BOARDMAN, Ore. — State regulators have denied a request by multiple environmental and animal rights groups to suspend operations at Lost Valley Farm, the controversial new 30,000-cow dairy permitted earlier this year near Boardman.

The Oregon Department of Agriculture and Department of Environmental Quality are jointly responsible for administering Oregon’s confined animal feeding operation, or CAFO, program. The agencies issued a hotly contested water pollution permit for Lost Valley Farm on March 31, which became final on April 20.

Opponents of the dairy farm have filed what’s known as a petition for reconsideration, urging ODA and DEQ officials to change their minds. The coalition also asked for a stay of Lost Valley’s permit, which was rejected in a ruling handed down June 23.

“Petitioners have failed to provide any evidence of exactly what harms, if any, their members will sustain during the reconsideration period,” the ruling reads in part.

Petitioners include the Animal Legal Defense Fund, Center for Biological Diversity, Center for Food Safety, Columbia Riverkeeper, Food & Water Watch, Friends of Family Farmers, Humane Oregon, the Humane Society of the United States, Oregon Physicians for Rural Responsibility and Oregon Rural Action. They argue Lost Valley threatens to contaminate local groundwater and surface water as the dairy ramps up to full capacity over the next three years.

So far, Lost Valley has brought in just more than half the cows it is permitted to handle — 16,000 total, with about 8,700 milking cows. Estimates show that, at 30,000 cows, Lost Valley will produce 187 million gallons of wastewater and manure every year.

ODA and DEQ claim they crafted a permit that will be the most protective of water quality to date. For example, Lost Valley is required to have 11 groundwater monitoring wells on site, which is seven more than usual. The facility will also be inspected at least three times as often as other dairies.

Tarah Heinzen, staff attorney for Food & Water Watch, previously told the East Oregonian they knew it was unlikely the state would stay Lost Valley’s permit. Their petition for reconsideration remains under review, and the groups may still consider a formal appeal in court.

Greg te Velde, owner of Lost Valley Farm, previously said that suspending his operation would have just as harmful an effect on the cows as it would his business. Without the CAFO permit, te Velde said he would have nowhere else to go with the cows. It is entirely possible they would have to be sold for slaughter, he said.

In addition, te Velde said he would likely face foreclosure in Oregon after roughly $100 million worth of investment since 2003. Previously, te Velde ran Willow Creek Dairy on land leased from nearby Threemile Canyon Farms.

A spokeswoman for Lost Valley said the farm is pleased with the latest decision, and continues to focus on its operations.

An Oregon ranch is challenging the federal government’s decision to eliminate grazing on more than 8,000 acres of public land to study vegetation.

Cahill Ranches of Adel, Ore., has filed a complaint alleging the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s decision will encourage juniper encroachment and wildfires while harming sage grouse populations.

“Eliminating grazing is not necessary to prevent irreparable damage to sage grouse or sage grouse habitat and the best available science shows that eliminating management will increase the risk of loss of habitat from rapidly spreading and intense wildfire and juniper expansion,” the lawsuit said.

A representative of BLM said the agency doesn’t comment on pending litigation.

Rangeland conditions within the 8,282-acre Sucker Creek pasture have been determined to be in good health by the BLM, whose decision to re-authorize grazing in the area for 10 years drew no objections from environmental groups, the complaint said.

The agency has also already conducted a juniper research project in the area, the complaint said.

Cahill Ranches postponed juniper removal on its property between 2007 and 2014, providing the BLM with a “control area” for comparison with areas where the invasive trees were removed.

After the conclusion of the study, which determined sage grouse reproduction and survival improved in areas treated for juniper, Cahill Ranches resumed removing the trees from its property.

The BLM’s decision to halt grazing in the pasture to study the natural development of vegetation is thus unnecessary, particularly since it is near two federal refuges where grazing is already prohibited, according to the plaintiffs.

Meanwhile, prohibiting grazing within the Sucker Creek Pasture will “significantly reduce or eliminate” Cahill Ranches’ cattle operations on the larger Rahilly-Gravelly Allotment, the complaint said.

The pasture makes up 44 percent of the 18,678-acre allotment, so disallowing grazing there would disrupt the ranch’s ability to rotate cattle, which is necessary for vegetation to recover in some areas while it’s consumed elsewhere, the plaintiffs claim.

“The decision to eliminate grazing from the Sucker Creek pasture fails to consider the overall impact on the economic viability of the Cahill Ranches, and consequently, whether Cahill Ranches can afford to continue sage grouse habitat improvement projects,” the complaint said.

The lawsuit calls the decision to halt grazing in the pasture an “artifact of a top-down decision process that fails to account for the local conditions on the ground” in violation of federal administrative, land management and grazing statutes.

Attorneys with the Western Resources Legal Center, a nonprofit representing Cahill Ranches, are asking U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark Clarke in Medford, Ore., to overturn the decision as unlawful.

SALEM — Supporters of a bill to relax Oregon’s land use restrictions in slow-growing counties were unable to overcome objections to the proposal despite several revisions.

Nonetheless, Senate Bill 432 was referred to the Joint Committee on Ways and Means on June 26 by the Senate Rules Committee, albeit without a “do pass” recommendation.

Under the original language of the bill, counties with fewer than 50,000 residents that have experienced no growth since the previous federal population census were exempted from statewide land use planning goals.

The amended version of SB 432 allows such slow-growing counties, and the cities within them, to adopt exceptions to statewide land use planning goals.

Such exceptions cannot take place on high-value farmland or adversely affect areas protected under a preservation plan for the Greater sage grouse, a sensitive bird species.

The amendment also clarifies that counties that experience population growth greater than 4 percent or 1,000 residents between census reports cannot qualify for new land use exceptions.

“For all the angst over this bill, the impact on the ground is very small,” said Dave Hunnicutt, executive director of Oregonians In Action, a property rights group that supports SB 432.

The Association of Oregon Counties and the League of Oregon Cities also support the bill, with representatives testifying that it provides economically-struggling counties with more autonomy.

Local governments are often blocked from undertaking relatively minor land use change because they can’t afford the costly studies required, said Erin Doyle, intergovernmental relations associate with the League of Oregon Cities.

The bill’s scope would effectively be limited to eight of Oregon’s 36 counties: Baker, Gilliam, Grant, Harney, Malheur, Sherman, Wallowa and Wheeler.

Although the proposal’s breadth was narrowed, the Oregon Farm Bureau and the 1,000 Friends of Oregon conservation group have maintained their opposition to SB 432.

Easing development in rural areas has raised worries about skyrocketing land values, potentially pricing farmers and ranchers out of the market while reducing sales for key agricultural suppliers, said Mary Anne Nash, public policy counsel for Oregon Farm Bureau.

“The biggest concern is everyone around them will parcelize out,” she said.

High-value farmland is defined narrowly in the bill, excluding irrigation properties and those valuable for ranching, said Mary Kyle McCurdy, deputy director of 1,000 Friends of Oregon.

Land use restrictions haven’t been shown to suppress economic development, but SB 432 would create different rules for different counties, said McCurdy.

“Predictability will be gone,” she said.

COLFAX, Wash. — More farmers are raising chickpeas for the first time, so the McGregor Co. offered plot tours last week devoted to the pulse crop.

Chickpea acres were up 150 percent year over year, said Cat Salois, the company’s director of research. “We felt it was pretty important to go ahead and put some kind of educational program on.”

The tour showcased insecticides, nutrition, fertility, fungicides and weed control for the crop.

Salois believes the higher interest is because chickpea prices are up and wheat prices are down.

Chickpeas — also known as garbanzo beans — are selling for $36 to $37 per hundredweight in Washington and Idaho. Soft white wheat ranges from $4.85 per bushel to $5.05 per bushel on the Portland market, near or below the break-even point for farmers.

“A crop that used to be considered a rotation is now holding the farm,” Salois said.

“I see more acres of garbanzos right now, and I also see garbs where I’ve never seen them before,” said farmer Dean Farrens, who has raised chickpeas east of Walla Walla, Wash., for 15 years.

He attended the tour to get more information about weed control and emergence.

“They’ve been a pretty solid crop for us over the years,” he said.

Colfax, Wash., farmer Dan Harder has raised chickpeas for 17 years.

“If you haven’t raised them before, you better go talk to somebody who has,” Harder said. “There are guys that have raised really good garbanzos year after year after year, and those are the guys you want to talk to and find out what they’re doing.”

Weeds such as dog fennel, lambsquarter and prickly lettuce are the biggest problems, Harder said.

“Chickpeas do not yield well with weed competition, because they don’t compete,” he said. “And diseases can wipe you out.”

Carryover of chemicals used in wheat propagation can also be a big problem, Harder said.

Harder believes chickpea acreage could drop by as much as half next year as its prices decrease and wheat prices increase, but Salois predicts wheat prices won’t rally for several years. Chickpea prices could remain strong for the same amount of time, she said.

Farmers don’t think about managing chickpeas the same way they think about managing wheat, Salois said.

“If we’re going to treat it like the cash crop it is, things like zinc and (molybdenum) ionputs on seed, addressing fertility needs and understanding if we feed that crop, we will get more yield, are really the big take-home,” she said. “It’s not just about playing defense; we can play offense with these guys, too.”

McGregor is also investigating a “no-grow zone” on their plots where the chickpeas failed to emerge. The company submitted soil samples to determine whether a pH reaction or salt reaction occurred, Salois said. A form of pythium, a fungus resistant to the fungicide metalaxyl, could also be a factor.

Salois said the situation could occur for other growers.

PORTLAND – Time will tell, but Oregon and Washington producers of specialty snacks and drinks hope they made a tasteful impression on a visiting trade mission team from China.

Makers of cider, wine, mead and beer and vendors of various nut, seed and fruit snacks set up display tables two consecutive days at an event organized June 21-22 by the Oregon Department of Agriculture. The China trade group was on its way back from a Fancy Food Show in New York, and the Portland visit was its only other stop.

Trade mission members sampled products as they moved from table to table.

“There’s been some interest,” said Doug Furlong, who described himself as the “boss nut” of Doug’s Nuts, based in Eugene. He sells nut mix snacks in a variety of flavors and combinations. He said Chinese buyers appeared to be looking for upscale products and “Everybody likes the packaging.”

Paula Phillips, president of Pure Steeps in Portland, offered visitors tastes of the company’s Wonder Drink Kombucha, a fermented tea. One trade mission member took a sip and said it reminded him fondly of a drink served at home in his childhood.

Phillips and company marketing representative Linda Shively said Pure Steeps sells in Hong Kong, but is not yet in mainland China. Their kombucha is organic and shelf stable, and appeals to the Chinese desire for healthy beverages.

Phillips grew up in Taiwan and conversed easily with trade mission members. “She can tell you about kombucha in two languages,” Shively said.

Holly Witte, of A Blooming Hill vineyard and winery in Cornelius, west of Portland, offered samples of her Pinot noir, Riesling and blush wines. Witte said she’d been researching the Chinese market and “I knew they would love our label.”

She said the company has exported a bit to China in the past. “What does it take? It takes exposure – and a great product,” she said.

Corrine Konell, of Sandy, Ore., displayed her protein bars made with goats’ milk dairy products. Konell said she is not quite ready to scale up production enough to sell in China, and most likely would look into Canada and Europe first. But she was interested in gauging reactions to her chewy bars, and was gratified by the buyers’ interest.

Adam Carlson, of Seattle Cider Co., joked he was “crashing the party” of Oregon producers. The company sells hard cider in Japan, Canada and the United Kingdom, and China is a promising future market.

“You look at how fast the Chinese middle class is growing, and the rise of discretionary income,” he said.

China is Oregon agriculture’s fourth largest export market, behind Japan, Canada and South Korea. A minimum of $240 million worth of Oregon ag products is shipped to China annually. The figure is incomplete because some Oregon-grown or manufactured goods are shipped from ports in Washington or California, and aren’t counted toward the total.

Online: A link to the ODA’s trade and marketing section

A judge has ruled that counties can’t sue the State of Oregon for financial damages, potentially undermining a $1.4 billion class action lawsuit over state logging practices.

Linn County Circuit Court Judge Daniel Murphy has reversed an earlier ruling in the case, which held that Oregon’s “sovereign immunity” doesn’t bar counties from seeking such damages.

In his most recent June 20 decision, Murphy has agreed with Oregon’s attorneys that counties — as subdivisions of the state — cannot sue the state government for money.

Murphy said he’s “well aware this interpretation contradicts” his earlier opinion, but he will provide the plaintiff counties with “the opportunity to re-plead their case in such a manner that is supported by the law if they can.”

“Like peeling a very large onion this case contains complex layers of legal issues and theory that can take time to unravel,” he said.

The judge has left open the possibility for the plaintiffs to seek an “equitable” remedy, such as an injunction or order that requires the state government to take certain actions without paying financial damages.

However, the counties have repeatedly said they’re not aiming for Oregon to change its logging practices, but instead seek compensation for insufficient timber revenues.

The class action lawsuit was filed on behalf of 14 counties that donated forestland to the state government in exchange for a portion of logging proceeds.

The counties argues that a 1998 rule change emphasizes environmental and recreational values over timber harvest, thereby violating a contract that required logging to be maximized.

John DiLorenzo, attorney for the counties, said his clients may decide to recharacterize their complaint or seek clarification from an appellate court regarding sovereign immunity and other issues.

In the long term, such an opinion would provide a “road map” for the litigation, DiLorenzo said.

“Maybe we’re better off having clear declarations from the appellate courts on what the law is,” he said.

Capital Press was unable to reach an attorney representing Oregon in the case.

Ralph Bloemers, an environment attorney with the Crag Law Center, said that Murphy’s latest ruling has effectively “torpedoed” the counties’ lawsuit.

“In essence, he’s granting the motion to dismiss for sovereign immunity,” Bloemers said, adding that he expected the state’s attorneys to refile a motion for the complaint to be thrown out.

“The case should be dismissed,” he said.

The plaintiffs face an uphill battle if they decide to seek an equitable remedy, Bloemers said.

It’s tough enough to win an injunction, let alone an order requiring the state government to manage its forests a certain way, he said.

MADRAS, Ore. (AP) — Just before sunrise, there’s typically nothing atop Round Butte but the whistle of the wind and a panoramic view of Oregon’s second-highest peak glowing pink in the faint light.

But on Aug. 21, local officials expect this lookout point just outside the small town of Madras to be crammed with people from around the world, all hoping for the first glimpse of the moon’s shadow as it crosses Mount Jefferson’s snow fields. Then, a solar eclipse will throw the entire region into complete darkness for two minutes.

The first coast-to-coast total solar eclipse to cross the continental United States in 99 years will first be visible in Oregon, and Madras is predicted to be among the country’s best viewing spots because of its clear, high-desert skies, flat landscape and stunning mountain views.

Up to 1 million eclipse chasers will descend on Oregon for the celestial event, and officials are bracing for as many as 100,000 of them in and around Madras.

In this vast expanse of ranches and farms, rural, two-lane roads could mean traffic jams of cosmic proportions. Every hotel in Madras is booked, some residents are renting their homes for $3,000 a night, and campers are expected to flood the national forests and grasslands during peak wildfire season.

The state’s emergency coordination center will gear up, and first responders will prepare to respond to any trouble as they would for an earthquake or other natural disaster. Cell towers could be overwhelmed, traffic will be gridlocked, and police and fire stretched to the max managing the crowds.

“Bring extra water, bring food. You need to be prepared to be able to survive on your own for 24 to 48 to 72 hours, just like you would in any sort of emergency,” said Dave Thompson, spokesman for the Oregon Department of Transportation. “This is pretty much a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and it’s really worth seeing. But you’ve got to be prepared or you won’t enjoy it.”

When the moon passes between the sun and the Earth, the path of totality — meaning total darkness — from the moon’s shadow will begin on Oregon’s coast, then cross the north-central part of the state from west to east.

But as the hype builds, authorities are increasingly worried that people who planned to watch from the notoriously foggy coast could move east at the last minute if the forecast sours. And Oregonians who live outside the path of totality could decide to drive to one of the prime viewing spots at the spur of the moment, creating havoc on the roads, said Cory Grogan, spokesman for the Oregon Office of Emergency Management.

In addition, many tourists will be camping in hot, tinder-dry conditions, or even sleeping in their cars. First responders have been planning for months for a worst-case scenario: evacuating tens of thousands of people while trying to get fire engines through gridlocked roads. Cellular towers also may be crippled by the volume of people texting, calling and posting photos, making it difficult for fire crews to communicate.

Federal and local officials will stage engines and other resources at key locations, and firefighters from other agencies and private companies will send extra crews. But it’s impossible to plan for everything, and tourists frustrated with traffic may use forest access roads as shortcuts, further raising fire risk, said Kent Koeller, a recreation planner with U.S. Forest Service outside Madras.

“Just driving off-road - having that contact with a hot muffler or a catalytic converter - could start an ignition,” he said. “And in these fine fuels, it could spread very quickly.”

Lysa Vattimo was hired two years ago to coordinate the town’s planning efforts with more than 50 local, state and federal agencies. She spends her days trying to think of every possible consequence of having tens of thousands of people in a town of just 6,500 — and her nights worrying she missed something.

The town and surrounding campsites have rented nearly 700 portable toilets, including some from as far as Idaho, to meet demand. Sanitation trucks will run almost around the clock, transporting trash to 50-yard-long dumpsters before it rots in triple-digit temperatures.

Gas stations are filling their underground tanks in advance, and businesses are being told to use cash only, to avoid bringing down the wireless network. Banks are stocking their ATMs, local hospitals have canceled vacations, and pregnant women close to their due dates are being told to leave to avoid getting stuck.

“What we’ve asked our residents to do is get prepared ahead of time. About a week out, fuel up on propane, gas, whatever fuels they need, get their prescriptions, go to the doctor, do what you need to do,” she said. “And then stay home.”

In Madras, hotels were booked years ago, and spots at 25 campgrounds in and around the town are going fast. Farmers are renting out their land for pop-up campgrounds, and thousands of parking spaces for day trippers are getting snapped up.

The Black Bear Diner, one of the town’s most popular restaurants, expects to serve 1,000 people a day during the week leading up to the eclipse. Owner Joe Davis has ordered five weeks of food for one week of business and will have an abbreviated menu of 10 items to speed service.

“The Black Bear Diner has been here in Madras 18 years, and I’m sure this will be by far the busiest week - and probably double the busiest week - that we’ve seen,” he said.

But amid all the hubbub and anxiety, most residents have kept sight of the wonder.

Darlene Hoffman is one of the few here who watched the last total solar eclipse to touch Madras 38 years ago. Hoffman, 80, recalls how the birds stopped singing and the horses prepared to sleep as the sky gradually darkened and a hush fell over the land.

“It was really something to see. It really was,” she said. “That amazed me more than anything.”

NAMPA, Idaho (AP) — Washington County Commissioners have passed an Emergency Declaration ahead of the August 21 solar eclipse.

KIVI-TV reports the county near the Oregon border is expected to get tens of thousands of visitors eager to witness the first coast-to-coast total solar eclipse seen in the U.S. in nearly a century.

A county disaster services spokesman says the commissioners passed the declaration Monday so they could ask the state for assistance in case more resources are need.

The declaration states that the solar eclipse may cause risk to public safety, financial damage, excess cost for labor, clean up and property damage in Washington County.

It will be in effect until the end of August.

PENDELTON, Ore. — It was about a year ago when Pendleton farmer Henry Lorenzen learned, much to his surprise and disappointment, that a portion of his land would not be re-enrolled in the federal Conservation Reserve Program.

As a third-generation wheat grower with 4,000 acres west of town, Lorenzen remembers hearing “horror stories” from his father about dust storms that would sweep across the fields, eroding soil and kicking up a dusty haze that reached all the way to Interstate 84.

Not only did the gusts cause some very serious traffic problems — like the 1999 pileup on I-84 that killed six people and injured 27 others — but created significant farm management and environmental issues as well.

“You lose topsoil, and ultimately you lose productivity,” Lorenzen said.

The Conservation Reserve Program, or CRP, was established in 1985 to help protect vulnerable areas. Administered by the Farm Service Agency under the U.S. Department of Agriculture, CRP is essentially a rental agreement between the government and landowners where a portion of farmland is taken out of production and planted in native grasses, which in turn helps protect against erosion, increase wildlife habitat and improve water quality.

General CRP contracts run for 10-15 years, with payments averaging around $45 to $65 per acre. Land enrolled tends to be less suitable for growing crops, and is scored by the feds based on a number of environmental criteria, known as the Environmental Benefit Index.

The program, however, was slashed in the 2014 Farm Bill, which lowered the national enrollment cap from 32 million acres to 24 million acres. A report by the Congressional Research Service indicated the reduction would save $3.3 billion over the next 10 years.

More than 50,000 acres of land are set to expire from CRP later this year across Umatilla, Morrow and Sherman counties, and that is forcing landowners to make some difficult decisions about what to do next. They could get it back into farming, though the low price of wheat may make it difficult to turn profit. They could try to sell the land, but without a steady stream of revenue, the value may not be nearly what it was.

For Lorenzen, the situation is less dire. Only a small portion of his farm was enrolled in CRP, and he has already managed to lease half of that ground to another farmer.

The real challenge, Lorenzen said, is for people who retired and put their entire property in CRP. Given the market conditions, it will be an uphill struggle to find growers willing to take on substantially more acres.

In Sherman County, growers will meet Friday to discuss their options moving forward. Meanwhile, Lorenzen also worries about worsening erosion along I-84.

“It’s going to be a significantly changed environment,” he said.

Umatilla County has 143,994 acres enrolled in the program, along with 110,913 acres in Morrow County and 78,800 in Sherman County, according to figures provided by the Farm Service Agency.

In order to satisfy the shrinking cap, all three counties will see 13-18 percent of those acres expire by the end of the fiscal year Oct. 1 — including 21,456 in Umatilla County, 20,122 in Morrow County and 10,794 in Sherman County.

Taylor Murray, conservation specialist with the Farm Service Agency state office in Tualatin, said there was no general CRP sign-up this year and he does not expect one will be held for the foreseeable future.

There is a subset of CRP, called the Highly Erodible Land Initiative, that still has room under the cap, though Murray said the criteria for enrollment are much more strict, leaving many farmers on the outside looking in.

“I do firmly believe that, going forward, the process is going to be much more competitive,” Murray said.

Murray is cautiously optimistic that the new USDA administration, led by Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, could allocate another half-million acres nationwide for general CRP.

“We could definitely get a piece of that,” Murray said.

Until then, local growers are crunching the numbers to determine their best course of action.

Bill Jepsen, who farms wheat about 14 miles south Ione, has figured out the equation. As of Wednesday, soft white wheat was selling at $4.86 per bushel. For southern Morrow County growers, they pay an additional 70 cents per bushel to ship the grain west, putting the net price at $4.16.

Assuming an average yield of 45 bushels per acre, that’s $187.20 per acre on a crop that’s grown once every other year — given the region’s summer-fallow rotation. Now, a typical lease agreement divvies the receipts up one-third for landowners, and two-thirds for farmers. That leaves $56.16 per acre to the landowner every other year.

Compare that to CRP, where a landowner may make up to $65 per acre every year, and it’s not difficult to see where the economic advantage lies.

“It’s pretty simple math,” Jepsen said. “The lease won’t compare to CRP.”

Don Wysocki, extension soil scientist for Oregon State University, said negotiating those leases will be the biggest point of contention for farmers looking ahead.

“Do you really want to take on more land with the price of wheat, is the question,” Wysocki said.

Murray, with the Farm Service Agency, said he’s heard of people try to sell land instead of putting it back into farm production. But that poses its own set of economic challenges.

Todd Longgood, a broker with the Whitney Land Company in Pendleton, said the issue of declining CRP acreage is having an appreciable effect on land values. Three or four years ago, Longgood said, CRP ground was trading at an all-time high, around $1,000 to $1,300 per acre. Now, it has fallen to around $500 to $700 per acre.

“Today, we’re seeing a drastic decrease in the land values,” Longgood said.

There is still demand for the high-producing agricultural land, Longgood explained. But without the steady income that CRP provided for less productive acres, sellers are being forced to adjust their asking price.

While there hasn’t been a market glut yet, Jim Whitney, the owner and president of the Whitney Land Company, said there is a “very real possibility” they could become oversupplied with CRP land depending on how landowners react.

“It makes no sense to put more ground into wheat right now,” Whitney said.

There are other natural attributes that could make expired CRP land attractive to potential buyers. Some farmers may consider using the ground for growing organic crops, since it hasn’t been sprayed with chemicals in over a decade. Any springs or water sources could provide flexibility to convert the land to cattle pasture.

Wildlife and recreational opportunities are also a big plus, Whitney added.

“People pay a lot of money for recreation today,” he said.

Though the market is cyclical, Longgood said the conditions now have lent themselves to a perfect storm.

“There’s still demand for (land). It just has to be priced adequately,” Longgood said.

Eric Orem, a Morrow County wheat grower who farms primarily on leased ground, said that while CRP is a good tool, he was never a big fan of the program and felt it took opportunities away from younger farmers.

“If you look back in the mi-d ‘70s, there were 270 to 280 farmers and now there’s about 75 or 80,” Orem said. “A big chunk of that was ground put into CRP.”

With more land available, Orem said more farmers could get the chance to start working, which would benefit communities economically.

As opposed to CRP payments going to landowners who may not even live in the county, growers will be out hiring employees spending money at local farm equipment dealers.

But he acknowledged that is easier said than done with today’s wheat prices, not to mention the high up-front cost of putting CRP ground back into production.

“Those are really tough grasses to kill,” he said. “It takes a lot of heavy tillage to get it worked out. Then, what you find there are almost no nutrients left in the soil.”
Orem said he expects farmers will be picky if they decide to take on more leased land, especially on ground that may already be marginal at best.

Murray said he realizes the difficulties growers are facing, while adding the Farm Service Agency is doing everything it can to advocate for more acres in the program.

“There will be some hard decisions, for sure,” Murray said.

Sherman County, Ore., commissioners and Azure Farms agreed to a weed control plan that may settle a dispute that pitted the organic operation and its supporters against conventional wheat growers who don’t want weeds spreading into their crops.

The farm near Moro in the north-central part of the state agreed to control weeds, with “control” defined as “little or no noxious weed seed production that would affect neighboring fields” and spread by the wind. Conventional farmers are chiefly concerned about seeds from Rush Skeleton, Canada thistle, White top, Diffuse napweed and Morning Glory, or Bindweed.

The agreement allows Azure Farms to use any method it sees fit, while the county’s weed district staff has the right to monitor Azure’s fields, pastures and range ground for compliance. County employees can access the fields by permission and appointment only, and must be accompanied by Azure Farms staff, according to the agreement.

If a weed patch is in more than 50 percent flower production, Azure Farms will have seven days or a “mutually agreed upon reasonable amount of time” to take action. If it doesn’t, Sherman County can spot-spray the weeds and mark the area in hopes the farm can maintain organic certification.

“This looks fine,” farm manager Nathan Stelzer said in a late-night email following a June 21 meeting with the county court. “Thanks for the good interactive communication and discussion today. I think we can have a very good working relationship, now that we know each other better and have a clearer understanding of the meaning of ‘control.’”

Commissioner Tom McCoy said he’s optimistic the farm, its neighbors and the county have reached an agreement that will work for all three.

That wasn’t the case earlier this spring. The farm’s weeds have been an irritant to other farmers for several years, especially those who grow certified wheat seed. This year, the weeds were described as “rampant.”

Sherman County officials warned Azure they would ask the state Department of Agriculture to quarantine the farm, and said they would spray weeds with herbicide if the farm didn’t get a handle on the problem.

But using conventional week killers would cause Azure to lose organic certification for three years after the last application.

Azure Farms appealed to its fans and followers on social media, and county officials received an estimated 59,000 emails critical of their stance on the issue.

At a county court meeting in May, held in a high school gym to accommodate the crowd, residents said they were angry about being vilified on Facebook and called names by people they’d never met. Nathan Stelzer and his brother, David, who is president of Azure Standard in nearby Dufur, apologized for the social media outburst.

HERMISTON, Ore. — Potato lovers rejoice. Two new spud varieties are coming soon to the Pacific Northwest.

Echo Russet and Castle Russet — developed by the Tri-State Potato Breeding Program that includes Oregon, Washington and Idaho — are just about ready to be released commercially, according to Sagar Sathuvalli with Oregon State University.

Sathuvalli, a potato breeder at OSU’s Hermiston Agricultural Research and Experiment Center, discussed the traits of each variety with local growers during the station’s annual potato field day Wednesday. Both varieties boast high yields and good cooking quality, and can be used either for french fries or fresh market.

Getting to this point is no small feat, Sathuvalli explained. From the time breeding begins to when the potatoes are approved for release, it usually takes 12-15 years of rigorous field trials.

Echo Russet — named for the nearby town — and Castle Russet are about to cross that finish line. The Capital Press reports that the Potato Variety Management Institute, which handles licensing and royalties for Tri-State varieties, has decided to release the latest creations in December.

“We should have approval very soon,” Sathuvalli said.

Potato field day also featured updates on research projects to help farmers control pesky Lygus bugs, manage various diseases and thwart parasitic nematodes.

Sapinder Bali, who works with Sathuvalli in the potato breeding program, said they are still working to pin down the specific genes in potatoes responsible for nematode resistance. Nematodes are microscopic parasites that infect potato roots and suck out the plant’s nutrients, causing both internal and external defects that can make the crop unmarketable. Once the genes are identified, breeders like Sathuvalli can use them to boos the resistance of new varieties over the next decade.

“Probably next year, I will have some exciting findings to share with you all,” Bali said.

Josephine Antwi, a postdoctoral researcher at HAREC, later transitioned into talking about Lygus bugs and how the insects may affect potato yields.

There are two species of Lygus bugs in the area, Antwi said, which are widely distributed and should not be confused with aphids. What Antwi is still trying to figure out is whether the bugs are capable of transmitting harmful purple top virus, and how many insects are too many for potatoes to handle.

“We are trying to relate the presence of Lygus bugs to yield,” Antwi said.

Wednesday marked the first potato field day for Ruijun Qin, the station agronomist who was hired last year to replace Don Horneck. Qin recently started field trials with Sathuvalli looking into the best nutrient management practices for Echo Russet and Castle Russet potatoes, so farmers will know what to do and what to expect if they decide to plant new varieties in their own fields.

Ken Frost, plant pathologist at HAREC, wrapped things up by delving into disease concerns this year. Late blight has an especially high probability of turning up around Hermiston given the region’s cool, wet spring.

“We’re going to see it sometime this year,” Frost said. “The problem is we don’t know when or where.”

HAREC station manager Phil Hamm said field day is an opportunity for growers to see (and touch) for themselves how the facility’s research can help them improve their success.

“This station is about you,” Hamm told them.

Seven members of the U.S. House from Washington state and Oregon have sent a letter to the White House urging President Donald Trump to begin renegotiating the Columbia River Treaty as soon as possible.

The 1964 treaty obligates the U.S. to send hydropower to Canada, commonly known as the Canadian Entitlement, which is borne by 6.4 million Northwest electrical customers at a cost of $250 million to $350 million annually, the members of Congress wrote in their June 21 letter.

“Renegotiating the Columbia River Treaty has an enormous impact on jobs, hydropower, water storage, flood control and the environment in the Pacific Northwest,” Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., said. “It’s important to begin formal negotiations as soon as possible to address certain inequities such as the Canadian Entitlement as well as ensure we have an updated and equitable treating for the 21st Century.”

Rep. Kurt Schrader, D-Ore., said the treaty has fostered important cooperation for more than 50 years but the update is long overdue.

The letter urges Trump to use a “Notice of Termination of the Power Provisions” if necessary to prompt Canada into negotiations.

Some estimates show Canada receives almost 10 times the benefits the U.S. Pacific Northwest receives from coordinated system operations, the representatives wrote.

Certain provisions related to flood control automatically expire in 2024 while most portions, including the Canadian Entitlement, continue indefinitely without action, they wrote.

Others signing the letter were Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash.; Peter DeFazio, D-Ore.; Greg Walden, R-Ore.; Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Wash.; and Dave Reichert, R-Wash.

DENVER (AP) — A recent insurance study links increased car crash claims to legalized recreational marijuana.

The Highway Loss Data Institute, a leading insurance research group, said in study results released Thursday that collision claims in Colorado, Washington, and Oregon went up 2.7 percent in the years since legal recreational marijuana sales began when compared with surrounding states. Legal recreational pot sales in Colorado began in January 2014, followed six months later in Washington, and in October 2015 in Oregon.

“We believe that the data is saying that crash risk has increased in these states and those crash risks are associated with the legalization of marijuana,” said Matt Moore, senior vice president with the institute, which analyzes insurance data to observe emerging auto safety trends.

Mason Tvert, a marijuana legalization advocate and communications director with the Marijuana Policy Project, questioned the study’s comparison of claims in rural states such as Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana with Colorado, Oregon and Washington that have dense population centers and how that affected the study’s findings.

“The study raises more questions than it provides answers and it’s an area that would surely receive more study, and deservedly so,” Tvert said.

Researchers accounted for factors such as the number of vehicles on the road in the study and control states, age and gender of drivers, weather and even whether the driver making a claim was employed. Neighboring states with similar fluctuations in claims were used for comparison.

Insurance industry groups have been keeping a close watch on claims when auto accidents across the country began to go up in 2013 after more than a decade of steady decline. Insurance companies found several possible factors at play in the spike that included distracted driving through texting or cellphone use, road construction, and an improved economy that has led to leisurely drives and more miles driven, as well as marijuana legalization.

“It would appear, probably not to anyone’s surprise, that the use of marijuana contributes to crashes,” said Kenton Brine, president of the industry group Northwest Insurance Council that represents companies in Washington, Oregon and Idaho. He added: “It would be difficult to say that marijuana is a definitive factor, lacking a citation, in a significant number of crashes to say that what we’re seeing here is a trend.”

The Highway Loss Data Institute said its study examined claims from January 2012 to October 2016.

“The problem here is that it’s a pretty new experience,” said Carole Walker of the Rocky Mountain Insurance Information Association, an industry group that covers Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico. “This is the first study that has been able to isolate legal pot as one of the factors.”

Eight states and Washington, D.C., have legalized recreational marijuana for adults.

Insurance Institute for Highway Safety spokesman Russ Rader adds that alcohol impairment remains one of the biggest concerns on the road.

“While we have proven countermeasures, proven strategies for reducing alcohol impaired driving, there are a lot of unanswered questions about marijuana and driving,” Rader said.

A study released last year by AAA’s safety foundation found legal THC limits established by states with legal marijuana have no scientific basis and can result in innocent drivers being convicted, and guilty drivers being released.

Moore of the Highway Loss Data Institute said they hope the study’s findings will be considered by lawmakers and regulators in states where marijuana legalization is under consideration or recently enacted.

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Some folks in Oregon might not want to ask, when served an elk burger or a venison steak, where the meat came from. Under a roadkill bill passed overwhelmingly by the Legislature and signed by the governor, motorists who crash into the animals can now harvest the meat to eat.

And it’s not as unusual as people might think. About 20 other states also allow people to take meat from animals killed by vehicles. Aficionados say roadkill can be high-quality, grass-fed grub.

“Eating roadkill is healthier for the consumer than meat laden with antibiotics, hormones and growth stimulants, as most meat is today,” noted People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA.

Washington state began allowing the salvaging of deer and elk carcasses a year ago. Pennsylvania might top the country in road kills, with Oregon wildlife officials telling lawmakers that the eastern state had over 126,000 vehicle-wildlife accidents in 2015.

“We are at or near the top of the list. We have a lot of roads and a lot of deer,” said Travis Lau, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Game Commission, though he added the total number was uncertain.

Pennsylvanians can take deer or turkeys that are killed on the road if they report the incidents to the commission within 24 hours, Lau said in a telephone interview.

Gov. Kate Brown signed Oregon’s bill last week after the Senate and House passed it without a single “nay” vote.

But a few Oregonians voiced opposition.

Vivian Kirkpatrick-Pilger, a Republican Party official in mountainous, forested Josephine County, told legislators that people have been salvaging roadkill meat in Oregon for years — since vehicles and animals have been colliding — and they never needed a law or permit to do it.

Actually, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife said that before last week, the only people allowed to keep roadkill were licensed furtakers, and no one — not even licensed hunters — could keep game animals found as roadkill.

The rules were aimed at discouraging people from hitting a game animal with their vehicle to take the meat or antlers. “It’s not a legal method of hunting,” the department’s website says.

Les Helgeson, of the community of Beaver, near the northwest coast, told legislators that roadkill “would not be palatable, much less pass any sense of health standards for human consumption.”

But those who have sampled it say otherwise.

Todd Toven of Castle Rock, Colorado, posted a video on YouTube showing himself carving up a deer that had been hit by a vehicle on a highway and finished off by a deputy sheriff’s bullet. Toven made it into venison sausage.

“A lot of who people don’t hunt hear the word ‘roadkill’ and they get turned off,” Toven said. “We’re talking perfectly clean, cold meat.”

Oregon’s new law calls for the state Fish and Wildlife Commission to adopt rules for the issuance of permits for the purpose of salvaging meat for human consumption from deer or elk that have been accidentally killed in a vehicle collision.

The first permits are to be issued no later than Jan. 1, 2019. The antlers must be handed over to the state’s wildlife agency.

HERMISTON, Ore. — Mackenzie Mills, who works in sales and account management for River Point Farms, has been accepted into the 2017-18 United Fresh Produce Industry Leadership Program.

Mills was one of 15 candidates from across the country selected for the program, sponsored by a grant from DuPont Crop Protection. During the year-long fellowship, participants will meet and train with top industry experts, including trips to California, Costa Rica, Washington, D.C., and Chicago, where they graduate at the 2018 United Fresh Convention.

“River Point Farms is very excited for Mackenzie,” said Bob Hale, company president and CEO. “From the many applicants, the 15 people accepted into the program represent the top talent from the top companies in the produce industry. This is a huge honor for her, and an indication of her high talent level.”

The United Fresh Produce Industry Leadership Program has graduated more than 200 people since it launched in 1995, focusing on four core areas of development: leadership, business relationships, government and public affairs and media and public communications.

For more information, visit www.unitedfresh.org.

Freres Lumber Co. of Lyons, Ore., has received a $250,000 U.S. Forest Service grant that will help it gear up for what the company sees as an emerging market: Using wood products in tall building construction.

The company will apply the money to buying and installing a computer numeric code (CNC) milling machine for its $23 million Mass Plywood Panel plant that is under construction in Linn County.

Mass plywood panels, like cross-laminated timbers, show strong potential for use in tall wooden buildings. Engineered timber panels can be used for walls and floors, beams and more, and are touted as a carbon-neutral replacement for concrete and steel. Tall wooden buildings are under construction in Portland, and Oregon State University’s forestry and engineering programs recently teamed with the University of Oregon’s architecture program to form the TallWood Design Institute at the OSU campus. It’s the nation’s first research partnership to focus on the advance of structural wood products.

The Freres company’s Mass Plywood Plant, set to open in January 2018, will be capable of producing panels that are up to 24 inches thick, 12 feet wide and 48 feet long. The CNC machine uses computer-aided design and machining technology to saw door and window spaces in the panels, which are made from layers of veneer.

Rob Freres, executive vice president, believes his company’s product is a better option than Cross Laminated Timbers, which are made from joined pieces of lumber.

Mass plywood panels require less wood fiber, weigh less and are more versatile, he said.

“It does have great promise,” Freres said.

He said veneer for the panels can be produced from small trees, the “suppressed understory” that can be harvested from public forests without the controversy that accompanies old-growth logging.

The panel plant, under construction halfway between Lyons and Mill City, also provides a way to revitalize rural Oregon, Freres said. It will use “cranes and robots” to move the large panels, but will employ 20 people per shift, he said.

“By adding value to the products we’re making today, it’s making their jobs more secure,” because the technology and the new product move the company away from the commodity market and give it more control over pricing, Freres said.

“It is exciting,” he said. “We’re part of a very cyclical business, and as such we’ve been very conservative financially. We’ve internally financed this so we don’t have bankers keeping us awake at night.”

While confident about the company’s move, Freres said Oregon’s timber industry as a whole won’t recover until changes are made in the management of Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management timber. The company has bought public timber since 1936 and the Forest Service and BLM have been on a “thinning regime” for the past 25 years, he said. The company adjusted its manufacturing processes to make use of what’s available and to stay competitive, he said.

“All of this takes forest management and the harvest of trees,” Freres said.

The U.S. Forest Service acknowledged there isn’t much it can do about a “Rainbow Family” gathering expected to bring thousands of counter-culture types to the Malheur National Forest in Eastern Oregon over the next two weeks.

The organizers don’t have a permit, and the Forest Service’s response to that has angered area residents such as rancher Loren Stout, who lives near the gathering spot and has a federal grazing permit on land adjacent to it.

He said the Forest Service would punish ranchers if they ignored permit requirements and tapped a spring for drinking water like the Rainbow Family has done. Stout said it took him two years to get a National Environmental Policy Act permit to drill an exploratory mining hole.

“People are furious over this,” Stout said. “Not because it’s a friggin’ bunch of hippies, it’s the different standards.”

An estimated 500 to 700 people have already set up camp at Flagtail Meadow off of Forest Road 24, near the towns of Seneca and John Day. The 46th annual National Rainbow Gathering could draw 15,000 to 20,000 July 1-7, and is being held without a permit required of anyone else who would want to stage such an event on federal forest land.

Ryan Nehl, deputy Forest Service supervisor on the Malheur and the agency administrator for the event, planned to take a permit form to organizers at the gathering spot June 21.

“I don’t have a lot of faith they will sign it,” Nehl said. In that case, the Forest Service will impose an operational plan for the gathering to follow, and could take action if those conditions are violated.

But Nehl said the Forest Service will not attempt to stop the gathering.

“It’s a risk-based decision,” he said. “To try and kick them off the land would present a danger to employees and the public.”

The event is put on by the Rainbow Family of Living Light, a loosely-organized group that annually picks a spot for its gathering and invites like-minded people to attend for multiple days of music, camping, dancing and communal hanging out. The gatherings have been held since the 1970s.

On a Facebook page set up for this year’s event https://www.facebook.com/groups/246284825703234/, one person posted, “If we were in control we would all have free energy, everyone would be housed and fed and we’d be having song circles every day.”

“What is the pants policy at this event?” another poster asked. He was assured that nudity should be expected.

In other postings, people urged fellow “family” members not to upset locals by panhandling or “gas jugging,” meaning to beg for gasoline. Others caution against “spanging,” a slang reference to asking for spare change. A stabbing among Rainbow members during a meeting in the Umatilla National Forest earlier in June has area residents worried about what the larger gathering will bring.

A community meeting was scheduled June 23, in John Day to let residents ask questions of Forest Service and law enforcement personnel. The meeting is from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. in the Juniper Hall Conference Room of the Malheur National Forest Headquarters, 431 Patterson Bridge Road.

The Forest Service mobilized an incident command team that includes 30 agency law enforcement officers from around the country, and has marked areas such as creeks that campers should stay out of. Oregon State Police, BLM officers, Grant County sheriff’s deputies and John Day police are available to help the incident team, Nehl said.

Meanwhile, rancher Stout said the Forest Service is “trying to put grazers out of business” but lets the Rainbow bunch do what they want. He said the gathering spot is a major Native American archaeological site and the area has eight springs that could be damaged.

He said the “takeover of federal ground” is no different than the Bundy group’s occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge headquarters. “I hate to say that,” Stout said.

SALEM — Oregon’s food processors and wineries are alarmed by a bill to reduce the maximum number of hours that manufacturing employees can work per week.

The proposal originated as an attempt to clarify how to calculate overtime paid to Oregon’s manufacturing workers, which had recently been in dispute.

However, the most recent version of the bill being considered by Oregon lawmakers would limit the maximum work week to 72 hours for manufacturing jobs, which food processors and wineries argue will impair their ability to handle the influx of crops during seasonal peaks. Work weeks are currently limited to 91 hours.

Paying overtime is expensive, so food processors would prefer to have enough workers as to avoid lengthy work weeks, said J.L. Wilson, a representative of the Northwest Food Processors Association.

However, such companies are often located where crops are grown, not where there’s an abundance of people, so they don’t have a sufficient labor pool from which to pull, he said.

As a result, these processors must rely on existing employees working longer during periods of peak production, Wilson said during a June 20 hearing on House Bill 3458.

“This is going to fundamentally disadvantage rural Oregon,” he said of the proposed limit. “They wouldn’t do it if they didn’t have to, in many instances.”

Similarly, harvest irregularities can force growers to suddenly provide wineries with larger amounts of grapes than expected, resulting in unpredictably heavy work loads, said Ellen Brittan of Brittan Vineyards in McMinnville, Ore.

Wineries have little choice but to extend work hours to prevent the fruit from rotting, she said. “You just have to deal with it.”

Some workers at Brittan Vineyards have logged as many as 86 hours per week, but they do so willingly to maximize overtime pay, she said.

“They want to be sure they can make a significant amount of money during this short window of opportunity,” Brittan said. “We have people fighting for those overtime hours.”

Not all Oregon employers are upset about the most recent version of HB 3458 before lawmakers.

Associated Oregon Industries, a non-profit representing businesses, believes the 72-hour work week will be challenging but is acceptable as long as overtime rules are clarified.

Last year, the state’s Bureau of Labor and Industries changed its guidance for manufacturing employers, finding that workers must be paid for both daily and weekly overtime hours combined. Traditionally, they simply had to pay whichever amount was greater.

For example, someone who worked 11 hours for two days and eight hours for three days spent a total of 46 hours at work that week, earning six hours of weekly overtime pay.

Since the person also exceeded the 10-hour daily cap twice, that counted toward two daily overtime hours.

Employers would usually just pay the worker for six hours of weekly overtime, but under BOLI’s new guidance, they must combine the daily and weekly overtime hours to pay for eight hours of total overtime.

A bill originally proposed in the Senate amended the law to allow employers to return to the traditional overtime approach, but groups representing workers objected to the change.

As a result, the proposal resurfaced in the House as HB 3458 with the addition of a work week limit of 60 hours.

Under an amendment to the bill currently before the House Rules Committee, that limit was revised to 72 hours per week for 90 days under hardship circumstances.

BEND, Ore. (AP) — Federal and county forestry officials are concerned that this year’s large outbreak of the invasive cheatgrass could lead to increased wildfires.

Deschutes County Forester Ed Keith says a wet winter and spring has led to taller, thicker patches of the grass. Cheatgrass is common throughout the Western U.S. It dries out and becomes very flammable around summer after sprouting anew starting in December.

The Bend Bulletin reports that the grass tends to grow along roadways, which in 2015 sparked a 105-square-mile wildfire when a vehicle struck the grass.

Keith says cheatgrass is in Deschutes County’s lowest-priority class in part because it’s so widespread. He said he talks to landowners about how to manage growth on their properties, but doesn’t focus on removing it because of its abundance.

Litigation has been halted in three lawsuits over Oregon’s Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument while its expansion is reviewed by the Trump administration.

Timber companies and county governments have filed one lawsuit in Oregon and two others in Washington, D.C., challenging the Obama administration’s decision to nearly double the monument’s size from roughly 53,000 acres to 100,000 acres.

Under the Trump administration, that designation and numerous others are being re-evaluated by U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke, who’s expected to submit a report on the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument by Aug. 24.

Due to the possibility the “designation could ultimately be changed in ways that would affect this litigation,” attorneys for the Interior Department believe that “deferral of further judicial proceedings is thus warranted,” according to a court document.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Marke Clarke in Medford, Ore., and Senior U.S. District Judge Richard Leon have granted the federal government’s motions to suspend litigation in all three cases until Sept. 24, a month after Zinke’s report is due.

While the lawsuits largely center on the expansion’s effect on logging, the national monument’s larger boundaries have also upset ranchers who graze cattle in the area.

According to the plaintiffs, restrictions on logging in the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument are unlawful because much of the new acreage is governed by the O&C Act of 1937, which requires sustainable production.

Apart from the loss of harvestable forestland, timber companies worry the expansion will draw more complaints about logging on private property adjacent to the monument or surrounded by it.

Counties that receive a portion of logging proceeds, meanwhile, are concerned about reduced revenues.

While grazing would be allowed within the monument, ranchers worry the designation will effectively curtail the practice due to skewed environmental studies.

Several environmental groups have intervened as defendants in the Oregon lawsuit because they were concerned the Trump administration wouldn’t vigorously defend the expansion.

Similar motions were pending in the two Washington, D.C., cases when the litigation was suspended.