[PLUG-TALK] Oregon Dryland Wheat

[Patrick O'Connor]

I love the soils tidbits. A geomorphology primer would do the plug list folks some good, thinking in geological time frames makes our current problems seem less significant.

I took a gander at your personal telco site. I am kind of curious about the site next to arbor lodge park. That looks like the light pole proposal was quite a while ago.

I work for parks. That park is in my portfolio. If you have interest in installing hardware there I can help. We do have electricity in the bathroom building there.

I am curious what the coverage is like there. 

I have been thinking about trying to get internet connections at my parks for environmental sensors. I would like to get some soil moister sensors in to help make irrigation scheduling more precise. 

I talked to Vivek Shandas from PSU who does research on heat island effect and urban greenspace. He is working on a proposal to put out sensors for environmental data collection. I'm hoping to work with him at my parks. A connection is the prerequisite.

best,
Patrick


 ---- On Thu, 13 Feb 2025 17:21:05 -0800  Russell Senior <russell at personaltelco.net> wrote --- 
 > >>>>> "Ted" == Ted Mittelstaedt <tedm at portlandia-it.com> writes:
 > 
 >     Ted> Eastern Oregon is desert, full of wheat fields that were
 >     Ted> marginal producing 30 years ago but due to global warming
 >     Ted> today, are almost worthless.
 > 
 > Oregon dryland wheat is really only grown in North Central Oregon,
 > starting in about The Dalles and running east to Pendleton or so, and
 > extending south of the Columbia River for ~40 miles. The rest of eastern
 > Oregon is not terribly suitable for dryland wheat. The only thing that
 > makes it viable where it is grown is glacial Loess, a wind-blow silt
 > that holds moisture. It can store up enough water for a wheat crop about
 > every other year.
 > 
 >   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loess
 > 
 > The Palouse is a more famous, and perhaps more, extreme example:
 > 
 >   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palouse
 > 
 > I spent a lot of time driving through Oregon Wheat country in my youth,
 > because my grandparents lived in The Dalles and my grandfather took me
 > fishing a lot in places like Tygh Valley and the Deschutes. I only saw
 > the Palouse a few years ago, and it was impressively fertile considering
 > its location in the east-side rain shadow.
 > 
 > Last autumn, I did a drive from Philippi Canyon through backroads to
 > Condon, and there was still plenty of wheat growing there. There is a
 > lot more of eastern Oregon that's really only suitable for cattle
 > grazing because of the lack of water and really thin soils on top of
 > Columbia River Basalt. That would be much more suitable for solar
 > development than the wheat growing areas.
 > 
 > Scrolling around Wasco, Sherman, Gilliam and Umatilla Counties in
 > GoogleMaps satellite view you can see a lot of active dryland wheat
 > farming.
 > 
 > See also:
 > 
 >   https://smallfarms.oregonstate.edu/sites/agscid7/files/assets/dryland-farming-in-the-northwestern-united-states.pdf
 > 
 > Fun fact, Philippi Canyon is the site of an overtopping from ice-age
 > catastrophic floods down the Columbia River into the Johnday River
 > canyon. You can see the erosional scour scars in google maps:
 > 
 >   https://maps.app.goo.gl/qPBfb2iUHDohNJGX9
 > 
 > 
 > -- 
 > Russell Senior
 > russell at personaltelco.net
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