Wolves from the Harl Butte pack are suspected to have killed a calf Aug. 16 in northeast Oregon.

Wallowa County rancher Todd Nash said his calf was grazing on a private pasture he leases when the attack occurred.

He said the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife is investigating, and he expects the depredation will be confirmed.

The department planned to conclude its investigation by the afternoon of Aug. 16.

The department shot two of the pack’s adult wolves after a series of attacks on cattle.

Nash and other ranchers have called for the entire pack to be killed. He said the pack goes after cattle every day and has not changed its behavior as ODFW hoped.

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Over 100 Oregon National Guard members are deploying to southern Oregon to fight a fire near Crater Lake as the state endures peak wildfire season, less than a week before the eclipse.

Lt. Col. Martin Balakas said on Tuesday as the soldiers took refresher training on fighting wilderness fires that they will take a bus Wednesday to battle a blaze near Oregon’s iconic Crater Lake.

They are among about 375 Oregon National Guard members who were activated in 2015 to fight fires, including the Canyon Creek Fire near John Day that destroyed 43 homes and nearly 100 barns, workshops and other structures.

The part-time soldiers were wearing yellow hardhats Tuesday as they used tools to cut and move brush into piles where they were doused with a hose.

LAS VEGAS (AP) — In a dramatic end to a contentious trial, defense attorneys declined Tuesday to make closing arguments on behalf of four men accused of wielding assault weapons against federal agents in a 2014 standoff near Nevada anti-government figure Cliven Bundy’s ranch.

The move left defendants Eric Parker, Steven Stewart and Ricky Lovelien of Montana and Oklahoma essentially mute in answer to 10 felony charges including conspiracy, weapon possession and assault on a federal officer.

Defendant Scott Drexler of Idaho testified in his defense on Monday.

Parker testified last week, but Chief U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro ordered him off the witness stand and struck his testimony from the record for what she said was a deliberate failure to keep his testimony within bounds of rules she set to keep the focus on what the defendants saw and did during the confrontation, not what they felt or why they acted.

The judge said Monday she thought Parker tried to improperly invite jury nullification of charges.

Navarro also rejected testimony from five other prospective defense witnesses after hearing previews of what four planned to say and reviewing previous testimony from the fifth.

Acting U.S. Attorney Steven Myhre was left Tuesday with nothing to rebut, so he abandoned his plan to have the last word before the jury of eight women and eight men began deliberations.

The panel heard five weeks of prosecution testimony. They resume deliberations on Wednesday. Each defendant could face decades in prison if convicted.

Myhre and attorneys for Drexler, Parker and Stewart, all of Idaho, each declined outside court to comment.

Attorney Shawn Perez, representing Ricky Lovelien of Montana and Oklahoma, said he didn’t think the government proved its case, so he felt no closing argument was needed.

Defense teams balking at summarizing their cases echoed the refusal in April 2016 of two of Bundy’s adult sons and three other defendants to enter pleas following their arrests in the case. They said they didn’t recognize authority of the government to prosecute them. A magistrate judge entered not-guilty pleas for them.

A first trial for the four current defendants ended with a hung jury in April. That jury found two other defendants guilty of some charges.

The jury on Tuesday heard a three-hour recitation by prosecutor Nadia Ahmed of the charges, retrial evidence and instructions from the judge.

Ahmed relied heavily on photos and videos showing each defendant carrying an assault-style weapon during the protest to stop a roundup of Bundy family cattle from public rangeland in a vast Gold Butte area that has since been made a national monument.

One photo showed the four men standing in a row atop a freeway overpass next to a sign declaring the West had been won.

Parker and Drexler were each photographed earlier, prone on the pavement of the Interstate 15 overpass, sighting their rifles through seams in a concrete roadside barrier toward the federal agents in a dry riverbed below.

“They did it. They helped each other do it. They agreed with each other to do it,” Ahmed said, accusing the defendants of conspiring with Cliven Bundy, his sons and other alleged organizers to thwart agents’ efforts to carry out lawful federal court orders.

Proving conspiracy is crucial for prosecutors ahead of a next trial, expected later this year, for the Bundy family patriarch, his two eldest sons and two other defendants. They each face 15 charges.

Six other defendants, including two other Bundy sons, are slated for trial next year.

Cliven Bundy says he doesn’t recognize federal authority over public lands — a position with roots in the anti-government Sagebrush Rebellion 40 years ago. Ranchers and supporters called then for state and local control of vast tracts of federally owned land in the West.

ONTARIO, Ore. — Agricultural researchers in the Treasure Valley of Oregon and Idaho still haven’t discovered what’s causing an onion disease that damages the inside of bulbs, reducing their marketability.

However, they haven’t seen the onion disease so far this year and some people hope the so-called “onion bulb rot” issue was only a brief problem caused by a rare occurrence of various environmental factors.

The disease, which is not a human health issue, is caused by a plant pathogen known as fusarium proliferatum and can damage the inside of onion bulbs, making them look fine on the outside but not desirable to consumers when they are cut open.

That type of fusarium fungi has caused a few cases of onion bulb rot over the years but it became a major issue in 2014 and 2015.

Both those years had unusually hot summers. Researchers believe the condition could be related to high temperatures.

“One of the ideas is that the hot summers we’ve had are causing that,” said Erik Feibert, a senior research assistant at Oregon State University’s Malheur County agricultural experiment station near Ontario.

That theory supposes that high temperatures facilitates a condition known as dry scale, which is when the top of the onion doesn’t completely close.

“That seems to provide the pathogen an opportunity to infect the top of the bulb,” said Stuart Reitz, an OSU cropping systems extension agent.

But, he added, researchers don’t know for sure that heat is causing the problem and field trials are being conducted at OSU’s Ontario station as well as the University of Idaho‘s experiment station in Parma to try to determine the exact cause.

“We really don’t know what combination of factors is causing it,” said Clint Shock, director of OSU’s Malheur County experiment station. “We don’t know when it’s happening and we don’t know why it’s happening.”

OSU researchers are using heat strips to add artificial heat to one plot of onions and straw mulch and kaolinite clay to reduce the heat load on another plot “to see if we observe any differences there,” Shock said.

For whatever reason, researchers have not detected the condition so far this year.

“I’m hoping that it was a fluke deal: two years and then it’s gone,” said farmer Paul Skeen, president of the Malheur County Onion Growers Association. “But I don’t know that. It’s too early to tell.”

Reitz said it’s possible that “it may just have been that those environmental conditions were just right (in 2014 and 2015). That would be good if we don’t see those conditions again.”

But, he added, “It’s hard to prove a negative,” and researchers will keep working on the problem.

Separate field trials in Parma and Ontario are looking at different fungicides to see if they are effective in controlling that fusarium pathogen.

SEATTLE (AP) — The U.S. Geological Survey has awarded $4.9 million to six universities and a nonprofit to help advance an early warning system for earthquakes along the West Coast.

The federal agency says the ShakeAlert system could give people seconds or up to a minute of warning before strong shaking begins.

The University of Washington, Central Washington University and University of Oregon are among those receiving grants.

Congress provided $10.2 million in money to the USGS earthquake hazards program earlier this year.

U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell and U.S. Rep. Derek Kilmer pushed for funding, saying such the early warning system is critical for Washington state.

The grants will help scientists thoroughly test the system and improve its performance. New seismic stations also will be installed to boost speed and reliability of warnings.

The U.S. cranberry industry will ask the USDA to order farmers and processors to cut production for the 2017 and 2018 harvests, forcing growers to take a short-term hit, but with the hope that prices will rebound in the long run.

The Cranberry Marketing Committee, made up of growers, voted unanimously this month to seek volume reductions of 15 percent this year and 25 percent next year.

“We’ve got to do something because we just keep adding and adding (to the surplus) and it gets worse and worse,” said Malcolm McPhail, a cranberry grower on the Long Beach Peninsula in Washington. “It’s just impossible to grow demand as fast as the fruit is coming.”

Record-busting crops in the U.S. and the emergence of a cranberry industry in Quebec, Canada, over the past decade have built up a cranberry inventory that now slightly exceeds one year’s demand.

Even if Canada continues to produce cranberries, volume controls in the U.S. could be effective in halting the slide of prices, said Tom Lochner, executive director of the Wisconsin State Cranberry Growers Association.

“At the end of the day, it’s going to get fruit out of the inventory,” Lochner said. “It’s a pretty powerful tool to manage supply.”

Lochner said volume reductions will provide only short-term relief. In the long run, the industry will need to sell more cranberries to such countries as China, India, South Korea and Australia, he said.

A USDA spokesman said Aug. 14 he couldn’t speculate on whether the agency can respond to the request before this fall’s harvest.

The cranberry industry last used volume controls to reduce a surplus in 2000. The marketing committee again requested volume controls in 2014, but the USDA declined, saying it suspected the U.S. cranberry industry was conspiring with growers in Quebec to control the supply.

Ocean Spray, a cooperative with more than 700 members, said it supported volume reduction.

“With record crops in recent years, the cranberry industry’s oversupply continues to grow and the scope of the oversupply is now at a point that the industry needed to take action,” according to an Ocean Spray statement.

Farmers received an average of 30.6 cents per pound for cranberries in 2016, according to the USDA. The price has been decreasing since peaking at 58.1 cents a pound in 2008.

The cranberry surplus was already high before U.S. farmers produced a record 962 million pounds in 2016. The USDA predicted last week the 2017 crop will be down 6 percent to 905 million pounds, primarily because of an expected decrease in Wisconsin, which accounts for two-thirds of U.S. cranberries.

The USDA forecast last year underestimated the U.S. crop by 100 million pounds. Lochner said he expected Wisconsin’s crop to be similar to last year’s.

Oregon cranberry production is expected to rebound from a subpar 2016. USDA predicts a 48 million-pound crop, up 16 percent from last year.

For Washington, USDA forecasts an 18 million-pound crop, up 3 percent from 2016.

The other two states with commercial cranberry industries, Massachusetts and New Jersey, are expected to be down slightly from last year.

CALDWELL, Idaho — Dry bean industry leaders believe a newly released yellow bean variety could eventually become a common sight in many fields across the state once it proves itself.

The bean, called Patron, was developed by Oregon State University bean breeder Jim Myers at the urging of the Idaho Bean Commission, which helped fund the project.

Idaho is the nation’s leader in dry bean seed production. About 70 percent of the beans grown in the state are for seed.

Currently, only about 2 percent of the dry beans grown in Idaho are yellow varieties, but that could change with the introduction of Patron, said IBC board member Don Tolmie, production manager for Treasure Valley Seed Co.

Patron is the only yellow bean variety with “off-the-charts” resistance to bean common mosaic virus, Tolmie said.

“I’ve got pretty high hopes that this Patron will become a pretty universal dry bean in the state of Idaho,” he said.

Idaho’s dry bean industry pushed for the new bean because of the growing popularity of yellow beans in the U.S. But the industry also hopes to sell yellow bean seed in Latin America, where yellows, also called peruano beans, are popular and fetch a premium.

The yellow bean varieties grown in Mexico and other Latin American nations have no mosaic virus resistance, Myers said.

“Compared to the traditional Mexican varieties, this is a quantum leap,” he said.

OSU has issued an invitation for bean dealers in Idaho to negotiate for an exclusive license to produce the new variety.

Myers said the bean has resistance to all pathogens of mosaic virus and was developed to grow well in this part of the country.

“It’s very well adapted to this region (and) the yield’s been excellent with this variety,” he said.

Myers also said Patron is an earlier season variety compared with other yellows.

Tolmie, who has grown Patron for OSU, said the new variety still has to prove itself, but so far it has performed well in southwestern Idaho.

It’s still a little early to make hard claims about how well the bean grows, “but we’ve had some pretty good luck with it agronomically,” Tolmie said.

“It’s got to get into the market and circulate so people can make sure it fits the needs they require,” he said. “But right now we’re pretty optimistic.”

Caldwell farmer Lynn Whitteg started growing Patron for Treasure Valley Seed Co. this year. He echoed Tolmie’s comments about being too early to say for certain how it performs.

But, he said, “I think (it’s) going to be a pretty good bean.”

John Dean, president of Idaho Seed Bean Co., which grew a few Patron seed plots for OSU two years ago, said it appears to grow well in southcentral Idaho.

“It’s an earlier variety than the standard yellow varieties we’ve had,” he said. “It yields well for a shorter season variety and the color seems to be good. I’m glad they released it.”

The bison meat industry has been steadily growing as consumer demand has increased and producers all over the country have shown interest in expanding or starting herds.

“More and more people are discovering that (bison) is sustainably raised and it’s pretty darn delicious,” Dave Carter, executive director of the National Bison Association, said. “We’re at the point now where demand has exceeded supply.”

According to the association, the bison business grew from $340 million to $350 million in sales over the last year.

Carter attributed the increase to rising prices. According to the monthly bison report from the USDA, young bison bull carcasses are sold at an average of $4.83 a pound, and grass fed filet mignon is sold at an average of $44 a pound.

Although most bison production is in the Midwest, 14 Oregon ranches are registered with the Northwest Bison Association. Washington has nine members and Idaho has five.

One Oregon ranch, Green Fields Bison Ranch near Dallas, is getting more involved.

Lori and Rick Hedlund are going into their fifth year of operating Green Fields and their second year of marketing bison meat. At the moment they have 60 head of bison.

Lori Hedlund said that while getting the infrastructure set up has been a challenge, they have learned a lot from their experience — and their animals.

“They are amazing creatures, though — it’s a real privilege,” she said. “We’ve learned from them and the way they live; they’ll run, eat (and) rest, and that lifestyle is probably a pretty healthy one.”

While the Hedlunds have noticed a decline of bison producers in their area, they believe it’s due to retirement because the industry is “very time-consuming,” Lori Hedlund said.

Despite the few inactive ranches, more producers have been getting involved in the Northwest bison industry, said Alan Douglass, Region 1 director of National Bison Association and president of the Western Bison Association.

“We’re starting to see more activity and interest, but on a smaller level,” he said. Producers who want a larger herd are more likely to move to an environment more conducive for the bigger herds of animals.

Originally from South Dakota, Rick Hedlund said the bison there thrive because it’s their natural habitat; he compared it to raising a deer in the forest. Raising them in the Willamette Valley, however, is more challenging — especially in the winter because of the mud.

“We don’t have that real sod-forming grass, or frozen ground,” Rick Hedlund said. “The Midwest doesn’t get torn up as bad. If those million bison were out here in Western Oregon, they would have ripped this place up.”

Historically, bison didn’t migrate toward the West Coast, and that creates a disadvantage for bison ranchers, Douglass said. With the warmer climates near the coast, the animals will be much smaller than in the Midwest or by the Canadian border where it’s colder and they need to be more robust.

However, Green Fields is taking advantage of the local market. While not certified organic, the Hedlunds use organic practices. They also pride themselves on grass-finishing their bison.

“Our meat has a lot of variety in the way it looks, but that’s OK,” Lori Hedlund said. “We go with what’s healthier.”

Bison in general is a highly nutritious product, and Carter said that it’s lining up with consumers’ diet and health considerations because the meat is low in fat and high in iron and protein.

“What is more sustainable than food from an animal that’s been part of the ecosystem for thousands of years?” he asked.

Going forward, the NBA hopes to grow the herd size from 399,000 to 1 million, Carter said. The association has also launched “Bison Hump Day,” to keep up with the trends of “Meatless Mondays” and “Taco Tuesdays.”

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Well before Oregon legalized marijuana, its verdant, wet forests made it an ideal place for growing the drug, which often ended up being funneled out of the state for big money. Now, officials suspect pot grown legally in Oregon and other states is also being smuggled out, and the trafficking is putting America’s multibillion-dollar marijuana industry at risk.

In response, pot-legal states are trying to clamp down on “diversion” even as U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions presses for enforcement of federal laws against marijuana.

Tracking legal weed from the fields and greenhouses where it’s grown to the shops where it’s sold under names like Blueberry Kush and Chernobyl is their main protective measure so far.

In Oregon, Gov. Kate Brown recently signed into law a requirement that state regulators track from seed to store all marijuana grown for sale in Oregon’s legal market. So far, only recreational marijuana has been comprehensively tracked. Tina Kotek, speaker of the Oregon House, said lawmakers wanted to ensure “we’re protecting the new industry that we’re supporting here.”

“There was a real recognition that things could be changing in D.C.,” she said.

The Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board says it’s replacing its current tracking Nov. 1 with a “highly secure, reliable, scalable and flexible system.”

California voters approved using a tracking system run by Lakeland, Florida-based Franwell for its recreational pot market. Sales become legal Jan. 1.

Franwell also tracks marijuana, using bar-code and radio frequency identification labels on packaging and plants, in Colorado, Oregon, Maryland, Alaska and Michigan.

“The tracking system is the most important tool a state has,” said Michael Crabtree, who runs Denver-based Nationwide Compliance Specialists Inc., which helps tax collectors track elusive, cash-heavy industries like the marijuana business.

But the systems aren’t fool-proof. They rely on the users’ honesty, he said.

“We have seen numerous examples of people ‘forgetting’ to tag plants,” Crabtree said. Colorado’s tracking also doesn’t apply to home-grown plants and many noncommercial marijuana caregivers.

In California, implementing a “fully operational, legal market” could take years, said state Sen. Mike McGuire, who represents the “Emerald Triangle” region that’s estimated to produce 60 percent of America’s marijuana. But he’s confident tracking will help.

“In the first 24 months, we’re going to have a good idea who is in the regulated market and who is in black market,” McGuire said.

Oregon was the first state to decriminalize personal possession, in 1973. It legalized medical marijuana in 1998, and recreational use in 2014.

Before that, Anthony Taylor hid his large cannabis crop from aerial surveillance under a forest canopy east of Portland, and tended it when there was barely enough light to see.

“In those days, marijuana was REALLY illegal,” said Taylor, now a licensed marijuana processor and lobbyist. “If you got caught growing the amounts we were growing, you were going to go to prison for a number of years.”

Taylor believes it’s easier to grow illegally now because authorities lack the resources to sniff out every operation. And growers who sell outside the state can earn thousands of dollars per pound, he said.

Still, it’s hard to say if pot smuggling has gotten worse in Oregon, or how much of the marijuana leaving the state filters out from the legal side.

Chris Gibson, executive director of the federally funded Oregon-Idaho High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program, said the distinction matters less than the fact that marijuana continues to leave Oregon on planes, trains and automobiles, and through the mail.

“None is supposed to leave, so it’s an issue,” Gibson told The Associated Press. “That should be a primary concern to state leadership.”

On a recent morning, Billy Williams, the U.S. attorney in Oregon, sat at his desk in his office overlooking downtown Portland, a draft Oregon State Police report in front of him. Oregon produces between 132 tons and 900 tons more marijuana than what Oregonians can conceivably consume, the report said, using statistics from the legal industry and estimates of illicit grows. It identified Oregon as an “epicenter of cannabis production” and quoted an academic as saying three to five times the amount of pot that’s consumed in Oregon leaves the state.

Sessions himself cited the report in a July 24 letter to Oregon’s governor. In it, Sessions asked Brown to explain how Oregon would address the report’s “serious findings.”

Pete Gendron, a licensed marijuana grower who advised state regulators on compliance and enforcement, said the reports’ numbers are guesswork, and furthermore are outdated because they don’t take into account the marijuana now being sold in Oregon’s legal recreational market.

A U.S. Justice Department task force recently said the Cole Memorandum , which restricts federal marijuana law enforcement in states where pot is legal, should be reevaluated to see if it should be changed.

The governors of Oregon, Colorado, Washington and Alaska — where both medical and recreational marijuana are legal — wrote to Sessions and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin in April, warning altering the memorandum “would divert existing marijuana product into the black market and increase dangerous activity in both our states and our neighboring states.”

But less than a month later, Sessions wrote to congressional leaders criticizing the federal government’s hands-off approach to medical marijuana, and citing a Colorado case in which a medical marijuana licensee shipped pot out of state.

In his letter, Sessions opposed an amendment by Oregon Democratic Rep. Earl Blumenauer and California Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher that prevents the Justice Department from interfering with states’ medical marijuana. Congress is weighing renewing the amendment for the next fiscal year.

In a phone interview from Washington, Blumenauer said the attorney general is “out of step” with most members of Congress, who have become more supportive “of ending the failed prohibition on marijuana.”

“Marijuana has left Oregon for decades,” Blumenauer said. “What’s different is that now we have better mechanisms to try to control it.”

Taylor believes pot smuggling will continue because of the profit incentive, which will end only if the drug is legalized across America. U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, a New Jersey Democrat, introduced a bill in Congress on Aug. 1 to do just that.

———

Associated Press writer Kristen Wyatt in Denver contributed to this report.

SACRAMENTO ­— Austin Miller says that “connecting students to agriculture is more important now than ever before.”

Growing up in tiny Scio, Ore., he has fond memories of spending summers on his grandparents’ ranch.

He also has fond memories of growing up with the Capital Press newspaper.

“I first got to know Capital Press in high school ag class. Every Friday or Monday we would pass the paper around, and we used the info for various projects,” Miller said.

A Capital Press representative was looking for people to sell subscriptions at the Oregon State Fair in 2013 “so I signed up,” said Miller, who sold subscriptions for three years at the fair and to friends and family on the side.

“Selling subscriptions at the Oregon State Fair was a lot of fun,” he said. “There were so many people who were diehard fans, and they came by the booth each year to renew their subscription at the fair.”

Miller has always been a “people” person, so once he graduated from Oregon State University with a major in agriculture, an informal focus in ag education and a minor in comparative international agriculture, he was ready to put those attributes to work.

He started with the Oregon Agriculture in the Classroom Foundation while still in college and then made the jump to the California Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom earlier this year as the program coordinator of communications.

“Here in California agriculture is always growing and changing. I believe the pushback that ag receives is not going away. It is a great blessing to be able to choose and make opinions about what we eat and buy but we have a huge need to educate people to make informed decisions,” Miller said.

“For those of us involved in ag, we have a clear picture of what it means but to the consumer or teacher, you have to break it down into something they can relate to. Make sure they know ag is the food they eat and the clothes they wear,” Miller explained.

“We came up with the ‘5 F’s of Ag: Food, Fiber, Fish, Forestry and Fuel,’” he said. “It gets people talking and asking questions.”

For example, he said, “biofuel is a big part of the message we are working on. It is a fun way to connect ag to science. Students love the lessons we have on turning cow poop into electricity. They not only learn but they don’t forget and it gets them talking and wondering.”

One of the biggest challenges Miller faces is getting accurate information on agriculture to urban teachers and those without an agriculture background.

“We are really working on our website as a resource for teachers to find standards-based lessons that are clear, easy to follow and fun. We update the information throughout the month and I am an email away if someone needs help,” Miller said.

On the website teachers can find mini-lessons, fact cards, grants, lesson plans and contests. The “Imagine This…” writing contest starts this fall and is a way to involve students in grades 3-8 in agriculture. Details and examples of past winning stories can all be found on the website.

Miller keeps himself busy spreading the word and making it easy for teachers to incorporate agriculture into the classroom.

Resources and materials for taking agriculture into the classroom can be found at learnaboutag.org. For more information on the California Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom, call Miller at 916-561-5633.

SACRAMENTO ­— Austin Miller says that “connecting students to agriculture is more important now than ever before.”

Growing up in tiny Scio, Ore., he has fond memories of spending summers on his grandparents’ ranch.

He also has fond memories of growing up with the Capital Press newspaper.

“I first got to know Capital Press in high school ag class. Every Friday or Monday we would pass the paper around, and we used the info for various projects,” Miller said.

A Capital Press representative was looking for people to sell subscriptions at the Oregon State Fair in 2013 “so I signed up,” said Miller, who sold subscriptions for three years at the fair and to friends and family on the side.

“Selling subscriptions at the Oregon State Fair was a lot of fun,” he said. “There were so many people who were diehard fans, and they came by the booth each year to renew their subscription at the fair.”

Miller has always been a “people” person, so once he graduated from Oregon State University with a major in agriculture, an informal focus in ag education and a minor in comparative international agriculture, he was ready to put those attributes to work.

He started with the Oregon Agriculture in the Classroom Foundation while still in college and then made the jump to the California Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom earlier this year as the program coordinator of communications.

“Here in California agriculture is always growing and changing. I believe the pushback that ag receives is not going away. It is a great blessing to be able to choose and make opinions about what we eat and buy but we have a huge need to educate people to make informed decisions,” Miller said.

“For those of us involved in ag, we have a clear picture of what it means but to the consumer or teacher, you have to break it down into something they can relate to. Make sure they know ag is the food they eat and the clothes they wear,” Miller explained.

“We came up with the ‘5 F’s of Ag: Food, Fiber, Fish, Forestry and Fuel,’” he said. “It gets people talking and asking questions.”

For example, he said, “biofuel is a big part of the message we are working on. It is a fun way to connect ag to science. Students love the lessons we have on turning cow poop into electricity. They not only learn but they don’t forget and it gets them talking and wondering.”

One of the biggest challenges Miller faces is getting accurate information on agriculture to urban teachers and those without an agriculture background.

“We are really working on our website as a resource for teachers to find standards-based lessons that are clear, easy to follow and fun. We update the information throughout the month and I am an email away if someone needs help,” Miller said.

On the website teachers can find mini-lessons, fact cards, grants, lesson plans and contests. The “Imagine This…” writing contest starts this fall and is a way to involve students in grades 3-8 in agriculture. Details and examples of past winning stories can all be found on the website.

Miller keeps himself busy spreading the word and making it easy for teachers to incorporate agriculture into the classroom.

Resources and materials for taking agriculture into the classroom can be found at learnaboutag.org. For more information on the California Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom, call Miller at 916-561-5633.

Dan Arp, whose belief that “food is the handshake between urban and rural” was reflected during his tenure as dean of Oregon State University’s College of Agricultural Sciences, will retire next June.

Oregon State announced the move in an Aug. 10 news release. Arp was appointed dean in 2012 after his predecessor, the colorful Sonny Ramaswamy, was picked by President Obama to head the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture in Washington, D.C.

Under Arp’s direction, OSU continued broadening its agricultural offerings beyond conventional crop and livestock production. Students have a Fermentation Science program at their disposal, and can learn how to make beer, wine, cheese, yogurt and more kinds of food. A Center for Small Farms and Community Food Systems within OSU Extension reaches producers and processors who might have been overlooked before.

The Oregon Wine Research Institute is a partnership between OSU and the state’s celebrated industry. OSU’s Food Innovation Center in Portland is a rare ag experiment station in an urban setting. College of ag enrollment is at a record of about 2,600 students, and OSU’s agriculture and forestry programs were rated 13th best among world universities.

During Arp’s time, Oregon’s economy recovered and the Legislature provided funding for 25 new positions. Fundraising and private gifts brought in $40 million.

Ramaswamy said his successor brought a sense of “scholarly enterprise” to the College of Ag. “At the end of the day, you’ve got to have top notch science to help agriculture,” he said.

To top it off, Arp also was the beneficiary of a $25 million restoration of Strand Hall, home of OSU’s ag program for the past century. The work, planned and funded before he was named dean, nonetheless returned the 115,000-square-foot building to its place as a campus centerpiece.

“It’s been a good run,” Arp said.

He said he’s proud of his work and the timing of retirement feels right. Looking back, he hopes his OSU colleagues and the state’s producers and other stakeholders will remember him as a good collaborator, someone they enjoyed working with.

Arp said OSU has developed a broad “soil to shelf” approach in its agricultural programs.

“That’s something I’ve continued to try to foster,” he said. “We are an incredibly diverse college, and part of that is a reflection of the diversity of food, ag and natural resources in the state.”

He praised the ag college’s faculty and researchers, saying they understand the importance of engaging the public in what they do.

“These folks would be stars at any university,” Arp said.

“The students, too,” he said. “They’re really quite amazing. They are passionate about what they do; they’re here for all the right reasons.”

Arp started at OSU in a botany and plant pathology position in 1990 and later headed the department and was named a “distinguished professor.” In 2008 he was named dean of the University Honors College, and four years later returned to the College of Agriculture.

WARM SPRINGS, Ore. (AP) — A wildfire burning on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation in Central Oregon destroyed two houses and threatened dozens more.

KTVZ reports the blaze charred more than 30 square miles by late Thursday as it expanded through brush and timber.

Fire spokesman Brad Donahue said one of the places that burned was an occupied home and the other was an abandoned house he described as “historical.”

The fire began Tuesday on private land just north of the reservation. One firefighter suffered a minor injury that day.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation, though officials believe it was ignited by humans rather than lightning.

On Thursday, large plumes of smoke appeared every 20 minutes or so as the fire torched trees, The Bulletin newspaper reported. Ash sporadically fell from the sky like snow in the 104-degree heat.

Wildfire is a fact of summer life on the reservation and in much of Oregon. But Elizabeth Simtustus, whose house was included in an evacuation notice, said this is more dangerous than the standard Warm Springs blaze.

“The other ones weren’t as close to houses as this has been,” she said.

Despite the threat, she and many residents decided to stay put — at least for now — rather go to an American Red Cross shelter.

“It’s my family home,” she said. “I’m the third generation to live in that house. I was born in that house. I don’t want to see it burned up just like that.”

Along Oregon most of the interstates, highways and major roads that bisect the state’s farmland, signs have sprouted prominently identifying to motorists the many different crops that are grown.

The organization behind the signs is Oregon Women for Agriculture, an association founded in the late 1970s to educate the public about the economic and ecological importance of agriculture.

“We’re about education, and people didn’t really understand what they were driving past, and it’s important to us for them to know what it was,” said Donna Coon, former OWA president and daughter-in-law of Pat Roberts, who initially created the concept of the signs.

OWA has partnered with the nonprofit Oregon Aglink, which produces the signs. OWA then distributes the signs to farmers across the state at no cost to the farmers. There are more than 200 identification signs across the state, according to Oregon Aglink’s website.

Mallory Phelan, vice president of operations at Oregon Aglink, said that the association appreciates their partnership with OWA to promote the crops farmers and ranchers are growing.

“Thanks to the two organizations, the road crop signs have vast reach all across the state and are appreciated by Oregonians as well as those passing through from other states,” she said.

The organization first formed when farm women in the Willamette Valley spoke up against the shutdown of grass seed field burning.

Now, the association focuses on all aspects of agriculture, and its mission is “Working together to communicate the story of today’s agriculture.”

“I feel it’s really important that we tell our story. Generally, most people don’t understand it,” Debbie Crocker, OWA president, said. “We educate on our side, so when we do communicate, we’re communicating the facts and the public is understanding agriculture better.”

The signs have been a visual way for OWA to do just that.

“(We’ve had) really, really good responses online and having people talk to us personally,” Coon said. “One woman was so excited to know what was going on that she sent in a $100 donation to have more signs made.”

With the influx of visitors to Oregon for the solar eclipse on Aug. 21, farmers have been calling OWA asking for more signs to display.

There are eight OWA chapters spread across the state with about 300 members.

Crocker got involved in OWA 35 years ago. She was inspired to take a leadership position after seeing what “great representatives” the past presidents were, she said.

Along with the signs and advocacy, OWA also hosts an annual fundraising auction — last year was its 30th anniversary — and has a legislative committee of volunteers to speak on behalf of agriculture at the state Capitol.

“I thought we should get back to being active in legislative stuff,” Marie Bowers, head of the legislative committee, said. “We don’t need to lead the charge, but to know what’s happening on farms, and have a position on paper. We’re all volunteers, a few passionate people who are willing to go to the Capitol.”

OWA is a multi-generational association, with many of the founding members still involved — such as Virginia Cooch.

Although Cooch didn’t go to the initial field burning meeting, she said enough women showed up that they decided to form an agricultural public relations organization, a direction that OWA has continued to follow.

Cooch has seen changes over the years in technology, but she said the biggest development has been the education the younger women bring to the association.

“(They’re) keeping up with the world,” Cooch said.

The one thing that hasn’t changed is the women’s love for agriculture.

“I always felt that (OWA) is so important to us, and that comes before any of our differences,” Cooch said. “(We) resolve differences and put the organization before any personal feelings.”

Crocker said the mix of older and younger generations is an opportunity for the association.

OWA is also made up of women from all walks of agricultural life.

“We have a place for everyone in the organization,” Bowers said. “Not just farmers, but for people who support agriculture.”

Silvies Valley, Ore. — Drive down Highway 395 between John Day and Burns, and it’s impossible to miss Silvies Valley Ranch.

The sprawling property seems to go on for miles and miles in this remote stretch of eastern Oregon, where cell signals are rare and cows outnumber humans by about 10 to 1. Most Grant County ranch entrances include a simple wooden sign, with maybe a bleached cow skull hanging from a lodgepole arch. Silvies Valley Ranch properties are marked with uniform metal and wood signs that bear the ranch’s abstract logo, visible from about a mile away.

“I think a lot of people driving through go, ‘What the heck is this?’” said Judge Scott Myers, Grant County’s top elected official. “It is a step aside for us.”

In 2006, a wealthy veterinarian from Burns, bought this property with a vision: Scott Campbell would transform what was then a dilapidated dude ranch into an elite destination resort for foreigners. He would optimize ranching practices to create a thriving organic cattle and goat operation.

Campbell believes if he’s successful, he’ll prove that high-end tourism is a new way forward for rural Oregon, where communities often struggle with high unemployment and poverty rates. He hopes others will follow his model and open similar resorts across Oregon’s high desert.

But some fear that the Silvies Valley Ranch development could bring unwelcome change to a working-class area, and they note that a resort catering to the wealthy is far afield from your typical Grant or Harney County accommodations.

For Campbell, this project is a nod to his Harney County roots. His grandparents were ranchers, and his dad was the town doctor in Burns.

Campbell left Harney County for college, eventually becoming a veterinarian. He earned his fortune in part by starting and later selling the profitable vet chain, Banfield Pet Hospitals.  

Now he’s investing some of that wealth into Silvies Valley Ranch, 40,000 acres of sagebrush, wetlands and timberland that stretch into both Harney and Grant counties. That’s about twice the area of the city of Bend.

The resort sits on just a slice of that acreage, but some neighbors are wary of having one owner control so much of the valley.

The development also includes a high-end restaurant with an extensive scotch selection, luxury suites, shooting ranges and three golf courses — all features Campbell hopes will attract “destination tourists” willing to spend $1,000 a day here. He’s hoping to draw a clientele who might otherwise embark on an African safari or an Arctic cruise.

“People from the East Coast, California and then ultimately from Asia and Europe,” he said of his target customers. “That brings a lot of new dollars into this part of the state.”

Guests could land a private plane on the ranch’s runway, play golf on the unique reversible course, shoot pistols, eat a four-course meal, don chaps and spurs and pet ranch horses.

Scott Myers serves on the Grant County Commission, which approved Campbell’s master plan, but he said it’s not necessarily his kind of place.

“I’d golf there, but I don’t know that I’d go out there and stay,” Myers said. “I’d rather take my camper out in the woods.”

In addition to opening the resort side of the business, Silvies Valley is also a huge, working cattle ranch. The Campbells raise more than 4,000 cows organically. Combined, the ranch and resort have 93 full-time employees. Campbell expects that number to eventually rise to about 130.

For rural Oregon, that’s a lot of jobs.

“That means they’re going to be one of the biggest employers in the area,” said Damon Runberg, a state economist with the Oregon employment department. “That’s a really big deal.”

The lowest-paid job at the ranch is $12.50 an hour — for mowing the lawn, Campbell said — and employees receive benefits after working there three months.

But the ranch’s remote location and lack of nearby housing make it difficult for managers to staff the place. Ranch managers have tried to recruit from Harney and Grant counties, but they’ve struggled to find qualified applicants willing to commute 30 to 60 minutes to work.

Campbell also paid $117,393 in Grant County property taxes last year, despite some of the property being included in a county-approved tax relief zone for enterprise development. That’s more than double what the combined property generated in taxes before Campbell’s purchase in 2006.

A Law Just For Silvies Valley Ranch

When Campbell had the idea for Silvies Valley Ranch, his vision butted up against the state law that regulates vacation destination resorts — rules designed to protect farm and agricultural land from becoming high-end subdivisions in desirable areas outside of urban growth boundaries.

In 2011, Campbell convinced state lawmakers in Salem to pass a bill that essentially rubber-stamped the construction of the resort, bypassing the usual time-consuming process involving the county, state and developer. (The legislation initially included other land parcels in Eastern Oregon, but when it was signed by then-Gov. John Kitzhaber, it specifically authorized Campbell’s development.)

“It seemed greased at the time,” said Paul Dewey, executive director of the environmental group Central Oregon Landwatch. “This wasn’t a situation where someone couldn’t do something and then had to go to the Legislature as a last resort. This developer just went to the Legislature and got a freebie.”

Campbell said existing rules for destination resorts, such as a requirement for developments to have a minimum of 150 overnight lodging accommodations, were prohibitive from the start. A hotel of that size makes no sense for Silvies Valley, Campbell said. “That’s just stupid. There was no way to do it without legislation.”

State officials say the law does allow some flexibility for how developers build toward that 150-room minimum.

“You can get there a couple of different ways. You can just build them outright or you can stagger them — build 50 now and bond for the rest and get there as your project matures,” said Jon Jinings, community services specialist for Oregon’s Department of Land Conservation and Development.

The ranch is starting out with 38 overnight rooms but could grow to include a maximum of 575 hotel rooms and cabins.

But Campbell says growth will happen gradually: “There’s no way that’ll happen in my lifetime.”

The normal process for developing a destination resort is often time-consuming. First, the county has to develop its own standards for such developments, including criteria for things like stream protection and recreational facilities. The county criteria must be approved by the state. Then a landowner can submit a plan for a resort under those standards, which must be approved by county officials. That plan is subject to public hearings and legal appeals, which means the whole process can stretch on for years.  

In contrast, the criteria for Silvies Valley Ranch are laid out in the law itself, including things like standards for open space, jobs, habitat protections and number of overnight lodgings. Campbell still had to submit a master plan to the county, but the Legislature essentially codified his vision via the bill. That means the development is almost impervious to legal challenges from the public or environmental groups or other entities.

“I think really the motivating factor for pursuing this legislation was not because they couldn’t have gotten what they wanted through the ordinary process,” Jinings said. Instead, he thinks the goal was to get the resort approved faster.

While urban areas such as Portland have seen strong economic growth recently, much of rural Oregon is still struggling to recover from the recession.

Grant and Harney County residents have mixed perspectives on the ranch, from skeptical to lukewarm to brimming with excitement.

Burns photographer Andi Harmon loves the prospect of selling her photos to ranch visitors. The Campbells have pledged to feature local artwork at the ranch and will encourage visitors to travel to Burns or John Day to visit galleries and buy the work.

“I think they’re a great addition to a community,” Harmon said. “I think they’re going to bring in a whole new level of people. Right now in Burns we get ‘drive-through’ tourists — people that are on their way someplace else. This will mean destination tourists and people finding out about all we have to offer here.”

“The hopes are that the dream comes true that the Campbells have invested dearly in,” said Judge Pete Runnels, Harney County’s top elected leader. “That it spreads opportunity, gives us an identity and gives us hope for the future.”

He’s hoping the wealthy tourists will drift down to Burns to spend money on art, fishing trips and restaurants. Maybe the ranch will create niche opportunities for new businesses, like a limo service to drive from Burns to Silvies Valley or outfitters to provide guided tours of Steens Mountain.

For Runnels and others in Burns, the ranch is a beacon toward a revitalized downtown Burns that better caters to tourists with retail, restaurants and galleries. There’s a coffee joint and a few boutiques on Main Street, but there are also empty storefronts and vacant lots.

Capitalizing on wealthy tourists is part of a bigger, ongoing conversation in Burns: one that’s focused on invigorating the economy without losing sight of the community’s natural resource sector roots and ruggedly individualistic sensibility, Runnels said. “The agricultural sector will never go away. Yet we have to grow and diversify a bit if we’re going to survive.”

But Campbell acknowledges there’s a gap between the character of Silvies Valley Ranch, which will offer four-course meals and rooms for $300 to $500 a night, and Burns, where a typical dinner consists of a Reuben sandwich and fries at the local downtown hangout and a room at the most expensive hotel — the Best Western — typically goes for about $120 a night. The ranch seems to have a bigger wine selection than all of the restaurants in Burns combined.

Campbell said he’s encouraged people in Burns to fix up downtown storefronts, but fears that right now the town can’t support tourists.

“That’s probably our biggest risk,” he said. “Somebody that came here from Paris, they’re probably not going to go have dinner in Burns.”

Scott Myers, the Grant County judge, said he believes the development could bring some new dollars to John Day if resort managers are serious about promoting nearby communities and encouraging guests to step out beyond the lodge.

“If people are driving in, then I think we’ll get some spillover,” Myers said. “But if we’re just a pass-through in a destination trip, I don’t think we’ll see much.”

Myers doesn’t see the ranch — or any one development in Grant County — as being an economic boon for the whole area.

“I don’t buy it, any more than I did the argument that the Owyhee Monument would bring big tourist dollars. I think it’s a gimmick, a hollow promise,” he said. “Unless you’re in (a place like) Bend and you have endless places to go, it’s not a boon.”

State economist Damon Runberg sees potential in Campbell’s model. He says the resort is unique in Oregon in that it’s a truly working ranch, in an extremely remote location, that also offers high-end luxuries.

“If this works, it bodes well as a model for struggling ranches that might bolster their income and revenue streams from tourists,” he said. “I could see a rippling effect where other communities could build off this.”  

A few miles away from the ranch, Peruvian herders move South African Boer goats through sage and rabbitbrush. The friendly nanny and kid goats bleat and butt at one another as they walk and eat at the same time.

The goats are a pet project of Sandy Campbell, Scott’s wife.

“Hi, Snickerdoodle. This is Pixie,” Campbell said, petting one of the nannies on her brown and striped head. “You get to know them — they all have different markings, different personalities.”

The goat herd is another way the Campbells hope to serve as a beacon for other area ranchers. They want to show that goats can be great companions to cows. Goats eat weeds, are light on the land, help with fire prevention and their meat can actually be tasty.

“I think goat meat is growing in popularity,” Sandy Campbell said. “I really do see it becoming a more mainstream source for Americans.” The resort restaurant regularly offers goat meat as a dinner entree.

She pointed out that goats can be a companion animal to cattle because they eat different plants.

“I just want people to think about goats as a serious livestock program,” she said. “It really can be a mainstream product.”

Beyond the goats, the Campbells see themselves as stewards of this vast valley. They thin the forests on the land, using the wood in construction of the lodge when possible. Scott Campbell says the three golf courses are some of the most ecologically friendly in the world; his designer minimized the use of carbon emissions in constructing the course, planted drought-tolerant native grasses, and the course uses a gravity-fed irrigation system to minimize electricity and water usage on the course.

They’ve also modified streams and created wetlands to foster habitat for birds, elk, antelope, raptors and fish. Some of those initiatives caused friction with state agencies, such as when he took to installing hundreds of beaver dams in a stream without first acquiring the state approvals.

Residents like Adele Cerny say there’s nothing wrong with the goats, the golf course or even the $400 hotel rooms at the lodge. But all combined, they paint a picture of change that unsettles her.

“Perhaps that’s my inner fear: that it will change the character of the county,” said Cerny, “where the people who’ve always lived here can no longer afford to live here.”

But change is a big part of why Scott Campbell built this place. He doesn’t want Harney or Grant counties to become unaffordable, but he says they’re no longer thriving. When he talks about it, he chokes up.

“All of Eastern Oregon has really fallen on hard time since the mills have all closed in many of these communities,” he said. “And the great thing is there’s great opportunities. But they’re probably in destination tourism.”

Dan Arp, dean of Oregon State University’s College of Agricultural Sciences, will retire next summer, the university announced today.

Arp has been dean since May 2012 and also serves as director of the Oregon Agricultural Experiment Station, according to a press release.

He joined OSU’s colleges of agricultural sciences and science in 1990 in a joint botany and plant pathology position that was split between the two units. He eventually headed the Department of Botany and Plant Pathology where he earned the honor of “distinguished professor.”

In 2008, Arp was named dean of the University Honors College, where he worked closely with students to enhance their learning experience. Four years later, he was appointed dean of Agricultural Sciences. He will retire June 30, 2018.

“I have tremendously enjoyed my five years of service as dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences, and I look forward to doing all I can during my sixth and final year as dean,” Arp said in the press release. “I am extremely proud of the progress the college has made over the past several years and our recognition as one of the world’s top agriculture programs.”

Oregon State was ranked 13th this year in the QS World University Rankings, an international survey of 200 university agriculture programs.

University Provost and Executive Vice President Ed Feser will launch a national search for a new dean.

Summer heat is causing stress in Washington’s spring wheat crop, researchers say.

In its weekly regional crop progress and condition report, the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service reported that “winter wheat continued to look good, while spring wheat did not.”

Stress caused by heat and late planting in a shorter growing season is to blame, said Mike Pumphrey, spring wheat breeder for Washington State University.

“Planting was delayed everywhere,” he said.

Pumphrey said maturity wasn’t as important this year as it is in some years, because soil moisture was good.

“Some of our later maturing lines that I would say do poorer in a typical hot, dry summer didn’t because there was soil moisture,” he said.

Irrigated wheat is likely to be down from usual years, but “quite healthy” overall, he said. Dryland acres where planting was delayed will likely be average to below average.

Later plantings are likely to suffer more, while earlier spring wheat plantings had the chance to tiller before higher temperatures occurred, said Ryan Higginbotham, director of WSU’s cereal variety testing program.

“Heat is the enemy of spring wheat,” Higginbotham said.

Higginbotham expects statewide spring wheat yields will be down, but higher winter wheat yields will offset them.

The effect varies across the state. In trials in the Horse Heaven Hills area, spring wheat yields doubled over last year, while in Lind, Wash., trials, yields were half of last year’s, he said.

Assuming test weights and grain soundness are otherwise OK, Pumphrey said the heat stress may boost protein, which is a desirable trait in dark northern spring wheat.

The wheat class has seen price upswings due to supply problems elsewhere in the U.S., from $7.57 to $7.67 per bushel on the Portland market for 13 percent protein, and $7.83 to $8.77 per bushel for higher protein levels.

“Although the yields may be lower, we should have high-enough protein or good protein,” he said. “That’s going to help (growers), instead of getting them a discount. Now, that has to be balanced with how many bushels are harvested, of course.”

Lower protein percentages are wanted in soft white wheat, which will also see higher levels due to the heat stress. WSU’s trials have shown above-average protein levels, averaging 12.5 to 13 percent, “which is not ideal,” Pumphrey said.

Soft white wheat is priced at $5.16 to $5.60 per bushel.

Higginbotham’s not aware of any price discounts for high protein soft white wheat, but said it’s possible as harvest progresses.

“If there is no discount, there is no impact, really, to the grower, but if they start to implement a discount for high protein, they’re going to be feeling that,” he said.

SALEM — A political dispute over new taxes on healthcare in Oregon is being blamed for an irrigation district losing $1.9 million to pipe an open canal.

Lawmakers approved money for the Bradshaw Drop Irrigation Canal Piping Project in July as part of a broader spending bill, but Gov. Kate Brown has now vetoed funding for that project and several others in Southern Oregon.

Rep. Sal Esquivel, R-Medford, said he agreed to vote for the healthcare taxes — giving the proposal the necessary three-fifths majority to pass the House — in return for the spending projects.

Since then, however, Esquivel has thrown his support behind an effort to refer the healthcare taxes to voters as part of a ballot initiative.

In retaliation, Brown has vetoed several projects that are important to his district, Esquivel said.

“She’s vindictive toward me,” he said. “She’s politicizing good projects just for vindictiveness.”

A spokesman for the governor did not respond to a request for comment, but in her written announcement of the vetoes, Brown said, “The cornerstone of all negotiations whether they occur in a public or private arena, is the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing.”

While it’s disappointing the “political feud” has caused the state funding to fall through, the Rogue River Irrigation District is still expecting to begin the piping its canal in autumn 2018, said Brian Hampson, the district’s manager.

The irrigation district still has $3.4 million available from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to pipe 1.2 miles of the 3.3 mile canal, he said.

This portion of the piping project is more complicated due to environmental studies and logistical complexities, which is why it’s expected to cost more than the remainder of the project, Hampson said.

The $1.9 million from the state government would have been dedicated to the more straight-forward task of replacing 2.1 miles of canal with piping, he said.

It’s unclear how the irrigation district will now pay for that segment, but Hampson said he’s hopeful to “quit all the political crap” and find funding for the project on its own merits.

Currently, the open canal is leaky, resulting in losses of water that could otherwise be dedicated to irrigation or left in-stream for fish habitat.

By pressurizing the irrigation system, farmers will be able to convert from flood irrigation to more efficient sprinklers, saving water while reducing sediment runoff.

Eventually, the irrigation district also expects to evaluate using the pressurized water to generate hydroelectric power.

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A group that represents farmers is calling the costs of saving imperiled salmon in the largest river system in the Pacific Northwest unsustainable and is turning to the Trump administration to sidestep endangered species laws.

The Columbia-Snake River Irrigators Association wants the government to convene a Cabinet-level committee with the power to allow exemptions to the Endangered Species Act. Known as the “God squad” because its decisions can lead to extinctions of threatened wildlife, it has only gathered three times — the last 25 years ago during a controversy over spotted owl habitat in the Northwest.

The irrigators association is frustrated with court rulings it says favor fish over people, claiming the committee could end years of legal challenges over U.S. dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers and bring stability for irrigators, power generators and other businesses that rely on the water.

Environmental groups call the request a publicity stunt and say it could hurt fishing companies and others that rely on healthy runs of federally protected salmon and steelhead.

The association sees hope in a series of pro-industry environmental decisions by President Donald Trump. His administration has rescinded an Obama-era rule that would shield many small streams and other bodies of water from pollution and development, enacted policies to increase coal mining on federal lands and proposed giving Western states greater flexibility to allow development in habitat of sage grouse, a threatened bird.

Darryll Olsen, association board representative, said the irrigators requested the committee during former President Barack Obama’s tenure but got nowhere. He said the Trump administration has been encouraging during talks, leading to a formal request last month for a meeting with Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke.

“What we’re asking for is that the secretary give direction to the (Interior) Department to work with us to review the steps for implementing the God squad,” Olsen said.

Zinke can gather the committee, which he would chair and would include other natural resource agencies, such as the Environmental Protection Agency. It also would include representatives from Washington state, Oregon, Idaho and Montana.

If five of the federal committee members agree, they could exempt U.S. agencies from Endangered Species Act requirements for one or more of the 13 species of salmon and steelhead listed since the early 1990s.

The irrigators group, which has 120 members growing food crops in Washington state and Oregon, expects to meet with Zinke soon, Olsen said.

Interior spokeswoman Heather Swift said in an email that the agency could not comment on a committee that had not been formed and that she had no information about Zinke’s meetings.

Joseph Bogaard, executive director of a coalition of conservation, commercial, sport fishing and business groups called Save Our Wild Salmon, blasted the irrigation association’s request.

“It’s a terrible idea that will deliver great harm to the people and businesses of the Pacific Northwest,” said Bogaard, whose coalition relies on the fish to produce millions of dollars of revenue.

A federal judge ruled last year that the government had not done enough to improve salmon runs despite spending billions of dollars and urged it to consider removing four dams on the lower Snake River.

Todd True, a lawyer with the environmental law firm Earthjustice who represented some plaintiffs in that 2016 ruling, said the God squad request should go nowhere.

“There isn’t any basis to convene the committee because there are reasonable alternatives to save the fish,” he said, pointing to the dam removal option. “Their removal would be a big step forward.”

This year, fish counts at dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers have been well below the 10-year average, which biologists blame on droughts in 2014 and 2015 and warming ocean conditions.

Various results have emerged the three times the God squad has convened. It refused to grant an exemption for a Tennessee dam in the 1970s over a fish called the snail darter. Regarding crane protection in the Midwest, a settlement was reached before the panel offered a decision.

In 1992, it voted to sidestep protections for the northern spotted owl and allow the Interior Department to sell timber on land in Oregon.

Traps set in conjunction with an Oregon Department of Agriculture eradication campaign in the Portland area caught a stunning 12,000 Japanese beetles, an invasive pest that can cause major damage to home gardens and to nursery, vegetable, vineyard and orchard crops.

A department official hastened to say the heavy count — only 372 were caught last year and that was enough to trigger the eradication effort — doesn’t mean the campaign didn’t work.

This past spring, department contractors treated the grounds of about 2,400 residences on 1,000 acres west of Portland with a granular form of the insecticide Acelepryn. Adult beetles laying eggs this summer weren’t harmed, but grubs that hatch in the treated areas will ingest the insecticide and die, interrupting the generational cycle. The ag department planned five years of annual treatments, a pattern that has worked in other states.

Clint Burfitt, who is in charge of the treatment program, said the insecticide targets beetles at their most vulnerable life stage but is not hazardous to pets or people.

In a department news release, Burfitt acknowledged the trap count was higher than expected but said the traps are providing good information.

“The good news is that the bulk of the catches are centered in the middle of our treatment zone, so there is a well-defined epicenter for this infestation,” he said in a prepared statement. When the traps are removed this fall, the department will analyze data and plan next year’s eradication work, he said.

Based on past experience, Burfitt expects the number of beetles trapped to decrease 90 percent each year. He predicted the count will drop to more than 1,000 next year, and to single digits by the fifth year.

About 2 percent of the beetles were found in traps set outside the treatment zone, Burfitt speculated that beetles traveled with yard clippings and landscape debris or hitchhiked on vehicles. To counter that, the department, Washington County Solid Waste & Recycling and Metro, the regional government, have asked residents to put grass clippings in curbside containers. Garbage haulers take it to a Hillsboro landfill for deep burial. At the same time, the agencies asked landscaping companies to take debris to a quarantined drop site in the area.