The owner of Lost Valley Farm, a controversial Eastern Oregon dairy that has drawn the ire of environmental groups and run afoul of state regulators, may soon be forced to sell off its entire herd.

Greg te Velde, of Tipton, Calif., began operating the dairy near Boardman, Ore. in 2017, which was permitted for up to 30,000 cows — making it the second-largest dairy in the state, behind neighboring Threemile Canyon Farms.

But according to documents filed in Morrow County Circuit Court, te Velde is in significant financial straits, owing more than $150 million in debt — more than $60 million to Rabobank, a multinational agricultural lender.

Rabobank made three commercial loans and issued three lines of credit for Lost Valley and two other dairies te Velde owns in California. The loans were secured in part by Lost Valley’s dairy herd, other livestock, silage and equipment.

The bank claims te Velde has since defaulted on two of the loans, and foreclosure proceedings are underway in California. Toppenish Livestock Commission, of Toppenish, Wash., has been secured to auction the Lost Valley herd, which includes 10,500 milking and dry cows, along with 4,000 replacement heifers.

John Top, owner of Toppenish Livestock, said they will begin preparing next week for the auction, which is scheduled for April 27. However, according to a motion filed in Morrow County by Rabobank seeking a preliminary injunction, te Velde has not given the auctioneer permission to enter the dairy and take the herd.

Te Velde declined to comment when contacted Wednesday. An attorney for Rabobank also declined comment.

In a declaration filed in state superior court Feb. 15 in Fresno, Calif., Nicola Merrifield-Olivia, senior vice president and manager of commercial special assets for Rabobank, wrote that the bank had attempted to work with te Velde for more than a year to restructure his debts. Yet despite these efforts, te Velde failed to put together a realistic plan.

“Two of the three loans extended to te Velde by Rabobank have matured, and te Velde’s precarious financial condition is beginning to endanger the well-being of the three herds,” Merrifield-Olivia wrote.

Lost Valley is located on a portion of the former Boardman Tree Farm. It has been a lightning rod for controversy since before it was permitted as a confined animal feeding operation, or CAFO.

More than 4,200 public comments opposed the operation, urging the Oregon Department of Agriculture and Department of Environmental Quality to deny a key wastewater permit for roughly 187 million gallons of liquid manure.

Opponents railed against the potential for air and water contamination, though ODA and DEQ did award the permit based on what the agencies described as the most protective permit conditions for a CAFO to date.

Within the first year of operation, Lost Valley failed numerous inspections and was cited four times for permit violations. ODA sued to shut down the dairy, though ultimately the sides reached a settlement, with Lost Valley agreeing to limit its wastewater to 65,000 gallons a day and ensuring manure lagoons had enough capacity to handle water from storms. It also agreed to weekly inspections.

According to court documents, te Velde was in discussions to sell the dairy, but those negotiations fell through as of March 15. A motions hearing is scheduled in Morrow County for April 12.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The Oregon Court of Appeals has affirmed a Grants Pass ordinance that requires marijuana plants grown at home for personal use to be grown indoors.

The City Council approved the ban on outdoor cultivation shortly after recreational marijuana became legal. The council members were concerned about offensive odors.

Activist Rycke Brown took the matter to court, saying the ordinance conflicts with a state law that prohibits a local government from enacting or enforcing local limits on the production or use of plant seeds.

The Appeals Court on Wednesday agreed with a lower court that marijuana plants do not apply to that law.

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Two southeastern Idaho tribes are seeking to intervene in a utility’s attempt to negate an Oregon law requiring fish passage as part of relicensing for a hydroelectric project on the Snake River.

The Shoshone-Bannock Tribes on Tuesday filed documents with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit seeking to intervene in support of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Idaho Power in February petitioned the court to review a 2017 decision by the commission dismissing the Boise-based utility’s request that it exempt the three-dam Hells Canyon Complex from an Oregon law requiring fish passage as part of relicensing.

The tribes cite their 1868 Treaty of Fort Bridger with the U.S. government.

The tribes said they could be adversely affected because the treaty gives them rights to fish off-reservation in the waters of the Snake River and its tributaries.

Brad Bowlin, Idaho Power spokesman, said the company was reviewing the document.

“Idaho Power is still actively working with the states to resolve the fish passage issue, and we remain hopeful that further litigation of this issue will be unnecessary,” he said in an email to The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Idaho Power’s 50-year license to operate the complex on the Idaho-Oregon border expired in 2005, and the company has since been operating on annually issued licenses.

Oregon wants salmon and steelhead to be able to access four Oregon tributaries that feed into the Hells Canyon Complex. But Idaho lawmakers have prohibited moving salmon and steelhead upstream of the three dams.

At issue before the appeals court is Idaho Power’s argument that the supremacy clause of the U.S. Constitution that has to do with federal authority over states pre-empts the Oregon law. The commission said it found no reason why Oregon couldn’t require fish passage and reintroduction as part of relicensing.

Biologists have said the Snake River above the dams is so degraded it couldn’t support salmon and steelhead without significant rehabilitation work, which would require cooperation from landowners.

Idaho Power supplies electricity to nearly 550,000 customers in southern Idaho and eastern Oregon. The Hells Canyon Complex in a normal water year produces about 30 percent of the company’s total annual power generation.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Weedmaps is a go-to website for people looking to find a marijuana shop. With a few clicks on a cellphone, customers can find virtually any type of cannabis product, along with the fastest route to the place selling it and ratings from other consumers to help them decide what to buy.

But legal and illegal operators advertise next to each other, and licensed operators in California say that’s put them at a disadvantage in a cutthroat marketplace.

To them, Weedmaps is helping illegal sellers flourish without having any of the obligations licensed operators endure — collecting and paying taxes, insuring their businesses and employees, and abiding by safety rules for their products.

In other words, illegal shops can sell pot at cheaper prices, sometimes 30 percent to 50 percent less.

“That’s Weedmaps’ business model, to confuse the difference between legal and illegal,” said Jerred Kiloh, a licensed dispensary owner in Los Angeles who heads the United Cannabis Business Association, an industry group. “It’s an unfair playing field. They are pitting us against each other.”

Weedmaps operates in over two dozen states, but the issue is coming to a head in California, which in January became the nation’s largest legal marketplace. State regulators last month warned Weedmaps to stop advertising shops operating outside the law.

In a response, Weedmaps executives said they are eager to work with the state but asserted that the online directory doesn’t fall under state authority and is shielded by provisions in federal law.

The company sees the core of the problem as a scarcity of legal outlets and hefty taxes that scare off consumers from licensed shops, not its online ads. In Los Angeles, where the pace of city licensing has been sluggish, only about 130 retail shops have authority to operate, while city officials acknowledge hundreds more are making illegal sales.

Weedmaps says its experience dropping unlicensed businesses from its listings in Washington, Oregon, Nevada and Massachusetts had no impact on the size of those unlicensed markets.

“Scrubbing the internet of the reality of unlicensed operators ... does nothing to fix the underlying issues,” Weedmaps CEO Doug Francis and President Chris Beals wrote to the state Bureau of Cannabis Control earlier this month.

The company some call a Craigslist for cannabis defines itself as an “interactive computer service” that falls under the federal Communications Decency Act. A key section of that law is designed to protect internet publishers, generally providing immunity to them for content posted by users.

But Kiloh is among those who argue Weedmaps is far more than an advertising platform, noting consumers can use the site to submit orders and summon deliveries from shops legal and otherwise.

“They are acting like Amazon, saying, ‘Here is a shopping cart,”’ Kiloh said. “They are creating a marketplace, not a platform for advertising, and it’s driven by dollars.”

The dispute over the online ads goes to basic economics for an emerging market sprung from what was mostly an illegal one: Lawful operators will struggle if they’re competing with a robust black market that can undersell them.

Complaints have surfaced elsewhere, including over fees that in some cases can be tens of thousands of dollars a month for prime ad space. The company says some advertisers pay nothing.

“I strongly believe their response to advertise for unlicensed cannabis companies is a black eye to the industry,” said Peter Marcus, a spokesman for Denver-based Terrapin Care Station.

Terrapin has three licensed dispensaries in Colorado and has advertised with Weedmaps for years, Marcus said. He said Terrapin worries Weedmaps’ high-profile spat with California regulators will bring unwanted attention from the U.S Justice Department, which continues to prosecute marijuana offenses under federal law that still sees cannabis as an illegal drug.

The appeal of black-market shops — and the lure of their ads — was illustrated this month after a raid at an illegal dispensary near Los Angeles.

Even after Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies shuttered the Compton 20 Cap Collective, hauling out employees and customers in handcuffs and seizing bags of illicit pot, the shop’s page on Weedmaps advertised deals and displayed the dispensary’s products, which included dozens of varieties of cannabis buds, extracts and edibles.

Despite the bust, prospective customers were asking about making purchases.

“Are they back open again?” one comment read.

In its warning to Weedmaps, one of hundreds of letters sent to businesses that California regulators believe are operating improperly, the state said the company should take down ads from illicit operators and warned the company it could face criminal penalties.

But it wasn’t immediately clear how far that threat would go, since Weedmaps appears to be operating largely as usual. In their letter, the company executives said they would eliminate an internal “identifier” that appeared in business listings that state regulators said could be confused with a valid license number.

The company said in a statement it wants the licensed market to reach a “functional state where the unlicensed market is minimized.”

California regulators are discussing appropriate next steps, state cannabis agency spokesman Alex Traverso said in an email.

In the Legislature, Democratic Assemblyman Jim Cooper of Elk Grove drafted a bill that would penalize unlicensed operators that advertise on the internet, $10,000 for every violation.

“The black market is having a substantial impact on those businesses that are following the rules,” said Mike Ziegler, a Cooper aide. “They are being undercut by those who choose to operate illegally.”

———

Associated Press writers Paul Elias in San Francisco and Michael Balsamo in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

REDMOND, Ore. — The newest members of the Oregon FFA state officer team realized, shortly after their election Monday, that each of them had one simple thing in common when deciding to run for a position of leadership.

They were inspired by a key figure along the way.

Take Andrew Gmirkin, who was chosen by delegates as the 2018-19 Oregon FFA state president. Gmirkin, of Eagle Point, Ore., does not come from a traditional agricultural background — his mom is a librarian, and his dad makes jewelry. He initially felt out of place joining FFA, until one of his chapter officers assured him that it does not matter whether he was raised on a farm or ranch.

“You can do anything in this organization you set your mind to,” Gmirkin said. “Now we’re here.”

Or there’s Mackenzie Price, of Sutherlin, Ore., who was elected state treasurer. As a freshman in high school, Price said she struggled with feelings of self-worth. It wasn’t until she attended a leadership camp that others helped her to realize her potential.

“I didn’t understand everything I was capable of,” Price said.

Together, the group made a commitment to be the same kind of people who help their peers feel confident to achieve their goals.

Devin Thacker, the newly elected State FFA secretary from Canby, Ore., said a big part of it is to just be yourself.

“That is honestly the best advice I’ve ever gotten,” Thacker said.

Elections took place Monday morning during the delegate business session, kicking off the final day of the 2018 Oregon FFA state convention held at the Deschutes Fair & Expo Center in Redmond, Ore. Nearly 1,500 FFA members — or “blue jackets,” as they call themselves — from 102 local chapters attended the convention to compete in career development events, attend workshops and network with colleagues.

In addition to Gmirkin, Price and Thacker, the state officer team includes Dylan Westfall, of Hermiston, as vice president; Sundee Speelman, of Adrian, as reporter; and Holly Silvey, of Bend, as sentinel. They will spend much of the next year, post-graduation, teaching and hosting workshops at schools across the state.

Kourtney Lehman, who served as Oregon FFA president last year, said the experience gave her the independence and leadership skills necessary for college, while also shaping her perspectives on life.

“It was amazing,” Lehman said. “It really pushes us as people to be responsible, to be better.”

Lehman, of Baker City, Ore., plans to attend Oregon State University in the fall and will major in agricultural business management with a minor in either marketing or communications.

The state convention, March 23-26, featured a full schedule of events and competitions as students aimed to represent themselves and their schools at the National FFA Convention & Expo this fall in Indianapolis. FFA offers career development in areas such as job interviews, agricultural issues and parliamentary procedure, designed to enhance students’ critical thinking, speaking and presentation.

Several workshops also introduced the kids to future opportunities in the working world. The OSU Teach Ag Club hosted “Day in the Life of an Ag Teacher,” while the Oregon Department of Agriculture and USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service ran down careers available in their agencies to assist farmers and ranchers.

But the convention wasn’t all serious business. It afforded members plenty of opportunities to cut loose, dance and laugh with their friends. The final session almost had the feel of a rock concert, as state officers charged onto the stage beneath a tunnel of outstretched arms, music pumping and lights flashing.

The closing address went to Lee Wesenberg, the outgoing state reporter from Sutherlin. He boiled down the keys to success into six main points: personal philosophy, being your own hero, having intellect, conquering your reality and achieving excellence.

Spelled out, the acronym is P.H.I.R.E.

“Success isn’t about winning or losing. Success doesn’t even have a scoreboard,” Wesenberg said. “In the end, we must seek the impossible.”

ELKO, Nev. (AP) — Federal land managers have designated 11 demonstration projects in six Western states in a bid to create more flexibility for grazing livestock on public range.

Bureau of Land Management official Greg Deimel told the Elko Daily Free Press the aim is to share best practices in what the agency is calling outcome-based grazing authorizations.

One example might involve letting ranchers graze cattle on young invasive cheatgrass.

The bureau announced Friday that five projects are at ranches in northern Nevada. Others are in Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Wyoming.

Outcome-based grazing authorizations were announced in September 2017.

The goal is to let land managers and livestock operators respond to changing range conditions such as wildfires, high moisture years or drought to weigh economics and ecology with wildlife habitat.

The Oregon nonprofit Rogue Farm Corps is convening four, day-long events this April to help the current generation of farmers develop succession plans and the next generation of farmers find working land.

“Changing Hands: A Workshop Series on Farm Succession Planning and Access to Land,” will feature the critical tools and resources that farmers, ranchers, and foresters need to keep Oregon’s working lands working.

“The goal of the Changing Hands series is not only to educate, but to help build the connections necessary for a resilient farm community,” Nellie McAdams, RFC’s farmland preservation program director, said in a press release. McAdams has been on the road this winter and spring talking about succession planning with ranchers, farmers, foresters, and other community members.

“The tidal wave of farmland transition isn’t coming — we’re in the middle of it,” she said. “But we also have the solutions at our fingertips. This event is designed to help people discover and take the next step towards transitioning or accessing land.”

Retiring farmers can learn from experts about what it takes to pass on their business to the next generation — keeping it in the family or finding others to carry it on.

Aspiring farmers can learn about creative ways to start a farm business with topics on finding, leasing, financing and buying agricultural land.

The day-long workshop starts with breakfast at 7:30 a.m., and the program begins at 8:30 and goes through 5 p.m. with lunch and afternoon snacks included.

Register by April 10 for $20, including meals. Late registration will be $30.

Find the workshop most convenient to you below.

Agenda:

7:30-8:30 a.m.: Registration and breakfast.

8:30-9 a.m.: Welcome and keynote.

9:15-10:30 a.m.

• Succession Track: Working with your family to plan for succession.

• Access to Land Track: Finding and leasing farmland, including creative pathways to land tenure.

10:45 a.m.-noon

• Both Tracks: Buying and selling agricultural real estate.

Noon-1 p.m.: Lunch at facilitated discussion tables.

1-2:15 p.m.

• Succession Track: Working with your attorney and professional team to plan for succession.

• Access to Land Track: Financing options for purchasing land, conventional and emerging.

2:30-3:45 p.m.

• Both Tracks: Creative methods for passing on assets and management to next generation.

3:45-4 p.m.: Thank you and takeaways from the event.

4:15-5 p.m.: Snacks and networking.

Workshop locations:

Portland area: Friday, April 20, Harmony Campus Community Room, Clackamas Community College, 7726 SE Harmony Road, Milwaukie, Ore. https://bit.ly/2GxL1un

Medford: Monday, April 23, SOU Higher Education Center, Room 129,101 South Bartlett St., Medford, Ore. https://bit.ly/2Ia65EB

Redmond: Friday, April 27, Central Oregon Community College, Redmond Technology Education Center, 2324 Southeast College Loop, Redmond, Ore. https://bit.ly/2DZiKrr

Springfield: Monday, April 30, Sprout! Regional Food Hub, 418 A St., Springfield, Ore. https://bit.ly/2Fuu8gI

Rogue Farm Corps is an Oregon nonprofit that exists to train the next generation of farmers and ranchers through hands-on educational programs and the preservation of farmland. For more information: https://www.roguefarmcorps.org/

TERREBONNE, Ore. (AP) — Sheriff’s deputies and volunteers seized 83 horses from a property in Central Oregon.

Deschutes County officials tell KTVZ that many of the animals had signs of hoof neglect. They were moved from the property in Terrebonne to an animal-rescue ranch in southeast Bend.

A requested welfare check brought deputies to the property late Saturday, and removal of the horses began Sunday. It took nearly 12 hours to move them all.

The rescue came a little more than a week after the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office seized 53 dogs from a breeder’s property in La Pine.

EUGENE, Ore. — An Oregon beef processor has shut down while owing $4.6 million to cattle suppliers, but the company says in court filings that it expects its assets are worth more than its debts.

A court-appointed receiver will oversee the dissolution of Bartels Packing, which in mid-March closed its slaughterhouse and processing facilities near Eugene, Ore.

Apart from the immediate financial impacts to suppliers, the demise of Bartels Packing also signifies the loss of a major cattle buyer in Oregon’s livestock industry.

“We look for competition in the marketplace, so there’s one less competitor in the marketplace now,” said Bruce Anderson, owner of the Eugene Livestock Auction.

Representatives of Bartels Packing would regularly attend Oregon several livestock auctions, where they’d primarily bid on culled dairy cattle and other “butcher cows” that would be processed into hamburger, Anderson said.

Bartels Packing was among the three largest bidders for cattle at the Woodburn Livestock Exchange, said Tom Elder, the auction yard’s owner. The other two companies, Walt’s Wholesale Meats and Schenk Packing, operate out of Washington state.

Specifically, Bartels Packing had a demand for organic dairy cows, which provide much-needed supplementary income for dairy farmers, he said.

“There’s already plenty of cows to keep these packers busy,” Elder said.

Less competition for cattle typically means lower prices.

When Bartels occasionally didn’t attend the auction, prices were about 10 percent lower for cattle the company would normally bid on, he said.

However, broader fluctuations in the beef market may compensate for the closure of Bartels Packing, and another competitor may eventually fill its niche, Elder said.

“There’s definitely an opportunity there for someone,” he said.

Oregon already has limited beef processing facilities, so the absence of Bartels Packing will be felt in the industry, said Jerome Rosa, executive director of the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association.

“It’s definitely going to have an impact on beef prices here in the Northwest,” Rosa said. “This is a real sad situation to lose a packer of that size in Oregon.”

With the demand for U.S. beef in China, though, another business could potentially buy Bartels’ equipment and replace the lost slaughter and processing facilities, either at the same location or a different one, Rosa said.

The company’s owner, Chris Bartels, did not respond to a request for comment.

In court documents seeking to dissolve the company, Bartels requested that a receiver oversee the liquidation of assets to maximize their value.

The company’s assets are worth between $13.5 million and $14 million, including $8 million in inventory, $300,000 in accounts receivable and more than $5.5 million in fixed assets, such as equipment, according to court filings.

The court filings estimated the company owes 25 or more creditors about $8.3 million, including the $4.6 million owed to cattle suppliers and feedlots.

Because there is “not a readily available market” to quickly sell “a few million pounds of various cuts and grinds of beef,” it makes more sense for this perishable inventory to be liquidated by a specialized receiver, rather than individual creditors, the filings said.

For the same reason, the equipment is likely to fetch the highest value “as part of a functioning meat harvest or packing facility or alternately as a lot, as opposed to selling equipment in a piecemeal fashion,” the filings said.

As long as the liquidation is “handled in an orderly manner,” there should be more than enough assets to “settle the debts of all creditors,” according to a court filing.

Beau Ditmore had never saddled a horse before, but was willing to give it a try Sunday morning at the 2018 Oregon FFA State Convention.

Granted, it wasn’t an actual horse, but rather a white plastic barrel fastened to a metal stepladder. Still, Ditmore learned the proper way to cinch a saddle around the makeshift steed while Anne Livingston, advisor to Blue Mountain Community College Collegiate FFA, provided basic instructions.

“It was nerve-wracking,” Ditmore admitted when he was finished. “If it was a real horse, it probably would have bucked.”

Ditmore, a freshman at Culver High School in central Oregon, was on hand to support fellow members of his FFA chapter at the state convention, held this year at the Deschutes Fair & Expo Center in Redmond.

BMCC Collegiate FFA, from Pendleton, Ore., was also on hand, bringing along a variety of hands-on activities for the high schoolers to try when they weren’t competing in an event, or waiting for the next workshop to begin.

Livingston, who is also director of marketing for the college, said the activities were meant to give kids something to do during downtime, as well as introduce them to agricultural programs offered at BMCC.

“Nobody likes to walk up and talk to someone they don’t know,” Livingston said. “But if they have a little something interactive, they’ll do that. That inspires the conversation.”

Apart from the saddle exercise, FFA members could test their skills in soil judging, practice welding patterns with crackers and spray cheese, or fly a tiny drone around an obstacle course marked by winding orange ribbon and blue and yellow balloons.

“It’s so fun to work with these kids,” Livingston said.

The event was originally envisioned to be a competition between BMCC and other collegiate FFA teams, but Livingston said the scheduling did not work out because many schools were on spring break.

Six students from BMCC willingly gave up the first five days of their own spring break to participate in the Oregon FFA State Convention, Livingston said. They hoped to show their high school counterparts that attending college is more than just sitting in a room with four white walls listening to lectures.

“Hands-on is huge,” Livingston said. “BMCC has relevant stuff.”

Lilian Woods, a freshman from Sandy High School, worked with Juniper Cosner of BMCC mashing soil into ribbons using their hands, analyzing its fragile, loamy makeup. Woods, who is in her first year of FFA, said she hopes the program will eventually lead her to scholarships to help pay for her college education.

Though Woods said she does not come from an agricultural background, she likes working with animals and believes doing FFA can help her become a better public speaker.

Ethan Akers, a senior at Heppner High School, said FFA has taught him leadership as well as practical skills, such as welding and operating heavy equipment — the latter of which he intends to pursue for a career.

“(FFA) has opened up a whole bunch more career opportunities, honestly,” Akers said.

There are plenty of opportunities to work in agriculture beyond just the farm or ranch.

That was the message of a workshop hosted by the Oregon Department of Agriculture during the 2018 Oregon FFA State Convention in Redmond.

Ben Krahn, livestock water quality specialist for the agency’s Confined Animal Feeding Operations program, gave a crash course on the vast inner workings of ODA, everything from foreign marketing and animal safety to helping neighbors resolve disputes.

Outreach to Oregon students is part of ODA’s latest five-year strategic plan — what officials call the “agriculture is cool” objective.

One thing ODA does not do is make laws, Krahn was quick to clarify. He described the department as servants of the Oregon Legislature, which in turn works for the public.

“We massage things to figure out what is in the best interest of everybody,” Krahn said.

In terms of helping to bring food from the farm to the table, Krahn said ODA not only works abroad by taking trade missions to countries such as China, but at home as well through programs such as the Buy Oregon initiative or Farm-to-School Network.

“In Oregon, we grow a crazy amount of food, and a crazy amount of products,” said Krahn, referring the state’s more than 200 types of crops. “We help to market those products.”

Fostering co-existence between farms and neighbors is another major issue, Krahn said, and though it can be challenging to solve differences, it can also be fun and enlightening.

The agency also has responsibility for protecting natural resources through things like water quality and animal safety. Jobs are available with ODA doing things like brand inspections, health certificates and bio-security, Krahn said.

To top it off, ODA runs a variety of certification and training programs, including organic agriculture, seed sampling and pesticides.

“We have all walks of life, and all expertise,” he said. “Because everything comes back to agriculture.”

Krahn encouraged FFA members to keep in touch with the agency for future job and internship openings.

“We’d love to hear from you,” he said. “We just hope you think of us.”

TANGENT, Ore. (AP) — Authorities are investigating the deaths of three bald eagles in Linn County.

Oregon State Police investigators believe the eagles were shot. The agency told KATU-TV no arrests have been made, and there isn’t a suspect.

Though no longer endangered, the birds are still protected by state and federal law. It’s illegal to kill or harass them.

Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife spokesman Rick Swart told the station: “It defies my imagination why somebody would do something that stupid and it sort of makes me sick.”

A trooper found the eagles east of Tangent on March 16.

MEDFORD, Ore. (AP) — Commissioners in Jackson County are asking U.S. Rep. Greg Walden to help keep the Medford air tanker base open.

Giant air tankers and other aircraft fly out of the base to dump retardant on summer wildfires.

The Mail Tribune reports that evaluators are collecting information about air tanker bases in Medford and Klamath Falls for the U.S. Forest Service. A letter from commissioners to Walden says the team is deciding whether to consolidate the bases.

Commissioners told Walden the Medford base is a critical component of the fire safety network for the states of Oregon and California.

A National Air Tanker Base study completed in 1996 said keeping the Klamath Falls base operating was the best choice.

MOXEE, Wash. — U.S. hop stocks totaled 169 million pounds on March 1, up 21 percent from a year earlier and marking the third March in a row that it has increased.

“This was certainly expected. We are hearing that prices for certain varieties, particularly the larger-acreage public varieties of Cascade and Centennial, saw substantially lower prices on the spot market last fall,” said Ann George, executive director of Hop Growers of America and the Washington Hop Commission in Moxee, near Yakima.

Much of the crop is contracted a pre-defined prices so lower prices generally only impact spot markets such as over-contract or rejected production volumes or acreage for which a multi-year contract has expired, George said.

A lot of that acreage will be replanted in varieties that are not currently over supplied and some acreage may go idle for a year or two on the hope of a more even supply-demand balance, she said.

Acreage expansion is unlikely this year, she said.

The 169 million-pound inventory amounts to 132 million pounds held by dealers and growers and 37 million pounds held by brewers, according to the USDA National Agricultural Statistic Service. The March 1 report was released March 15.

Proportionately, less is being held the last two years by brewers compared to the amount held by dealers and growers.

Hop stocks totaled 140 million pounds a year ago and 128 million pounds two years ago. Sept. 1 hop inventories were 98 million pounds last year, 85 million pounds in 2016 and 83 million pounds in 2015.

In recent years, expansion of small, craft breweries has fueled an increase in the demand for aroma hop varieties. But the rate of craft brewery growth demand has slowed even as acreage has increased.

Larger brewers have also lost market share to other beverages.

NEWPORT, Ore. (AP) — The 700-pound sea lion blinked in the sun, sniffed the sea air and then lazily shifted to the edge of the truck bed and plopped onto the beach below.

Freed from the cage that carried him to the ocean, the massive marine mammal shuffled into the surf, looked left, looked right and then started swimming north as a collective groan went up from wildlife officials who watched from the shore.

After two days spent trapping and relocating the animal designated (hash)U253, he was headed back to where he started — an Oregon river 130 miles from the Pacific Ocean that’s become an all-you-can-eat fish buffet for hungry sea lions.

“I think he’s saying, ‘Ah, crap! I’ve got to swim all the way back?”’ said Bryan Wright, an Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife scientist.

It’s a frustrating dance between California sea lions and Oregon wildlife managers that’s become all too familiar in recent months. The state is trying to evict dozens of the federally protected animals from an inland river where they feast on salmon and steelhead that are listed under the Endangered Species Act.

The bizarre survival war has intensified recently as the sea lion population rebounds and fish populations decline in the Pacific Northwest.

The sea lions breed each summer off Southern California and northern Mexico, then the males cruise up the Pacific Coast to forage. Hunted for their thick fur, the mammals’ numbers dropped dramatically but have rebounded from 30,000 in the late 1960s to about 300,000 today due to the 1972 Marine Mammal Protection Act.

With their numbers growing, the dog-faced pinnipeds are venturing ever farther inland on the watery highways of the Columbia River and its tributaries in Oregon and Washington — and their appetite is having disastrous consequences, scientists say.

In Oregon, the sea lions are intercepting protected fish on their way to spawning grounds above Willamette Falls, a horseshoe-shaped waterfall about 25 miles south of Portland. Last winter, a record-low 512 wild winter steelhead completed the journey, said Shaun Clements, the state wildlife agency’s senior policy adviser.

Less than 30 years ago, that number was more than 15,000, according to state numbers.

“We’re estimating that there’s a 90 percent probability that one of the populations in the Willamette River could go extinct if sea lion predation continues unchecked,” he said. “Of all the adults that are returning to the falls here, a quarter of them are getting eaten.”

Clements estimates the sea lions also are eating about 9 percent of the spring chinook salmon, a species prized by Native American tribes still allowed to fish for them.

Oregon wildlife managers say sea lions are beginning to move into even smaller tributaries where they had never been seen before and where some of the healthiest stocks of the threatened fish exist. The mammals also have been spotted in small rivers in Washington state that are home to fragile fish populations.

California sea lions are not listed under the Endangered Species Act, but killing them requires special authorization under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, which was changed to address the issue of fish predation.

Biologists this spring started trapping the sea lions in the Willamette River and releasing them at the coast. They also have applied with the federal government to kill the worst offenders to protect the fish runs.

Native tribes, which have fished for salmon and steelhead for generations, support limited sea lion kills because of the cultural value of the fish, said Doug Hatch, a senior fisheries scientist with the Columbia River Intertribal Fish Commission.

“You’re pitting this protected population that has been fully recovered against these Endangered Species Act-listed fish,” Hatch said. “We think it’s an easy choice.”

If U.S. officials grant the request, the trap-and-kill program would expand a similar and highly controversial effort on another major Pacific Northwest river. Oregon and Washington wildlife managers are allowed to kill up to 93 sea lions trapped each year at Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River under certain conditions.

In the past decade, the agency has removed 190 sea lions there. Of those, 168 were euthanized, seven died in accidents during trapping and 15 were placed in captivity, according to state data.

The Humane Society of the United States sued over the trap-and-kill program and may sue again if it’s allowed on the Willamette River, said Sharon Young, the organization’s field director for marine wildlife.

The animals are not the only problem facing wild winter steelhead and chinook salmon, she said.

Hydroelectric dams that block rivers, agricultural runoff, damage to spawning grounds and competition with hatchery-bred fish have all hurt the native species, Young said. And new sea lions will take the place of those that are killed, she added.

“It’s easier to say, ‘If I kill that sea lion, at least I keep him from eating that fish.’ But if you don’t deal with the cause of the problem, you’re not going to help the fish,” she said. “It’s like a treadmill of death. You kill one, and another one will come.”

While Oregon awaits word on the sea lions’ fate, wildlife managers are trapping them and hauling them to the ocean, which can sometimes seem futile.

Five days after his 2 ½-hour drive to the Oregon coast, (hash)U253 was back at Willamette Falls, hungry for more fish.

KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. (AP) — It isn’t easy being a Klamath Basin sucker.

There has been a 75 percent decline in populations of two endangered Klamath Basin sucker species over the past two decades, and juvenile fish are not surviving beyond their first year of life, according to U.S. Fish and Wildlife. As part of an effort to keep the species from extinction, officials are releasing upward of 2,500 hatchery-reared juvenile sucker into Upper Klamath Lake over the next couple weeks.

Alan Mikkelsen, senior adviser to Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke on water and Western resources, stood boots deep just off the boat ramp at Eagle Ridge County Park Tuesday morning, lowering the first of many Lost River and shortnose sucker to be released into the murky waters of Shoalwater Bay on Upper Klamath Lake.

Mikkelsen, who said he took the Interior job after semi-retiring as a fishing guide in Idaho, said he normally catches and releases steelhead and salmon, but that the release of sucker holds more weight in this scenario.

“What’s going on here is an attempt to stabilize and ultimately increase the population of sucker in the lake, both Lost River and shortnose sucker, we would really like to get to a point where the Klamath Tribes will have their traditional and cultural history restored and where irrigators will be able to also irrigate,” Mikkelsen said, following the release.

“We will be in a position to release double this much next year, and we hope to double it a year after that,” Mikkelsen added.

At least 17,000 shortnose and 43,000 Lost River sucker, 60,000 total, need to be released annually in order to sustain populations of the fish at current levels, according to Evan Childress, U.S. Fish and Wildlife fish biologist.

Mikkelsen said he hopes to increase that number to upward of 100,000 sucker.

“This is one of the only options left for helping these fish survive or bringing them back from the brink of extinction,” said Susan Sawyer, public affairs officer for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Pacific Southwest region, which includes the Klamath Basin.

The 2-year-old cohort is the first of its age group to be released, having been reared from the larval stage at the Gone Fishing facility outside of Klamath Falls. Upward of 2,500 2-year-old juvenile sucker are set to be released in Pelican Bay near Rocky Point within the next couple weeks, according to Sawyer.

“The valedictorians, they got to go first,” Sawyer said, referencing the release. “This first class is going to give us a lot of information.”

U.S. Fish and Wildlife released a group of 14-month-old sucker in 2017, but never have a cohort of 2-year-old, captivity-reared Klamath Basin sucker been released.

Each 2-year-old sucker being released is implanted with a Passive Integrated Transponder — a PIT — that tracks the fish. The U.S. Geological Survey will collect signals from each fish using an antenna, Sawyer said, as they pass mostly through the Williamson and Sprague rivers. This will help determine survival rates. It is estimated that 15 percent of the 2,500 released this year could survive.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife won’t be able to detect large numbers of the released fish for up to two years, Childress said, when the fish will likely spawn.

Sucker released after Tuesday will be released largely in the evening to mitigate predators feasting on the newly freed fish, and in groups of 40 to 50 at a time.

The fish are camouflaged, especially in murkey water, but still look like “tasty morsels” to birds, according to Childress, which led the agency to release them earlier in the year to allow the fish to get their bearings before more potential predators arrive in the Basin.

Sucker released this week have been raised from the larval stage and started out growing up in warmer temperatures in outdoor ponds during the winter.

Childress said geothermally heated ponds at Gone Fishing allow U.S. Fish and Wildlife to keep fish warmer in the winter in captivity, which helps with higher growth rates for the sucker population.

The species have been acclimated to decreased water temperatures before being released, Childress said.

“There’s no shock,” Childress said, of the transition. “It’s not like they’re going from the hot tub to the swimming pool.”

Unless young, viable sucker are added to the dwindling population, Sawyer said shortnose sucker could disappear in 15 to 25 years, and Lost River sucker could disappear in 30 to 40 years.

The captive rearing program was authorized in 2013, with Bureau of Reclamation contributing $300,000 per year, according to data provided by U.S. Fish and Wildlife.

The Klamath Tribes released a statement prior to the Tuesday sucker release, stating: “Although, the Klamath Tribes appreciate this effort, we feel strongly that in order to be effective this needs to be accomplished on a much larger scale. We also are saddened that we are at the point where artificial propagation is now a necessary step in attempt to save these species from extinction.”

“We have to start somewhere,” Mikkelsen said, responding to a question about the Tribes’ news release. “Nobody believes this is anywhere near the numbers that we need but this first release . is basically to inform us and inform the scientists how these fish will actually do here.”

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — The state has reached a settlement with a northern Oregon dairy company accused of endangering drinking water by mismanaging manure and wastewater.

The Statesman Journal reports the settlement filed Wednesday will allow Lost Valley Farm to operate in a limited capacity until it can prove that its wastewater treatment system is fully functional.

The Oregon Department of Agriculture filed a lawsuit last month, citing the Boardman facility’s numerous failed inspections and environment violations since it opened last year.

The state claimed owner Greg te Velde failed to comply with directions to stop liquid manure and wastewater from overflowing at storage lagoons.

The owner declined to comment Wednesday.

The department says it will inspect the facility weekly.

Health and environmental groups have criticized the settlement, saying the terms are too loose.

ROSEBURG, Ore. — Don Bailey, a long-time veterinarian and rancher in Douglas County, died at his ranch home March 20.

He would have been 92 on April 30. He died of age-related, natural causes.

It was appropriate that there was a flock of sheep in a nearby pasture on his Bar None Ranch because Bailey spent much of his 65-year career as a veterinarian and rancher working with that animal. After he and his wife, Betty, moved to Roseburg to serve an internship after he graduated in 1950 with a degree in veterinary medicine from Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colo., most all of his work dealt with sheep and cattle.

The couple opened Bailey Veterinary Clinic in Roseburg in 1951. In addition to helping with the care of livestock throughout Douglas County, Bailey also got involved in numerous agricultural, veterinary and civic organizations and activities at the local, state and national level.

Bailey retired from his clinic in 1991 after a 40-year career and he retired as a rancher a couple of years ago. He had both a cattle and sheep operation, and at one time had about 2,000 ewes.

“He was young, ambitious and a really good veterinarian who was very good with sheep,” said Bob Hall, who owns and operates a ranch east of Roseburg. “He knew a lot about them and when he came out to the ranch, he would tell you how to do things so you wouldn’t have to call him the next time you needed help with the same problem.”

Eugene Holcomb and his sons, Richard and Roger, also learned from Bailey when the veterinarian visited their cattle and sheep operation near Elkton, Ore.

“He was really good at sharing the practical things he had learned over the years,” Richard Holcomb said. “He didn’t hesitate to try to bring our skill level up so we could do a lot of things we had previously called him out to do. I had such admiration for him. He was such a mentoring type of man, a man filled with a lot of graciousness.”

Rex Heard, a sheep rancher near Lookingglass, Ore., said he was impressed by Bailey’s eagerness to continue to learn.

“He was well into his 80s and he was still sitting in the front row at meetings and conferences, with a tablet and pencil, taking notes,” Heard said. “I learned from him that when you take notes, you’re forced to be attentive and it helps you learn. When I talk to 4-H and FFA groups, I tell them that is something I learned from a local veterinarian. You have to apply yourself.”

Bailey shared his knowledge beyond his own practice. Recognizing a need in small ruminant medicine, both in colleges of veterinary medicine and in food animal science, he helped organize the American Association of Sheep and Goat Practitioners (now the American Association of Small Ruminant Practitioners) in 1968. He served as the organization’s second president, secretary-treasurer and executive director.

The Roseburg veterinarian also held positions in other organizations: A member of the board of directors of the Intermountain Veterinary Medical Association, chairman of the Health Committee of the National Wool Growers Association, a member of the American Veterinary Medical Association House Advisory Committee, president of the Oregon Veterinary Medical Association and the Oregon Sheep Growers Association, the OSGA’s delegate to the National Wool Growers Association and one of the founders of the Douglas County Soil and Water Committee.

In 1974, while Bailey was president of the OVMA, he was an advocate of increasing the opportunities for Oregonians to study veterinary medicine. The School of Veterinary Medicine at Oregon State University was established later in the 1970s and a veterinary teaching facility was constructed at the school in 1980. Bailey became a member of the Oregon State University President’s Committee on Agriculture Education.

Since 1976, he was a frequent keynote speaker at state, national and international meetings.

On his ranch, Bailey and his wife, Betty, hosted hundreds of grade-school students for many years during lambing season so the kids could get that agricultural experience.

Glenn Kolb, the executive director of the OVMA, knew Bailey for the past 30 years. He described the veterinarian as “one of those generational leaders.”

“Over the years, he mentored countless veterinarians,” Kolb said. “He would tell them, ‘This is what I know, this is what I’ve learned over the years and if it can help you, great.’ He was a leader who felt it was important to give back.

“I’m thankful for the many years I was associated with him,” Kolb said. “He helped advance the veterinary profession as well as organized veterinary medicine.”

In 1982, Bailey began writing an animal health column for Sheep magazine. It was a regular feature in the magazine for about 30 years. He was also a contributing author to Current Veterinary Therapy-Food Animal Practice, Large Animal Internal Medicine and Practice of Large Animal Surgery.

In 1981, Bailey received the Degree of Honorary American Farmer Lifetime Achievement Award for his work with the FFA students and he was recognized locally with the 2012 Roseburg First Citizen Award.

Dave Jackson, a Roseburg-area cattle rancher, said Bailey was a “well respected man who was probably one of the most knowledgeable sheep experts on the West Coast.

“He didn’t mind getting his hands dirty,” Jackson said. “He taught me so much, I haven’t had to call on a vet in years. He’s been a dandy one for ranchers.”

“He was a barnyard type of veterinarian,” Hall said. “He’d always come up with a remedy, how to fix a problem with an animal. He was on the rancher’s side of everything.”

A celebration of life for Bailey is scheduled for 2 p.m. March 31 at the Douglas County Fairgrounds in Roseburg.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A spending bill slated for a vote in Congress includes a bipartisan plan to create a wildfire disaster fund to help combat increasingly severe wildfires that have devastated the West in recent years.

The bill sets aside more than $20 billion over 10 years to allow the Forest Service and other federal agencies to end a practice of raiding non-fire-related accounts to pay for wildfire costs, which approached $3 billion last year.

Western lawmakers have long complained that the current funding mechanism — tied to a 10-year average for wildfires — makes budgeting difficult, even as fires burn longer and hotter each year.

The new plan sets aside $2 billion per year — outside the regular budget — so officials don’t have to tap money meant for prevention programs to fight wildfires.

“Common sense has finally prevailed when it comes to how the Forest Service pays to fight record-breaking forest fires that devastate homes and communities in Oregon and the West,” said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who helped broker the compromise with Sens. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Mike Crapo, R-Idaho. GOP Reps. Mike Simpson of Idaho and Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington also played key roles, along with other lawmakers from both parties.

The Western lawmakers have been fighting for years to end “fire borrowing,” a practice they say devastates rational budgeting for the Forest Service and other agencies.

“This long-overdue, bipartisan solution to the madness of ‘fire borrowing’ will at last treat these infernos like the natural disasters they are, with the benefit that millions of dollars will now be liberated each year for essential wildfire prevention,” Wyden said in a statement.

The wildfire deal “puts an end to fire-borrowing and is a start to giving the Forest Service the predictable resources they need to reduce hazardous fuels” such as small trees and underbrush that cause and exacerbate wildfires, Cantwell said.

“This funding boost will allow the Forest Service to prioritize work in areas closest to communities, in order to save lives and reduce the risk of property damage, while still protecting essential public lands and existing environmental laws,” said Cantwell, the top Democrat on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

The measure establishes a contingency account through 2027, with annual deposits starting at $2.1 billion and increasing to $2.9 billion. Money from the account would only be used after funds from usual firefighting accounts are exhausted.

Wildfires have burned across dried-out Western forests and grassland in recent years, causing billions of dollars in damage in California, Oregon and other states. The Forest Service and Interior Department spent more than $2.7 billion last year fighting fires — the most expensive wildfire season on record.

The budget deal includes $100 million for fire prevention projects and recreation programs and enables utilities to work with the Forest Service to prevent trees from touching power lines and starting wildfires.

Simpson, who chairs an Appropriations subcommittee on energy and water development, called the wildfire fund one of the most significant pieces of legislation he has worked on in Congress. The concept is simple, he said: Treat catastrophic wildfires like other natural disasters.

“Fire borrowing was intended to be an extraordinary measure, but as fire seasons have grown more destructive it has become common practice — and has created a devastating cycle that prevents agencies from doing needed hazardous fuels removal or timber harvests, leading to worse fires,” he said.

As Klamath County, Ore., farmers and ranchers prepare for drought, the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service is offering financial assistance for mitigating wind erosion on highly vulnerable soils.

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown declared a drought emergency for Klamath County on March 13, which officials predict could result in economic losses exceeding $557 million. Meanwhile, the NRCS is encouraging producers to apply for funding through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, or EQIP, to plant a small grain cover crop that will protect against erosion.

David Ferguson, district conservationist for the NRCS, said wind erosion can damage adjacent crops, impact traffic visibility and cause other problems.

“This funding is a very short-term solution, but should be considered as a beginning to soil quality maintenance that incorporates a cover crop following intensive fall tillage,” Ferguson said.

The potential for wind erosion increases during a drought, due to the lack of available irrigation water. EQIP funding is only available for farmers and ranchers with highly erodible soils.

Applications are due April 25, and are prioritized based on soil type, erodibility, proximity to roads and residue conditions at the time of application. Seeding will be reimbursed at $41.90 per acre.

Additional funding may also be available depending on irrigation water supply in the coming months.

A spokeswoman for the Bureau of Reclamation in Klamath Falls said there is still no start date or water allocation set for basin irrigators. The bureau held a public meeting March 20 at the Klamath County Fairgrounds, where farmers were told the start date could be as soon as May 1 or as late as June 15, according to a report in the Herald and News.

Water for the Klamath Project is governed by a 2013 joint biological opinion between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service to protect endangered fish. A 2017 court injunction also requires the bureau to release 6,030 cubic feet per second of water between Nov. 1 and April 30 to flush away a deadly parasite known as C. shasta infecting coho salmon.

The bureau claims it has developed a proposal that, if approved by the court, would allow regulators to establish an allocation and start date for irrigation. The document is due March 23, and a hearing date may be held April 4 or April 11.

For more information about EQIP, contact Ferguson at the NRCS in Klamath Falls at 541-887-3503.