Looking north from Palestine Avenue N.W. on May 24, 2024.
It’s too late to see it now, but if you had looked north from Northwest Palestine Avenue last week, you would have seen a bright yellow carpet covering part of this section of the Willamette Valley below.
On a bike ride in this part of North Albany on Friday last, I was curious about this field. Then I stopped at the North Palestine Cemetery for a closer look and took this shot:
To my non-agricultural eyes, these flowering plants look like mustard.
Here’s something else I wondered about on that little ride. Stakes apparently marking the edge of the county’s right of way had been put in the ground up and down the road.
One of many stakes placed on both sides of Palestine Avenue, a Benton County road.
This looked as though someone was planning on doing work on this Benton County road. Or maybe there’s a pending land development where the edge of the public right of way is important to know.
When I asked him, Benton County Public Works Director Gary Stockhoff checked with the engineering staff and reported: “We aren’t aware of any pending road work that would have prompted a stake to be set designating the [right of way] in this area.”
He also checked with someone in community development, and that person didn’t know of any pending development plans.
“There was a property line adjustment a bit ago, but that is all and as such is not a development per se.” Stockhoff said, “So, at the time it doesn’t appear anything active is happening in that area.”
It looks like I’ll have to wait for an answer to the mystery of the stakes on Palestine Avenue. But the view is always nice. (hh)
It would be terrible to build in that area and take away what has always been beautiful view.
Hasso, looks like rape or rapeseed to me. Looks similar to wild mustard
Gawd! Almost sounds like Benton County’s right hand doesn’t know what its left hand is doing!! If it were one or two stakes, I would say that it is a prank and someone stole the stakes and then placed them there. But, you said multiple stakes, so I would think the county would know what’s going on. But, the message on those stakes is hand-written, so it might be a protest against the county or a prank.
As far as the yellow blooms, ride out there and pick one and take it to Garland’s Nursery for identification.
Maybe canola also known as rapeseed.
Hasso – Thank you for not mentioning “rapeseed.”
Who in their right mind is okay with that label?
Benton County must consider outlawing any and all references to “rapeseed” by imposing a rebranded name to ensure sensitivities are not violated.
Where is local government when we need it?
For marketing purposes just call this flower Canola – yeah, much better.
It’s rapeseed. I live almost on top of it! *LOL – I call this the airplane view of the valley – exquisite!
The Pacific Northwest is a beautiful agricultural gift. I wish people would understand how fortunate we are to live with such amazing abundance of health and beauty that it offers us and protect it.
Enjoy it while you can because our present governor will have the entire valley covered with “middle housing” in nothing flat
Pretty sure that’s our friend’s field and he’s growing purple top turnip seed. Similar stakes in our yard mark a natural gas pipeline.
It’s the source of Canola oil. A big crop in Canada. Canada + Oil = Canola.