Conservation awards

The Lincoln County Conservation District held its awards banquet Thursday, March 14, to honor area residents for their dedication to conservation efforts in 2012. District manager David Lundgren emceed the program and presented the awards. Two “Farmer of the Year” awards were handed out, one to the Jay & Kathy Scrupps Joint Venture and the other to Jeff Schibel.

Receiving awards for community service were Jerry Schafer and Clark Kagele. The organization’s public service award went to now retired Lincoln County Commissioner Dennis Bly of rural Sprague/Harrington. The conservation award was presented to Elayne Hovde, who was unable to attend the banquet.

Jay & Kathy Scrupps JV

Jay and Kathy Scrupps have been married 21 years and have three sons. Walt and his wife Chris live in Spokane where he is employed by Avista. Chris is married to Amber, and he is a lieutenant and Army Ranger stationed at Fort Knox, Ky. He will embark on his second tour in Afghanistan in June. Ryan is married to Kelsey and is a corporal in the Marines, stationed at Camp Pendleton, Calif. He just returned from his first tour in Afghanistan.

The Scrupps’s have four grandchildren and another on the way. Jay has been farming for 42 years in Odessa. He is a retired County Fire Commissioner and currently serves on a local grain board. Kathy, originally from Montana, works with Jay on the farm, serves on the County FSA Committee and volunteers at her church.

Conservation has always been an important aspect of their farming operation. They have participated in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) for many years and have practiced limited tillage on their dryland acres. They have utilized the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) to help maximize water conservation and save irrigation dollars. Under this program they have installed variable frequency drives on all their water pumping stations, which has significantly improved water management and conservation efforts and resulted in real dollars saved. In conjunction with EQIP, they have upgraded all of their circle panels to more efficiently manage their water usage and to monitor water scheduling for their crops. They have also installed low-pressure sprinklers on nearly all their irrigation circles to maximize water savings.

They have recently been accepted into the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) and have been extensively recording and monitoring irrigation, chemical and fertilizer usage; plant tissue and nutrient testing and analysis; weed and pest management; air quality and soil erosion control.

They look forward to continuing these practices and trying new methods, as they become available, to improve soil and water conservation on their farms and be as efficient as they can be with the crops they grow, always seeking to protect their air and water resources.

Jeff Schibel

Jeff and Cheryl Schibel have two daughters, Nicole and Lindsey, and two grandchildren, Eddie and Jayden.

Schibel is a fourth-generation farmer who has been irrigating for the past 48 years. His crops are wheat, barley, peas, beans, potatoes and canola. The present rotation is wheat, potatoes, and canola.

He has participated in the Department of Ecology/Washington Association of Wheat Growers Ag Burn from 1997 to the present. He was on the 2005 Department of Ecology Ag Burn Advisory Committee (WAC 173-430). He served on the Columbia Plateau CP3/PM10 Advisory Committee and also participated in the six-year, 80-acre spring wheat no-till pilot project on the feasibility of spring grains.

Always involved in agriculture, he participated in the Gustafson seed treatment trials for cereal grains and the University of Idaho variety trials for canola. Along with Washington State University and the Department of Ecology, he was involved in canola cropping system trials. He participated in the Kira Powell project on the sodium polyacrylate trials. He is on the Canola Cap Advisory Committee along with Washington State University, Oregon State University and the University of Idaho. He also serves on the Columbia Basin Development League which deals with water issues, including the completion of the second half of the Columbia Basin Project and Odessa sub-area aquifer issues.

Jerry Schafer

After graduating from Odessa High School in 1956, Jerry joined the U.S. Army to see the world. He was stationed in Germany and traveled to many other European countries, then came back home to farm when his father suffered a heart attack. His whole life has been dedicated to the support of this community and its welfare.

Jerry and Ellen married in 1965 and have two children. Daughter Dana lives in Milwaukie, Ore. and works for Alaska Airlines. Son Marlon and his wife Melissa have three children, Andrew, Sam and Molly. They live in Odessa, where Marlon is the local Internet service supplier through his company Odessa Office Equipment.

Jerry’s early involvement in community activities started at United Congregational Church where he sang in choir for years and served as moderator. He joined Lions Club and he helped build Allington Bay at Pacific Lake in the late 50s. He is Past Master of the Odessa Masonic Lodge, Past Patron of Odessa Chapter of the Order of Eastern Star, a Rainbow Dad and recipient of the Grand Cross of Colors of Rainbow for Girls.

As a Shriner, he is proud of having helped numerous children get needed free medical attention by sponsoring them to Shriners Children’s Hospital. Locally, he also chaperoned second graders to the Shriner’s Circus for years.

He served on the school board in the 1970s and was an ardent supporter of the students, the school and the community. He donated the material and built the “O” that glows on the south hill.

He served as Chamber president for two years. He was also an original investor in Odessa Farming Service (later to become Smith Air and later still to be purchased by Wilbur-Ellis), the Odessa Clinic and Wheatland Bank.

In 1962 he drilled his first irrigation well, put in hand lines, and consequently became involved with farm irrigation and water availability. As president of Eastern Big Bend Resources (an organization of area irrigators in the 70s), he spent countless hours working with the Dept. of Ecology on water permits and rules and regulations pertaining to issues for wells in the state.

Many farmers in the area watched for years as water flowed down Crab Creek all winter long, sometimes flooding communities, and wondered how that water could be harnessed and wisely used. In the 70s, they formed the Crab Creek Irrigation District and tried very hard to get a dam built at Sylvan Lake east of Odessa in order to use that water for irrigation and recreation and possibly even power production. Unfortunately, the farming community did not have the resources to pursue the project.

He also tried to convince various bureaucrats of the viability of the Lake Creek Project, which would bring water from Lake Roosevelt up over its banks into Lake Creek where it would eventually fill Pacific Lake and everything along the way, recharging the water table then flowing into Crab Creek and eventually back into the Columbia River.

As a guy who doesn't even like to climb a ladder, the bigger hills around the area were very scary at harvest time, so he found an Allis-Chalmers Gleaner hillside combine with a levelling system. Since there was no A-C dealer in the area, he started Midway Implement with partner and fellow Odessa farmer Al Fink to sell the combines. They later sold the dealership, and it is now known as Walter Implement.

In 1962, he upgraded to wheeled irrigation lines and later on to circle irrigation. With only one dealer in the area selling circles, he decided to start an irrigation business, selling Lindsay Irrigation circles, called Odessa Pump and Irrigation. The challenge was to plan whole irrigation systems. Many of them are still operating 40 years later. For a short period of time OPI had a helicopter service to take infrared photos of fields to aid in diagnosing stress areas. The photos were very enlightening, but the project proved too expensive to maintain. Today, all a farmer has to do is sit at the computer and get a satellite picture with the same information in mere seconds.

For five years Schafer was one of seven dealers on the Lindsay Irrigation National Dealer Council, meeting several times a year with company executives in different cities to be updated and informed of new technology. In turn, they expressed their needs and concerns. Odessa then became the Odessa Sub-Area, and no more new well permits were being issued. He decided to sell the irrigation business in the early 80s.

Seeing the appeal of the Odessa Deutches Fest that drew people from throughout the area, the Schafers opened Das Kraut Haus restaurant in 1980, specializing in German food, specifically his father-in-law’s sausage recipe and his mother-in-law’s hot mustard recipe. Two years later an additional German fast food outlet was opened in Spokane at University City, but that venture did not work out. They sold the restaurant in 1985, bought the old butcher shop building in Odessa and turned it into a USDA-inspected meat and German food processing plant. They sold product in surrounding communities, briefly including another fast-food outlet in Bellevue. Ever mindful of serving the needs of the community, the Schafers opened the doors of Das Kraut Haus for 20 years to Odessa churches, the Chamber of Commerce, school organizations and others in the community to make and store their food products for Fest. Age and health issues were the major factors leading up to the closing of Das Kraut Haus in 2010.

After almost 60 adult years in Odessa, Jerry still actively promotes growth in the community. He attends Odessa Pumpers meetings (an area irrigation group) and GWMA (Ground Water Management Area) meetings, organizations that still pursue irrigation-water issues.

His latest endeavor was to donate land to the Odessa Public Development Authority for an industrial site to promote and develop business and growth in Odessa, knowing that it takes more than just farming to keep a “farming” town viable.

Clark Kagele

Clark and his wife of 38 years Charlene have three children. Jessica is a farmer, Melissa is a teacher and Matthew and his wife Sally are also farmers. Clark is a fourth-generation farmer born and raised on the family farm near Odessa.

He is a member of Christ Lutheran Church, the Odessa Lions Club, the Washington Association of Wheat Growers, the Odessa Public Development Authority, the Columbia Basin Development League, the “internationally” famous Oompas and Mas and a member of the Crab Creek Gospel Band.

Dennis Bly

Dennis Bly was raised on the family wheat and cattle ranch along Crab Creek between Harrington and Sprague. He attended Harrington schools, where he was active in sports, which in turn led to a full basketball scholarship to Gonzaga (“before anybody cared,” he says) and graduated with a degree in business. He then spent two years at Washington State University, in their ag-econ masters program. At WSU, he met and later married his wife Susan from Oakland, Calif. After working for a bank in Fresno, Calif. and as a grain buyer in Portland, Ore., he and Sue returned to the farm in 1975. He served on the local grain co-op board, school board, in Lions Club and held county wheat grower offices.

In 1982, he started through the chairs and became state president for the Washington Wheat Growers in 1984. He became interested in serving as a county commissioner during his participation in Crab Creek Watershed meetings being led by the conservation district. Water quality, water supply and aquifer issues became a focus during his time as a Lincoln County Commissioner. He said, “I truly enjoyed working to represent the citizens and communities in the county.”

He recently retired after 10 years as commissioner and moved back to the ranch with Sue, now his wife of 40 years. They have a daughter Chelsea who lives with her family in Pullman and a son, Brett, who lives with his family in Kirkland. Both are WSU grads.

Elayne Hovde

Elayne Hovde has been the rangeland management specialist with NRCS in both Lincoln and Adams counties. As the Range Specialist, she has helped many ranchers implement conservation practices on private and public land. From livestock water developments, to installation of miles of fencing and tree/shrub plantings, her work has truly made a difference for many ranchers in this area. She actively managed 50 to 60 EQIP and CSP contracts. Last year alone, she was instrumental in planning and supervising the installation of 24 engineered practices, most of these were for livestock water developments.

Prior to coming to the Davenport area, Elayne worked as a Natural Resource/Livestock Manager Extension Agent for North Dakota State University in New Town, North Dakota. She worked exclusively with Native American ranchers to assist with better management practices, prescribed grazing plans, biocontrol projects for leafy spurge and economic development.

Elayne graduated cum laude, from University of Idaho in 2004 with a BS in Rangeland Management and in 2006 with an MS in Rangeland Ecology and Management. Her research project while a Master's student was using sheep and cattle to control yellow star thistle on the breaks above the Clearwater River in Idaho.

Prior to coming into the discipline of natural resources, Elayne's background was diverse and as she says, “always fun, challenging and interesting.” She grew up on a small farm west of Snohomish and eventually ended up in the corporate world working as a training director for a large retail department store in downtown Seattle. After 15 years in a high stress environment, she quit and moved to Wenatchee, where she bought a small soft fruit orchard. After one year of working in the orchard business, she decided horse boarding was a better choice. She owned and operated a full-care horse boarding facility for 10 years while working various jobs in the Wenatchee Valley, from cook and guide for an outfitter in the Cascades, to a fitness instructor and business owner.

She is now onto a new adventure. She has taken a job with NRCS in Salmon, Idaho as a soil conservationist. However, she will still be working with ranchers, but most of her work will be irrigation systems. She said, “I've finally settled down, at least for a while, as I've bought a house with property for my border collies and my horses.”