the site says.

The complaint demands that the Sustainable Forestry Initiative immediately suspend certification for Plum Creek in Oregon and investigate the company’s logging practices throughout the country.

Besides giving companies a way to green up their image, certification can have economic benefits. Some state and federal agencies are required to buy products that are certified as sustainable, and some businesses and retailers have sustainability policies. Home Depot, for example, says on its website that it sells only lumber certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, the other major certification body.

The timber industry started the Sustainable Forestry Initiative, but it has since become an independent nonprofit certifying more than 240 million acres of private forests. Outside auditors certify that companies conform to standards for environmentally responsible logging.

Chris Lunde, harvest manager for Blakely Tree Farms LP in Seattle, oversees compliance with Sustainable Forestry Initiative standards in Oregon. He confirmed receiving the complaint, the first in his seven years in the position.

Plum Creek has 45 days to respond, and the complaint will be taken up by an outside auditor, initiative spokeswoman Elizabeth Woodworth said.

John Talberth, president of Center for Sustainable Economy, said the group feels the alleged Oregon violations are part of a larger nationwide problem.

“We think this is the tip of the iceberg, definitely in Oregon, but probably in other states as well,” he said. “As we know, regulations protecting state and private forest lands are far weaker than those for federal lands, and have far less citizen oversight.”

TODAY

Eastern Oregon got some representation in Washington, D.C., last week when an undocumented farmworker from Hermiston testified at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on immigration reform.

Raul Esparza de la Paz, who has been in the country since 1998, urged the committee to keep President Barack Obama’s executive orders on immigration intact while working to come up with a comprehensive immigration reform of their own.

“On a personal level it was something amazing to be among so many senators in Congress, especially representing the city of Hermiston,” he said in Spanish.

The president’s executive orders protect several groups from the threat of deportation, including those who arrived in the country as a child and the parents of immigrants who have been a legal resident for more than five years.

De la Paz said he told the committee about how Obama’s executive action benefited his family. One of his children was already a legal resident and another was covered by the 2012 order to defer action on students who came into the country as a child. But for de la Paz, his wife and three other adult children, Obama’s new executive action removes a sense of fear they have lived with since coming to the United States.

“But a lot more needs to be done,” de la Paz said. “Now it’s Congress’ turn.”

He said even though he had to sacrifice a few days of work to travel to the hearing, he jumped at the chance to represent the United Farm Workers in the nation’s capital.

“I wanted to take the opportunity to manifest my excitement and joy over the executive action,” he said.

He said he was so excited about speaking at the nation’s capital that it only took him 20 minutes to write his speech.

De la Paz spoke at a press conference before the hearing, and said afterward at the hearing Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colorado, ceded his time on the floor to de la Paz to expand on some of the points he made at the conference about the importance of keeping families together through immigration reform.

Immigration reform activist Astrid Silva, a “Dreamer” from Nevada who came to the country illegally at four years old and is now able to attend college thanks to Obama’s 2012 actions, also spoke at the Dec. 10 hearing.

Hop production for Idaho, Oregon, and Washington in 2014 totaled 71.0 million pounds, up 3 percent from the 2013 crop of 69.2 million pounds.

Read the entire report at: http://www.nass.usda.gov/Statistics_by_State/Regional_Office/Northwest/includes/Publications/Hops/hops_12.pdf

TODAY

An Oregon mint farm’s line of candy, started as a side business a few years ago, is featured in celebrity Oprah Winfrey’s magazine this holiday season.

It’s too soon to know whether the spotlight in “O” magazine will result in increased sales of chocolate covered mint patties, but Seely Farms is enjoying the ride.

The magazine includes the mint patties among other treats, describing them as a “guilt free” indulgence.

The farm, owned by Mike and Candy (yes, that’s her real name) Seely, is the last mint farm in Columbia County, which used to be one of the state’s major mint production areas. The Seelys, both former electrical engineers, farm with their children. Mike Seely’s parents and grandparents were mint farmers near Battle Ground, Wash., and he left engineering because he felt drawn to the farm life.

Like other mint farmers, they sell oil that is used to flavor gum, candy, toothpaste, breath mints and other products. But the market nearly tanked when companies turned to less-expensive oil blends or synthetic flavorings, and the Seelys began looking for options about eight years ago.

They began diversification by selling mint tea and vials of oil at the Portland Farmers’ Market. Then, aided by Oregon State University’s Food Innovation Center in Portland, they set up shop in a Clatskanie restaurant and began making mint candy.

They first made 4,000 candy canes, which quickly sold out. Then came the patties, an intensely flavored peppermint fondant covered in dark Belgian chocolate, and Mint Melt-Aways, a smaller, simpler combination of chocolate and mint oil.

The farm’s candies are carried nationally by Whole Foods Markets and other specialty grocers. Mike Seely said the candy business is breaking even, but only uses about 2 percent of his annual oil production. The rest goes as commercial flavoring.

Online

www.seelyfamilyfarm.com

Humbug Mountain Weavers and Spinners will be meeting at the Langlois Fire Hall on Thursday, Dec. 18. The business meeting will start at noon, show and share, program and social time will begin…

LANGLOIS -- 'Tis the week before Christmas and all are in town, at the Langlois library singing, eating and making loud sounds!

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Secretary of State Kate Brown has certified recount results that show the defeat of an Oregon ballot measure to require labels on genetically modified foods.

Brown’s certification on Monday makes the results of the recount official.

They show the measure was defeated by 837 votes out of more than 1.5 million cast. That’s a margin of less than 0.06 percent.

The recount was automatically triggered by the close margin. The hand tally showed an additional 167 votes, with a net gain of 25 no votes.

Oregon becomes the fourth state in the West to reject a labeling requirement for GMOs, following Colorado, California and Washington.

Proponents conceded defeat last week.

LANGLOIS — 'Tis the week before Christmas and all are in town, at the library singing, eating and making loud sounds.

TODAY

CORVALLIS, Ore. — Oregon State University’s College of Agricultural Sciences said goodbye to seven long-time Department of Crop and Soil Science personnel in a celebration Dec. 12 that drew researchers, crop consultants, farmers and university administrators.

The celebration included a recognition ceremony during which participants honored long-time OSU Extension personnel Bill Young, Glenn Fisher and John Hart, as well as Department of Soil Science personnel Ann Corey, John Baham, Barbara Reed and former department head Russ Karow.

All are retiring from the university in the coming weeks or have recently retired.

Fisher, Hart, Karow and Young, particularly, were well known among Oregon farmers, who utilized their research to improve crop management practices.

New Crop and Soil Science Department head Jay Noller said research conducted by Fisher, an entomologist, was vital in helping farmers battle slugs and insect pests that increased after field burning was phased out in the Willamette Valley.

As for Young, Noller said: “Bill is one of those names that comes up around the world.” In a meeting in France, Noller said a scientist asked him if he knew Bill Young after learning Noller was from OSU.

Noller also read a letter from the International Herbage Seed Group thanking Young for his research and group participation.

Bill Brewer, executive director of the Oregon Potato Commission, was among several to offer comments about Karow. “There is a difference between how growers speak and how the university speaks,” Brewer said, “and Russ understands both languages.

“He has done a wonderful job being part of our industry,” Brewer said.

Noller said the department is in the process of locating a new extension soil specialist to replace Hart and is looking for a new soil landscape scientist to backfill his previous position.

Noller, a soil landscape scientist, replaced Karow as department head earlier this fall.

The department doesn’t have an immediate plans to fill Young’s extension seed specialist position.

“That is still out in the future,” Noller said.

As for replacing the 230 years of institutional memory that were on hand Dec. 12, Noller said that will be impossible.

“We are saddened by the loss,” he said, “but they’ve accomplished so much, they deserve a break.”

Steve Gapp, a consultant for Crop Production Services, may have put the participants’ sentiment best when in addressing the audience, he said: “Myself, and the farmers we work with, are the ones who have been the recipients of the work these people have done.

“Thank you again on behalf of the industry for all your hard work,” Gapp said.

Phil Hamm, director of Oregon State University’s Hermiston Agricultural Research and Extension Center, said College of Agricultural Sciences Dean Dan Arp has approved an emergency replacement for Don Hornek, who died of a heart attack Sept. 28.

Hamm said he hopes to have a new hire on hand in about eight months.

Hornek served as extension agronomist and soil scientist at the station for 14 years.

Also, Hamm said, the station recently named Ken Frost, a research assistant in the Department of Plant Pathology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, as its new plant pathologist. Hamm has maintained plant pathology duties at the station for several years part-time while serving as station director.

Frost will start at the station at the end of January, Hamm said.

— Mitch Lies

State wildlife and health officials urge people to be cautious when approaching animals acting strangely, following disclosure that a gray fox involved in a Dec. 11 biting incident tested positive for rabies.

Foxes and raccoons in particular may show signs of convulsions, excessive drooling, or aggression, or may appear uncoordinated or walk in circles. Rabies is a viral disease that attacks the nervous system. It can be spread to humans, livestock or unvaccinated pets by bites, scratches or saliva. Bats, coyotes and skunks can also carry the disease. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife said people should not approach animals that show symptoms of the disease.

If bitten, wash the wound with soap and water for at least five minutes and seek medical attention.

The biting incident happened in the Alazlea-Glen Road area of Douglas County. Additional details were not immediately available.

People who see wild animals acting strange should call the ODFW Wildlife Health Lab toll-free at 866-968-2600 to report the animal to one of ODFW’s veterinary staff. Douglas County residents who encounter pets or stray cats or dogs acting odd should contact Douglas County Animal Control at 541-440-4471.

Registration is open for Organicology 2015, the annual gathering of organic farmers, retailers, activists, policy experts and others.

The event will be held Feb. 5-7 at the downtown Hilton Hotel in Portland. To register, visit http://www.organicology.org

The gathering features a trade show, displays, discussions and workshops on issues ranging from climate change and food safety to organic food production and the next generation of organic leaders, according to organizers.

Speakers include Matthew Dillon of Seed Matters, LaDonna Redmond of Campaign for Food Justice Now and Arran & Arjan Stephens of Nature’s Path Organic.

A pre-conference event, a Feb. 4 “Food Lovers Excursion” tour of Ayers Creek Farm, the Fraga Farmstead Creamery and Momokawa sake distillery, requires a separate registration. (http://www.organicology.org/farm-and-tasting-tour) The tour will be led by Lane Selman, an Oregon State University ag researcher and director of the Culinary Breeding Network.

Snowfall is seriously lagging rainfall in Oregon and Washington, creating a precarious situation for irrigators as winter approaches.

Experts say that snowpacks must increase substantially in early 2015 to ensure adequate water supplies for next year’s irrigation season.

“We are behind the eightball,” said Scott Pattee, water supply specialist in Washington for the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service.

Snowpacks are roughly 60 percent below average in Washington and 70 percent below average in Oregon while precipitation has been above average in both states, according to NRCS data.

At this point, however, the numbers signal a late start to the snow season rather than a dire outlook for irrigators, since there’s still the potential for significant snowfall in the early months of 2015, Pattee said.

“Right now, it’s not that worrisome,” he said.

Above average rainfall is good news because the soil is now saturated, which means the ground won’t have to absorb a lot of melting snow in springtime — contributing to healthier streamflows, Pattee said.

The downside is that rains have melted some snow at the mid-elevation level, he said. “The mid-elevation is probably the most critical because it has the most land mass.”

The current situation is nonetheless a marked improvement from last year, when inadequate rainfall caused a deficit in soil moisture, aggravating the effect of poor snowpacks, said Julie Koeberle, hydrologist for NRCS in Oregon.

However, rain cannot compensate for snow, which effectively provides water storage and allows irrigators to better plan for their season, she said.

“We were hoping for a better start,” Koeberle said.

Snowpacks reach their peak in early April, but in some areas they top out in mid-March, she said. “The writing is on the wall by then.”

Right now, there’s no reason to panic, but irrigators really need snowpack levels to improve by early February, Koeberle said.

If snowpacks remain low at that point, “we would be a lot more concerned,” she said.

Irrigators have less reason to be nervous in Idaho, where rainfall has been about average and snowpacks are only 20 percent below normal.

Above average snowpacks in western Wyoming are an important plus for irrigators in Idaho, as this region strongly contributes to water levels in the Snake River, said Ron Abramovich, water supply specialist for NRCS in Idaho.

“It all starts in the headwaters of the Snake, which is Wyoming,” he said.

The Boise basin, which feeds the Snake River in the western part of Idaho, has an average snowpack, which bodes well for irrigators in that part of the state, Abramovich said.

It’s too early to celebrate, though, as snow must continue accumulating through winter, he said.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association has cast doubt on the prospect of heavy Northwest snow storms in the coming months.

The agency said there is a 65 percent chance of an El Niño ocean atmospheric pattern developing in the Pacific Ocean, which is usually associated with milder Northwest winters. Its long range weather forecast also predicts warmer conditions across the West this winter.

A federal appropriations rider that prohibits spending money to list the greater sage grouse as endangered appears to protect on-going voluntary conservation measures.

The distinction is important. Private landowners and soil and water conservation districts in eight Oregon counties are adopting voluntary agreements that enhance sage-grouse habitat without unduly burdening ranchers.

Candidate Conservation Agreements with Assurances, of CCAAs, have become popular in sage grouse country. Under such agreements, so named because sage grouse are a candidate for listing under the Endangered Species Act, ranchers and other landowners agree to do such things as mark fences, put escape ramps in water troughs and remove juniper trees, which suck up water and crowd out sage and native grasses. In return, they get protection from additional regulations for 30 years even if the bird is listed as threatened or endangered.

The soil and water districts, trusted by local landowners, forge the agreements with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The service had been scheduled to decide whether to list greater sage-grouse by September 2015, but a rider added to a stop-gap funding bill prohibits the use of funds to list the bird next year.

But Elizabeth Materna, spokeswoman for the Fish and Wildlife Service in Portland, points out language in the rider that recognizes the “unprecedented collaboration regarding sage grouse conservation.”

The rider language continues, “This provision is not intended to impede current conservation efforts; it is imperative that stakeholders continue on-the-ground conservation and monitoring activities.”

“Therefore, it would not prevent us from completing our multi-county CCAA or other CCAAs,” Materna said in an email.

Ryan Yates, congressional relations director for the American Farm Bureau Federation, said a listing delay gives voluntary conservation efforts more time to take hold.

“There’s a lot of good work being done by the states, counties and landowners and industry groups,” Yates said during a visit to the Oregon Farm Bureau convention Dec. 10. “Hopefully we’ll be able to demonstrate what that means to the sage grouse population.”

SATURDAY, DEC. 13

Mail Tribune

MEDFORD, Ore. (AP) — The agriculture arm of the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians has transformed the Rogue River Ranch in a matter of 18 months.

K-BAR Ranches Corp., established in 1976 and acquired by the Cow Creek Band in 2001, purchased the 1,700-acre cattle ranch at the base of the Table Rocks in May 2013. Since then, Rogue River Ranch has expanded its cattle herd and reached new levels of alfalfa, wheat and corn production.

“There is unbelievable potential for the crops we grow,” General Manager Tim Bare told a Chamber of Medford/Jackson County Forum audience recently. “We think there is tremendous potential for the protein markets. We choose to raise beef because we can grow forage so abundantly here in the mild, temperate climate in Southwestern Oregon.

“I can tell you there are a lot of people who would absolutely love to bring their livestock to this area. The only limiting factor I can see is that we just don’t have the vast acreage they have over in Central and Eastern Oregon, but the ground we do have is extremely productive.”

Bare said later that K-BAR Ranches Corp. has leased adjoining parcels for farming, pushing the firm’s Jackson County operation to nearly 2,000 acres.

After surveying the lay of the land on the mile-and-half-wide, 4-mile long ranch, Bare told the tribe 2013 would be a salvage year, primarily because the watering system was inefficient, using 45 quarter-mile wheel lines.

“That was the good news,” he said. “The bad news was that it was half-enough. It was a daunting task, I was pushed out of my comfort level. You couldn’t physically irrigate this ranch with 45 wheel lines.”

The irrigation problem was remedied by the purchase of eight circle pivot units, augmented by 20 wheel lines that weren’t sold off. That allows the operation to handle 400 head for finishing at a given moment while running 1,500 head of calves. The finished beef supplies most of the K-BAR Steakhouse at the Seven Feathers Casino.

“When you start selling a product that is worth $2.50 to $3 per pound and it only costs you 30 cents a pound to produce, that’s a win-win,” Bare said. “So there is tremendous potential.”

In 2013, he said, the ranch produced 5 tons of hay to the acre. This year in three cuttings, the yield was 8 tons per acre. Between K-BAR’s Douglas County and Rogue Valley holdings, he anticipates 15,000 tons of hay in 2015.

“You can imagine how long it takes to mow your own lawn at home,” he said. “Well, our lawn is substantially bigger.”

Bare said more automated irrigation is integral to production at the ranch, which has five full-time employees and long-established water rights.

“That is extremely important, no question about it, more so here in Jackson County probably than Douglas,” Bare said. “Over in Central Oregon they don’t even raise one crop without water. Here with alfalfa and some of the different crops we grow we can actually get pretty good production, but without water you’re pretty challenged. Currently, there is still enough forage still growing in our pastures that we don’t have to supplement them and we probably won’t have to supplement those cattle until January.”

K-BAR just finished planting 400 acres of winter wheat, which will be harvested next July.

“A lot of these fields haven’t been farmed for 40 years and the sod was six inches thick,” Bare said. “With some of the new varieties that are out, my goal is to produce 200 bushels of wheat here in Southwest Oregon. It is very much going to be a reality, and no, it won’t be GMO.”

The cattle raised in Jackson County are transported to Crystal Creek Meat in Roseburg for slaughter.

“They are limited to how many animals they can handle,” Bare said. “They can only handle about 20 a week. Right now that’s enough for the restaurant. As we grow that won’t really handle it.”

He said K-BAR sometimes uses processing plants in Springfield or in Northern California.

“We took a hard look at maybe opening our own (slaughterhouse) but we haven’t decided to go down that road yet.”