The results are in! More than 400 cubic yards of materials were diverted from the landfill and more than 400 hours of volunteer time recorded. More results below.
The Community Pride Cleanup event is a community-building event aimed at helping people in Klickitat County responsibly dispose of household waste. This annual event is sponsored primarily by the White Salmon-Bingen Rotary, Insitu, Republic Services, Gorge Owned, and Klickitat County Solid Waste Department.
It’s that time of year when compost is flying off the shelves and we are getting close to running out again. Thanks to everyone who has continually supported us over the past three years. We are proud and honored to work with all of our feedstock and compost customers. Here’s a quick photo update of the good and the bad of what’s been going on at The Hugger this spring.
Spreading compost in cherry orchards. So much fun!
Silverware found in our feedstock (no joke). Kristal is using it for her wedding!
Installing a custom oversized bucket – thanks Feenaughty
Kiwi Ross’s new tanker truck for hauling brew dew
White Salmon Spring Clean Up – 32 tons composted!
Tyler Spreading
The site
Taylor’s first gallon of biodiesel – Thanks Nick @ Burgerville!
Taylor – doing what he does best.
Cleaning out the tanks. Thanks Crestline. Nice paint work Kristal.
Springing out
Happy Flowers
Bryant Pipe in Hood River and The Dalles now carries Dirt Hugger.
Tour to Silver Springs – our dream facility. Thanks Samantha!
SDS lumber in Bingen now carries Dirt Hugger compost
School Tours at DH
The Port announces the business park – (Dirt Hugger currently occupies some of the lots and will be moving).
Kristal working on the pond
New bed on the F350. Thanks Mike!
Mosier Valley Organics
Speaking at Master Brewer’s Association meeting on composting brewing waste.
Maggie!
Loading up trucks for delivery.
Loading the spreader
Kristal bagging
Jim spreading ahead of new plantings
Jim describing the Bobcat rollover incident
Dirt Hugger field work. (Still amazed a 32 yr old truck gets the best gas mileage we can find).
New green hoodies
Glory Orchards
A field getting desperately needed organic matter.
Bags at Grow Organic
Spring is the time of year for gardening and community clean up events. Dirt Hugger supports many of these events through composting and collection of organic debris. Check out the list below of events near you.
Community Pride Cleanup
Bingen Collection Center Bingen, WA
April 26, noon – 4 PM
April 27-28, 10 AM – 4 PM
The Dalles Disposal
April is free yard debris month!
Monday-Saturday 9AM – 5 PM
1317 W 1st St, The Dalles
(541) 298-5149
The Dalles Community Clean Up
Saturday May 4th, 9AM – 3PM
The Dalles Armory, 6th & Webber St.s
We know many of you drive from good distances to come to Dirt Hugger to pick up compost and we appreciate the effort! In a move to create better convenience, we have now opened up five new retailers throughout The Gorge. We hope our retailer network will provide a closer supply of material and more convenient retail hours than we currently offer. Here is a list of retail locations with Dirt Hugger compost:
HOOD RIVER
Bryant Pipe & Supply (Bulk compost pick up or delivery)
Location: 999 Tucker Rd
Phone: 541-386-1179
Hours: M-F 8am-5pm, Sat 9am-1pm
Grow Organic (bagged compost only)
Location: 2035 12th St
Phone: 541-632-3478
Hours: T-Sun 9am-6pm
THE DALLES
Bryant Pipe & Supply (Bulk compost pick up or delivery)
Location: 3012 E 2nd St
Phone: 541-296-1172
Hours: M-F 8am-5pm, Sat 9-1pm
BINGEN
SDS Lumber (Bulk compost pick up or delivery)
Location: 200 Walnut St
Phone: 509-493-2155
Hours: M-F 7am-3pm
GOLDENDALE
Riley Bros, Inc. (Bulk compost pick up or delivery)
Phone: 509-773-5919
Hours: M-F 8am-5pm
Each of these locations have been important in the start-up of Dirt Hugger and we are proud to work together with them:
Our entire site runs on air and water so we go to Bryant Pipe & Supply pretty much every day for a pipe, fittings, or valves. It would drive us nuts to see non-Dirt Hugger compost there every day- we are glad the BPS team finally broke down and started to buy DH compost for their supply.
Jeff and Ketrina at Grow Organic were the ones that pushed us to finally bag compost.
SDS provides us with topsoil and bark chips.
Tony Riley has been a good ally in helping us grow to the east.
From the beginning we wanted Dirt Hugger to be about resource recovery and impact on agriculture. There are thousands of tons of nutrients heading to the Wasco County landfill every year, and we are trying to recover those as best as possible. There is a bunch more work to do and we are still pushing for local curbside compost programs in the gorge communities. Please continue to talk to your city councilors about these important programs.
On the agriculture side the gorge is home to one of the greatest fruit growing regions in the world. For decades common practice has been to apply chemical nutrients, grow largest fruit possible and ship them to the highest value market possible (typically export markets). A single pear tree can produce nearly 1,100 pounds of fruit. When taken on a net basis 1,100 pounds of material are being taken from an orchard and replaced mostly by liquid and maybe 20 lbs of leaves. At a certain point from a strictly materials stand-point the system will not self-sustain. Material, or more specifically, organic matter needs to be returned to the soil. As Theodore Roosevelt said, “A nation that destroys its soils, destroys itself.” Which, is where compost comes into play. Compost (40-50% organic matter by dry weight) is one of the best ways to return organic matter to depleted soils.
In order to help close that loop- we are pleased to announce the addition of compost application services to our orchard, farm, and vineyard customers. We have only done a few test plots so far, but we are gaining experience and are excited to see results in the coming growing seasons. With the help of rented equipment from Polehn Farms we can now come to your orchard or vineyard and apply compost in the planting strips. Feel free to contact us in order to find out more.
For those that wonder if we pack it up during the winter and wait for spring, quite the contrary. Winter is the best time of year to catch up and get ahead on projects in order to be ready for the growing season. As Bob the mechanic at Crestline told us, “winter maintenance is summer performance.” Below is a photo update of this winter’s activities.
1000 tons of wood from the Country Club Rd realignment project
Custom potting mix for Humble Roots nursery.
Still fiddling with the pond (ugh) – more aeration.
Stump splitting
We bought a 2nd loader! -Thanks to Randy at Feenaughty!
Working in pear orchards
Spreading compost in orchards.
Painting and labeling tanks
Wet mornings.
Orchards test plots
Hello Hood River,
On Monday Sept 10th, Hood River Garbage presented a proposed city-wide yard debris composting program. Below is a summary of the main points of the proposed program along with some questions asked by the council (from the best of my memory).
Questions from City council:
The City Council would really like to hear input from you, the public, on this proposed program. We (Dirt Hugger) also really encourage you to give input to the city council members. This is a potentially big change to your garbage service, bill, and weekly routine so you should have input. Please feel free to contact city council members or write a letter to the Hood River News with your opinion on this proposal.
For your additional research, here is a really great article from OPB on the top 10 pros and cons of Portland’s city-wide compost program after one year of operation. My favorite Pro: 44% reduction in garbage going to the landfill. My favorite Con: “too many bins.”
