Environmentalists have agreed to settle a lawsuit that accused Central Oregon irrigators of violating the Endangered Species Act by harming the Oregon spotted frog.

The Center for Biological Diversity and Waterwatch of Oregon filed two complaints against the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and five irrigation districts — Arnold, Central Oregon, Lone Pine, North Unit and Tumalo — that were consolidated earlier this year.

The environmental groups asked U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken for an injunction that would drastically alter the operation of the Crane Prairie, Wickiup and Crescent Lake reservoirs, which the districts depend on.

In March, Aiken denied that request, holding they did not meet the high burden of proving such an injunction was necessary, which led to months of settlement discussions.

Under the deal submitted to Aiken on Oct. 28, the irrigation districts have agreed to keep minimum flows in the Upper Deschutes River at 100 cubic feet per second in autumn and winter, up from 20 cubic feet per second in some past years.

The increased flow level is intended to provide a more stable water supply for the frogs, which were declared a threatened species in 2014.

The Bureau of Reclamation, which operates the dams that regulate water flows, has also agreed to complete an already-underway “consultation” on irrigation system impacts to Oregon spotted frogs. The irrigation districts formally committed to other changes they’ve voluntarily implemented this year.

The deal requires approval from Aiken to become final.

Irrigators hope the settlement will give them some breathing room until more permanent plans to conserve water and improve conditions for the frog are implemented.

“It’s a step in the right direction. It doesn’t solve the long-term problem,” said ShanRae Hawkins, spokeswoman for the irrigation districts.

By the time the settlement expires on July 31, 2017, the irrigation districts and the Bureau of Reclamation expect to have completed a “habitat conservation plan” for the frog, which would provide irrigators protection under the Endangered Species Act.

Conservation measures will require heavy investment in piping and lining canals, reducing seepage and allowing water to be distributed more efficiently, she said.

The Tumalo Irrigation District expects the settlement will cause it to forgo 42 percent of the water it stores in Crescent Lake, according to a letter sent to irrigators by Kenneth Rieck, the district manager.

However, if the region experiences an adequate water year over winter, the district should still be able to deliver 70 percent of normal flows, he said.

“This was not an easy choice, but the (district) board believes this settlement is in the best interest of the district,” Rieck said.

The Central Oregon Irrigation District voluntary left 35,000 acre-feet of water in the Crane Prairie reservoir this year for frog habitat instead of pulling water for irrigation and reducing the level to about 20,000-25,000 acre-feet, said Craig Horrell, its district manager.

Because the district left all of its stored water in the reservoir, it was forced to reduce deliveries by 20 percent, Horrell said. The district also owns in-stream water rights, which provided water for irrigators.

If the coming winter again results in insufficient water supplies, the district may need to cut deliveries short again in 2017, he said.

In an average water year, though, the settlement terms should not impact deliveries, Horrell said.

Now that the district anticipates more stored water will be released, it can also adjust its management of the reservoirs to mitigate negative effects, he said. “Knowing what we know now, we can plan for it better.”

Ending a long hiring drought, Oregon State University is advertising for a vegetable and vegetable seed specialist to work at its North Willamette Research and Extension Center in Aurora, Ore.

The position is part of a continued expansion of OSU Extension staff statewide and at the North Willamette center in particular, much of it made possible by increased funding approved by the Legislature in 2015.

In the past year, NWREC alone has hired Nik Wiman, an orchard crops specialist; Lloyd Nackley, a nursery production and management faculty member; and is negotiating to hire a pesticide registration specialist. The vegetable extension agent position has been vacant since Bob McReynolds, who was highly regarded by growers, retired in 2012.

Canby, Ore., grower Ed Montecucco said hiring a vegetable specialist will be most welcome by vegetable and vegetable seed farmers. Growers several years ago formed an endowment fund to help pay for the position, and the fund has reached $330,000.

Montecucco said McReynolds helped assemble data to win approval for chemicals that improve yield and control pests, and advised growers on farming practices.

The new person will need to be knowledgeable about raising organic and conventional vegetables and controlling pests in both, Montecucco said. He grows conventional and organic fresh market root crops, rhubarb and corn and beans.

NWREC administrator Michael Bondi said growers need help with pest control, irrigation efficiency, soil health and food safety regulations, among other things.

“There are a lot of unmet needs, that’s for sure,” he said.

Oregon’s fresh and processed vegetable industry has an annual farm gate value of $100 million, and the Willamette Valley is one of the nation’s primary vegetable, flower and herb seed production areas, Bondi noted in a news release.

Applicants must have a Ph.D. in horticulture or a related field. The closing date for applications is Nov. 20. A job description is at https://jobs.oregonstate.edu/postings/34112

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Changes in how dams on the Snake and Columbia rivers are operated are needed to improve migratory conditions for protected runs of Snake River chinook salmon and steelhead, federal officials said.

A proposed recovery plan released Thursday by the National Marine Fisheries Service also said habitat needs to be improved in tributaries where fish spawn and in the Columbia River estuary where young fish transition to ocean life.

The Snake River and its tributaries in Idaho, Oregon and Washington state at one time supported more than half of the Columbia River basin’s summer steelhead and more than 40 percent of the spring and summer chinook salmon.

But in the 1990s the two runs were listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. The 262-page recovery plan is described as a roadmap for federal agencies, state governments, tribes and private entities to use for possible action that could boost the two runs.

The plan sets goals before delisting can be attained. The goals, which include the number of returning fish, are broken down into the various streams that make up the Snake River Basin, with some streams in better shape than others.

For some populations “we may see substantial and quick movement in productivity, and in others it may take longer,” said Ritchie Graves of the National Marine Fisheries Service during a news conference Thursday.

Scientists acknowledged gaps in knowledge in creating the plan. The reason for losses of young fish in tributaries is not clear, for example. And what young fish do when exiting the Columbia River into the Pacific Ocean in what is recognized as a unique ecosystem called the plume is also not clear.

“The importance of understanding how fish survive and don’t survive in the plume has become increasingly important,” said Rosemary Furfey, recovery coordinator for the Fisheries Service.

The ultimate goal, managers say, is to have self-sustaining populations so the fish can be delisted. The federal agency estimates that could take 50 to 100 years. It estimates the cost over the next 10 years for just habitat work will be $139 million.

Comments on the proposed plan that also includes hatchery strategies, angler harvest, predator problems, climate change and more are being taken through Dec. 27, with those comments being used to create a final plan expected sometime in mid-2017.

The recovery plan takes into account a much larger legal battle involving all 13 endangered and threatened salmon and steelhead runs in the Columbia Basin.

In May, a federal judge in Portland, Oregon, ruled that the massive habitat restoration effort by the U.S. government doesn’t do nearly enough to improve Northwest salmon runs, handing a major victory to conservationists, anglers and others who hope to someday see the four dams on the Snake River breached to make way for the fish. The judge ordered the government to come up with a new plan by March 2018.

The recovery plan released Thursday doesn’t include removing the Snake River dams, but has language that would allow it to be modified to bring it in line with whatever comes out in the court-ordered 2018 plan.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A jury delivered an extraordinary blow to the government in a long-running battle over the use of public lands when it acquitted all seven defendants involved in the armed occupation of a national wildlife refuge in rural southeastern Oregon.

Tumult erupted in the courtroom Thursday after the verdicts were read when an attorney for group leader Ammon Bundy demanded his client be immediately released and repeatedly yelled at the judge. U.S. marshals tackled attorney Marcus Mumford to the ground, used a stun gun on him several times and arrested him.

U.S. District Judge Anna Brown said she could not release Bundy because he still faces charges in Nevada stemming from an armed standoff at his father Cliven Bundy’s ranch two years ago.

The Portland jury acquitted Bundy, his brother Ryan Bundy and five others of conspiring to impede federal workers from their jobs at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, 300 miles southeast of Portland. The jury could not reach a verdict on a single count of theft for Ryan Bundy.

Even attorneys for the defendants were surprised by the acquittals.

“It’s stunning. It’s a stunning victory for the defense,” said Robert Salisbury, attorney for defendant Jeff Banta. “I’m speechless.”

The U.S Attorney in Oregon, Billy J. Williams, issued a statement defending the decision to bring charges against the seven defendants: “We strongly believe that this case needed to be brought before a Court, publicly tried, and decided by a jury.”

The Oregon case is a continuation of the tense standoff with federal officials at Cliven Bundy’s ranch in 2014. Cliven, Ammon and Ryan Bundy are among those who are to go on trial in Nevada early next year for that standoff.

While the charges in Oregon accused defendants of preventing federal workers from getting to their workplace, the case in Nevada revolves around allegations of a more direct threat: An armed standoff involving dozens of Bundy backers accused of pointing weapons, including assault-style rifles, at federal Bureau of Land Management agents and contract cowboys rounding up cattle near the Bundy ranch outside Bunkerville.

Daniel Hill, attorney for Ammon Bundy in the Nevada case, said he believed the acquittal in Oregon bodes well for his client and the other defendants facing felony weapon, conspiracy and other charges.

“When the jury here hears the whole story, I expect the same result,” Hill told The Associated Press in Las Vegas. Hill also said he’ll seek his client’s release from federal custody pending trial in Nevada.

U.S. Attorney Daniel Bogden in Nevada, however, said the acquittals in Portland should have no effect in the Las Vegas case. “The Oregon case and charges are separate and unrelated to the Nevada case and charges,” Bogden said.

Ammon Bundy and his followers took over the Oregon bird sanctuary on Jan. 2. They objected to prison sentences handed down to Dwight and Steven Hammond, two local ranchers convicted of setting fires. They demanded the government free the father and son and relinquish control of public lands to local officials.

The Bundys and other key figures were arrested in a Jan. 26 traffic stop outside the refuge that ended with police fatally shooting Robert “LaVoy” Finicum, an occupation spokesman. Most occupiers left after his death, but four holdouts remained until Feb. 11, when they surrendered following a lengthy negotiation.

Federal prosecutors took two weeks to present their case, finishing with a display of more than 30 guns seized after the standoff. An FBI agent testified that 16,636 live rounds and nearly 1,700 spent casings were found.

During trial, Bundy testified that the plan was to take ownership of the refuge by occupying it for a period of time and then turn it over to local officials to use as they saw fit.

Bundy also testified that the occupiers carried guns because they would have been arrested immediately otherwise and to protect themselves against possible government attack.

The bird sanctuary takeover drew sympathizers from around the West.

It also drew a few protesters who were upset that the armed occupation was preventing others from using the land. They included Kieran Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity, who called the acquittals disturbing.

“The Bundy clan and their followers peddle a dangerous brand of radicalism aimed at taking over lands owned by all of us. I worry this verdict only emboldens the kind of intimidation and right-wing violence that underpins their movement,” Suckling said.

One of Ammon Bundy’s attorneys, Morgan Philpot, had a different perspective after watching Mumford get tackled by marshals. “His liberty was just assaulted by the very government that was supposed to protect it, by the very government that just prosecuted his client — unjustly as the jury found.”

There’s another Oregon trial coming up over the wildlife refuge.

Authorities had charged 26 occupiers with conspiracy. Eleven pleaded guilty, and another had the charge dropped. Seven defendants chose not to be tried at this time. Their trial is scheduled to begin Feb. 14.

Associated Press Writers Andrew Selsky in Salem, Oregon, and Ken Ritter in Las Vegas contributed.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The leaders of an armed group who seized a national wildlife refuge in rural Oregon were acquitted Thursday in the 41-day standoff that brought new attention to a long-running dispute over control of federal lands in the U.S. West.

A jury found brothers Ammon and Ryan Bundy not guilty a firearm in a federal facility and conspiring to impede federal workers from their jobs at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, 300 miles southeast of Portland where the trial took place. Five co-defendants also were tried one or both of the charges.

Despite the acquittal, the Bundys were expected to stand trial in Nevada early next year on charges stemming from another high-profile standoff with federal agents. Authorities rounding up cattle at their father Cliven Bundy’s ranch in 2014 because of unpaid grazing fees released the animals as they faced armed protesters.

The brothers are part of a Nevada ranching family embroiled in a lengthy fight over the use of public range, and their occupation drew an international spotlight to a uniquely American West dispute: federal restrictions on ranching, mining and logging to protect the environment. The U.S. government, which controls much of the land in the West, says it tries to balance industry, recreation and wildlife concerns to benefit all.

The armed occupiers were allowed to come and go for several weeks as authorities tried to avoid bloodshed seen in past standoffs.

The confrontations reignited clashes dating to the so-called Sagebrush Rebellion of the late 1970s, when Western states such as Nevada tried to win more control of vast federal land holdings.

The group began occupying the bird sanctuary in remote southeastern Oregon on Jan. 2. They objected to prison sentences handed down to Dwight and Steven Hammond, two local ranchers convicted of setting fires. They demanded the government free the father and son and relinquish control of public lands to local officials.

Ammon Bundy gave frequent news conferences and the group used social media in a mostly unsuccessful effort to get others to join them.

The Bundys and other key figures were arrested in a Jan. 26 traffic stop outside the refuge that ended with police fatally shooting Robert “LaVoy” Finicum, an occupation spokesman. Most occupiers left after his death, but four holdouts remained until Feb. 11, when they surrendered after a lengthy negotiation.

At trial, the case was seemingly open-and-shut. There was no dispute the group seized the refuge, established armed patrols and vetted those who visited.

“Ladies and gentlemen, this case is not a whodunit,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Ethan Knight said in his closing argument, arguing that the group decided to take over a federal workplace that didn’t belong to them.

On technical grounds, the defendants said they never discussed stopping individual workers from accessing their offices but merely wanted the land and the buildings. On emotional grounds, Ammon Bundy and other defendants argued that the takeover was an act of civil disobedience against an out-of-control federal government that has crippled the rural West.

Federal prosecutors took two weeks to present their case, finishing with a display of more than 30 guns seized after the standoff. An FBI agent testified that 16,636 live rounds and nearly 1,700 spent casings were found.

Bundy testified in his defense, spending three days amplifying his belief that government overreach is destroying Western communities that rely on the land.

He said the plan was to take ownership of the refuge by occupying it for a period of time and then turn it over to local officials to use as they saw fit.

Bundy also testified that the occupiers carried guns because they would have been arrested immediately otherwise and to protect themselves against possible government attack.

Ryan Bundy, who acted his own attorney, did not testify.

Authorities had charged 26 occupiers with conspiracy. Eleven pleaded guilty, and another had the charge dropped. Seven defendants chose not to be tried at this time. Their trial is scheduled to begin Feb. 14.

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Federal authorities want to add more hatchery-raised fish to the 28 Pacific Coast salmon and steelhead stocks listed under the Endangered Species Act.

The National Marine Fisheries Service in a document made public Friday said 23 hatchery programs could produce fish genetically similar to their wild but struggling cousins and should have the option of receiving federal protections.

The agency recently completed a five-year review required for listed species and plans no changes to the threatened or endangered status for the salmon and steelhead populations found in California, Oregon, Washington and Idaho.

The review included 330 hatchery programs. About half of those are already involved in boosting listed salmon and steelhead populations. Other hatchery programs are intended to produce large numbers of fish for anglers.

The document released Friday proposes eliminating five of the hatchery programs from ESA listings, meaning there’s a net increase of 18 programs.

The 23 proposed programs are mostly in Oregon and Washington, but there are some in Idaho and one in California that involves the Livingston Stone National Fish Hatchery and its efforts with winter-run chinook salmon in the Sacramento River.

Scientists say the net increase of 18 programs is part of a trend among fisheries managers of using locally adapted fish with the goal of producing fish more able to survive in the wild.

“There’s been considerable research on this and we generally understand that hatchery fish do not survive in the wild as well as wild fish,” said Rob Jones of the National Marine Fisheries Service. “But we have gotten much better at understanding how to narrow that gap and produce hatchery fish that have a better and better chance at surviving in the wild.”

Several watchdog environmental groups involved with salmon and steelhead and watershed ecosystems declined to immediately comment, citing the complexity of the federal proposal.

But Sara LaBorde, executive vice president of the Wild Salmon Center, gave an initial assessment.

“It seems like some of this language is housekeeping and some of it may have long-term policy implications,” she said in a statement to The Associated Press. “At this point, it’s important for all of us to read the notice and understand it fully.”

Conservation groups, in general, are concerned that an overreliance on hatchery fish could cause further declines in wild fish runs and additional degradation to the watersheds wild fish need to survive.

The watersheds themselves include dams needed to produce energy, control floods and provide irrigation. Other activities such as timber harvest and road construction can also are cause problems for migrating salmon, Jones said, and the hatcheries are intended to mitigate for those losses.

Salmon and steelhead runs are a fraction of what they were before modern settlement. Of the salmon and steelhead that now return, experts say, about 70 to 90 percent originated in hatcheries.

Public comments on the federal proposal are being taken through Dec. 20.

Efren Loeza has become a mainstay of Willamette Valley Vineyards’ operation

By Eric Mortenson

Capital Press

GASTON, Ore. — Efren Loeza takes his time with this first one, the first grape vine in the new vineyard. He lowers it into the hole his crew augured into the sloping hillside.

Squatting in the red dirt, brow furrowed in concentration, he steadies the slender vine with his left hand and brushes the soil back into the planting hole with his right, careful to pack around the bare roots so they will take hold and grow.

Because if anything, Efren Loeza knows about putting down roots and growing.

He stands and allows himself a slight smile. He’s a compact, courteous man, 54, with pale eyes, black hair that is beginning to thin and a voice that retains the soft accent of Mexico.

He hesitates to describe his emotions on this day. This is a new planting for Willamette Valley Vineyards, 45 acres of Pinot gris and 10 of Pinot noir. The company decided to name it Loeza Vineyard, to honor him and his extended family for their decades of hard work and competence.

“I don’t have words to explain how I feel, and my family feels, to have a vineyard with our name,” he says.

His is a familiar tale, and it is one Oregon agriculture, especially the wine industry, appears to be more comfortable in telling. At many farms and processing plants, of course, the work crews — the planters, pruners, pickers and packers — are heavily Latino. But in many cases they are also the managers, coordinating crews, planning work and carrying out a company’s vision at ground level.

Oregon’s vineyard and winery operators in particular have taken steps to support and acknowledge the workforce. For 25 years, the industry has funded ¡Salud! Services through Tuality Healthcare, which provides free medical screening and other services to seasonal vineyard workers and their families. Money comes from a two-day tasting and Pinot noir auction hosted by winemakers every November; the 2015 event raised $800,000.

At the 2016 Oregon Wine Symposium this past winter, the industry for the first time gave out Vineyard Excellence Awards. The winners were Jesse Lopez, of Celestina Vineyards in Southern Oregon; Irineo Magana, of Phelps Creek Vineyards in the Columbia River Gorge; and Efren Loeza, who began work at Tualatin Estate Vineyard in 1979 and stayed on when it was bought in 1997 by Willamette Valley Vineyards, based in Turner, Ore., outside Salem. Loeza manages all the company’s vineyards up and down the valley, 498 acres of grapes.

Mark Gibbs, senior agronomist with Oregon Vineyard Supply in McMinnville, is pleased to see rising recognition of farmworkers’ contributions, including his longtime friend, Loeza.

“He represents the backbone of our industry,” Gibbs said. “Without folks like Efren Loeza and the others, we would not exist.”

Over time, Latinos are increasingly becoming farmers themselves, not just laborers. The USDA’s 2012 Census of Agriculture showed the number of Hispanic farmers reached nearly 100,000 nationwide, a 21 percent increase over 2007. Two-thirds of them were principal operators, also a 21 percent increase over the previous census.

The change comes as the U.S. is having what Jim Bernau, Willamette Valley Vineyards founder and CEO, describes as a “strong discussion” about immigration.

Bernau said experts in demographics believe a country’s long-term success depends on the level of upward mobility it provides immigrants. He considers Loeza and others “one of those great American immigrant success stories.”

“Those people in the future will not only have their hands on the clippers and on the tractor steering wheel,” he said, “but on the levers of the major business decisions.”

Efren Loeza crossed the border illegally when he was 17, accompanying his father, who had called upon him to work the crops, make money, and help support the family. Efren cried when they left home in the Mexican state of Michoacan, because he wanted to stay in school and work locally.

“No, I need help bringing more money to the house,” his father answered. “That’s my last word.”

Loeza and his father arrived at a labor camp in Cornelius, Ore., on April 15, 1979. Efren spoke no English and didn’t know where he was; on the long trip north he’d peppered his father with questions about where they would stay and how they would eat.

The first spring and summer they picked strawberries, cucumbers and blackberries, and traveled into Washington to work the apple crop. They returned to join the crew at Bill Fuller’s Tualatin Estate Vineyard near Forest Grove, pruning and training vines. Efren was fascinated by the realization that you could put what looked like a stick into the ground and it would turn into grapes.

In 1981 he was arrested for driving with a suspended license, spent a week in jail and was sent back to Mexico when his illegal status was discovered. The judge told him he could return when he fixed his papers. The vineyard owner, Fuller, held a job open for him and rehired him when he returned. He eventually became a U.S. citizen.

The vineyard manager, the late David Foster, was fluent in Spanish and had taken a liking to the inquisitive teenager.

“You can work for us for 20 years,” he told Loeza at one point.

“Well, I like to learn,” Efren replied. “If I’m going to stay here 20 years, I want to know what I’m doing.”

He began a journal, taking notes on what he did every day in the vineyard. At one point, he showed it to Foster.

“You know what,” the manager said, “one day you’re going to be the main person here.”

Gibbs, the Oregon Vineyard agronomist, said Loeza often approached him with fertilizer, pest and plant disease questions. “He’d bring me a shoot and say, ‘Mark, what’s this?’

“He impressed me as a person who wanted to learn to better himself and his family,” Gibbs said. “Ultimately, he’s a real success story.”

In 1984 Loeza moved to a job in the winery, and spent the next 16 years learning all aspects of making wine in addition to doing vineyard work. Fuller, the owner, taught him to taste the complex notes in wine.

Over time, Loeza’s parents and all but one of his 10 brothers and sisters joined him in Oregon or moved from Mexico to California. Many of them worked at the vineyard; his younger brother, Miguel, has worked with him since 1981.

In 2000, three years after Willamette Valley Vineyards bought the business from Fuller, new owner Bernau sat down with Loeza and told him he had a new job: vineyard manager.

“You guys chose the wrong person,” Loeza said he responded. “I only went to school seven years.”

“Why don’t you try it for one year?” Bernau suggested. After one year passed, Bernau said he should try it for another. Loeza has been there ever since.

Loeza said the difference between taking instructions and making his own decisions at the vineyard nearly overwhelmed him. It helped that he was able to consult his management notes, kept in journals that date to 1982.

“The first year, I don’t know how I survived,” he said.

But Bernau had confidence in him.

“He knows what he’s doing and he knows it well,” he said. “He’s a very hands-on leader. He treats people well and is respectful to them.

“He has a high level of emotional intelligence,” Bernau said. “He knows how to identify talent and motivate talent in a very effective way, a very productive way.”

He said Loeza is able to grow high-quality fruit within the company’s framework of costs and prices, while fending off the challenges of weather.

“It’s a very challenging business and you really need remarkable talent to be successful in it,” Bernau said. “Why is Willamette Valley Vineyards so successful? One of the answers is Efren Loeza.”

Loeza and his wife, Herminia, live in what used to be Bill Fuller’s house on the company’s Tualatin Estate vineyard near Forest Grove, and three of his four children grew up there. His father, Marcos, died of heart failure in the house in 2005 after celebrating Efren’s birthday. Every Saturday, the extended family gathers at his mother’s house in Cornelius to eat and enjoy each other’s company.

Bernau intended to plant only Pinot gris on the company’s new vineyard near Gaston. When he told Efren the vineyard would be named after the family, however, Loeza insisted it had to have some Pinot noir as well. The complex and nuanced flavor of Pinot noir make it Loeza’s favorite, in part because it’s also a challenge to grow from that stick in the ground.

Bernau didn’t argue.

“One of my great joys,” he said, “is seeing Efren and his family arise.”

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A judge overseeing the trial of Ammon Bundy and six others accused in the armed occupation of a federal wildlife refuge dismissed a juror Wednesday after his impartiality was questioned by a fellow juror.

U.S. District Judge Anna Brown replaced the juror with an alternate, and deliberations were placed on hold until Thursday so the woman could travel from Central Oregon.

Jurors who had been deliberating for days must start over, setting aside any conclusions they may have already drawn. The panel is now comprised of nine women and three men.

“It’s a new jury, a new day, a new start,” Brown said.

Bundy’s defense attorney filed a court motion early Wednesday asking the judge to dismiss the juror. Lawyer Marcus Mumford said the court had not adequately investigated concerns about the juror’s impartiality that emerged Tuesday in a note sent to the judge by another juror.

Juror No. 4 wrote: “Can a juror, a former employee of the Bureau of Land Management, who opens their remarks in deliberations by stating ‘I am very biased ...’ be considered an impartial judge in this case?”

The juror in question, Juror No. 11, worked 20 years ago as a firefighter for the BLM.

The occupiers are charged with conspiring to prevent BLM employees from doing their jobs at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in southeast Oregon.

The group seized the refuge Jan. 2 and held it for 41 days, protesting federal land policy and the imprisonment of two ranchers who clashed with the BLM.

During jury selection, the man said his past employment would not prejudice his views.

Brown questioned the man again Tuesday and ruled that he could remain on the jury after she found that his views had not changed on his ability to remain impartial.

Brown switched her stance overnight, deciding the juror had to go.

She brought the entire jury into the courtroom and broke the news to Juror No. 11, who nodded but had little other reaction.

Mumford, who has repeatedly clashed with the judge during the trial, praised the decision outside the courtroom.

“I know that a lot people think we have our differences, and I guess we do, but I will tell you she wants to get it right every time,” Mumford said.

LA GRANDE, Ore. — A new northeastern Oregon business is following a current trend — bringing meat processing, including a USDA-certified facility, closer to where livestock is raised.

Since June, Hines Meat Company in La Grande brought 13 employees on board and is answering a growing demand from local hunters and producers. By early spring they will have a USDA facility available for local ranches that are used to shipping cattle hundreds of miles.

Paige Hines, a nurse, said she and her husband Jake, a contractor, opened their new business in time for the Eastern Oregon Livestock Show early this summer.

“We have been incredibly busy from day one,” Hines said.

While the learning curve has been steep and the sweat equity extensive, she said the feedback has been positive.

“The response from the community has been incredible,” Hines said.

Hines said her husband grew up in Imbler, a farming community 12 miles outside of La Grande. Despite the abundance of livestock throughout the region, buying local meat is difficult.

“Even though agriculture is the number one industry, unless you buy a whole or half beef local meat isn’t accessible to you,” Hines said. “We are surrounded by this industry and we wanted to make it accessible.”

In September they opened their retail shop, offering thick cut pork chops and steaks, bacon and sausages like Andouille, beer bratwurst and steak and cheese. Until they open their USDA certified facility Hines said the meat sold in their store is rated USDA choice and above from Western states distributors.

A concrete contractor by trade, Jake Hines started thinking about different businesses that weren’t as hard on the body. With experience butchering game and a zest for cooking, an idea was born.

“We are unsophisticated foodies,” Hines said. “Jake’s been a hunter and cut up his fair share of wild game. We cook a lot and Jake likes the process of brining and smoking,” Hines said.

When they got serious she said they looked for a buildable lot and started working on a design. Financing took a year and construction another nine months.

“It’s definitely been an adventure for us,” Hines said.

Two experienced meat cutters came to work for them and quickly they filled positions to grind, package and run the retail shop. Jake and Paige Hines are both involved with the business while maintaining part-time connections to their previous occupations.

“We’re in this phase because we keep growing and we need to continue to have enough people working so we are not burning them out,” Hines said.

During these first few months she said they keep looking at how to be more efficient and what positions they need to fill.

The business took off by word-of-mouth and with very little advertising, underscoring what the Hines already believed – there was a healthy market.

“That shows how much this business was sorely needed. All we had to do was show up!” Hines said.

Since they opened Hines said a number of ranchers have called from Wallowa and Union counties, eager for the USDA facility to open.

To get certified Hines said they are working with a consultant from University of Idaho to write a plan that is in compliance with federal regulations.

“We have to have a plan in place that identifies possible points of contamination and addresses how to take care of them while incorporating a number of different processes in the same work place,” Hines said.

Simply put, in any given day, Hines said, the USDA meat would be processed first, then the custom work and finally wild game. She said the three must be processed in different spaces or at different times and decontamination incorporated into the daily workflow.

While a lot of producers go as far as Nampa, Idaho, for USDA processing, Hines said she hopes their business will be a welcome addition to the agriculture market.

“This is a good way to do it capitalize on the things we have going on here and hopefully stimulate ranchers’ business. We want to offer a good service to the people who live here.”

Aerial spraying of a biological insecticide in Portland last spring appears to have paid off, as state ag inspectors report finding no Asian gypsy moths in the 8,800 acre target area this year.

The Oregon Department of Agriculture oversaw three applications of Bacillus thuringiensis var. kurstaki, commonly referred to as Btk, in the Forest Park and North Portland areas. A check of 3,000 traps in Portland and 19,000 traps statewide yielded no Asian gypsy moths, considered a particularly destructive crop pest. It’s more of a threat than European gypsy moths because the female of the Asian variety can fly, potentially leading to quicker and more widespread infestations.

Two Asian moths in Portland were among the 14 gypsy moths found in Oregon traps last year. Another Asian gypsy was trapped across the Columbia River near the Port of Vancouver. Asian gypsy moths most likely arrive aboard cargo ships that ply up the river from Russia, Korea, China and Japan.

The ag department will do two more years of trapping in Forest Park and North Portland, but for now the spraying appears to have succeeded, ODA pest program manager Clint Burfitt said in a news release.

Six European gypsy moths were trapped in Oregon over the summer, four in the Grants Pass area and two east of Springfield. The department does not plan to spray in those areas, however.

BEND, Ore. (AP) — Oregon senators are asking for the public’s opinion on possibly expanding the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument.

The Bulletin reports that Oregon Sens. Merkley and Ron Wyden, both Democrats, have asked the U.S. Department of the Interior to expand the monument’s border by about 50,000 acres. Most of the expansion would involve Bureau of Land Management lands.

The existing monument was created in 2000 by a presidential proclamation. The 62,000-acre monument spreads over southern Oregon, where the Cascade, Siskiyou and Klamath mountain ranges converge.

According to a letter early this month from Merkley and Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., the effects of climate change have made the monument’s boundaries inadequate to protect native species.

Merkley is seeking comments on the proposal by Nov. 20, to share with the president.

Irrigators in Eastern Oregon can develop up to 144,100 acre-feet of new water rights due to the renewal of “water reservations” in three river basins.

The Oregon Water Resources Commission has unanimously approved the renewal of water reservations in the Grande Ronde, Malheur and Owyhee basins, which were set to expire early next year.

The water was “reserved” for economic development by the Oregon Department of Agriculture nearly 30 years ago, when the state mandated minimum in-stream flows for environmental reasons.

However, few water rights have been established from the available reserved water since then.

Irrigation experts in Eastern Oregon say it’s unclear whether the story will play out any differently now that the reservations have been renewed for 20 years.

In eight out of 10 years, the Vale Irrigation District doesn’t receive enough water to make any available to junior water right holders, said Dan Fulwyler, its executive director.

In the years there is enough water for junior water right holders, it’s only available for about two weeks a year, he said.

Due to this scarcity, farmers probably wouldn’t want to invest in new water rights and facilities, Fulwyler said.

However, Fulwyler said it’s conceivable the water reservations could be useful in filling existing reservoirs.

“It would have to be for storage, because nobody would want it for just two weeks,” he said.

In the Grande Ronde Basin, irrigators have been discouraged by failed past attempts to create a new in-channel reservoir, largely because of potential environmental impacts, said Jed Hassinger, president of the Union County Farm Bureau.

“It’s been a challenge to find suitable storage in the basin here,” he said.

However, Union County is evaluating other options, such as off-channel or underground storage, under a $197,000 place-based planning grant from the Oregon Water Resources Department, Hassinger said.

The region can grow high-value crops, including peppermint, sugar beets and seed potatoes, that would justify investment in new water facilities, he said.

In the Owyhee Basin, irrigators have been more focused on boosting water efficiency than developing new water rights, said Jay Chamberlin, manager of the Owyhee Irrigation District.

“The big driver has been conservation,” he said. “The drought has expedited that.”

With the renewal of the Owyhee Basin’s reservation, irrigators will look at possible water right development, potentially involving the existing Owyhee reservoir, Chamberlin said.

Water storage and distribution are expensive, particularly with regulatory barriers, he said. “There’s going to be tremendous cost if anybody tries to put that into use.”

In recent years, the Owyhee reservoir hasn’t had much “carryover” water after the irrigation season, said Margaret Matter, ODA’s water resource specialist.

Reserved water could be used to establish a “buffer,” but the basin would have to experience consistently high flows to make more water available, said Matter.

In the Grande Ronde Basin, reserved water could be channeled into underground aquifers, eventually increasing late stream flows from groundwater, she said. “It would improve irrigation reliability, especially later in the season.”

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Federal prosecutors’ case against the armed occupiers of an Oregon wildlife refuge hit a bump Tuesday when a juror raised questions about the impartiality of another person on the panel.

Jurors sent two notes to the judge that indicated they were having difficulty reaching a consensus after three days of deliberations.

In one note, a member of the panel said a fellow juror called himself “very biased.” The writer asked the judge whether that juror, a former employee of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, can be considered impartial.

The federal agency manages the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in southeastern Oregon, a remote site that Ammon Bundy and his followers took over for 41 days this winter. During questioning last month before trial, the juror said he worked for the agency more than 20 years ago as a range tech and firefighter.

U.S. District Judge Anna Brown and representatives from the prosecution and defense met in chambers with the juror whose impartiality has been questioned. Brown questioned him and found no sign of bias. She left him on the jury and sent the panel home for the day.

When defense attorneys objected, Brown gave them until Wednesday morning to find case law that would support further questioning of the juror or the panel member concerned about his impartiality.

“We’ve done all we can do given the hour of the day,” she said, repeatedly cutting off objections from defendant Ryan Bundy, Ammon Bundy’s brother who is representing himself at trial.

The jury is considering charges against the Bundy brothers and five others of conspiring to impede federal workers from doing their jobs at the refuge. They took over the bird sanctuary Jan. 2, objecting to federal land policy and demanding the U.S. government turn over control of public range to local officials.

In the second note sent by jurors, they asked the judge: “If we are able to agree on a verdict for three of the defendants, but are at a standoff for the others, does our decision for the three stand?” The note does not identify the three.

Before sending the jury home, Brown sent back a note that instructed them to “consider each count for each defendant separately.”

Also Tuesday, Brown sentenced Brian Cavalier, another defendant in the case, to time already served.

The bodyguard for Ammon Bundy pleaded guilty in June, one of 11 defendants to accept a deal from prosecutors.

Cavalier also faces charges in Nevada in a 2014 armed standoff with federal agents at Cliven Bundy’s ranch.

The Pacific Northwest Waterways Association is encouraging farmers, ranchers, shippers and others involved in agriculture to share the importance of the Columbia-Snake River system during a federal public comment period, which ends Jan. 17.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Reclamation and Bonneville Power Administration are preparing a new impact statement on the Columbia River system and the 14 federal projects in the Columbia Basin. The public comment period ends Jan. 17.

The EIS is in response to U.S. District Judge Michael Simon’s ruling in May. He found that the federal government failed to use the best available science to consider salmon recovery, including the effects of climate change and the possibility of breaching one or more dams on the Lower Snake River. The judge directed the agencies to create an updated plan for the river system within five years.

The agencies are determining what to study as part of a scoping process, said Kristin Meira, executive director of the association.

“We’re looking forward to a very robust study of the entire river system,” she said.

The meetings come at a time when many opinions exist for the future of the system, she said.

“There’s also a lot of misinformation out there about barging, fish numbers and the true impacts of the dams on the river,” she said.

Farmers who ship grain and others who rely on the river system should ask the federal agencies to consider all possible impacts to the region’s economy as they consider changes, Meira said.

“It’s really important that these agencies hear from all users so they understand how extensive the impacts of the river are,” she said. “It really is absolutely critical to our Northwest economy, so everybody needs to lend their voices and say, ‘This river matters to me. Don’t forget to study my part of the river as you think about any changes in the future.’”

Those who favor removal of the dams on the river system are also likely to participate, Meira warned.

“This is a great opportunity to have the facts be documented and make sure we’re all aware of what’s happening on the river as we think about how it should be operated,” she said. “For the benefit of our fish, but also making sure we have the ability to move cargo, generate power and have irrigation here in the Northwest.”

The agencies will have public meetings around the region and two web seminars. Meira encourages ag industry members to attend.

“They’re not only a chance to come in and provide your voice, they’re also great information sessions,” she said. “Maybe you know about one part of the river, but you don’t know about all the different things happening on the river.”

Online

For a list of the meetings got to http://www.crso.info/

POWELL BUTTE, Ore. — Oregon State University officials are mulling options for the future of a local research farm that’s been put to little use since 2010, due to the discovery of a previously unknown species of potato cyst nematode.

OSU’s 80-acre Central Oregon Agricultural Research Center in Powell Butte once filled a crucial role in the Tri-state Potato Breeding Program — expanding experimental potato seed developed collaboratively by OSU, University of Idaho and Washington State University. Forage researchers also used the facility.

But in recent years, the sole project in Powell Butte has been evaluating the potential for a newly discovered PCN species, Globodera ellingtonae, to damage commercial potato crops.

Though G. ellingtonae reproduces rapidly on spuds, the trials, which concluded in 2015, produced no evidence that the pest affects tuber quality or yield. Researchers also found no visual symptoms of nematode damage among plants in infested fields.

“We’ve never seen much decrease in yield unless we go to extreme high numbers,” said Russ Ingham, an OSU professor of botany and plant pathology.

Inga Zasada, a research plant pathologist with USDA’s Agricultural Research Service in Corvallis, Ore., explained the nematode was found in two isolated locations in Teton County, Idaho, and at the OSU facility in 2008, as a result of extensive soil sampling done throughout U.S. potato country following the 2006 discovery of a highly destructive pest, pale cyst nematode, in a small area of Eastern Idaho.

The new species, named G. ellingtonae by the USDA researchers in Maryland who characterized it, closely resembles nematode samples found in South America, Zasada said.

Based on the discovery, the Oregon State Department of Agriculture issued an administrative directive restricting operations at the facility, leading the Tri-state potato breeding program to move its seed expansion work elsewhere and OSU to relocate forage research. Zasada said OSU extensively sampled other farming operations with ties to the Powell Butte facility and found no evidence that the nematode spread elsewhere.

“Thanks to the research that Russ and Inga have done, it looks like we’re getting close to having that administrative directive lifted, and then it would allow us to decide what to do with that (center),” said Dan Edge, associate dean of OSU’s College of Agricultural Sciences.

Edge said selling the facility or restoring forage research there are options. OSU has planted the grounds in fescue and has been controlling hairy nightshade, a common weed known to host the nematode. Edge said the university may try to combat the pest with a new fumigant, mustard meal or resistant potato varieties developed for New York farmers coping with golden nematode.

Zasada said this summer’s research in Powell Butte has focused on studying the rate at which viable cysts decline in the absence of a host. She considers the planting trial results to be promising but inconclusive and is pursuing funding for side-by-side comparisons of G. ellingtonae, golden nematode and pale cyst nematode at a different location.

Brian Marschman, with USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, said G. ellingtonae appears to be a weak pathogen that doesn’t persist long in soil. He said APHIS has no information on the crop history of the Teton County fields in which it was discovered, since it’s not a federally regulated pest. Marschman said agency scientists will present risk-based recommendations on potential next steps for management to consider, but no time frame has been set for that process.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Big retail chains are spending millions of dollars to fight Measure 97, the ballot initiative that would establish a 2.5 percent tax on Oregon sales over $25 million to help fund education and other state services.

Grocery stores are particularly active in the fight, and it’s easy to understand why: They do huge volumes of sales in an industry with famously thin profit margins.

Measure 97 is a one-of-a-kind tax, though, with unusual exemptions and applications. And the state’s largest grocery chain, Safeway and Albertsons, is exempt.

The grocers, who share a common owner, have given $1.8 million to defeat the initiative — as much as any other contributor to the “No” campaign.

That raises an obvious question: Why are Safeway and Albertsons spending so much to fight a tax that affects their rivals but not them?

The answer says a lot about the tax, and about the fate of Safeway and Albertsons.

Measure 97 is highly unusual in that it taxes certain types of businesses and not others. The tax applies to companies registered as C-corporations, which are often large businesses, but does not affect a “benefit company” or S-corporation.

There are many distinctions among the various types of companies, and different tax implications for each corporate status. But for our purposes think of it this way:

C-corps frequently have many investors, like a publicly traded corporation.

S-corps have few owners. Sometimes that’s a family-owned business, but it can also be a large business controlled by one person or company.

A “benefit company” is a special category of business under Oregon law, established to create public benefits in addition to profits for the owners.

Costco, another leading opponent of Measure 97, is a C-corp. So is Fred Meyer, owned by a publicly traded company called Kroger Co.

Portland grocery New Seasons is a kind of benefit corporation, called a B-corp., but is not registered as a “benefit company” under Oregon law. It may still be exempt from the taxes, though, if it’s an S-Corp. (New Seasons’ status isn’t public, and the company declined to clarify its status.)

Safeway and Albertsons are, apparently, S-corps. The grocery chain did not respond to repeated requests for comment, but the main organization campaigning against Measure 97 confirmed that the stores would not pay the tax because of their corporate status.

It’s not completely clear why Measure 97’s authors (the measure’s supporters are public employee unions) chose to exempt some businesses from the tax, or how it chose which companies to exclude. The measure’s supporters did not respond to messages seeking comment.

The initiative’s authors may have been trying to protect smaller businesses and target larger companies, which might be in a better position to afford the new tax. But using corporate classification turns out to be a blunt instrument.

Safeway and Albertsons illustrate why. They have 125 stores across Oregon, more than twice as many as their closest rival, yet would pay no tax under the initiative. Compare that to Costco: if its 10 Oregon stores perform on par with its companywide average, the retailer would pay more than $40 million annually in additional state taxes under Measure 97.

The fact that the initiative taxes some businesses and not others adds complexity to one of the great uncertainties around Measure 97 — how much of the tax companies will pass along to consumers.

Measure 97’s authors insist consumers won’t pay anything more, that companies will eat the entire cost. Opponents say that’s unrealistic, and that some portion of the tax is sure to flow downstream to shoppers.

As the state’s largest grocery chain, Safeway and Albertsons have enormous pricing power. Since they are exempt, they could squeeze competitors who do pay the tax by keeping their prices constant. Or, if the tax prompts rivals to raise prices, Safeway and Albertsons could increase their profits by matching the price hikes.

And that takes us back to the original mystery: Since Measure 97 gives Safeway and Albertsons a competitive advantage, why are they fighting it so hard? The grocers just gave another $900,000 to help fund the opposition.

In the statement from the measure’s opponents, they say Safeway and Albertsons strongly oppose Measure 97 “because national and local suppliers that would be subject to the tax would increase the company’s costs, triggering higher prices to its customers or adjustments in its workforce to remain competitive.”

That highlights another unusual feature of Measure 97: Unlike other taxes on sales, it applies to both retailers and wholesalers. Economists warn it could trigger a “pyramiding effect,” layering costs upon costs that drive down profits while forcing up prices.

It makes sense that Safeway and Albertsons would want to avoid those costs — except its rivals would also be subject to the pyramiding effect, plus the direct cost of the tax. Measure 97 would still be a substantial advantage for Safeway and Albertsons relative to its rivals.

So there’s obviously something else going on.

The answer, as you may have guessed, has to do not with what Safeway and Albertsons are today, but what they might become.

Albertsons was sold in 2013 to an investment firm called Cerberus Capital Management. Then last year, Cerberus bought Safeway.

Big investors like Cerberus don’t buy supermarkets because they’re eager to get into the competitive, low-margin grocery business. Cerberus specializes in troubled companies.

It bought Safeway and Albertsons to shake up the businesses, cut costs, package them together and sell them at a profit — either to another investment group or, more likely, through a public stock offering.

New owners likely would be ineligible to continue the S-corp. tax status, which would make Safeway and Albertsons subject to the tax. So the groceries may be fighting Measure 97 knowing the Oregon tax would depress the value of the business to prospective new owners.

“When they take it public it’s not going to be an S-corp,” said Frank Dell, chief executive of Dellmart & Co., a management consulting firm specializing in food and consumer products. He said Safeway and Albertsons’ opposition reflects long-term planning for a tax whose effects would resonate for years.

“They’re thinking down the line,” Dell said, “and they should be thinking down the line.”

GRESHAM, Ore. — Hiroshi Morihara jokes that his current project — finding a clean-fuel replacement for coal — was his wife’s fault.

“Hiroshi,” his wife, Mary McSwain, told him several years ago, “you look bored. Why don’t you invent something again?”

On Oct. 18, Morihara’s company announced it has refined a process for turning logging slash or other biomass into briquettes that can be burned in coal-fired electrical plants such as the one in Boardman, Ore. His company, HM3 Energy Inc., has built a $4 million demonstration plant in Troutdale, Ore., just east of Portland. It plans to license the technology and sell it worldwide. A Japanese firm, New Energy Development Co., has invested $2 million in HM3 and said it will build a production plant at an undisclosed location in Oregon.

The fuel is produced through a method called torrefaction, in which woody debris, crop residue or other plant material is essentially roasted in the absence of oxygen. The end product is a brittle, briquette-looking material that can be crushed and burned.

Morihara and others believe the briquettes can be a cleaner, “drop-in” replacement for coal, which is considered a dirty energy source. Portland General Electric, which operates the Boardman power plant, is looking for a replacement fuel. Later this year, PGE will conduct a 24-hour test burn of torrefied biomass to see if it works.

The utility would need up to 8,000 tons of biomass fuel per day to replace the coal it now burns. Other companies are pursuing the technology; PGE is working with a coalition called Oregon Torrefaction to obtain the material it needs for the test burn.

The project potentially could become part of the West’s solution to intrusive Western juniper. Part of HM3’s grant funding came from the USDA as part of its search to find a use for juniper, and the fuel on display at the company’s press tour this month was made from the gnarly wood.

Morihara said using logging debris or material from forest thinning projects reduces the risk of catastrophic wildfire and could be part of an economic revival in rural Oregon.

“I wanted to make sure rural people have family wage jobs, and forestry is the best way,” he said.

Hiroshi Morihara

Occupation: Founder, president and CEO of HM3 Energy Inc., Gresham, Ore.

Age: 79, but “Age is relative,” he said.

Personal: Married to Mary McSwain. He’s an expert skier and still teaches skiing at Mount Hood Meadow. He also runs, and has completed more than 50 marathons.

What he’s up to: He and partners developed equipment to turn woody debris into briquettes that can be a “drop-in” replacement for coal and used to fire electrical generation plants. HM3 Energy built a demonstration plant in Troutdale, Ore., and intends to license the technology to companies that could build processing plants.

Ag connection: Intrusive Western juniper trees could be a key feedstock for briquette plants. Ranchers, wildlife officials and land managers say removing junipers improves rangeland, restores watersheds and can improve habitat for sage grouse.

Background: Born in Japan, he was 8 years old when Japan surrendered to end World War II. Came to the U.S to attend college, earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of Michigan-Dearborn, and a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the University of Buffalo.

Professional life: Worked for Union Carbide Corp. and on projects for the U.S. Department of Energy, helped start a silicon processing plant, ran a pair of biotech companies, owned a golf course. Claims he’s retired three times.

NYSSA, Ore. — Onion yields and sizes in the Idaho-Eastern Oregon growing region were both bigger than normal this year.

Prices, however, are down near break-even for the 300 growers who produce roughly 25 percent of all the Spanish bulb onions consumed in the United States.

“We had a very good growing season and we had some good yields; quality looked very good and size is larger than normal,” said Snake River Produce Manager Kay Riley.

Riley said the result is a larger-than-average crop that has led to depressed prices at the moment, a situation exacerbated by a strong U.S. dollar and weak export market.

Bulb onion prices are off close to 50 percent from this time last year and are near the break-even price for farmers, he said.

Onion growers in the Treasure Valley region of Eastern Oregon and southwestern Idaho are under a federal marketing order and produce more than 1 billion pounds of bulb onions each year, making this the nation’s largest onion-growing region in terms of volume.

About 90 percent of the bulb onions grown in this area are yellows, while the rest are red and white varieties. Harvest usually begins in August and is mostly complete by the end of October.

There are 36 packing sheds in the valley and the industry’s annual economic impact is estimate at about $1.3 billion, making onions the backbone of the region’s economy.

Onion acres were close to 20,000 this year and production is about 10 percent more than last year, said Riley, marketing order chairman of the Idaho-Eastern Oregon Onion Committee.

Growing conditions this year were superb and as a result, the area produced an unusually large amount of super colossals, the biggest bulb onion size.

“The crop is looking really good,” said Nyssa grower Paul Skeen, president of the Malheur County Onion Growers Association. “The one negative is that they’re actually too big. We have more super colossals than normal and less jumbos and mediums because of that. We may have a shortage of mediums and jumbos.”

The season got off to an early start, growing conditions were ideal and the oppressive heat that affected the crop the past two years skipped 2016, said Stuart Reitz, an Oregon State University cropping systems extension agent in Malheur County.

“Those onions just got bigger and bigger,” he said. “It was a good growing season so the onions naturally are big.”

Reitz said onion sizes were so big that a farmers cooperative in the area held a “biggest onion” contest this year and a lot of 3- pound onions were brought in. Super colossals are typically 1.5 to 2 pounds.

“There were some big ones out there, he said.

The good news, he added, is that quality is excellent. “There are some really nice looking onions out there.”

BOARDMAN, Ore. — The milking parlor at Columbia River Dairy is a large, warehouse-like building where cows arrive twice a day to be milked by modern machinery.

First, the animals are loaded onto slowly rotating carousels where their udders are sprayed with a disinfectant and attached to automatic pumps. Each spin lasts just a few minutes before the cows are unloaded back where they started. The process is smooth, continuous and efficient.

Outside, Milky Way trucks are waiting 24/7 to deliver milk from the dairy — part of Threemile Canyon Farms — to Tillamook Cheese, which runs a cheese-making plant at the nearby Port of Morrow. With 26,000 milking cows producing 170,000 gallons every day, there is always lots to do.

Threemile Canyon is, by far, the largest dairy operation in Oregon. The herd totals 70,000 total cattle, including calves and heifers. Located on 93,000 acres in rural Morrow County, the farm also grows a variety of conventional and organic crops, such as potatoes, onions, corn and wheat.

Now, another mega-dairy is looking to expand in the county, which is raising questions about water and air pollution in the surrounding communities. Willow Creek Dairy, which has leased land from Threemile Canyon since 2002, wants to strike out on its own and add 30,000 cows on part of the former Boardman Tree Farm.

More than 2,300 comments have poured in on the proposal, mostly in opposition. Environmental advocacy groups argue that Willow Creek would produce as much waste as a mid-size city, and regulations don’t offer enough protection. They also question the wisdom of having two large dairies so close together.

But Marty Myers, general manager for Threemile Canyon, defended their management practices, which he said are forward-thinking and sustainable.

“It isn’t bad just because it’s big,” Myers said. “It’s agriculture of the future.”

In fact, Myers said the size of Threemile Canyon allows them to do things that wouldn’t be practical for a smaller dairy farm.

By growing crops and raising cows all in the same place, the farm is able to recycle its own waste to use as fertilizer in the field. That, in turn, creates more feed for the animals, thus completing the closed-loop system.

“We get big beneficial uses out of that cow manure,” Myers said. “It’s not a negative for us. It’s a positive.”

It all begins with the cows. Threemile Canyon dedicates between 20,000 and 25,000 acres to growing feed crops, such as grain corn and a hybrid wheat known as triticale. Everything is harvested and stored for the animals to eat year-round.

Once the heifers are two years old, they are ready to be milked. Of course, they are also producing waste throughout their lives — roughly 436 million gallons of liquid manure every year. Per Oregon rules for confined animal feeding operations, or CAFOs, none of that material can be discharged into surface water or groundwater.

At Threemile Canyon, free-stall barns are flushed regularly into a concrete collection basin, and from there pumped into a methane digester at the farm. The digester then heats the waste at 100 degrees and bacteria breaks it down into a gas. The gas is then burned to drive three 2,000-horsepower engines capable of generating 4.8 megawatts of power.

Myers estimates the facility, which was built in 2012, removes 60,000 tons of carbon from the atmosphere annually.

From there, about half of the leftover solids are made into animal bedding. The other half is used for organic fertilizer. The liquid is pumped into one of three lagoons, which is treated and run through irrigation pivots to grow more conventional crops and feed.

“Our average time in that lagoon is 10 days,” Myers said. “We’re applying that year round to growing crops. ... We never let it become anaerobic. That reduces air emissions.”

Threemile Canyon is located within the Lower Umatilla Basin Groundwater Management Area, where the level of nitrates in the groundwater already exceeds the federal safe drinking water standard. According to the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, the primary source of nitrogen in groundwater comes from fertilizer, with irrigated agriculture making up 81.6 percent of the problem.

Opponents of mega-dairies are concerned about adding a second operation so close by, comparing it to a “sewer-less city.” Oregon CAFO permits also lack surface water monitoring required under the federal Clean Water Act, they argue.

Myers said the fertilizer that is applied onto the farm’s own crops is mixed at precise rates to ensure nothing leaches into water supplies. Employees regularly test the manure to keep tabs on the nutrient level, and will apply only as much as the crop will use for nutrition.

That’s easier said than done. Phil Richerson, a hydrogeologist for DEQ in Pendleton, said the soil in the area is coarse, making it difficult to keep irrigation from seeping down below the plant’s roots.

Don Butcher, who manages water quality permits for DEQ in Pendleton, said the problem isn’t just limited to CAFOs. More land is being converted to grow vegetable crops. And more food processors are popping up to turn those vegetables into high-value products.

“With all the expansion and change in the Groundwater Management Area, we are concerned,” Butcher said. “We still have an increasing nitrate trend.”

Butcher said DEQ works closely with the Oregon Department of Agriculture, which enforces CAFO permits for the state. Wym Matthews, CAFO program manager for ODA, said they generally conduct routine inspections of facilities once every 10 months.

However, due to the size of Threemile Canyon, Matthews said that farm is inspected once every five or six months. The most recent was in July. Over the past decade, he said the dairy has been issued six water quality advisories — essentially a warning — and two notices of noncompliance, meaning they’ve violated a condition of their permit.

In every case, Matthews said the problem was dealt with quickly. Overall, he said he believes the management practices at Threemile Canyon are thorough.

“If they see an issue, I think they do a very good job to bring it to our attention and repair it,” Matthews said.

In addition to environmental practices, Myers said Threemile Canyon is subject to a three-layer approach to animal welfare.

First, Myers said the farm conducts voluntary animal welfare audits through a company called Validus. Inspectors arrive unannounced, and are free to watch employees and go over protocol, Myers said.

Last year, Myers said Columbia River Dairy was the first in the country to receive a perfect score from Validus. They also consistently scored 95 percent or better on how they treat their heifers, he said.

“Those are pretty impressive scores,” Myers said.

Along with voluntary audits, Myers said the dairy works regularly with its own animal advocate, a veterinarian and professor at Evergreen University. Along with the farm’s own animal welfare committee, they make recommendations on how to improve practices.

“It’s not a static process,” Myers said. “It’s a continual improvement process, and we’re proud of that.”

Greg te Velde, a California dairyman, is the owner of Willow Creek Dairy, which has applied for its own CAFO license under the name Lost Valley Ranch.

Myers has testified in favor of te Velde and his longtime tenant. Myers said he believes they too will be dedicated to best management practices. A similar lagoon and land application system is proposed at Willow Creek, and though a methane digester is not in the immediate plans, it could be phased in later down the road.

“They know how to do things right,” Myers said.

The public comment period for the Willow Creek/Lost Valley CAFO has been extended through Nov. 4.

Federal climatologists predict that dry conditions will generally recede over the winter in Oregon, Idaho, Washington and parts of Northern California, providing an early and upbeat outlook on next year’s water supply.

The Climate Prediction Center forecast a 70 percent chance of a weak La Nina, a cooling of the ocean around the equator.

La Nina generally tilts the odds in favor of wetter and cooler winters in the northern U.S., according to the center.

It’s not a sure bet, though. La Nina’s influence will vary by region. The odds it stays through the winter are 55 percent.

Washington State Climatologist Nick Bond said he expects the La Nina to be too feeble to dictate the weather.

Higher ocean temperatures in the northeast Pacific Ocean and a trend toward warmer winters also may influence the weather, he said.

Still, even a normal winter would seem cold after the past several years, Bond said.

“There’s no indication that we’ll have a snowpack like the disaster we had two years ago,” he said. “There’s no reason to be pessimistic about next summer’s water supply.”

Idaho State Climatologist Russell Qualls also said La Nina’s influence may be blunted by unusually high inland temperatures. Still, most of the state is expected to have above-average precipitation, and snow may accumulate at high elevations, he said.

“The signals are a bit confusing in terms of the water supply outlook,” he said. “From what it looks like, the drought at least is likely not going to be getting any worse.”

The center issued the forecast for November, December and January.

It also projected that drought conditions likely will be erased by the end of January in Oregon and parts Northern California. About one-third of Oregon is in drought, while 81 percent of California remains in drought.

A year ago, 100 percent of Washington was classified as being in a drought. Now only 8 percent of the state is even “abnormally dry.”

In Idaho, 19 percent of the state is abnormally dry and 1 percent is in drought.

Bond, the Washington climatologist, said that even without a strong La Nina or El Nino, the state could have an eventful winter. He said current climatic conditions resemble the months before massive flooding in February 1996. “I’d be surprised if we didn’t have some major flooding,” he said.

The seasonal outlook rates the chances that an area will have above-average or below-average precipitation and temperatures.

Here’s a state-by-state look at the seasonal outlook:

• Washington: The odds favor above-average precipitation in most of the state, though the chances are no better than even in the South Cascades, south Puget Sound, and southwestern and south-central Washington. The chances are even that temperatures will be above or below normal for most of the state. The odds favor above-average temperatures in southeastern Washington.

• Idaho: Southwest Idaho has equal chances for above- or below-average precipitation. The odds favor a wet winter elsewhere. The north end of the panhandle has equal chances of above- or below-normal temperatures. In the rest of the state, the odds favor a warm winter.

• Oregon: Equal chances of above- or below-average precipitation. Odds favor above-average temperatures.

• California: Chances for above- or below-average precipitation are equal in most of the state. Precipitation could change the status of parts of Northern California that are now in moderate drought. Odds favor a dry winter in the southern tip. The odds favor above-average temperatures throughout California. The drought could worsen in Southern California, according to the climate center.