A ruling striking down the ban on genetically engineered crops in Josephine County, Ore., is being appealed by supporters of the ordinance.

The prohibition was passed by voters in 2014 but overturned in May by Josephine County Circuit Court Judge Pat Wolke, who held that state law clearly pre-empted local regulations of genetically modified organisms, or GMOs.

Oregonians for Safe Farms and Families, a nonprofit, and Sisikou Seeds, an organic farm, defended the GMO ban in court and have filed a notice informing the judge that they will appeal his decision.

Mary Middleton, executive director of OSFF, said the group continues to believe in local control and wants to vindicate the will of voters who created the GMO-free zone.

“Winning sets a precedent for the rest of the state,” Middleton said.

Middleton and other supporters of the GMO ban feared that biotech crops will cross-pollinate with organic and conventional ones, ruining their marketability.

Farmers Robert and Shelley Anne White filed a lawsuit against the ordinance last year because they wanted to plant genetically engineered sugar beets.

Wolke agreed with them that state lawmakers disallowed such local restrictions in 2013, rejecting arguments that the pre-emption law was unconstitutional.

John DiLorenzo, attorney for the plaintiffs, said he’s confident the Oregon Court of Appeals will affirm the decision, preventing county-by-county litigation if other local governments pass similar GMO bans.

“That’s why I’m not opposed to an appeal. I think we’ll establish a state rule,” he said.

Currently, Oregon’s Jackson County is the only jurisdiction where a GMO ban is allowed under state law.

The initiative on Jackson County’s ordinance was already on the ballot when the Oregon Legislature approved the statewide pre-emption statute, and it has since been upheld by a federal judge.

However, county restrictions on GMOs have come under fire in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which has been asked to decide whether such local regulations are allowed under federal law.

Meanwhile, DiLorenzo is seeking $29,000 in attorney fees from OSFF and Siskiyou Seeds, alleging that some of their legal arguments lacked an “objectively reasonable basis.”

The non-profit and farm have objected to this request, arguing it would have a “chilling effect” on other groups that want to “challenge unjust laws that impact local communities,” according to a court document.

Siskiyou Seeds owner Don Tipping said the $29,000 award would result in “great financial harm” for his company, since “farming is typically close to a breakeven livelihood,” according to the document.

Middleton of OSFF said in the document that the requested amount is greater than the group’s operating budget for the GMO ban campaign, so being forced to pay it “may result in shutting down and/or dissolution of the entire organization.”

BEND, Ore. (AP) — Last votes are coming in for a special election being held in Eastern Oregon that was the site earlier this year of an armed takeover of a federal wildlife refuge by militants opposed to overreach by the federal government.

Harney County Judge Steve Grasty, the top administrator of the sparsely populated high-desert county, faces a recall vote because he refused to allow the militants to use a county building to hold a meeting. The vote underscores that divisions remain in the county more than four months after the 41-day occupation ended on Feb. 11.

By late Monday afternoon, Harney County Clerk Derrin E. “Dag” Robinson had collected 58 percent of the roughly 4,400 ballots sent out. Voters can cast ballots at drop-off boxes until 8 p.m. Tuesday, at which time the last ballots will all be collected. In Oregon, voters mail or drop off ballots.

Signs calling for voters to reject the recall effort, and a few of them supporting it, are on lawns and businesses all over Burns, the county seat.

BURNS, Oregon (AP) — Winter and spring have passed since an armed occupation of a federal wildlife refuge ended, but its aftershocks are still shaking this high desert region of Oregon, with activists setting up “Camp Freedom” where an occupier was killed and organizing a recall election this week against a top county official.

The headquarters of the 188,000-acre Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, which was occupied for 41 days, is still closed. Down the road, at The Narrows cafe, saloon, shop and gas station, things have settled. Co-owner Linda Gainer said the business she got from journalists, agents, occupiers, protesters against the occupation, and from protesters protesting the protesters, more than made up for any slower days now. The last militants surrendered Feb. 11.

“I met some awesome people. And you know, everybody that came through, they were all polite,” she said, describing how even militia members and anti-occupation protesters exchanged greetings.

At her place, 26 miles south of Burns, Gainer feels isolated from the divisions that broke open during the takeover and still linger. Burns is the main town in Harney County, which at more than 10,000 square miles is the largest in Oregon. With only 7,100 residents, it is also one of the least populated.

Those divisions are evident in the signs about Tuesday’s special recall election against County Judge Steve Grasty, who for the past 18 years has been the county’s top administrative official. Grasty blocked occupation leader Ammon Bundy from holding a public meeting in a county building, an act cited as justification for the recall effort. Grasty says it was absurd for Bundy, who said he wanted to turn the federal refuge over to local residents, to ask to use county property.

“He had already taken over, with firearms, a whole compound of buildings. And (the request) didn’t make sense to me, nor did it fit public policy about public safety,” Grasty, his shirt adorned with a “No Recall” button, said in an interview in the county courthouse.

Grasty sees this election as a referendum on the county’s handling of the crisis.

“I’ll be disappointed if I’m recalled,” Grasty said. “If I’m successful, I think it’s an affirmation that the county government did the right things during the course of the occupation.”

A local supporter of Bundy said a Harney County resident had tried to rent the building so locals could hear both sides on the takeover. The supporter, who did not want to be named for fear that doing so could impact the supporter’s business, said Grasty’s refusal violated rights to free speech and freedom of assembly.

However, the vast majority of signs in Burns and on ranch fence posts are for Grasty, who, even if the referendum fails, retires in December.

“I certainly hope the recall is defeated hugely,” said Donna Clark, who lives with her husband on 5 acres outside Burns, on ranchland they operated with other families before retiring. She said the recall effort is “sour grapes” for the minority of locals who supported the refuge takeover, which was carried out by outsiders.

More than two dozen occupiers were arrested. Several have pleaded guilty in federal court in Portland to conspiracy in exchange for the dismissal of a charge of firearms possession in a federal facility. Most of the remaining defendants, including Bundy, are scheduled to go to trial Sept. 7.

There was one fatality during the takeover. LaVoy Finicum, an Arizona rancher, was shot by Oregon State Police at a roadblock on a snowy road on a mountain pass, far from the refuge as he and others headed for a meeting in an adjacent county. Aerial FBI video footage shows Finicum exit his pickup with his hands up, and then being shot as he reaches for what authorities said was a weapon.

Today, the snow is gone. Grass carpets the forest floor underneath towering ponderosas. At the spot where Finicum died is a makeshift memorial consisting of a stone slab with his LV cattle brand, American flags, a disc that says “land of the free because of the brave,” flowers and other items. Wooden crosses are affixed to nearby trees.

William C. Fisher said he drove to the site three weeks ago from Boise, Idaho, after he heard that sheriff’s deputies were ticketing people for erecting crosses. He began camping out to protect the site. He said one deputy removed crosses, even though roadside crosses for car-crash victims are permitted.

“I am here because there is an American hero that had been murdered over there, and I feel it is my duty that his memorial needs to stand,” Fisher said. “This is a peaceful assembly. This is a peaceful protest. We have that right to assemble and protest and have freedom of speech.”

A few others have joined Fisher. In the woods behind a roadside banner saying “Camp Freedom” a half-dozen tents have been erected. People dressed in camouflage military uniforms or street clothes sit around a campfire. Tarps provide shade. A decorated tomahawk hangs from a tree.

Someone is always on duty to protect the memorial, said John Hildinger, of Corpus Christi, Texas, wearing an American-flag bandanna on his head.

Larry Jay, a 72-year-old from Burns who describes himself as a Choctaw adopted into the Crow tribe, says the tomahawk and other ceremonial items provide spiritual protection.

“We are the honor guard,” Jay said, his bicep tattooed with Finicum’s brand. “We don’t use labels like patriots or militia.”

Later, a split emerged in the camp, with Jay and Fisher planning to get a permit for a permanent memorial, with others opposed. Fisher plans to pack up the memorial on Monday and deliver it to Finicum’s widow until the permit is issued.

Jay, meanwhile, said he is voting against the judge.

“We tried to get a spot where we could meet and talk, with the ranchers and the ones coming up from ... all over,” he said. “Steve Grasty put a stop to that.”

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A Utah militia group leader with ties to Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy has been arrested and charged with attempting to blow up a rural, federally owned cabin in Arizona, federal authorities said Thursday.

An FBI agent said in charging documents that William Keebler, 57, was planning to retaliate against the federal government that he felt was harassing people and imposing overreaching grazing restrictions on ranchers.

Keebler is a the leader of citizen militia group called the Patriots Defense Force in Stockton, Utah, about 40 miles west of Salt Lake City, according to the charging documents.

Authorities say undercover FBI employees followed Keebler as he planned to set off an explosive outside a U.S. Bureau of Land Management cabin in the northern Arizona area of Mt. Trumbull.

Keebler traveled to the Arizona cabin Tuesday night with militia members and undercover FBI employees. An inactive explosive was placed against the door and Keebler was handed a remote detonation device and pushed it several times, according to the FBI.

The FBI arrested Keebler in Utah on Wednesday morning. He faces one count of attempting to damage federal property with an explosive. If convicted, he could face up to 20 years in prison, according to U.S. Attorney’s Office spokeswoman Melodie Rydalch.

Keebler wore camouflage clothes and had his hands shackled in front of him during a brief hearing to inform him of the charges Thursday. His lawyer declined to comment.

His friend Pete Olson said outside the courtroom he’d been to meetings of Keebler’s militia, but never heard any talk of violence.

“This militia group is kind of like grown up Boy Scouts,” he said. Keebler is something of a survivalist with his own farm who often carries a gun, but Olson said he’s never known him to be around explosives.

“That’s not the Bill I like and I know, but I know that people get pushed beyond their limits sometimes,” he said.

According to the FBI, Keebler was at Cliven Bundy’s Nevada ranch during a 2014 armed standoff with federal officials who were rounding up Bundy’s cattle over unpaid grazing fees.

He was also an associate of Arizona rancher Robert “LaVoy” Finicum, who served as a spokesman for Bundy’s son, Ammon Bundy, and other ranchers involved in an armed standoff at an Oregon wildlife refuge earlier this year.

The FBI says Finicum accompanied Keebler last October when scouting out the BLM facility in Arizona. Finicum was shot and killed by authorities during a Jan. 26 traffic stop that led to Bundy’s arrest.

After Finicum’s death, Keebler and members of his militia group discussed repercussions against a government they said was harassing people and imposing overreaching restrictions on ranchers, according to the FBI.

The militia group scouted out a BLM office in downtown Salt Lake City but abandoned the idea because it was near a shopping mall and homeless population, making it highly visible. Instead, they settled on the BLM cabin in Mt. Trumbull.

It’s unclear what the cabin is used for.

A BLM spokeswoman and Rydalch with the U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to describe the facility or whether employees were working there.

Potato breeders at Oregon State University are hot on the tail of a microscopic parasite lurking in farms across the Columbia Basin.

Columbia root-knot nematodes might be too small to see with the naked eye, but they can cause noticeable damage to spuds if left unchecked. The faculty at OSU’s Hermiston Agricultural Research and Extension Center are now working to identify the gene that makes certain potatoes resistant to nematodes, which could then be used to create new varieties.

Sapinder Bali, a postdoctoral scholar with the HAREC plant breeding program, is part of a team developing molecular markers for the nematode-resistance gene in potatoes. She discussed their progress during the station’s annual potato field day Wednesday.

Nematodes infect both the roots and tubers of potato plants, which can stunt their growth or kill them altogether. By developing a set of molecular markers, Bali said researchers will be able to scan potatoes at the DNA level to find which varieties are resistant and which are susceptible to nematodes.

“These markers can help breeders to confirm the resistant varieties before crossing for choosing right parents and evaluating the segregating populations with higher confidence,” according to the project summary.

That gives breeders like Sagar Sathuvalli a leg up on creating new varieties designed to save farmers money. Sathuvalli works with the Tri-State Potato Breeding Program with Oregon, Washington and Idaho. It takes a minimum of 12 years and thousands of samples before new varieties are ready for commercial release, he said.

The program did release three new varieties earlier this year, including Jester, Cheshire and Vermilion. Three others are also in the works. Sathuvalli said breeding is done primarily for resistance to pests like nematodes and diseases like Verticillium wilt and potato virus Y.

“Our goal is to identify those genes responsible for resistance,” he said.

Other field day presentations included updates on tiny Lygus bugs as a potential vector for disease, as well as efforts to monitor aphids in fields. The goal of HAREC field days is to provide the latest information on growing tools and techniques to make local farmers as efficient and profitable as they can.

Station Director Phil Hamm said HAREC is now home to 15 center-pivot irrigation systems for their fields, mostly due to the generosity of supporters. A new Blue Mountain Community College Precision Irrigation Agriculture building is also under construction.

“It just keeps getting bigger and bigger,” Hamm said. “I don’t think you can go anywhere where they have more faculty doing more with potatoes than we have here.”

Umatilla and Morrow counties are home to a sweeping variety of agriculture, from rolling wheat fields to colorful orchards and rugged cattle ranches.

State tourism officials say those same farms could become a major selling point for visitors wanting to see (and taste) the authentic Oregon experience.

Travel Oregon, along with the Eastern Oregon Visitors Association and Northeast Oregon Economic Development District, hosted a pair of workshops Tuesday and Wednesday to teach farmers ways they can attract tourists while sustaining their normal operations.

The melding of agriculture and tourism, or “agritourism,” is not a new concept. Activities can include things like U-pick fields, farm stands and horseback riding. Alexa Carey, destination development specialist for Travel Oregon, said the industry as a whole has been developing for decades.

“It’s a chance to experience the Old West,” Carey said. “These are opportunities people want to have.”

About 20 people attended Tuesday’s workshop at the Port of Morrow in Boardman, which provided an overview of where agritourism has been in Eastern Oregon and where it’s going. Data compiled by Travel Oregon offers a glimpse into what agritourists look like and what they’re looking for.

According to the agency, agritourists tend to be families with a moderate income, highly educated and mostly day-trippers. They are searching for authenticity and are more interested in having a story to tell than a T-shirt to buy.

“We want that explorer. We want that person who’s passionate about getting outside and trying new things,” Carey said.

One thing agritourists will spend money on, however, is food.

According to Travel Oregon, 55 percent of visitors between 2008 and 2010 participated in at least one culinary experience, whether it was at a restaurant, winery or craft brewery.

Elena Vizzini, also from Travel Oregon, said food and drink is part of the tourist’s immersion into the local culture. Those seeking agritourism came primarily from urban centers like Portland, Spokane and Eugene, based on information gleaned from the Travel Oregon website.

But farming is not always lucrative business and it can be a struggle to find the skill and capital needed to start something like a farm tour or tasting room. While Oregon tourism is a $10 billion business, Travel Oregon is still working on an economic analysis specifically pertaining to agritourism. That study is expected to be available by next year.

Carey and Vizzini did point to several other Eastern Oregon success stories, such as a promotional campaign for Wallowa County and the John Day River Territory brand. As a subregion, Umatilla and Morrow counties — dubbed “Oregon’s Rugged Country” — has the potential, but participants said they will need to do a better job collaborating to make it happen.

Alice Trindle, a rancher from Haines and executive director of the Eastern Oregon Visitors Association, said they are working on a marketing plan with four core initiatives — agritourism, cycling, arts and heritage.

“Somehow, we have to share those stories about our wonderful producers,” she said. “It really is about building relationships.”

Working together in groups, participants identified gaps they need to cover in the plan, including better communication, forging partnerships and finding new funding sources. Carey said regional collaboration is a key to marketing to tourists.

“We care about consumers that really want to participate in the products we’re producing,” she said.

Wednesday’s session, in Hermiston, focused more on specific business models to making agritourism profitable. That workshop was held at the Eastern Oregon Trade and Event Center.

ONTARIO, Ore. — Eastern Oregon farmer Jerry Erstrom scouts for patches of genetically engineered creeping bentgrass on the banks of an irrigation ditch June 14.

It doesn’t take him long to find one. And then another, and another.

The bentgrass was genetically engineered to withstand applications of glyphosate herbicide, which makes it difficult to kill.

Farmers such as Erstrom worry it will ultimately take over the countryside, clog irrigation ditches and affect shipments of crops to nations that don’t accept traces of genetically modified organisms, or GMOs.

“I’ve been doing weeds for 25 years and I promise you in five years this (county) will be inundated with it,” said Erstrom, chairman of the Malheur County Weed Board.

The bentgrass was meant for golf courses. Instead, after escaping from field trials 13 years ago, it has taken root in Malheur and Jefferson counties and ignited a debate about who should be responsible for controlling it in the future.

Scotts Miracle-Gro Co., which was developing the grass for use mainly on golf course greens, said it is committed to collaboratively working with growers and irrigation districts to control and eradicate the grass where possible.

But some farmers believe a 10-year agreement Scotts recently reached with USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service will allow the company in a few years to essentially walk away from any responsibility for controlling the plant.

“I think Scotts should be liable for what they did but they are pretty much walking away from it,” said Malheur County farmer Rod Frahm. “Personally, I think since they created the problem, they should take care of it.”

Molly Jennings, director of public affairs for Scotts, told Capital Press in an email that claims the company is walking away from its responsibility are unfounded. “We are committed, and have been, to a collaborative, long-term management plan with local landowners, irrigation managers and others.”

In an email response, USDA Public Affairs Specialist Andre Bell also rejected the notion that the agreement allows Scotts to walk away from the problem.

Scotts, in conjunction with Monsanto Corp., was developing the genetically modified creeping bentgrass to be resistant to glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, Monsanto’s popular weed killer.

But the grass escaped from field trials in 2003 due to what USDA describes as a “wind event” and took root in Malheur and Jefferson counties in Oregon.

According to Jennings, two wind storms resulted in seed heads scattering from the field trial control area in August 2003.

The plants were identified outside the control area in 2004.

Scotts has been surveying for and controlling the plant for several years.

According to Scotts, the company identified 424 plants in Malheur County and 441 plants in Jefferson County during spring spraying this year. A small number of the plants were found in Canyon County, Idaho, which is adjacent to Malheur County.

During a March meeting with a top USDA official and Scotts representatives, some local farmers and irrigation district representatives challenged the terms of the agreement, reached in September.

The agreement requires Scotts to continue to survey for and try to eradicate the bentgrass in 2016. In years 2 and 3, the company must provide technical assistance to affected farmers and irrigation districts and provide incentives for the adoption of best management practices to control the grass.

The company will also conduct outreach and education programs.

In years 4 through 10, Scotts will pull back a little while continuing to analyze the situation, educate growers and provide technical assistance, Sid Abel, assistant deputy director of USDA’s Biotechnology Regulatory Services, said during the March meeting.

Scotts will continue to work with Oregon State University researchers to try to identify herbicides that can effectively manage the grass, especially in aquatic and semi-aquatic environments.

USDA “essentially let them off the hook,” said Erstrom. “What Scotts is doing to Malheur County is not right.”

The plant proliferates on and in irrigation ditches and is clogging and changing the flow of some ditches, said Erstrom and Frahm, who is on his local ditch board.

“The plant does extremely well on ditch banks,” said Jay Chamberlin, manager of the Owyhee Irrigation District, which provides irrigation water to 118,000 acres in Eastern Oregon and part of Southwestern Idaho. “Once it gets in there, it can contaminate the whole system.”

Because creeping bentgrass is genetically modified, if traces of it end up in alfalfa hay or other crops, they can be rejected by overseas customers that don’t accept GMO crops, Erstrom said.

Between the plant’s impact on irrigation ditches and its possible impact on foreign shipments, “The potential is there for disaster,” he said.

Malheur County declared the plant a “Class A” noxious weed two months ago, which means it’s mandatory for anyone who finds it on his property to control it.

Erstrom said there is now a $100 bounty on any of the bentgrass found in areas where it hasn’t already been detected, such as north of Ontario or along the Snake River.

Jennings said glufosinate is the primary tool used by the contractor hired to control the grass but other herbicides work as well. A list of them can be found online at http://scottsmiraclegro.com/gtcbanswers/

Abel said Scotts has agreed never to sell or distribute the grass variety and USDA has documented that all of the commercial grade seed stock has been destroyed, although Scotts was allowed to keep research-grade materials.

At the same time, Scotts has petitioned USDA to deregulate the genetically engineered grass, a move that Erstrom suspects is intended to allow the company to wash its hands of the issue.

Jennings, the director of public affairs for Scotts, said the bentgrass meets all of the scientific and environmental criteria for deregulation and “we believe this is an important step to upholding the gold standard set by the USDA as it relates to the review and approval of all future plants and crops produced through genetic modification.”

Deregulation would also “provide more flexibility in long-term management of this plant,” she added. “If this bentgrass is deregulated, as we think it should be, this will in no way change our commitment to the current management plan for the next decade.”

Jennings said the cost of controlling the bentgrass is modest and involves mostly the cost of the herbicide used to kill it.

She said the company is evaluating the possibility of subsidizing or donating herbicides that manage creeping bentgrass.

“We feel that the plan we have developed will best address the needs of growers and irrigation managers, but we are open to working with stakeholders to develop the best possible approach,” she said.

Abel, of USDA’s Biotechnology Regulatory Services, said the grass will never be eradicated in the affected counties, but it can be controlled.

Erstrom said his concern is that once Scotts stops actively controlling the plant, it will make a comeback and spread rapidly.

The onus will fall on growers and irrigation districts that lack the expertise and financial means to control it, he said.

In a Feb. 17 letter to Scotts officials, Oregon Department of Agriculture Director Katy Coba said that according to the agreement, “after three years all responsibility for (glyphosate-tolerant creeping bentgrass) management, including financial, will fall on growers, irrigation managers and other affected parties whereas Scotts will only be responsible for maintaining a website.”

“ODA is concerned that without Scotts’ leadership and financial support, that research efforts and coordinated control efforts will eventually subside and GTCB population levels will escalate and the area of infestation will expand,” Coba stated.

While ODA and some farmers such as Frahm and Erstrom have concerns about Scotts’ future role in controlling the grass, others say the company has done a good job so far of controlling it.

At the same time, they admit they are concerned about the terms of the agreement with USDA.

“I’m very happy with what Scotts has done at this point,” said Bruce Corn, an Eastern Oregon farmer and member of the Owyhee Irrigation District board of directors. “The concern is that at some point, they would walk away from taking the control measures they are now and (the plant) will come back.”

In the early years after the grass was first discovered in Malheur County, it was everywhere and there were blankets of it in some places, Chamberlin, the Owyhee Irrigation District manager, said. But the local contractor hired by Scotts to control it has done a good job of knocking it way back, he added.

“So far, they have done what they said they would do. I hope that continues,” he said about Scotts. “But the language in the agreement with USDA is very concerning.”

Sales and tax figures collected by state agencies may finally solve one of Oregon’s long-running farm crop questions: whether marijuana is indeed the state’s most valuable crop, as cannabis advocates have always maintained.

Tight controls and reporting requirements by the Oregon Department of Revenue and Oregon Liquor Control Commission should result in accurate information about pot, said Bruce Pokarney, spokesman for the state Department of Agriculture. The department compiles an annual list of the state’s most valuable crops.

Recreational use of marijuana became legal in Oregon last October, in addition to medical use, which was already legal. The state revenue department collects a 17 percent tax on recreational pot purchases, while the OLCC licenses producers, processors, retailers, wholesalers and labs.

The information, however, poses another head-scratcher. Most agricultural statistics published by the ag department come from the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service, or NASS. Although it’s now legal in several states, the feds still classify marijuana as an illegal drug. Dave Losh, Oregon state statistician for NASS, said the agency won’t include marijuana in its annual crop statistics due to federal policy.

For the same reason, people can’t use water from federal projects to irrigate marijuana, he said, and such things as Natural Resources Conservation Service programs can’t be applied to pot crops.

Pokarney, of ODA, joked the department might have to put an asterisk beside the pot crop value in its annual report. “We will have sales numbers, but I don’t know how we would report it,” he said.

Oregon crop statistics from 2014 list cattle and calves as the state’s top agricultural product, at $922 million value. Greenhouse and nursery plants was second at $829 million, and hay was third, at $703 million.

Seth Crawford, an Oregon State University sociology professor who teaches a pot policy class, estimated in 2015 that Oregon’s marijuana crop had an annual value approaching $1 billion.

Meanwhile, the OLCC continues to process license applications as entrepreneurs seek opportunities in the state’s recreational cannabis market.

As of June 21, there were 723 applications to grow pot in Oregon. Of those, 122 were in Jackson County and 91 were in neighboring Josephine County. Southern Oregon has long been the state’s cannabis production hotbed, legal or illegal. The tri-county Portland area, including Multnomah, Clackamas and Washington counties, accounted for 250 of the license applications.

Of processing facilities, 25 of the 82 license applications were from Multnomah County, as were 69 of 193 retail outlet applications.

The state also received applications from seven testing labs, 57 wholesalers and one research facility.

Some licenses have been approved, many others are in draft form or are being reviewed for land-use compliance by local governments.

Washington and Oregon are intensifying their annual summer hunts for gypsy moths, checking whether aerial spraying eradicated the leaf-eating pest.

The Washington State Department of Agriculture last week began nailing to trees 34,000 pheromone-baited traps, including 2,500 in Eastern Washington.

WSDA last year set out 19,000 traps, all in Western Washington.

The Oregon Department of Agriculture in May began to put up 17,000 traps, an increase over the 15,000 used last year.

Both states plan to have all traps up by mid-July and will check them into the fall.

The stepped-up trapping is a response to last summer’s catch.

WSDA trapped 42 moths, the most since 2006. More worrisome, the department caught 10 Asian gypsy moths, the first detected in Washington since 1999.

In Oregon, 14 gypsy moths were trapped, including two Asian gypsy moths in Portland.

Asian gypsy moths are seen as bigger threats than the more-common European gypsy moths.

As caterpillars, Asian gypsy moths eat a wider variety of plants and trees, including conifers.

Asian gypsy moths can spread more rapidly over large areas because the females and males both fly. Female European gypsy moths are flightless.

WSDA also detected a growing European gypsy moth population in Seattle’s densely populated Capitol Hill neighborhood.

WSDA responded by spraying the pesticide Bacillus thuringiensis var. kurstaki, commonly known as Btk, over seven sites totaling 10,457 acres.

ODA sprayed Btk over 8,800 acres in Portland.

To follow up, both states will trap most extensively in areas where Btk was applied. Workers will put out up to 36 traps per square mile in some places.

ODA also will place a high number of traps along the Columbia River between Portland and Astoria.

Asian gypsy moth egg masses are most likely to enter the U.S. attached to ocean-going vessels.

In Eastern Washington, WSDA will trap most heavily in cities, parks, campgrounds and along the Columbia and Snake rivers, a spokesman said.

European gypsy moths are well established in the Eastern U.S. Egg masses come West attached to personal belongings.

For three decades, the two states have been successful in suppressing gypsy moths. The Northwest’s gypsy moth population threatened to take off in the mid-1980s. At the peak, WSDA trapped 1,315 gypsy moths in 1983.

After roughly four decades in operation, the Custom Meat Co. of Eugene, Ore., shut down on June 17.

While employees and clients still hope the mobile custom slaughter and meat processing company will be bought and re-opened, they acknowledge the business fell into disarray after owner Victor Hastings succumbed to cancer in January.

Hastings didn’t leave a will and key licenses for the facility lapsed, contributing to its closure, said Shannon Hughes, the company’s manager.

Unless an investor takes over the company, Keith Cooper, who raises hogs at nearby Sweetbriar Farms, is worried about traveling much greater distances to process carcasses.

The facility and its workers were instrumental in helping Cooper prepare meat for his customers, often when time was in short supply.

“I probably couldn’t have existed or grown my business to the extent I had without the assistance of Custom Meat or Vic Hastings,” he said.

The problems encountered by the Custom Meat Co. provide an example of the pressures faced by Oregon’s slaughter and meat processing facilities.

As the owners of such companies retire or die, finding replacements is difficult — both because their skills are rare and because fewer people are willing to do such work, said Lauren Gwin, an Oregon State University professor and director of the Niche Meat Processor Assistance Network.

“It is a brutal job to go out and kill things all day long,” Gwin said. “It’s not the kind of thing younger people are interested in doing.”

Since 2000, the number of mobile and stationary custom slaughter facilities in Oregon has dropped more than 30 percent, from 93 to 63, according to data from the Oregon Department of Agriculture. Such operations kill animals for their owners, rather than for meat resale.

In that 15 years, the number of USDA-inspected slaughterhouses — which can process livestock for the wholesale meat market — has fallen 25 percent, from 16 to 12.

Apart from the physical hardship of killing, bleeding out and skinning livestock, the job is often financially challenging as well, said Gwin.

An owner of a mobile slaughter truck, for example, must pay for its fuel and upkeep as well as disposing of offal and maintaining the appropriate licenses, she said.

“It’s hard to make it pay,” Gwin said.

Changes in the overall beef industry have also affected slaughter facilities, said Jerry Haun, owner of Haun’s Meat and Sausage and executive secretary of the Northwest Meat Processors Association.

Cow-calf producers often prefer to sell cattle in large lots instead of selling individual animals at auction to local landowners, he said. With fewer locals raising beef, the demand for local slaughter facilities decreased as well.

As the price of cattle has weakened recently, though, more cow-calf producers are again willing to sell “oddball calves” to backyard farmers, Haun said.

Interest in organic, grass-fed and farm-to-table beef also indicates that the local slaughter industry will remain viable, he said. “They’re not just catch-words, it’s reality. It’s something we’ve been doing for decades but its now the hip thing.”

Not all types of meat facilities in Oregon are on the decline.

The number of custom meat processors who don’t kill animals but cut up carcasses has stabilized at above 80 operations in recent years, though it’s still down from roughly 100 operations in the early 2000s, according to ODA data.

Poultry and rabbit slaughter facilities, meanwhile have more than doubled since 2000, from seven to 19 plants.

Gwin of OSU attributes this increase to growing enthusiasm among farmers and consumers for pasture-raised poultry. A state-licensed facility can process and sell up to 20,000 birds a year without USDA inspection.

This exemption was included federal poultry inspection law because lawmakers were aiming to regulate the slaughter industry rather than flocks raised by farmers, she said.

However, efforts to enact similar exemptions for other livestock haven’t gained traction, Gwin said. “Congress doesn’t want to be seen as rolling back food safety laws.”

STAYTON, Ore. — Littau Harvester is expanding its production capabilities and preparing for an expected growth spurt by moving its assembly operation to a large warehouse it recently purchased several blocks from its main production facility.

Frank Brown, production and purchasing manager, said the addition of the new site will free up the main facility to focus on building modular components and will open the company up to the opportunity to produce significantly more harvesting equipment to more customers.

Littau purchased a 150,000-square-foot warehouse here on Wilco Road in January. The warehouse was formerly a mobile home production facility and sits on 10 acres.

Brown said he hopes the expansion will allow Littau to continue to innovate at a higher level and come up with machines that will cater to the upcoming labor shortage for farmers.

“We see another major hurdle for the farmers coming with some of the new laws that are in place,” Brown said. “Ten years ago, machines were just for clean up after crops had been picked. Now you have farmers who are picking 100 percent of their berries with a machine.”

Brown said Littau is working with individual customers on a prototype basis to develop machines that will meet their needs given recent labor shortages.

Littau builds approximately 60 harvesting machines a year. Brown said when assembly shared the same space as all the other departments, production was cramped and he had to turn away customers because the company did not have the space or manpower to take on more projects.

Brown said the assembly facility is still early in its development and is currently more of a crude assembly line. He would like to see it become the storage facility with racks and parts staged to be convenient as well as the new trucking facility.

This most recent facility is not the first big step toward expansion Littau has made since it was founded in Eugene Littau’s garage 50 years ago.

Littau bought his first industrial facility after his neighbors suggested he move the harvesting equipment he lined up down the street to a separate location. Since then, Brown said the company has experienced continuous growth and moved to and purchased several pieces of property as it has expanded.

In 2000, Littau sold the company to one of his employees, Norman Johnson, who had been working at the company since 1987.

Since buying Littau, Johnson has purchased three buildings.

“Norman has an exceptional vision of where the company needs to go to stay ahead,” Brown said. “Whatever it takes to keep ahead of the competition.”

NEWBERG, Ore. — Oregon is known for its specialized agricultural production, but Jim and Bonnie Kiser may occupy the state’s narrowest market niche.

Their entire crop this year, seeded in February and March, consisted of 990 milkweed plants. By mid-June, about 800 survived to be given away and planted in yards, parks or gardens.

The plants, Asclepias speciosa, or showy milkweed, are intended as forage for a migratory insect: the monarch butterfly.

The brightly colored monarch has become something of a poster-bug in the debate over pesticide and herbicide use, agriculture’s impact on wildlife habitat, and the role of voluntary conservation efforts in staving off potential regulatory or legal action.

The Kisers are among a cadre of people who have taken it upon themselves to aid monarchs. They’ve been at it since 1998, when they dug up and rescued milkweed plants from a Costco store construction site in Eugene, Ore. They’ve also rescued plants from construction at a Tektronix electronics plant in the Portland area, and at a highway interchange near Rickreall. They have a couple dozen milkweed plants growing in their yard, in addition to the hundreds of seedlings growing in plastic tubes. Last year, they planted 300 milkweed plants at Champoeg State Park.

“This is an amateur operation, but it’s effective,” said Jim Kiser, a semi-retired consulting engineer.

The monarch population has steeply declined; one estimate puts the population loss at 90 percent over the past two decades, although they bounced back this year.

Critics say farming practices, especially in the Midwest, have killed off milkweed, the only plant on which butterfly larvae feed. In March 2016, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Center for Food Safety filed suit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for failing to protect monarchs under the federal Endangered Species Act.

The two groups blamed planting of genetically modified corn and soy for loss of milkweed in the Midwest. They said farmers spraying Roundup, Monsanto’s trademark herbicide, kill milkweed while leaving “Roundup Ready” corn and soy unscathed.

The groups asked USFWS in 2014 to list monarchs as “threatened” under the ESA, but the agency has not taken action. The March 2016 lawsuit asks a court to set a deadline for a decision by Fish and Wildlife. George Kimbrell, senior attorney for the Center for Food Safety, said settlement negotiations are underway.

In the meantime, USFWS encourages voluntary milkweed plantings, saying that every backyard can become an “oasis” for the butterflies and other pollinators. The agency urges schools, community groups, businesses and state and local governments to plant milkweed on public and private land and in rights of way.

“Monarch declines are symptomatic of environmental problems that also pose risks to food production, the spectacular natural places that help define our national identity, and our own health,” USFWS says on its website.

Monarchs are a compelling story. They migrate south from Canada to Mexico in the fall and head the other way in the spring, going through several generations on the way. The monarch’s primary flyway covers the Midwestern U.S., including the corn belt, but a subset migrates each fall from Canada across the Pacific Northwest to Southern California, reversing direction in the spring.

The notion of helping monarchs by planting milkweed resonates with many people. A group called Monarch Watch advocates a “monarch highway” of milkweed plantings along Interstate 35, which runs from Duluth, Minn., south to Laredo, Texas.

But Kimbrell, the Center for Food Safety attorney, said nothing short of mandatory protection under the Endangered Species Act can help monarchs at this point.

The group applauds voluntary planting efforts, “But it’s not nearly sufficient to save them, unfortunately,” he said by email.

Still, the Kisers and others keep on. Jim Kiser traces his fondness for monarchs to his boyhood in Oklahoma and vivid memories of their twice-annual migrations.

“Collectively,” he said, “we can make quite a difference.”

MURPHY, Ore. (AP) — They say good fences make good neighbors. Then there’s the fences that enclose the growing number of Josephine County’s marijuana grow sites.

There are a lot of them. And they are often ugly, especially when topped by a couple feet of plastic.

Among those who are unhappy with the proliferation of Visqueen view blockers is Chris Locke, a Murphy landscape nursery owner who endures the sight of a neighbor’s fenced marijuana grow.

Locke, co-owner of Murphy Country Nursery, says the fences are ruining Josephine County’s rural landscape. They’re tall and typically made of wood, or wood topped with plastic. Many are easy to spot.

“There are so many people who are unbelievably unhappy over the fences,” said Locke, who has erected a sign that says, “That’s not ours,” with an arrow pointing at the marijuana grow next to her business, located just south of the Applegate River and within plain view of traffic on Williams Highway.

“I think the laws should be changed,” Locke said. “Whoever made the laws that (a grow) had to be covered up, it’s ridiculous.”

Last year, the fence next door to Locke’s business was an ugly black plastic barrier. This year, it’s been upgraded to an ugly black plastic barrier adorned with brightly painted artsy fish, turtles and dragonflies. It looks to be about 12 tall or higher.

The artwork could be described as having a psychedelic Northwest tribal motif. A local artist did the work, according to a man tending the property. He asked not to be named.

“We have the nicest fence in the valley,” he said at the site. “We did this to make everybody happy.”

Locke says the fence, backed by chain link, is better than it was, but believes she lost business last year when would-be customers saw the fence and thought it was her marijuana grow.

Her sign disclaiming ownership of the grow went up about a month ago. Since then, people stop about once a day to say they’ve stayed away because they thought the grow was hers, she said.

“I realized last year, when they became real obvious, boy, it’s really slowed down here,” she said. “I passed it off.”

The number of fences in the county has increased as the use of medical marijuana and the number of medical marijuana grow sites increased since 1998, the year Oregon voters approved the use of pot as a medicine.

In January, Josephine County had more than 2,700 medical marijuana grow sites, up nearly 300 from the previous year. The county also had nearly 6,500 medical marijuana patients, up about 1,300 from a year earlier.

This year, following voter approval of recreational marijuana, the state has approved 11 grow sites in Josephine County to provide marijuana to retail outlets. Rules for the recreational program mandate that grows be shielded from public view, with one option to accomplish that being the construction of an 8-foot fence.

However, a fence isn’t required, said Mark Pettinger, a spokesman for the Oregon Liquor Control Commission, regulators of the new recreational market.

“They just need to make sure it’s obscured from the eyes of the public,” he says. “As long as they can prevent public access and obscure it from public view, they don’t necessarily need an 8-foot fence.”

Exactly why marijuana in the field should be shielded from public view isn’t something Pettinger or his counterpart with the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program, Jonathan Modie, is able to answer definitively. Pettinger said it goes back to the intent of lawmakers and program founders.

Rep. Carl Wilson, R-Grants Pass, could only guess how the idea for shielding pot from public view came to be. He was a member of a joint legislative committee overseeing implementation of recreational marijuana.

“Everybody knows what’s behind the screen,” he said. “That’s crazy.”

Josephine County Board of Commissioners Chairwoman Cherryl Walker, herself a medical marijuana grower, also didn’t know the origin of the rule to shield pot from view.

“I don’t understand why it has to be,” she said. “You know what’s behind it (a fence). You’re not concealing it. The complaint we’ve had is they’re detrimental to property values.”

Walker, who said she fields complaints daily about grow sites — on a range of issues, not just fences — says the plastic fences get holes in them, rip and blow with the wind.

“It does look pretty shabby,” she said. “I find it to be a very unsightly aspect of the industry.”

Some growers, in an apparent effort to avoid county permit fees, build solid wood fences up to 7 feet tall, the limit at which a fence may be built without a permit in the county, and then add an additional foot or two of plastic to shield grows, Walker surmised.

The county is considering allowing 8-foot-high fences without the need for a permit. At a recent town hall meeting in Williams, pot industry proponents suggested the use of wire fences, and one person said that tall solid fences inhibit the migration of wildlife.

HERMISTON, Ore. — Two of the Northwest’s largest biomass and crop residue companies are joining forces.

Pacific Ag, of Hermiston, announced Thursday it has acquired Calagri after nearly two decades working side by side in the industry. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Pacific Ag CEO Bill Levy said it will help provide better service for growers and a more reliable stream of products for different markets.

“I think it says great things about the future of Pacific Ag and our markets,” Levy said. “There’s a lot of great opportunities out there, and we felt we could meet those opportunities better together than we could separately.”

Pacific Ag is the nation’s largest harvester of crop residue and forage — such as corn stover and wheat straw — used to make things like animal feed or tree-free paper products. Composted wheat straw is also what’s predominately used to grow commercial mushrooms for grocery stores.

But perhaps one of the biggest future markets, Levy said, is plant material as a feedstock for biofuel and biochemicals.

“We believe that’s going to be a significant part of our future,” Levy said.

Based in Ellensburg, Washington, Calagri has collaborated and even shared equipment in the past with Pacific Ag, Levy said. Now, they’ll be able to continue that work seamlessly under a single operation.

Calagri’s co-owner, Kerry Calaway, is joining Pacific Ag’s leadership team and said it is an exciting time to be joining forces.

“New markets for forage and crop residue are growing across the region and the country, and farmers are increasingly looking for ways to sustainable generate additional income per acre,” Calaway said in a statement. “Together, we will create more opportunities for farmers while providing better service to our customers.”

Levy said Pacific Ag will retain Calagri’s employees, and as a result of the transaction the company will now harvest more than 300,000 tons of forage every year across Oregon, Washington and Idaho.

“This is a significant addition for us,” Levy said. “It’s exciting, truly, to be working with them and to be one company.”

Growers interested in learning more about generating income off crop residue can contact Pacific Ag at 1-844-RESIDUE.

KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. (AP) — Oregon wildlife officials have confirmed the first wolf killing in Jackson County since reintroduced wolves spread to southern Oregon.

The Herald and News reports that the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife says a wolf killed one goat and one sheep between June 9 and June 12 in the Grizzly Peak area outside Ashland. The agency also suspects a wolf injured a goat and killed another goat during that time, but vultures had eaten away at the animals’ carcass.

The department’s Mark Vargas says there will likely be more incidents between wolves and livestock as wolf populations continue to grow.

The wolf blamed for the recent livestock killings is originally from northeast Oregon and has also been tied to the attack that left a Klamath County cow injured in February.

NYSSA, Ore. — Onion thrips were found in commercial fields in the Treasure Valley region in late-April this year, much earlier than normal.

Thrips are a vector for the iris yellow spot virus, which can severely reduce onion yields. The virus was detected in onion plants the last week of May and researchers said they were likely infected in mid-May.

Onion growers in this area historically haven’t been concerned about thrips until about Memorial Day and the virus in past seasons has made its initial appearance in July or early August, said Oregon State University Cropping Systems Extension Agent Stuart Reitz.

The virus was detected the first week of June last year, which was an extremely early appearance, he said.

“They’re just coming earlier every year,” Reitz said, a development he contributed to the recent warmer than normal winters and early springs. “I think more of their populations survived over the winter so they were out spreading the virus around earlier than we’ve seen in past years.”

There are no good biological methods for controlling onion thrips in the Treasure Valley area of Southwestern Idaho and Eastern Oregon, which produces about 25 percent of the nation’s fresh bulb onion supply.

The only effective way to control them is by spraying.

With their earlier appearances, that means growers have to spray more to control them.

“If growers are having to spray another month of the season, that’s another huge cost for them,” Reitz said.

Thrips, and the virus they transmit to onion plants, will devastate an onion field if not controlled and not spraying is not an option, said Oregon farmer Bruce Corn.

“Sometimes you have to close your eyes to the cost because you won’t have a crop if the virus gets in early and you don’t spray for it,” he said. “As a grower, if you expect to have a crop, you have to be very vigilant and proactive on it.”

Spraying for thrips costs between $20 and $100 an acre, depending on what chemical is used, according to Corn and Paul Skeen, president of the Malheur County Onion Growers Association.

Because there are a limited number of chemicals available to growers that effectively control thrips, rotating them is critical to avoid the insects building up resistance to them, Corn said.

That means growers have to also use the more expensive chemicals and Skeen estimates the average cost of spraying is about $50 an acre.

“If you’re spraying eight times, that’s a lot of money,” he said. But, he added, “You won’t have a crop if you don’t.”

To try to find a solution to the thrips problem, OSU researchers in Ontario last year started a field trial with some experimental onion varieties to see if they offer some resistance to thrips and the iris yellow spot virus.

Some of the varieties showed promise, Reitz said, but it will take several years to test them some more, then isolate the beneficial traits and breed them into commercially accepted varieties.

ENTERPRISE, Ore. — When making decisions about the future of the family farm worries about taxes and values loom large. Nonprofits and agencies throughout the Northwest, such as Wallowa Land Trust, work with landowners to find ways to reduce income taxes while planning a lasting legacy.

Julia Lakes, the trust’s conservation director, told attendees at a May workshop in Enterprise that conservation easements are one way they can help landowners keep property in the family during estate planning.

“The land trust uses its experience to ‘ballpark’ what you want the end result to be and helps lay out the path before a lot of money is expended,” Lakes said.

Attorney Nancy Duhnkrack kicked off the workshop with an overview of how easements work.

“Conservation easements allow landowners to voluntarily restrict how land is used in the future to protect the property’s values,” Duhnkrack said.

She said conservation easements are becoming increasingly popular, not just to keep working farmland intact, but because tax incentives, recently made permanent by Congress, make them economically advantageous.

“The landowner still owns the property and retains the right to sell it, lease it, pass it on,” Duhnkrack said. “It is the job of the land trust or public agency to monitor and make sure the restrictions in the easement continue to be in place.”

Wallowa County’s economy is dependent on natural resources, primarily through agriculture, timber harvest and tourism. Tourism alone brought in $28 million in 2015, according to a Dean Runyan and Associates study. The stunning scenery attracts short-time visitors and the development of vacation homes that can cause farmland fragmentation and put the rural flavor of the county at risk.

The fear of losing farmland to development prompted the trust’s formation in 2004. It’s signature bumper sticker, “Keep it Rural!”, simply states its mission.

Woody Wolfe, a sixth-generation Wallowa County farmer, was the first to use the trust to create a 197-acre easement on his farm. Wolfe said his first easement has two zones; one is working farmland and the other is a riparian zone where cattle once grazed.

“In the ag zone I gave up the right to build except for agricultural structures, but the riparian restrictions are much greater,” Wolfe said.

Duhnkrack said what rights a landowner gives up and what he retains are entirely up to him.

Wolfe said soon after he purchased a tract of land from a neighbor he started talking to James Monteith, one of the founding board members of the trust, about entering into an easement agreement to help pay off the loan.

“The highest and best use is not running cows or growing crops, it’s what somebody out of the area is willing to pay for breathing the air, having no traffic and looking at the mountains,” Wolfe said.

In 2011, Lakes said, the trust paid Wolfe 70 percent of the easement’s value with grant money and the family donated the remainder.

For the second easement on 257 acres, Wolfe is taking advantage of a USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service grant that pays 50 percent of the land’s value. Lakes said the NRCS allows the landowner to donate up to 25 percent and the other 25 percent is coming from private foundations and the Nez Perce Tribe.

Director Kathleen Ackley said the second easement is an attractive project for the trust because it is adjacent to the first — creating a larger protected swath of land.

“It’s about landscape-scale connectivity,” Lakes said. “Protecting big chunks keep agriculture viable.”

Wolfe said not everyone understands the benefit of conservation easements.

“There is a little bit of value to neighbors when you don’t change the land as much as you could have,” Wolfe said. “As a neighbor may not agree with using a conservation easement, but you might rest at ease when there is less likelihood there will be something across your fence line that detracts from your serenity.”

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A federal judge Wednesday rejected Ryan Bundy’s demand to be released from custody so he can appear before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The son of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy has been serving as his own lawyer since his January arrest during the armed occupation of an Oregon bird sanctuary. He’s also facing federal charges in Nevada for his role in an armed standoff with federal agents at this father’s ranch.

Bundy and lawyers for other defendants charged in both cases have said it’s improper to make them defend two cases at once in different states.

The Appeals Court plans to hear oral arguments Thursday in San Francisco, and Bundy wants to be there.

But U.S. District Judge Anna J. Brown denied his request for transfer or release, saying it’s not her call and it should have been brought up sooner.

“I’m not a magician,” she said.

Bundy was attempting to have a different federal judge, Robert Jones, hear the matter Wednesday afternoon, but nothing was on the docket as the courthouse neared closing time.

Jones, to ease the load on Brown, has been hearing requests for pretrial release from the more than 20 defendants charged in connection with the occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.

Brown’s denial came during a status hearing on the complex, high-profile case that began with a protest over the imprisonment of two Oregon ranchers convicted of setting fires. Much of the 2 ½-hour hearing was devoted to questions about pre-trial motions and discovery.

Twenty-six men and women were charged with conspiracy to impede officers of the United States after the 41-day standoff, and some of them were also charged with possessing a firearm in a federal facility.

Three men have pleaded guilty and a fourth, Jason Blomgren, was scheduled to so Thursday.

Trial for most the other 22 defendants is scheduled to start Sept. 7, though a few of the accused have waived their right to a speedy trial and likely won’t face a jury until 2017.

Marcus Mumford, the new attorney for occupation leader Ammon Bundy, suggested to Judge Brown during the hearing that his client might also waive his demand for a speedy trial.

Also Wednesday:

— Defendant Darryl Thorn of Marysville, Washington, arrived at court Wednesday with plans to accept a plea deal from prosecutors. Instead, he withdrew from the agreement and asked a judge for a new public defender. The judge, after a private meeting with the Thorn and the lawyer, confirmed an “irreparable breakdown” in the relationship and said Thorn would get new representation.

— Assistant U.S. Attorney Ethan Knight told the judge he expects prosecutors will take three or four weeks to present their case to the jury, meaning the trial will likely last well into October and perhaps November.

— Defendant Kenneth Medenbach, as he has repeatedly done, questioned Brown about whether she ever took an oath of office. She replied, “Mr. Medenbach, we’re not going to play these games.”

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Another Oregon standoff defendant has pleaded guilty to a federal conspiracy charge.

Geoffrey Stanek pleaded guilty Tuesday, accepting a plea deal in which prosecutors agreed to drop a charge of firearm possession in a federal facility. The government plans to recommend a sentence of six months of home detention.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig Gabriel said Stanek told authorities after his Feb. 11 arrest near Portland that he joined the armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge after learning about it from Facebook.

The Oregonian/OregonLive reports that U.S. District Court Judge Anna Brown asked Stanek to describe what he did. Stanek replied: “I was there, your Honor.”

Stanek is the third of the 26 defendants charged with conspiracy to plead guilty. A fourth is scheduled to do so Thursday.

A dairy farmers cooperative is accusing an Idaho cheese facility of violating a contract to take delivery of organic milk from an Oregon producer.

Select Milk Producers, the cooperative, has filed a lawsuit against Sorrento Lactalis, a major global dairy company, for breaching an agreement to buy organic milk from Cold Springs Dairy of Hermiston, Ore.

The complaint alleges that Sorrento’s milk procurement manager at its facility in Nampa, Idaho, in August 2015 committed to purchase 150,000 pounds of organic milk for five years at a price of $40 per hundredweight. The amount was later revised to 48,000 pounds a week.

By December 2015, however, Sorrento notified the co-op that it wouldn’t honor the deal because the price was no longer competitive and the demand for organic cheese had dropped, according to the complaint.

Select Milk has been able to sell the organic milk from Cold Springs Dairy at a lower price since then, but the cooperative has sustained damages of more than $160,000 that continue to accrue, the complaint said.

Sorrento Lactalis filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit that denies Select Milk’s claims, “particularly the allegation that it entered into any final, binding contract or agreement.”

The cheesemaker claims that Select Milk hasn’t identified any “signed writing” that would comprise an enforceable contract under Idaho law.

Sorrento has asked a federal judge to either throw out the lawsuit or order the cooperative to produce such a document.