Page 29 - Flathead Beacon // 9.28.16

UNCOMMON GROUND MIKE JOPEK LOCAL PROGRESS
GUEST COLUMN TASHA GALL
YESTERDAY WAS THE LAST farmers market of the 2016 grow- ing season for White sh. It’s been one heck of a season in the Flathead. Some produce like pears and cucumbers grew great, other veggies like late-season tomatoes succumbed to the repetitive nights of temperatures in the twenties.
This Friday, our farm will host one of the several tours the Alternative Energy Resources Organization put together as part of their statewide annual meeting. We’ll talk about some of the stu we’ve learned over the decades of farming the Flathead.
On this AERO farm tour, we’ll try to mostly talk about pragmatic things that may help inform the next generation of beginning farmers on more permanent infrastructure needs like game fencing, drip irrigation, row covers, hoop houses, barns, perennial plants, and the impor- tance of community involvement.
As some locals know, besides farming, I’ve chaired multiple legislative commit- tees that deal with statewide farm policy. State and national policies, everything from agricultural property tax valuations to federal crop insurance eligibility, have big impacts on beginning farmers and small-scale food production.
My interest in farm policy was upheld at last month’s market when the local Farm Services Agency agent from the United States Department of Agricul- ture came and chatted me up about the agency’s new crop insurance programs that can help protect small fruit and veg- etable growers from devastating losses accompanying the chaotic weather pat- terns that are now more a part of local- ized food production.
As any farmer knows, hail and freeze can quickly end the farm season. Sen. Jon Tester as part of the 2014 Farm Bill guided some of the new reforms to federal crop insurance toward more small Mon- tana farms.
Tester is likely the only farmer left in Congress. Anyone who cares about food access and a ordability, or what’s in our food, where on the planet it was grown, or what our kids eat while at public schools
will quickly grow to appreciate having an organic farmer’s hand on the national food policy of Congress.
From both that food policy perspective as well as from the day-to-day practical- ity of operating a small local farm for the past 25 years these kinds of crop eligibil- ity reforms represent big steps forward toward a food system that work better for Montana’s small producers.
Much of the next Farm Bill should con- tinue these kinds of small farm advance- ments but also acknowledge some of those real obstacles facing today’s begin- ning farmers. There are multiple infra- structural needs beyond the more obvi- ous access to cropland. There’s plenty of need for technology advancements to farm stu like planter’s paper, drip irri- gation and grow tunnels.
AERO is a membership-driven organi- zation that for the past 40 years has been linking people across Montana with agri- culture and energy solutions.
This weekend the organization will feature keynote speaker Mary Berry of the Berry Center. The center says that their mission is “putting Wendell Berry’s writings to work by advocating for farm- ers, land conserving communities, and healthy regional economies.”
AERO’ 2016 Expo and Annual Meet- ing is held at the Red Lion Hotel in Kalis- pell from October 7 to 9. See the statewide organizations website at www.aeromt.org for details. One can attend a tour, listen to Berry, or attend the entire weekend.
This year’s theme, “What We Need is Here,” comes from a poem by farmer and philanthropist Wendell Berry, Mary Ber- ry’s father. AERO’s annual meetings tra- ditionally feature multiple panels, work- shops, and demonstrations.
Some of this weekend’s other farm tours include the brewing and agricul- tural sciences projects at Flathead Valley Community College, Lower Valley Farms and New Agrarian Tools.
Other AERO speakers include Steve Thompson of Climate Smart Glacier Country, Jim Oldham of Equity Trust, and Fred Kirschenmann of Leopold Cen- ter for Sustainable Agriculture.
IOF THE FOREST ’M HOPING TO KEEP THIS BRIEF SO
Forest Service, were straight out of the movie “Lorax” and people were actually falling for it. I realize most people have probably never had the opportunity to set foot on or near a Montana logging job and couldn’t possibly understand the truth. Most of us are just following what we assume the truth is.
The extremist group stated the law- suit was led to protect sh, bears and Canadian lynx. Something I’ve learned from being present at logging camps for over 33 years is that man can be pro- ductive in the forest and that animals will still live and thrive. My children and I have seen numerous bears, a baby mountain lion and his mother, and this spring on-site, my husband sent me a pic- ture of a cow elk that had just birthed her calf right next to where he was sitting in the yarder. Loggers do their very best to open up our forests. They cut out dead and dying timber, clear overgrown for- est oors, and that allows the land, ani- mals, and vegetation to breathe and grow.
Our current job is on the Mon- tana-Idaho border. The Forest Ser- vice years ago planted Douglas r, a fast-growing evergreen, to allow the white pine (a vanishing species) and cedar trees (a shade-tolerant tree) to get a healthy start. Now that these beautiful shade tolerant trees have started to grow and are healthy, our contract is to take out the Douglas r so the shade trees have a chance to grow and get sunlight. This is just one example of the way log- gers and the Forest Service are working together to ensure that all trees will be around for future generations to enjoy.
After posting my opinion on the extremist group’s Facebook page I was deleted and blocked. I tried calling directly to ask if possibly they had made a mistake. Maybe they hadn’t wanted to delete me just because what I believed wasn’t in line with what they believed. They are allowed to le lawsuit after lawsuit stalling contracts, employees are then laid o , and mills run short on money and lumber because of their beliefs. If we are intended to coexist and make our forest better for future genera- tions, it seems to me it’s not happening. It’s their way or the highway!
Don’t we need and want jobs that center around this amazing renewable resource that God has given us? In an age when we have so much information and knowledge on how to care for our natural resources shouldn’t we be tak- ing care of them?
When so many hard working Amer- ican jobs are being taken, doesn’t it also seem foolish to take yet more jobs and make making a living even more complicated?
TRUE ENVIRONMENTALISTS
“MUCH OF THE NEXT FARM BILL SHOULD CONTINUE THESE KINDS OF SMALL FARM ADVANCEMENTS.”
Mike (Uncommon Ground) Jopek and Dave (Closing Range) Skinner often fall on opposite sides of the fence when it comes to political and outdoor issues. Their columns alternate each week in the Flathead Beacon.
I don’t lose your attention. My hus-
band and I were both lucky enough to be born in the beautiful state of Mon- tana. Both of our families enjoy the won- derful things this state has to o er. We raft, ski, visit Glacier National Park reg- ularly in the summer, camp, and hike. Our family loves Montana! We were taught early that things aren’t free, that you work hard, you take care of the things you’ve been given and we do our best to teach our kids that too. My hus- band’s father, my grandpa, my dad, my uncle, and my husband are all proud stewards of the forest.
Every year during spring breakup the logging contractors take class after class to ensure they have the proper knowl- edge of the streambeds, snags for wild- life to nd refuge, and care for mature seed trees. My husband most recently went through the Accredited Loggers Course in Polson. He spent days in Yel- low Bay learning how to better manage the forest, keep wildlife and their habi- tat healthy and happy. The Forest Ser- vice has strict guidelines and forest- ers out on the logging jobs daily mak- ing sure all jobs are done to high Forest Service standards. That consists of laws and rules that are too long to list. This has allowed for safer logging practices, cleaner logging, and even healthier for- ests. We consider loggers the true envi- ronmentalist of the forest.
Growing up, both of our families, along with hundreds of other fami- lies, displayed a bright green neon sign in the window “Our Family is Proudly Supported by Montana Timber Dol- lars.” Slowly through the ‘90s those signs began to disappear. People in Montana were faced with mills closing, logging companies that could no longer pay bills, and workers with nowhere to go but to the oil elds and the construc- tion industry. Last year I quickly, in hopes of securing a job, submitted the paperwork to the Forest Service to ght the never-ending summer res with our logging equipment. Logging was shut down due to res that consumed nearly 107,000 acres and cost the government $10.9 million. So instead of managing our overgrown, dying forests, because of years of lawsuits and litigation, we have allowed ourselves to think it’s OK to watch our uncared-for forests burn.
Recently a job in the Kootenai has left me stunned. A mill in Montana that employs numerous people and has fronted hundreds of thousands of dollars for a Forest Service sale, was told their contract was postponed by an extremist group. The extremist group was making logging seem as if we, the loggers and the
Tasha Gall lives in Creston.
SEPTEMBER 28, 2016 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM
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