A bill sponsored by several U.S. House members from the Northwest aims to overturn two recent court decisions on Columbia and Snake river dams.

Last year, U.S. District Court Judge Michael Simon rejected the federal plan for managing dams to protect salmon in the Columbia River Basin.

He then ordered federal agencies to spill more water through the dams to help fish and to consider removing Snake River dams.

A new bill in the U.S. House of Representatives would allow Congress to overrule those decisions. House Bill 3144 reinstates the rejected plan and cancels court orders for spilling water and analyzing dam removal.

At a hearing before the House Committee on Natural Resources Thursday, Washington Republican Cathy McMorris Rodgers, one of the bill’s sponsors, said the goal is to reassert congressional authority over the dams and keep hydropower affordable.

With Bonneville Power Administration already hiking electricity rates, she said, utilities are shopping for other options.

“Unnecessary litigation and unnecessary spill requirements by this Oregon judge only add onto the cost,” she said. “Dams and fish can co-exist, but we must get out of the courtroom and allow fish recovery to continue.”

Conservation groups say the bill would hurt already imperiled salmon and steelhead. They’re worried it will get attached to a must-pass bill in the coming months.

Liz Hamilton, director of the Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association, told the committee that the bill would lock in “an approach that isn’t working for fish.”

She said increasing the amount of water spilled for fish, which reduces the amount of hydropower produced, has produced positive results for fish in previous years.

“We know dams and reservoirs are the salmon’s main cause of human-caused mortality,” she said. “Spill is our most effective near-term tool. What we want are adult (salmon) coming back, and there’s overwhelming evidence that spilling gets adults back.”

NYSSA, Ore. — The onion crop in the Treasure Valley of Idaho and Oregon will be significantly smaller this year but growers are seeing prices that are much higher than normal.

“Yields are definitely down and size is off a little bit but prices are significantly better,” said Bruce Corn, one of the 300 farmers in the area who grow the Spanish bulb onions this region is famous for.

Most growers and shippers Capital Press spoke with said yields will be off 20-30 percent this year. Size profile is also off and fewer colossals and super-colossals, the largest bulb onion sizes, will come out of the region this year.

But prices are way up.

For example, a 50-pound bag of jumbo yellow onions is selling for $10-11 right now, up from $5.50 to $6 this time last year.

“As you drive around, there are a lot of empty bins,” said Paul Skeen, president of the Malheur County Onion Growers Association. “The bottom line is prices are up because there is a shortage.”

Buyers from Mexico are purchasing a lot of onions right now and that’s also impacting the market, said Snake River Produce Manager Kay Riley.

“The market is about as good as we’ve seen it for this time of year,” said Riley, the marketing order chairman for the Idaho-Eastern Oregon Onion Committee.

Corn said the higher prices mean grower returns will be much better this year, despite the smaller crop.

“Last year, we had incredible yields but low prices. There was no return after you paid packing charges and storage,” he said. “This year is significantly better that way.”

Although this year’s crop is much smaller than normal, quality is excellent, said Murakami Produce Manager Grant Kitamura.

“They are coming in in really good shape,” he said. “They are beautiful.”

Kitamura said it’s likely the higher prices will hold throughout the year, which typically happens during a year with limited supply.

“You could see higher prices later; I don’t know for sure,” he said. “But I can’t see them going down. Overall, we’re hoping for a lot better year than we had last year.”

This year’s onion crop was impacted by late planting due to a harsh winter and wet spring that was followed by a hotter than normal summer, and then September rains crusted the ground and made harvest more difficult, said Stuart Reitz, an Oregon State University cropping systems extension agent in Ontario.

“There were a whole lot of issues,” he said. “There just wasn’t ideal growing conditions this year. (Last year) was a tremendous crop. This year, it’s a little thinner, and a lot thinner in some cases.”

State and federal wildlife officials are investigating the death of a second wolf discovered in the Fremont-Wenema National Forest of Southern Oregon in the past year.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service offered a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the person responsible for shooting a gray wolf designated OR-33 by Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

The wolf’s carcass was discovered in April 2017 and taken to a USFWS lab in Ashland, Ore., for a necropsy. The results were not announced until Oct. 11. The animal had one or more gunshot wounds, according to USFWS. It’s not clear when the wolf was shot.

A year earlier, on Oct. 6, 2016, an Oregon wolf designated OR-28 was found dead in the national forest. That carcass also was examined at the Ashland lab, but the cause of death hasn’t been announced. Brent Lawrence, USFWS spokesman, said the case is still open. The federal agency and Oregon State Police are jointly investigating.

The wolf deaths are not necessarily related. ODFW spokeswoman Michelle Dennehy said the sites where the wolves were found are “geographically far apart.”

Still, conservation groups and wolf activists have long warned that wolf “poaching” is going on, and question whether the state is doing enough to protect them. The news about OR-33 also comes on the heels of ODFW’s authorizing “lethal control” on the Harl Butte and Meacham wolf packs in Northeast Oregon for repeated livestock attacks this summer. Four Harl Butte Pack wolves have been shot since August and ODFW recently authorized killing four more. One Meacham Pack wolf was shot before lethal authorization expired.

The two wolves found dead both dispersed from Northeast Oregon.

OR-33, a male estimated to be 4-years-old, left the Imnaha Pack in November 2015 and was not known to be part of a pack. It wore a tracking collar, but it quit transmitting in August 2016, according to ODFW.

OR-28 was a 3-year old female that was collared in June 2014 and dispersed from the Mount Emily pack in November 2015. Within a month, tracking collar data showed it had traveled more than 450 miles and was in the Silver Lake area in South Central Oregon. The wolf paired up with a male, OR-3, and had at least one pup.

Gray wolves are listed as endangered in the western two-thirds of Oregon, and under the Endangered Species Act it is a crime to kill them.

Anyone with information about he case should call U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at 503-682-6131, or the Oregon State Police Tip Line at 800-452-7888. Callers may remain anonymous.

A misty rain fell on a recent Wednesday morning in the Blue Mountains east of Pendleton, where Greg Rimbach drove the muddy forest roads scanning for wolf tracks.

“Once you see one, now you’re an expert,” said Rimbach, district wildlife biologist for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. “When they want to go somewhere, they like walking along roads down ridges. It’s just easier.”

Since wolves dispersed from Idaho and returned to northeast Oregon in the late 1990s, more of the predators are settling and forming packs in the Walla Walla and Mount Emily wildlife units. The district is now home to seven packs or groups of wolves totaling at least 36 animals — nearly one-third of the state’s known wolf population.

Rimbach figures he spends a quarter of his workdays managing wolves, from trapping and collaring to investigating claims of livestock predation. His latest project involves finding and re-collaring OR-11, a male wolf from the Walla Walla pack that initially split to form the Mount Emily pack, and has split once again and paired up with a new mate at the south end of the Mount Emily Unit.

The trajectory of increased wolf activity comes as no surprise to Rimbach.

“This is absolutely what we expected,” he said. “It certainly is tracking with what other states have seen.”

The presence of wolves, however, remains a polarizing issue as ranchers contend with livestock losses. Most recently, ODFW determined the Meacham pack was responsible for attacking cattle four times in eight days last month on the same 4,000-acre private pasture owned by Cunningham Sheep Company.

Predations occurred less than a mile from Interstate 84, and two miles from the community of Meacham. In response, ODFW issued a limited duration wolf kill permit, allowing Cunningham Sheep to shoot two adult or sub-adult wolves on sight within the densely forested pasture.

One of the wolves, a non-breeding female, was shot Sept. 7. The action sparked a wave of anger on both sides of the debate, with environmental groups criticizing ODFW for allowing any wolves to be killed and the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association arguing the entire pack should be removed.

Wolf-livestock conflicts were anticipated when wolves reentered Oregon, Rimbach said. That is why ranchers and environmentalists were both included at the table when the state wrote its Wolf Management and Conservation Plan, to balance conservation with protection of livestock.

“This is exactly what came out on the back end of those discussions,” Rimbach said.

ODFW is still in the process of revising the plan, which it hopes to present back to the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission by December or early 2018.

Personally, Rimbach said he sees wolves as another part of the local ecosystem that needs to be managed.

“Hopefully someday, we can start normalizing wolves into our fauna,” he said.

When wolves do prey on livestock, the state has a mechanism to compensate ranchers for their losses.

The Oregon Wolf Depredation Compensation and Financial Assistance Grant Program is administered by the state Department of Agriculture with funds allocated by the Legislature, distributed to counties and awarded to producers.

Jerry Baker, a part-time wildlife biologist who lives in Athena, serves as chairman of the Umatilla County Wolf Depredation Advisory Committee. He said the group meets two or three times a year to apply for funding and consider requests for compensation.

“We know (wolves) are here,” Baker said. “We’re trying to deal with them.”

In February, the committee awarded nearly $50,000 in state money to ranchers for livestock compensation, including non-lethal deterrents for hazing wolves away from their property. Baker said the committee will meet again sometime in November or December, and has received about a half-dozen requests so far this summer.

In the case of Cunningham Sheep, the company satisfied its requirements for non-lethal deterrence prior to asking for lethal control, according to ODFW. That includes removing dead or weakened animals from their herd that may attract wolves, and hiring a range rider five days a week to monitor the pasture.

“We’ve had depredations before,” Rimbach said. “For whatever reason, it really ramped up this year.”

Cunningham Sheep would normally graze cattle on the pasture until October. Instead, the company is rounding up the animals to move to another location. It also gave up using its adjacent sheep allotment two years ago to avoid wolf conflicts.

Larry Givens, Umatilla County commissioner and liaison to the wolf compensation committee, said he sympathizes with ranchers, and will continue to lobby Salem for greater support.

“That’s a tremendous financial loss to these folks,” Givens said. “We know we can’t just go out and get rid of the wolves. So we have to have a way to mitigate those losses.”

Driving along Summit Road near Fox Prairie, Rimbach can point in the direction of multiple areas of wolf activity within just a few miles.

The Meacham pack can be found four or five miles to the west. OR-11 — the Walla Walla pack disperser — is now about four miles to the north with a new mate. To the south is OR-52, recently paired up with a mate outside the Union County town of Perry.

The Blue Mountains is a popular spot for outdoor recreation, and Rimbach insists wolves do not change that dynamic. Wolves tend to avoid humans, he said, and locals should not have any concerns for safety.

“The chance of people having any adverse effect with wolves is almost zero,” he said. “They might sit on their haunches and watch as you walk by, but that’s about it.”

Rimbach did caution against letting dogs run off leash in wolf territory, as the predators do become territorial with other canines. As for folks who live in the area, the presence of wolves is nothing new.

“I don’t think it’s a big surprise to the few people who live there year-round,” he said. “They’ll see wolf tracks there. They’ve been seeing those for five years.”

If the latest documented wolf pairings become full-fledged packs, Rimbach said he could see where wolves in the district start running out of room to function, and the population naturally begin to level off.

Baker said he believes wolves have fared better in the area than anybody expected, and he is interested in seeing how they affect the local ecosystem in the coming years.

“We’re going to have to work together on this, all of us, to try and make the best situation we can,” Baker said. “Because (wolves) are here to stay. No doubt about it.”

EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — Hazelnut growers in Turkey ramped up production this year, driving down prices for growers in Oregon.

The Hazelnut Growers Bargaining Association said Tuesday that Oregon growers will get a starting minimum price of 96.5 cents per pound for their crop this fall, The Register-Guard reports . That’s lower than last year’s starting price of $1.18 per pound, and a big drop from the record price of $1.70 per pound in 2014.

“The price is lower than probably the growers were expecting,” said Doug Olsen, the association’s president. “But that is where the market came out, and it is a good place to start so we can move this crop.”

Oregon produces nearly all United States hazelnuts, but only 3 to 4 percent of the world’s supply.

Turkey leads the world in hazelnut production. Its crop is expected to reach about 750,000 tons, an increase of 150,000 to 200,000 tons from last year, said Terry Ross said, the association’s executive director, who represented growers in the negotiations.

The value of the Turkish lira also continues to fall against the dollar, which makes Turkish hazelnuts a better buy for international buyers. Oregon exports about half of its annual crop to international markets

Experts predict this year’s Oregon crop will be smaller than last year’s 44,000 tons even though the number of acres growing hazelnuts has increased. The association estimates that hazelnut trees are planted on about 75,000 acres in Oregon, and trees on about 45,000 of those acres are producing nuts — up from 32,000 acres five years ago.

Many growers have responded to Eastern filbert blight, a deadly fungus that has decimated hazelnut orchards, by replacing diseased trees with younger disease-resistant varieties.

Oregon farmers will receive at least 96.5 cents per pound of hazelnuts this year, a decrease of 18 percent from last year’s initial price.

The price slide comes at a time when hazelnut growers are also expecting lower yields, with Oregon’s total production projected to be 36,000 tons, down from 44,000 tons last year.

“With a small crop it’s going to be tough for everyone,” said Doug Olsen, farmer and president of the Hazelnut Growers Bargaining Association.

Price fluctuations in Oregon are influenced by the hazelnut crop in Turkey, where low yields caused by a deep freeze drove up the domestic price to $1.70 per pound in 2014, the highest on record.

A bumper Turkish crop in 2017 has had the opposite effect on Oregon’s initial price, though farmers could still end up with a higher price if processors receive premiums.

Whether farmers will make a profit this year varies by individual, since people have different levels of debt and establishment costs for their orchards.

“It kind of depends where you are, how mature your orchard is,” said Nik Wiman, an Oregon State University orchard specialist.

According to a conservative estimate by OSU, farmers who plant the popular Jefferson variety earn a profit in the seventh year of orchard production at prices of $1 per pound, he said.

At roughly $1 per pound, farmers in Oregon will probably still be motivated to continue planting the crop, said Olsen.

“It might slow down a little bit but it’s still one of the better-paying crops right now,” he said.

Negotiations among farmers and hazelnut processors dragged on longer than normal in 2017, with the parties winding up in mediation to set an initial price.

There was some disagreement about how high the price could rise without hurting demand, particularly in China, a major market for Oregon’s crop, said Terry Ross, executive director of the Hazelnut Growers Bargaining Association.

Ultimately, data from the Oregon Hazelnut Marketing Board showed that China’s demand for our hazelnuts is “elastic,” meaning that higher prices would curtail purchases, Ross said.

“Once all the factors about market conditions were presented and discussed, there was no other solution than the price that was set,” he said.

Jeff Fox, executive director of the Hazelnut Growers of Oregon cooperative, said he was disappointed by the price decline, since the industry has seen large Turkish crops before.

Oregon producers have the opportunity to earn a premium based on growing higher quality hazelnuts than those grown by Turkish farmers, he said.

“Hopefully this doesn’t impact their behavior as far as planting but I suspect it will,” Fox said of domestic growers.

While the price has fallen since 2016, this year’s initial price is nonetheless the sixth highest on record, said Larry George, president of the George Packing Co.

“It’s a strong price historically,” he said.

Profitability in 2017 will be determined by production, which shows the Oregon industry should invest in increasing and stabilizing yields, George said.

Hazelnuts have relatively low labor costs and good returns for farmers, he said. “Our view is the best years for the hazelnut industry are still in front of it.”

Thirty agriculture and natural resource professionals have been selected to take part in the first Resource Education and Agricultural Leadership (REAL) Oregon Program.

REAL Oregon is a collaboration of ag, forestry and fishing commodity and advocacy organizations, formed with the goal of developing leaders to represent their interests in legislation and policy discussions.

Greg Addington, REAL Oregon director, used a sports analogy to describe the program’s goals. “Are we developing a bench to go to?” he asked. “Who’s going to be the next county Farm Bureau president? Who is going to be on the irrigation board? Who’s the next commodity commission member?”

People selected for the program will go through five statewide training sessions, the first one beginning Nov. 14 in Ontario and concluding in March 2018.

The program will explore the diversity of Oregon’s geography, economy and culture through training in board governance, communication skills, conflict resolution, government interaction, public policy work, critical thinking, media relations, professional presentations, public speaking and relationship building, according to a REAL Oregon news release.

Such leadership training programs aren’t unique; 34 states have something similar. Oregon’s program is modeled after Idaho’s, which will host its 38th class.

The program costs $5,000 per person, of which the trainees are expected to pick up half, either personally or through sponsorship by their organization or employer. The rest of the cost is paid for with “seed money” from the Oregon Farm Bureau, Wilco, Oregon State University, Land O’Lakes, Hazelnut Growers of Oregon, Oregon Aglink, Northwest Farm Credit Services and Valley Agronomics.

Of the first training group, 20 are from Northwest Oregon or the Willamette Valley, five are from Eastern Oregon or the high desert region, three are from Northeast Oregon and two are from Southwest Oregon.

Members of the first Oregon REAL class are:

Dylan Branch, Riddell Farm, Monmouth; Kent Burkholder, Burkholder Farms, Albany; Doug Grott, Wilbur Ellis, Corvallis; Stuart Butsch, USDA Farm Service Agency, Salem; Rick Jones, Cascade Timber Consulting, Sweet Home; Lauren Lucht, Northwest Transplants, Molalla; Andrea Krahmer, Northwest Farm Credit Services, Salem; Erick Garman, Oregon Department of Agriculture, Portland; Nolan Sundberg, Northwest Farm Credit Services, Eugene; Macey Wessels, Barenbrug USA. Scio; Jeff Fox of Wilco Hazelnut, LLC, Aurora; Christina Higby, Oregon Department of Agriculture, Stayton;

Matt Mattioda, Miller Timber Services, Albany; Lauren Smith, Oregon Water Resource Congress, Salem; Karl Dettwyler, Blue Line Farms, Silverton; Jenny Freeborn, Pacific Risk Management, Rickreall; Helle Ruddenklau, Ruddenklau Farms, Amity; Molly McCargar, Pearmine Farms, Gervais; Jacon Taylor, Oregon Farm Bureau, Eugene; Anne Marie Moss, Oregon Farm Bureau, Salem; Scott White, Klamath Water Users Association, Klamath Falls; Victoria Flowers, Flowers Farms, Midland/Klamath Falls; Susan Doverspike, Doverspike Ranch, Burns; Pete Schreder, OSU Extension, Lakeview; Megan Thompson, Sage Fruit Company, The Dalles; Sam Taylor, Pacific Ag, Hermiston;

Robert Waldher, Umatilla County, Athena; Tom Demianew, Oregon Department of Agriculture, Pendleton; Mark Kincaid, Lone Rock Resources, Roseburg; Kyle Kenagy, Kenagy Cattle Company, Oakland.

McMINNVILLE, Ore. — Aspiring marijuana growers in Oregon’s Yamhill County have asked a judge to dismiss a lawsuit against their operation filed by neighboring landowners over potential odors.

The complaint was filed earlier this year against Steven and Mary Wagner, as well as their son Richard, who planned to grow and process marijuana on their property near McMinnville, Ore.

The Wagners argue that two of their neighbors, Harihara and Parvathy Mahesh, are barred from filing trespass and nuisance claims under Oregon’s “right to farm” statute, which shields growers from such complaints.

Claims filed by their other neighbors — the Momtazi family, which owns nearby vineyards — should also be thrown out because the Wagners haven’t trespassed or interfered with their land, according to defendants.

“You don’t get to file a lawsuit with no facts, sheer conjecture, pure speculation about what will happen,” said Allison Bizzano, attorney for the Wagners.

Oral arguments over the Wagners’ motion to dismiss were held in McMinnville, Ore., on Oct. 11 before Yamhill County Circuit Court Judge John Collins.

The damages alleged by the plaintiffs are not actionable in court because they’re based on proposed activities that haven’t yet occurred, she said.

“Even if we assume there is an odor, there’s no evidence it will travel over the plaintiffs’ property line,” Bizzano said.

According to the plaintiffs, the Wagners are not protected by the “right to farm” law because “foul-smelling particles” from marijuana will impermissibly harm wine grapes already growing on the Momtazi property and which have yet to be planted on the Mahesh property.

“They’re in the zone of danger in how their grapes might be affected by the marijuana operation,” said Richard Brown, the plaintiffs’ attorney.

Oregon’s “right to farm” statute doesn’t immunize against complaints over “damage to commercial agricultural products” filed by other farmers, Brown said.

“It was about suburban encroachment on farms, and not about claims against one farmer by another farmer,” he said.

The plaintiffs disagree their lawsuit is based on speculative injuries, arguing that judges can issue injunctions that stop future unlawful or harmful conduct.

“If the court allows them to develop the property first, it’s the equivalent of letting them pull the trigger,” Brown said.

At this point, it’s not necessary for the plaintiffs to prove what type of particles may affect grape skins and how far those particles will travel, he said.

To survive a motion to dismiss, it’s enough for the plaintiffs to show the Wagners planned to grow and process marijuana — as evidenced by site plans submitted to Yamhill County, Brown said.

“They have a plan. They’ve announced they have a plan. We know they’re going to do it,” he said.

The Wagners countered that unknown events — such as wind direction — don’t count as evidence that would justify an injunction against planting a crop.

“What if they want to grow lavender? What if they want to raise horses?” said Bizzano. “Nobody knows if it will ever impact the plaintiffs. They’re just scared.”

The plaintiffs initially sought a temporary restraining order against the Wagners’ marijuana grow site and processing facility, but that request was denied earlier this year.

Even so, the Wagners failed to get approval for the processing facility from the county government, so it appears that portion of the project isn’t yet moving forward.

In the most recent version of a complaint proposed by the plaintiffs, their request for an injunction against the project seems to have been scaled back.

The proposed injunction would prevent the Wagners from growing marijuana within 400 feet of either plaintiff’s property, instead of prohibiting them from cultivating it.

Another factor in the litigation is a road easement the Wagners have across the Mahesh property.

The Wagners claim they haven’t unlawfully used the easement as claimed by the plaintiffs, since the easement terms don’t restrict or prohibit farming operations.

The plaintiffs argued the judge could interpret the terms of the easement, much like he would a contract.

In this case, the illegality of marijuana under federal law also affects the easement’s permissible uses, Brown said.

Easement terms can be evaluated based on reasonable expectations and community standards, he said. “The court has the authority to reasonably construe easements.”

Oregonians in southern and central parts of the state saw air conditions degrade significantly Tuesday.

Smoke from several fires burning in northern California has been pushed by southerly winds into the Klamath River basin and parts of central Oregon, according to health officials. 

Officials from the Klamath County Health Department told the Herald and News that unhealthy air should abate by Tuesday afternoon as winds start to shift.

But central Oregon will have to deal with the smoky conditions a bit longer.

“The National Weather Service reports indicate that a southwest flow will continue into Wednesday evening, bringing a certain amount of smoke to our area,” the Bend Fire Department wrote in a news release.

Many Oregonians have endured an extended summer season of bad air quality as major fires in the state — including the Chetco Bar and Eagle Creek fires — have left air in the region hazy for weeks on end.

Multiple fires that broke out in northern California’s wine country Sunday have devastated the region in a matter of days. KQED reports at least 15 people have died and more than 2,000 structures have burned in the rapidly moving blazes.

The owner-operator of Salem’s E.Z. Orchards and the Oregon head of Northwest Farm Credit Services are the 2017 winners of awards from Oregon Aglink.

John Zielinski and Brent Fetsch will be honored Nov. 17 during the annual Denim & Diamonds dinner and auction in Portland.

Zielinski, of E.Z. Orchards, was chosen Agriculturist of the Year. He’s president of the Marion County Farm Bureau, serves on American Farm Bureau’s Labor Committee, serves on the Oregon Agritourism Partnership board and is a past president of the Salem Area Chamber of Commerce and a past board member of Oregon Aglink.

Fetsch, of Northwest Farm Credit Services, will receive the Ag Connection Award. He’s been with the farm lending and crop insurance co-op for 30 years and served as senior vice president of operations and chief information officer at its Spokane headquarters before returning to his home state in January 2015 to become president of Oregon operations. Among other things, he once served as intern with the Oregon Agribusiness Council, predecessor to Oregon Aglink.

Northwest Farm Credit Services’ programs include one called Ag Vision, which provides low interest loans, often with reduced fees, for farmers 35 and under who have been farming less than 10 years and have less than $250,000 per year in gross sales. The idea is to help young farmers get established, because the average age of farmers is approaching 60 and many will retire or be ready to sell their land and equipment in the years to come.

Fetsch grew up in the Pendleton area and said the perspective gained while helping on his grandfather’s wheat farm still shapes his concern for the economic health of places outside Portland and the Willamette Valley’s Interstate 5 corridor.

“I find myself behaving as self-appointed advocate for rural Oregon and rural communities,” he said.

He urges urban residents to consider how things look like from the perspective of rural communities, including the “downstream effect” of regulations on rural producers.

“I make sure they understand Oregon ag and forest products are still substantially family-owned and -operated businesses,” he said. The co-op has 4,000 customers in Oregon and, while he hasn’t met them all, Fetsch said he can think of only two operations that aren’t family-owned.

Fetsch said he is humbled by the award and called it a tribute to all the people who have personally influenced his career and to the food and fiber industries he works with.

“There are so many people on whose shoulders I stand,” he said.

Zielinski could not be reached for a Capital Press interview. In a news release prepared by Oregon Aglink, Zielinski said he was “deeply honored” by the award.

“I didn’t think I’d done that much to deserve such an award, and I really appreciate that other people think that maybe I did,” he said.

The family business for the past 25 years has included E.Z. Orchards Farm Market in Salem. It primarily sells locally produced fruit and vegetables and also draws from the farm’s own orchards, which are managed by Zielinski’s brothers, Kevin and Mark.

The farm grows pears, apples and peaches. In season, the business operates a Harvest Festival that includes a corn maze, wagon rides, Halloween pumpkins and a petting zoo.

The farm also produces hard cider from its apples and is selling apples and juice to other cideries, some as far away as New York. The market’s donuts — flavored with cider, strawberries, raspberries, Marionberries and blueberries — are popular with shoppers.

While the activities and store offerings could be classified as “agritourism,” Zielinski believes they also help bridge the urban-rural divide.

The corn maze, for example, is cut in the shape of the state of Oregon, and trails through it represent familiar roads and highways. “Road signs” — about 75 of them — point to various towns and describe what is grown in regions of the state.

“We get a lot of urban folks out here to find a pumpkin and go on a hay ride,” Zielinski said in the Oregon Aglink news release. “Is a hay ride something people do on a farm all the time? No. But it does get people out to the farm, and, of the school children who visit us every year, there are a lot of them who have never seen where food comes from before. So we take them to the apple orchard. We explain what happens in each of the four seasons with apples, and then they get to pick an apple and they get to go out and pick a pumpkin.”

Farmers make up only 1 percent of the population, he said, and the overwhelming percentage of voters and decision-makers have little connection to the land.

“If we don’t talk to our urban neighbors about why we perform and do certain tasks, they are not going to understand,” he said. “So if we aren’t educating them as to why we are doing things, it won’t be good for us in the long run.”

The annual Denim & Diamonds dinner and auction is on Friday, Nov. 17, at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland. Ticket and event information are available online: http://www.aglink.org/event/denim-diamonds/

For a few weeks in late summer, Chetco Bar was the nation’s top priority fire. It burned in an area of more than 191,000 acres, forcing hundreds of people to evacuate and destroying several homes. It also – along with other major fires — created unhealthy air quality over western Oregon and northern California. As the fire grew and the air thickened, tempers flared.

“It’s horrific. And there is no f#@%ing excuse for it whatsoever. The US Forest Service could have prevented this easily, and they didn’t.”

That’s Rogue River resident Ken Lewis. On his YouTube video blog, Lewis accused the Forest Service of allowing the Chetco Bar fire to burn as part of a liberal agenda. Conservative talk radio host Bill Meyer at KMED in Medford repeatedly blasted the Chetco Bar Fire response.

“I have no doubt that the terrain where this started, the original quarter acre, is very difficult and possibly dangerous for on the ground,” he said. “But it could have been taken care of back then with a few helicopter buckets. And then we would be talking about what a great summer we’ve having.”

Angry tweets and Facebook posts amplified the indignation.

This is the atmosphere Forest Service officials faced at a public meeting in Brookings on Sept. 28. About 120 people showed up at the high school gym to hear what fire managers had to say.

Craig Trulock, with the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest, denied the fire was deliberately allowed to burn.

“Just wanted to state right off, this was never a fire that we wanted,” Trulock told the crowd. “Y’know, this was a suppression fire. The decision was made within 15 minutes.”

Fire officer Monty Edwards assumed command of the fire on July 13, the day after it was first reported. Edwards said firefighters who rappelled into the remote scene struggled with steep, unstable slopes. He said it soon became clear the terrain was too treacherous to keep firefighters on the ground. 

“The lack of safety zones and escape routes became really evident that we’re probably gonna get somebody hurt if we remain engaged like we are,” he said.

The decision was made to pull back and figure out a better way to attack the fire. Edwards dismissed the claim that a few aerial water drops could have killed the fire early on.

“They can’t do it alone with just aviation assets,” he said. “You need someone (on) the ground to go in direct and knock out the fire on the ground. That’s basic firefighting.”

In fact, Edwards said, during the first day helicopters had dropped more than 50 buckets containing over 17,000 gallons of water.

Long-time Medford resident John Prendergast was on the national fire management team that took command on July 29. Prendergast told the crowd at Brookings-Harbor High School that a rising toll of firefighter deaths has led to a national policy.

“Before we expose our wildland firefighters to the hazards found in the wildland fire environment, there has to be a reasonable probability of success, and that we’re not going to place their lives at an unacceptable risk.”

Prendergast said that’s why crews were pulled back from direct engagement with the Chetco Bar Fire. Instead, managers decided to build a containment line miles to the southwest, to cut off the fire if it moved toward Brookings. The plan was to deliberately burn from that line back toward the wildfire, creating a safe buffer.

But before that could happen, the weather shifted, triggering the hot, dry wind conditions known as the Chetco Effect. Prendergast said that was the game-changer.

“Our fire behavior analysts, they factored in the Chetco Wind Effect into the models and even with that, it greatly outpaced the model predictions of how that fire was going to grow,” he said.

Starting Aug. 15, fanned by 45–mile-per-hour winds funneled down the Chetco River valley, the fire exploded. In five days it grew from 6,000 acres to more than 91,000, jumping the Chetco River and burning over the containment line meant to protect Brookings. Evacuations were ordered and the fire ultimately came within five miles of town before rain and cooler weather helped damp it down over the following weeks.

After the Sept. 28 meeting in Brookings, few in the audience seemed mollified by the official explanations. Several people told JPR they’d received information that contradicted those accounts, but they wouldn’t identify their sources. Curry County Commissioner Court Boice’s skeptical response spoke for many.

“They have a fairly convincing story that they tried to put the fire out early,” he said. “And it’s very, very difficult for us to accept that as really the reality of what happened.”

Boice said he’s pressing for a congressional investigation into not only the handling of the Chetco Bar Fire, but of federal forest policies he blames for wildfires across the West.

Kale Casey is with the incident management team on the Chetco Bar Fire. Casey said he understands people’s anger over property losses. But he said the fire’s zero casualty rate proved the value of management’s focus on firefighter safety.

“As hard as it is to see those different families speak about their lost homes, we didn’t have to talk about mothers and fathers and grandparents losing their children out here working on the fire line,” he said.As autumn arrives and the ashes cool, arguments about wildfire policy are sure to heat up northwest state capitals – and Washington, D.C. — for some time to come.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — A Rhode Island grower is first in the world to achieve a trifecta in the hobby of growing gargantuan foods: world records for heaviest pumpkin, longest long gourd and now, heaviest squash.

After previously breaking two records, Joe Jutras got his third during the weekend when he smashed the giant squash record with one that weighed more than a ton. His green squash tipped the scales at 2,118 pounds during a weigh-in at Frerichs Farm in Warren on Saturday.

His other titles came in 2006, when broke the record for longest gourd, with a 126.5-inch gourd, and in 2007, when he broke the record for largest pumpkin, with a fruit that weighed in at 1,689 pounds. Both previous records have since been surpassed, but Jutras is the only grower so far to break world records in the three most competitive categories.

“It feels great,” Jutras said Monday. “It’s really been a goal of mine to try to achieve this.”

Jutras has been working on the trifecta for a decade, since his pumpkin win. He was close to the goal a few years ago, but then a squash on track to break the record split. Now 62, Jutras recently retired from his work as a high-end cabinet maker to devote more time to his hobby.

Jutras noted that others had won multiple world records for fruits and vegetables before, but in categories such as carrots that are not as competitive.

He credits a new soil cultivation technique and a seed from last year’s world record breaker for this year’s win.

Ron Wallace, a multi-time pumpkin record breaker, called Jutras’ feat “unbelievable.” He said Jutras’ accomplishment showed the best of the hobby. “It’s about people competing and pushing the boundaries,” he said.

Jutras said his fruit is headed to New York City, where it will be on display this month at the New York Botanical Garden.

In February, he’ll receive a coveted “green jacket” honor for his squash record during at the annual convention in Oregon of the Great Pumpkin Commonwealth, considered the NFL of giant fruit and vegetable growing.

Asked what he plans to do next after achieving the trifecta, he said he’s been thinking about the bushel gourd.

“I think the record now is about 279 pounds,” Jutras said. “That might be something I might want to get into a bit.”

NEWPORT, Ore. — Supporters of a prohibition against aerial pesticide spraying in Oregon’s Lincoln County are urging a judge to uphold the ordinance even though it’s pre-empted by state law.

Lincoln County Community Rights, which supports the ban, argues that Oregon law that pre-empt local governments from regulating pesticides is unconstitutional.

The ordinance was approved by voters earlier this year but is being challenged in a lawsuit filed by landowners Rex Capri and Wakefield Farms, who rely on aerial spraying.

During oral arguments on Oct. 9, the plaintiffs asked Lincoln County Circuit Court Judge Sheryl Bachart to declare the ordinance invalid because a local government can’t overrule Oregon law.

Not only does the county lack the general authority to enact such an ordinance, but the prohibition is specifically barred by Oregon statutes governing pesticides, forest practices and the “right to farm,” according to plaintiffs.

“There is no opportunity for local government to adopt laws that are different than state laws” regarding pesticides, said Gregory Chaimov, the plaintiff’s attorney.

Supporters of the aerial spray ban countered that the county has an inherent “natural right” to local community self-government that should be affirmed by the judge.

Under the Oregon Constitution, all power is inherent in the people, who may reform or abolish the government, said Ann Kneeland, attorney for Lincoln County Community Rights, which intervened as a defendant in the case.

“These concepts may seem radical or revolutionary to us now but these are concepts in our Constitution,” she said.

Voters had a right to approve a ballot initiative that protects the environment and public from the “toxic trespass” of aerially sprayed pesticides, according to ordinance proponents.

Oregon lawmakers don’t have the ability to create an upper limit or “ceiling” that precludes stronger protective local standards for health and safety, they claim.

“They do so at the behest of well-funded corporate interests,” Kneeland said. “We find ourselves in a legal system where corporations consistently have greater rights than the people.”

The county’s power to self-govern derives directly from the Oregon Constitution, therefore it supersedes state laws that limit the authority of local governments, proponents claim.

The government of Lincoln County recognizes there are valid arguments that it’s pre-empted from regulating pesticides to the extent envisioned in the ordinance.

Wayne Belmont, attorney for the county, said the ordinance supporters’ theory of local community self-government is “an interesting legal and philosophical argument but it has no basis in law and order.”

However, the county government argued the ordinance shouldn’t be entirely pre-empted — for example, it may legally prohibit aerial spraying on the county’s own property, Belmont said.

Municipalities within the county, such as the city of Newport, may also be able to restrict aerial spraying on their land, he said.

“It’s actually a bit broader than just the county,” Belmont said.

Lincoln County also disagrees with the plaintiffs argument that the ballot initiative was approved contrary to Oregon law due to the way it was written, he said.

“We do feel the election was valid,” Belmont said.

At the conclusion of the hearing, Judge Bachart said she planned to issue a written ruling as soon as possible, but could not provide an exact timeline.

A select group of Wallowa County ranchers have permission until Oct. 31 to kill four more wolves from the Harl Butte Pack that has repeatedly attacked livestock in the area.

Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife on Oct. 6 announced it had authorized “lethal take” of wolves by either ODFW staff or by livestock producers affiliated with a grazing association. Ranchers are permitted to shoot wolves on public or private land on which their livestock are currently grazing, and there are no restrictions on the age of animals to be killed. They don’t have to be caught in the act of attacking livestock.

Todd Nash, a Wallowa County rancher who lost a calf to the Harl Butte Pack this summer and who is wolf committee chair for the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association, said no wolves had been shot as of Monday morning.

Oregon Wild, the Portland-based group deeply involved in wolf management and other issues, condemned what it called ODFW’s “wolf killing campaign.”

The group said the area used by the Harl Butte Pack and other “wolf families” is among the wildest landscapes remaining in Oregon.

“If wolves are being killed for eating unattended livestock put right in front of them in a place like this, it’s fair to ask if there is anywhere wolves will be allowed to thrive in our state?” the group said in a prepared statement attributed to conservation director Steve Pedery.

ODFW killed four pack members in August after confirming 10 livestock attacks by the pack since July 2016. At the time, ODFW said it hoped its “incremental” response would work – and for six weeks there were no confirmed attacks, called depredations.

But ODFW confirmed attacks on private land Sept. 29 and Oct. 1 in which one calf was mostly consumed and another was badly bitten. Non-lethal deterrence methods haven’t worked, said Roblyn Brown, acting wolf program coordinator for ODFW,

“Grazing season is not over and these cattle will be on public land until Oct. 31 and private land even later depending on the weather,” Brown said in a prepared statement.

“As wildlife managers, we are responsible for balancing the conservation of wolves on the landscape with our obligation to manage wolves so that damage to livestock is limited. We need to take further action with this pack,” Brown said.

The Harl Butte Pack is thought to consist of six adults and three wolves born this past spring. The younger wolves are estimated to be 50 to 60 pounds by now; adult wolves range between 70 to 115 pounds.

In a related development, ODFW said the lethal take authorization against the Meacham Pack, in neighboring Umatilla County, has expired. One wolf was shot after ODFW authorized killing two wolves. The department initially said the wolf killed was a non-breeding female, but examination showed it had bred this year.

Environmentalists have failed to prove that grazing along two rivers in Oregon’s Malheur National Forest unlawfully harmed the threatened bull trout, according to a federal judge.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul Papak has found that the U.S. Forest Service’s grazing authorizations along the Malheur and North Fork Malheur rivers haven’t violated environmental laws.

Papak has recommended dismissing a lawsuit filed against the agency by the Oregon Natural Desert Association and the Center for Biological Diversity.

The environmental groups have until mid-October to object to the recommendation, which will ultimately be decided by U.S. District Judge Michael Mosman.

The lawsuit was originally filed 14 years ago but was revived earlier this year after the plaintiffs weren’t able to reach a settlement with ranchers and the federal government.

Habitat degradation has caused bull trout populations in the two rivers to dwindle to about 100 fish, which the environmental groups blamed on grazing.

However, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has concluded that grazing is unlikely to adversely affect bull trout or their habitat in the seven allotments in question, which encompass tens of thousands of acres.

The environmental plaintiffs nonetheless claimed grazing authorizations violated the National Forest Management Act and Wild and Scenic Rivers Act.

Ranchers affected by the lawsuit and the Forest Service argued the environmentalists were impermissibly attacking the agency’s entire grazing program — which can only be changed through statute or regulation — rather than specific agency actions.

Though it was a “close question,” Papak nonetheless decided against throwing out the case on these grounds.

Even so, the judge rejected the claim that livestock grazing hadn’t met “riparian management objectives,” which must be followed “at the watershed or landscape scale, rather than stream by stream.”

While bull trout populations in the region were found to be at risk, Papak said the plaintiffs “have not shown that the Forest Service’s decisions to authorize livestock grazing caused the decline of the bull trout population or its habitat in the allotments here.”

According to the Fish and Wildlife Service, multiple factors have likely contributed to the bull trout’s misfortune, including dam-building, logging, irrigation withdrawals and the introduction of brook trout, a non-native fish, the judge said.

Papak also disagreed with the environmentalists’ claim that data collection about stream conditions was “so useless as to be equivalent to no data.”

“The record here establishes that the Forest Service reasonably monitored riparian conditions and analyzed the data collected,” he said.

The judge also rejected arguments that grazing violated the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, noting that cattle are generally excluded from the river corridors with fencing and steep terrain.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Interior Department said Thursday it is withdrawing protections for 10 million acres of federal lands used by the threatened sage grouse to open it up for energy development.

The plan would allow mining and other development in areas where it now is prohibited in six Western states: Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Wyoming.

The Bureau of Land Management, an Interior agency, said a recent analysis showed that mining or grazing would not pose a significant threat to the sage grouse, a ground-dwelling, chicken-like bird that roams across vast areas of the West.

The proposal would affect less than one-tenth of 1 percent of sage grouse-occupied range across 11 states from California to the Dakotas, officials said.

The change comes as the Trump administration moves to reconsider an Obama-era plan to protect the sage grouse, a quirky bird with long, pointed tail feathers and known for the male’s elaborate courtship display in which air sacs in the neck are inflated to make a popping sound.

Millions of sage grouse once roamed the West but development, livestock grazing and an invasive grass that encourages wildfires has reduced the bird’s population to fewer than 500,000.

A proposal by the Obama administration to protect 10 million acres from development “to prevent 10,000 (acres) from potential mineral development was a complete overreach,” said acting BLM Director Mike Nedd.

He and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke pledged to work closely with states to protect the health of the sage brush-dominated lands. Interior said Thursday it is seeking comment on plans to revise sage-grouse conservation plans across the bird’s range.

“We can be successful in conserving greater sage grouse habitat without stifling economic development and job growth,” Nedd said, adding that officials intend to “protect important habitat while also being a good neighbor to states and local communities.”

Environmental groups said Interior was jeopardizing the bird’s habitat — and its survival.

“The Interior Department is traversing down a dangerous path that could put this vital habitat at risk,” said Nada Culver, a policy expert at The Wilderness Society.

Because of the importance of its sagebrush habitat, the sage grouse helps determines the health of an entire ecosystem, including the golden eagle, elk, pronghorn and mule deer, Culver said. A 2015 plan imposed by the Obama administration has reduced the threat of extinction by protecting the most important habitat while ensuring other activities continue on public lands, she said.

The 2015 plan was hashed out under President Barack Obama as a way to keep the bird off the endangered species list following a decades-long population decline caused by disease and pressure on habitat from energy development, grazing and wildfires.

Zinke ordered a review of the Obama plan this summer, saying he wanted to give Western states greater flexibility to allow mining, logging and other economic development where it now is prohibited. Zinke insisted that the federal government and the states can work together to protect the sage grouse and its habitat while not slowing economic growth and job creation.

Mining companies, ranchers and governors in some Western states — especially Utah, Idaho and Nevada — said the 2015 plan would impede oil and gas drilling and other economic activity. Republican governors in those states urged that conservation efforts focus on bird populations in a state rather than on habitat management, which frequently results in land-use restrictions.

On the other side, Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper of Colorado and Republican Gov. Matt Mead of Wyoming have said they oppose any changes to the habitat-management model.

John Swartout, a senior adviser to Hickenlooper, said changes to the conservation plan — developed over years with local and state involvement — could lead to a future Endangered Species Act listing for the sage grouse.

“We didn’t work this hard to throw it all away and get a listing” on the Endangered Species Act, Swartout told The Daily Sentinel of Grand Junction, Colo.

Comments on the plan will be accepted through late November.

An Oregon dairy farm whose cows escaped to trespass onto a neighbor’s property owes about $26,500 for trampling and manure damage to organic crops.

The incident occurred in 2014 but Simington Gardens, an organic produce farm, didn’t file a lawsuit against the dairy, Rock Ridge Farms, until last year.

According to court documents, the two farms tried to resolve the problem out of court but were unable to agree on the amount of compensation.

The plaintiff alleged that up to nine cows, as well as several dairy workers who later rounded them up, caused roughly $55,000 in destroyed property, lost profits and mitigations costs. Organic rules required Simington Gardens to leave the field where cows defecated fallow for 120 days.

In its lawsuit, Simington Gardens argued it was owed double or triple that amount under Oregon laws intended to discourage damages caused during trespass.

Rock Ridge Farms is owned by Chuck Eggert, an entrepreneur who also founded Pacific Natural Foods, which the Campbell Soup Co. agreed to buy for $700 million earlier this year.

The defendant argued the lawsuit could have been avoided, as Rock Ridge Farms offered to pay “out-of-pocket” costs and provide its own organic-certified property for Simington Gardens to plant replacement crops.

The trespass by cows was unintentional, so the organic produce farm wasn’t entitled to double or triple the amount of damages, according to the dairy.

After a four-day civil trial, a 12-person jury found last month that Rock Ridge Farms had committed trespass and awarded Simington Gardens about $20,800 in lost profits, $2,500 in property damage and $3,200 in mitigation expenses.

HILLSBORO, Ore. — As a crane lowered a “glulam” beam and construction workers on either end deftly guided it into connection with two upright wooden columns, a tour group member shook his head and said, “It’s like Lincoln Logs.”

Kind of. Which may in part explain some of the attraction of builders and designers to the potential use of strong, precisely engineered, carbon-storing wood beams, columns, wall panels and floor decking. As Chris Evans, a Swinerton Builders project manager put it, wood is the first building material people use to make the forts, homes and hideouts of childhood.

These days, builders and designers are joining mill owners, university researchers and policy makers in taking a fresh look at advanced wood products, “mass timbers” and what’s come to be called “tallwood” design. Advocates believe it can replace concrete and steel in mid- to even high-rise buildings, and provide an economic jolt to rural Oregon in terms of forest management and mill jobs.

In Hillsboro, Evans and Swinerton Builders are overseeing construction of the largest known U.S. building to date that uses cross-laminated timber, or CLT, for flooring, and glulam posts and beams.

The Oregon headquarters of First Tech Credit Union will be five stories and high and have 156,000 square feet of office space. Swinerton Builders is the general contractor.

Another tall wood building planned for Portland, called Framework, will be 12 stories high and will have five floors of affordable housing, That project was awarded a $1.5 million federal design competition grant to help with seismic and fire testing and certification.

Oregon is trying to jump start the technology and potentially revive its timber industry. CLT panels, made by layering lumber in alternating directions and bonding them with adhesive, can be up to 65 feet long and 20 feet wide. DR Johnson Lumber Co., in Riddle, Ore., was the first U.S. manufacturer certified to make CLT. Meanwhile, Freres Lumber Co., in Lyons, Ore., is opening a milling facility to make similar “mass plywood panels” out of veneer.

Oregon State University’s forestry and engineering programs have partnered with the University of Oregon’s architecture program to form the TallWood Design Institute at OSU.

About 50 people took part in an Oct. 3 tour of Portland-area projects organized by the Oregon Forest Resources Institute, and heard talks by architects, builders and developers. For now, speakers said, mass timber construction is more expensive than concrete and steel, but is much quicker because of the way pre-fabricated sections can be fitted together. Experts said the technology will be “open sourced,” meaning it will be available for replication elsewhere, which should speed market expansion.

At the First Tech building construction site, architect Scott Barton-Smith said wood is an authentic regional material in the Pacific Northwest and “part of the solution” when it comes to carbon sequestration.

He also talked about the warmth of wood products.

“The best reason to use wood on a building like this is because it’s beautiful,” he said.

Irrigators in the Klamath Basin whose water was shut off in 2001 to protect fish aren’t entitled to government compensation, according to a federal judge.

In some cases, the farmers were disqualified from obtaining damages for lost water for a variety of reasons, the ruling said.

Other farmers in the region held valid property rights in the water but the 2001 shutoff wasn’t a government seizure because several native tribes held senior water rights, according to Judge Marian Blank Horn of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.

The lawsuit, filed about 16 years ago against the U.S. government, sought roughly $30 million for the shutoff, which was prompted by concerns about drought impacts on the threatened coho salmon and endangered Lost River and shortnose suckers.

Horn noted that the litigation has been “long and complicated,” involving several types of irrigators and having undergone review by “multiple judges” as well as a federal appeals court.

Ten months after holding a two-week trial in the case, the judge has determined the claims of one class of farmers was precluded by a previous court order, while others were blocked by revised lease terms on national wildlife refuges.

Others held contracts “immunizing” the federal government from liability during droughts or other circumstances where sufficient water was unavailable, she said.

Horn found that some growers proved they’d be eligible to be compensated for a permanent physical taking of their water, which would be a significant victory if not for the effect of tribal rights on their claims.

The Klamath, Yurok and Hoopa tribes have “time immemorial” water rights that precede those of the farmers, even though they can’t use them for “consumptive” uses like irrigation, the ruling said.

These in-stream tribal water rights entitle them “to prevent other appropriators from depleting the flows of the Klamath River below levels required to support the fish they take in exercise of their treaty rights,” according to the ruling.

By withholding water to fulfill its obligations under the Endangered Species Act, the federal government was preserving enough water to avoid violating the senior tribal water rights, Horn said.

Therefore, the government wasn’t seizing the irrigators’ property without just compensation, she said.

While Horn’s ruling is a setback for the plaintiffs, they can challenge the ruling before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

According to court documents, Farmers Grain, which opened in January 2013 and is headquartered in Nyssa, Ore., has $14 million in assets but as much as $23.8 million in liabilities.

That means some farmers and other ag-related businesses won’t be paid the full amount they are owed by Farmers Grain, which had gross revenues of $31.2 million in 2016 and $30.6 million in 2015.

The company’s financial struggles came as startling news to many of its creditors, including Payette, Idaho, farmer Bruce Cruickshank, who found out about them only after receiving a notice from bankruptcy court.

He was owed $137,000 on the date of the bankruptcy filing but has been paid all except $30,000.

Cruickshank said he’ll make it, as will most of the farmers who are also owed money. But the loss still hurts.

“We’ll survive, but it’s just like (anybody): if you take a $30,000 hit, it sure as hell ain’t going to make you feel very good,” he said.

He’s not sure how much of the remaining $30,000 that he’s owed he will actually see. “We’ll get something but it might be 10 cents on the dollar.”

Some Farmers Grain creditors are owed a lot more than Cruickshank. Court filings show many are owed several hundred thousand dollars and a few more than $1 million.

“A lot of my friends and neighbors have been hung out pretty bad,” said Ontario, Ore., farmer Bruce Corn, who sold corn to Farmers Grain but is not owed money by the company. “There are some people out there who are owed a lot of money.”

Malheur County Onion Growers Association President Paul Skeen, who hauled a small amount of wheat to the company this year but is not owed money, said two of his neighbors are owed $850,000 between them.

“It’s terrible,” he said of the company’s collapse. “It’s devastating.”

Jensen Farms in Vale, Ore., was owed $176,000 at the time of the original bankruptcy filing but was fortunate in that it delivered 1,000 tons of corn to Farmers Grain the day before the company declared bankruptcy and ended up getting paid the full amount it was owed.

“We were lucky, you could say that,” said co-owner Sheri Jensen.

However, the Jensen farm, like many others in the region, face a looming problem related to the bankruptcy that could end up costing them a significant amount of money.

Farmers Grain had contracted for tens of thousands of corn acres with local farmers, but those contracts are now void.

With harvest coming within the next few months, much of that corn has no place to go and no one to market it.

“There are a ton of farmers in the area scrambling trying to find out what to do with their corn,” Jensen said. “It’s not a pretty picture.”

The Jensens have on-site storage for their corn, but other farmers don’t, and Farmers Grain had the largest storage capacity in the region by far.

“The sheer volume of the corn means it will be hard for everyone to find a place to go with it,” Corn said. “Finding the storage and a place to market the corn is going to be a real problem this fall.”

Because the corn contracts are no longer valid, those farmers stand to lose a lot of money because prices have dropped more than $30 a ton since the contracts were signed, Cruickshank said.

He said a friend had 400 acres of corn contracted with Farmers Grain and if that corn is sold at today’s prices, he will lose about $280 an acre and more than $100,000 total.

Cruickshank had 130 acres of corn under contract with the company and would lose a similar amount per acre.

“That’s the tip of the iceberg with what (happened) with everybody,” he said.

Growers in the area said Farmers Grain was an excellent company to work with and many of them knew and liked Galen Jantz, 47, who managed the company and had a 40 percent interest in it, according to court documents.

Court documents show the company sought Chapter 11 protection after Rabo AgriFinance declared a default on a revolving line of credit to Farmers Grain and called the entire $8 million balance due.

The company asked the court for relief from “Rabo’s continued pursuit of the Jantz loans and property owned by (the) Jantz family.”

“This action by Rabo was one of the precipitating events leading to Farmers Grain filing its bankruptcy petition,” Farmers Grain stated in a court document. “Continued pursuit of the Jantz loans and collateral will severely impact the Chapter 11 proceedings and frustrate debtor’s ability to successfully reorganize.”

A June 15 letter from Farmers Grain authored by Jantz and sent to growers expressed hope the company could regain its financial stability and continue doing business.

But the court converted the Chapter 11 bankruptcy to a Chapter 7 liquidation filing on Aug. 15 after Rabo AgriFinance, in an Aug. 3 court filing, argued that Farmers Grain was losing too much money to recover.

An auction of the businesses’ assets has been scheduled for Oct. 27 beginning at 10 a.m. at the Farmers Grain facility in Nyssa.

In the Aug. 3 filing, Rabo attorneys said Farmers Grain assets “that secure repayment of (the company’s) loan appear to have diminished by almost $1.5 million in the two weeks after the bankruptcy filing.”

The company’s monthly operating report for the period ending May 31 showed further financial decline, Rabo added. In the six weeks that Farmers Grain had been protected by Chapter 11, Rabo said, its assets decreased by $3 million while its liabilities only decreased by $514,000.

While Farmers Grain claimed its total assets could generate about $20 million, a Rabo appraisal placed that value closer to $9 million, according to court records.

Rabo spokeswoman Sarah Kolell said the company does not anticipate being paid back in full from the liquidation of Farmers Grain’s assets.

“While Rabo does anticipate receiving some value from the liquidation of its collateral, we also anticipate that there will be a substantial deficiency remaining once the Farmers Grain case is concluded,” she told Capital Press in an email.

Complicating matters, Jantz suffered what Rabo, in court filings, said it was told was a mental breakdown and had left town, abandoning his farming and personal operations, as well as Farmers Grain.

As a result, the court appointed Steve Neighbors as a conservator to handle Jantz’s financial affairs. He is certified as a business turnaround specialist by the Turnaround Management Association.

Neighbors told Capital Press that according to Jantz’s family, he began having coherence problems in the past year and there is a history of early onset dementia in the family.

“He would be talking and babbling at times,” Neighbors said. “He was making a lot of irrational statements and decisions in his last year at Farmers Grain is what his family told me.”

Neighbors said Jantz became depressed as a result of the mental strain he was under. “He felt he had to get away from everything to prevent himself from being suicidal,” Neighbors said.

Jantz and his family of four are currently staying with a relative in another state, Neighbors said. “He had to get distance. He went away to get healthy.”

The Capital Press attempted to contact Jantz by leaving messages at several phone numbers connected with him, including at Farmers Grain’s main telephone number at its headquarters in Nyssa. None of the calls were returned. Other numbers, including his home number in Vale, Ore., were disconnected.

Neighbors said Jantz feels he let his community down and voluntarily turned over $8 million in personal assets to the court and asked Neighbors to make sure creditors are made as whole as possible and that no one creditor seizes everything.

“He asked me to make it as right as I can to all of his creditors,” Neighbors said. “I’m trying to make everything as transparent as I can to all the creditors so they have their fair shot at whatever” is owed them.

Neighbors said he has authorized $3,000 a month for eight months for Jantz to take care of his family during the bankruptcy proceeding.

“That’s all Mr. Jantz wanted,” he said. “He wanted everything else to go to his creditors.”

Neighbors said he believes a couple of main factors led to Farmers Grain’s financial collapse, including that some accounting and record-keeping that should have been done, wasn’t.

“I think those complexities went beyond his ... training,” he said.

“He didn’t understand his costs fully and didn’t understand the full implications of cash flow,” Neighbors added.

Some important business decisions that should have been made in the past year weren’t because of the mental strain Jantz was under, he said.

For many farmers affected by the company’s bankruptcy, their hope now is that another business will step in and take its place.

Corn, the farmer, said Farmers Grain was a good business for area farmers while it was running “but when it went bad, it went bad in a hurry. My hope is someone will buy it and make it work.”

Kolell, the Rabo spokeswoman, said what the liquidation of the Farmers Grain assets will look like is an open question.

“If someone wanted to step in and purchase all real and personal property assets and reopen the business, Rabo would be supportive of that,” she said.