Oregon farms shouldn’t be converted to wetlands unless county governments agree they won’t disrupt nearby agricultural operations, according to growers who support a bill before the Legislature.

Wetlands are currently allowed in Oregon farm zones, but Senate Bill 1517 would require local governments to first determine they won’t significantly change local farm practices, drive up costs or alter agricultural land use patterns.

“Farmers don’t have a meaningful opportunity to engage in that process right now,” said Mary Anne Nash, public policy counsel for the Oregon Farm Bureau, which supports the bill.

Farmers who testified in favor of SB 1517 during a recent legislative hearing listed numerous problems created by wetlands, which are often created in agricultural areas to offset the impacts of development elsewhere.

Wetlands can increase the frequency of flooding and impede the drainage of nearby farmland, as well as attract birds and noxious weeds to an area, according to growers who support the proposal.

Joe Rocha, who farms near the Tillamook Bay, said the changes in hydrology can kill grasses that dairies depend on for feed.

“They brought the saltwater closer to us,” he said.

Kathy Hadley, a farmer in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, said a 500-acre wetland bordering her property increases erosion during the wet season and attracts elk that damage fences.

Such problems can discourage potential buyers when farmers are looking to sell property, said Sharon Waterman, whose farm in Coos County is near a 400-acre wetland.

“Can we even sell our property? I don’t know,” she said.

Supporters of the bill emphasized that it would not block wetland conversions, but would enable a collaborative process in how they’re sited and designed.

“This bill allows rural Oregon and local governments to have a say in what happens in their communities,” said Mark Labhart, a Tillamook County commissioner.

Under current Oregon law, landowners who convert their property to wetlands are protected from legal liability for adverse effects on neighbors, the Farm Bureau’s Nash said.

In some cases, conservation groups that create wetlands also take over ownership of the property and benefit from this protection, she said.

The bill would clarify that this protection does not only apply if the landowner is also the designer or contractor who performs the work, Nash said.

Kelley Beamer, executive director of the Coalition of Oregon Land Trusts, said she’s concerned about this provision because many landowners put in wetlands themselves.

If they’re faced with liability, it may discourage landowners from undertaking wetland projects, said Jerry Nicolescu, executive director of the Oregon Association of Conservation Districts.

Nicolescu said he’s like to see better definitions of key terms in the bill, such as the “significant change” to farmland that can impede wetland projects.

“Significant to one person is not significant to another, he said.

Beamer said she’s also concerned about the level of review that wetlands will be subjected to across different counties. She also questioned why the current approval process by the Oregon Department of State Lands is insufficient.

“Where is that breakdown happening?” she said.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The Latest on an armed group that took over buildings at a federal wildlife refuge in Oregon (all times local):

7:50 a.m.

A man arrested in the armed takeover of an Oregon wildlife refuge has been allowed to leave jail.

Duane Ehmer must limit his travel and wear an electronic ankle bracelet to ensure he appears at future court dates. He’s one of only two defendants from Oregon and among three people granted release ahead of trial.

The Oregonian newspaper reports that U.S. Magistrate Judge Janice Stewart determined Thursday that Ehmer wasn’t a flight risk and appeared to have joined rather than incited the standoff. It began Jan. 2 and continues Friday with four holdouts.

Another judge upheld a decision to keep occupier Pete Santilli behind bars pending trial. U.S. District Judge Michael Mosman says Santilli has made threatening statements about federal agents on his online radio program that can’t be completely dismissed as shock-jock bravado.

PORTLAND — The thing is, when you attend a cannabis convention in this city, everything starts to sound like Dope Humor of the Seventies.

A seminar MC talks about the rollout of the cannabis industry. The OLCC director says his agency has 1.6 million hits on its website. Whoa.

But there’s no denying an entrepreneurial buzz (see?) accompanied the legalization of weed in Oregon and elsewhere. A stroll down the vendor aisles of the Cannabis Collaborative Conference, held Feb. 3-4 at the Portland Expo Center, makes that clear.

Specialty manufacturers are jumping into the cannabis trade, starting new or adapting their business to take advantage. Bud Bar Displays, based in Gold River, Calif., makes plastic sample pods with a magnifying lens and a row of sniff holes built into the lid. Allows the customer to take a good look at the pot plant bud within, and to smell it. “The way cannabis is sold,” the company said on its website.

Bud Bar is a division of All Plastic Corporation, and the owners started it up 25 years ago strictly for the pot trade.

A Salem company, Adaptive Plastics Inc., makes a brand of translucent, twin-walled greenhouse panels called Solexx. They diffuse light and insulate well, and you can’t see what’s growing inside.

Blair Busenbark, the COO and sales boss, said the company also sells to traditional plant nurseries and to orchardists, but marijuana growers are the new market.

A lot of people attending the trade show were “consumers of the product,” Busenbark guessed.

“We look at it as a business opportunity,” he said. “A significant part of our business is cannabis.”

The next aisle over held a booth for the Oregon Cannabis Association, a non-profit professional organization representing growers, processors, dispensaries and other businesses. The executive director is Amy Margolis of Portland, whose Emerge Law Group specializes in weed work. One of the firm’s attorneys, Dave Kopilak, was the primary drafter of Measure 91, which legalized recreational use, possession and cultivation in Oregon. Voters approved it in 2014 and the law took effect July 1, 2015.

Conventional farmers might respond “Hmm, well...” but Margolis said Oregon’s cannabis trade is, at root level, an agricultural enterprise. Voters said so.

“In 2015 they officially made cannabis an ag product,” she said. “The upshot is, this became a cash crop like any other cash crop.”

But it is a different animal, for sure. One of the bigger outfits, Chalice Farms, is opening a 24,000 square foot grow, processing and distribution facility near the Portland Airport. It will be in a warehouse.

Other businesses abound. Security firms (CannaGuard) that provide video monitoring and “product transport.” Software (CannaScore) that allows you to check your regulatory compliance. Marketers, electricians, packaging companies and extraction services. The latter extract cannabis oil from fibrous marijuana plant material. The oil is used in edibles consumed by medical marijuana patients.

Some of the businesses crowding into cannabis will no doubt fall by the wayside, but people attending the convention seemed ready to chase what they see as economic opportunity.

Noah Stokes, founder and CEO of CannaGuard, the security firm, opened the conference by noting marijuana is still federally illegal.

“We’re saying screw it, we’re actually going to do this,” Stokes said, “and I love it.”

SALEM — Oregon lawmakers heard a clear message from farmers who oppose local government restrictions what seeds they can use.

The Oregon Legislature pre-empted such local regulation of seed at a time when several counties were contemplating bans against genetically modified crops in 2013.

Lawmakers approved the proposal as part of a broader legislative package that included reforms to the state’s public employee retirement system that was later partially overturned by the Oregon Supreme Court.

Rep. Peter Buckley, D-Ashland, has now proposed a House Bill 4041, which would effectively reverse the pre-emption statute but received predominantly negative feedback during a Feb. 4 hearing before the House Committee on Consumer Protection and Government Effectiveness.

Apart from an introduction from Rep. Buckley, most of the people who testified were opposed to the bill.

Marie Bowers Stagg, whose family farms in Lane and Linn counties, said crop decisions are based on soil conditions, market demand and available equipment but should not be complicated by government interference.

“We already have enough risks in our day-to-day life,” she said, noting that H.B. 4041 is written so broadly that it could apply to non-biotech crops, including grass seed.

Rodney Hightower, who grows genetically engineered sugar beets near Junction City, Ore., said the crop has proven to be among the most lucrative on his farm without causing problems to neighboring operations.

If each of the 36 counties in Oregon were allowed to set different policies on seed, it would create an extreme complication for growers, Hightower said. “We can’t move our farm if public opinion moves against one crop that we grow.”

Voluntary cooperation between farmers is the best way to resolve concerns about cross-pollination, said Kathy Hadley, who farms with her father in Polk County and with her husband in Marion County.

Hadley said she grew canola last year and managed to avoid cross-pollination problems with a neighbor who was producing cabbage seed without any involvement from seed companies or the government.

Farmers breathed a sigh of relief when the Legislature passed the pre-emption law in 2013 and it’s disappointing the statute is now being reconsidered even though the reasons to avoid a patchwork of regulations are as relevant as ever, said Brenda Frketich, who farms near St. Paul, Ore.

“It’s very hard to farm across county lines if counties have different regulations,” she said. “You can’t keep pollen behind county lines.”

State pre-emption is also necessary to avoid the burden of county governments having to regulate local seed ordinances passed by voters, which they don’t have the capacity to do, said Craig Pope, commissioner of Polk County.

Lawmakers should not even be contemplating such a major change to state policy during the short month-long legislative session in 2016, he said.

In 2015, the Legislature passed a bill aimed at strengthening mediation that would resolve differences over genetically modified crops and similar issues between neighboring farmers, said Greg Loberg, manager of the West Coast Beet Seed Co., and president of the Oregon Seed Association.

The Oregon Department of Agriculture is now putting together a rule-making committee to flesh out that mediation process, which should be allowed to work before lawmakers try to change the pre-emption statute, he said.

Friends of Family Farmers, a group that supports stronger regulations for biotech crops, is neutral on H.B. 4041 but believes there should be a statewide policy for such crops.

Last year, a bill that would have clarified the Oregon Department of Agriculture’s “control area” authority over biotech crops was called draconian by opponents and never gained traction, he said.

The ODA currently uses that control area authority to prevent genetically engineered bentgrass from being grown in the Willamette Valley, but would lose that power if the crop were deregulated by USDA, Maluski said.

If that were to happen, some form of local control would be needed to protect farmers, he said.

The House Committee on Consumer Protection and Government Effectiveness is scheduled to hear testimony on Feb. 9 on another piece of legislation, House Bill 4122, which also focused on the pre-emption statute but only allows local governments to regulate biotech crops, rather than all seed.

SALEM — Legislators have returned to a proposal that would set three minimum wage rates in the state based on median income and cost of living.

The proposal by Sen. Michael Dembrow, D-Portland, would hike wages to $14.75 in the Portland metro area, $12.50 in rural and coastal areas with struggling economies and $13.50 in the rest of the state by 2022.

The Senate Workforce and General Government Committee, which Dembrow chairs, is expected to vote on the proposal Friday after a brief public hearing at the Capitol.

Leaders in the House and Senate have made minimum wage a priority for the 35-day legislative session, which started Feb. 1. They’re hoping that legislative action will stave off ballot initiatives that would raise the minimum to $15 or $13.50 in a three-year period and lift a ban on cities setting higher wages.

Another proposal by Gov. Kate Brown grabbed the limelight last month but was discarded after lawmakers heard outcry from constituents in Eastern Oregon that the governor’s minimums were too high for that region of the state.

Brown’s proposal would raise the minimum from $9.25 to $14.50 in the Portland metro area and to $13.25 in the rest of the state by 2022.

“We heard a lot of concern about some of those frontier parts of the state that they were going to have a particularly hard time accommodating those increases,” Dembrow said. “Some preferred their counties to be excluded completely from an increase in minimum wage. That is, to me, just not acceptable. There are workers in those counties that need a raise.”

Under Dembrow’s proposal{obj:12196}, wages would increase statewide to $9.75 in July 2016 and rise gradually from there until 2022 according to region.

The lowest rate of $12.50 would apply to the following counties: Baker, Coos, Crook, Curry, Douglas, Gilliam, Grant, Harney, Jefferson, Klamath, Lake, Malheur, Morrow, Sherman, Umatilla, Union, Wallowa and Wheeler.

Ron Vernini, mayor of Ontario, said his city fails to attract businesses because companies prefer to go to nearby Idaho where wages are lower.

Raising the minimum could “in many cases destroy jobs in communities that now are struggling to keep from going deeper into the spiral of poverty,” he wrote in a letter to lawmakers.

Senators have pitched various amendments to Dembrow’s proposal. It was unclear Thursday if any of those would receive consideration Friday.

One by Sen. Chuck Thomsen, R-Hood River, would exclude agricultural workers from the wage increase.

Many farmers have spoken out against a minimum wage increase, saying it would force them to make cuts to employees.

Trevor Frahm, who owns a farm in Nyssa, said a $1 increase in the minimum would force him to eliminate a few of his 20 employees.

“A three- to five-dollar increase would force me to move my facility to Idaho, which is only three miles away,” Frahm said.

Surveys indicate most people in Portland, where housing costs have skyrocketed, support a hike in the minimum.

Patti Whitney-Wise of Partners for a Hunger-Free Oregon in Portland said families need an increase just to meet basic needs.

Dembrow’s wage plan is based on data from Portland State University and the University of Washington that shows what income is required to be self-sufficient in different counties in Oregon.

“We are one state, and yet we are not one state,” Dembrow said.

The Capital Bureau is a collaboration between EO Media Group and Pamplin Media Group.

BEND, Ore. (AP) — Oregon Wild’s proposal to declare 300,000 acres of Ochoco National Forest land as a national recreation area has been widely opposed by the residents and officials of Crook County for the land use restrictions that many say such a designation could lead to.

But another factor contributing to the staunch opposition, according to recent comments at public meetings and gatherings as well as interviews with The Bulletin, is the conservation organization’s history and reputation in Prineville and elsewhere.

Some locals know Oregon Wild as a group that in the past has damaged local industry with its proposals and lawsuits, regardless of intentions, and they haven’t failed to bring that up at meetings about the proposal.

“I’d say that 90 percent of people around here know about Oregon Wild’s history because it’s been brought up so much in so many of the meetings,” said Pete Sharp, who was born and raised in Crook County and filed to run for county commissioner this year. “We had quite a few that brought up (Oregon Wild’s) history because they went online and looked it up. People know that they’ve been doing bad things for us for a long time. It’s not necessarily the same people now as it was then, but you know, you have trouble siding with the group that helped destroy the timber industry.”

For its part, Oregon Wild said that focusing on the past, and particularly an old reputation for litigation and conflict, isn’t productive to the current conversation that’s taking place in Crook County. Rather, collaboration is the path the group is focusing on now.

“In the ’90s, there was a lot of fighting and a lot of lawsuits,” said Erik Fernandez, Oregon Wild wilderness program manager. “Lawsuits nowadays are few and far between, and collaboration is everywhere. We’ve had 10 to 15 years of moderate success with collaboration, so I think there’s a fair amount of history and legs to that. I think with some people, they’re still angry about the ’90s, and that’s their right. But arguing about the ’90s isn’t the way forward.”

Still, some in Crook County remember the past.

According to the Oregon Wild website, before its name was changed to Oregon Wild in 2006 to prevent people from confusing it with a government agency, the group went by the Oregon Natural Resources Council. And in the ’80s and ’90s, the ONRC was involved in lawsuits statewide and regionally that Crook County residents say have created a distaste for the organization locally.

“They can’t be trusted. They have a reputation of saying one thing but really meaning something else,” said Greg Lambert, who owns Mid Oregon Personnel in Prineville, adding that people would be against the proposal whether or not Oregon Wild had the reputation it has.

“It’s a well-deserved reputation — if they don’t get their way they’re going to file a lawsuit. Their history gives us the ability to listen to what they’re saying and know what they actually mean. They use words and phrases that sound very good, but when you look at how they’ve implemented those words in other scenarios, it turns out they’re not so good.”

Lambert didn’t offer specifics, but more than 50 lawsuits that list Oregon Wild as the plaintiff have been filed in Oregon and regionally since 2004, according to Pacer, an electronic court database, and more than 100 that list ONRC as a plaintiff have been filed since the late ‘80s. And some of those suits, one of which went to the Supreme Court in 1989, can be hard for those affected to forget.

For instance, many Oregonians, including those in Crook County, know the ONRC as an organization that played a role in the litigation and appeals that led to the northern spotted owl’s controversial listing as an endangered species in 1990, an event some claim played a large part in the decline of the logging industry. Even though the controversy surrounding the northern spotted owl, which resides in Central and Southern Oregon and elsewhere but not in the Ochoco National Forest, didn’t have much effect on Crook County, county residents remember.

“While the spotted owl didn’t affect us particularly, there were numerous appeals and lawsuits that the old Oregon Wild group participated in in Central Oregon and Eastern Oregon,” said John Shelk, who owned Ochoco Lumber before it closed in 2001. “And to the extent the community still remembers those activities, there likely is still an aura of mistrust for their organization and a questioning of their motives.”

Shelk, as a member of a collaborative local group that brings together representatives from various local industries and organizations, including Oregon Wild, said that despite Oregon Wild’s reputation in the community, collaboration is the way forward. But clearly many community members don’t see it that way.

“The collaborative that these groups participate in, we have very good relations at this point,” he said. “But I don’t know if that extends to the larger populace. Obviously they didn’t respond too favorably to the proposal, and I think that there’s been so many restrictions placed on public lands in the last 25 or 30 years that when given a chance to participate in the discussion — and keep in mind that the larger community wasn’t consulted back in the ’80s when the timber sales were being appealed and litigated — that when finally given a chance to give their opinion on land management on public lands, they spoke awfully loudly and awfully clearly.”

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Additional security officers have been sent to national wildlife refuges in southern Oregon, northern California and Nevada amid the ongoing armed occupation of a sister refuge in southeastern Oregon that has caused tensions in the region and is showing no sign of ending soon.

Four occupiers remain holed up at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge south of Burns, saying they will not leave without assurances they won’t be arrested.

As the occupation drags on, additional officers have been sent to the Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuge Complex that straddles the Oregon-California border, as well as to the Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge in Nevada and Modoc National Wildlife Refuge in northern California.

“No specific threats or incidents have occurred, but we remain vigilant to ensure employee and visitor safety throughout the Region,” Jody Holzworth, a Sacramento-based regional spokeswoman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said in an email Wednesday.

Meanwhile, a federal grand jury has indicted 11 people arrested last week for their roles in the occupation of the Malheur refuge including their leader, Ammon Bundy.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Geoff Barrow said Wednesday others besides the 11 were also indicted, perhaps a reference to the last four holdouts at the Malheur refuge.

Federal criminal complaints against the 11 accuse each of a conspiracy charge of using intimidation to prevent federal officers from doing their work at the refuge in a sparsely populated region of Oregon.

The occupation began Jan. 2, with Bundy demanding the federal government turn public lands over to local control.

Four holdouts remain at the refuge, ignoring Bundy’s advice that they leave to avoid bloodshed. They are David Fry, 27, of Blanchester, Ohio; Jeff Banta, 46, of Elko, Nevada; and Sean Anderson, 48, and Sandy Anderson, 47, a married couple from Riggins, Idaho.

Tensions have continued in Harney County, where the Malheur refuge is located.

Earlier this week, local residents who want the occupation to end squared off in Burns against militia members and others who held a demonstration to support the occupation and to protest the death of Robert “LeVoy” Finicum, who had been acting as spokesman for Bundy’s group.

Finicum died during a Jan. 26 confrontation with FBI agents and Oregon state troopers on a remote road. The FBI says Finicum was going for a gun in his jacket pocket, but Bundy supporters say his death was not justified. That confrontation last week also resulted in the arrest of Bundy and others.

Federal authorities are showing worry that tensions could pop up elsewhere.

Gavin Shire, chief of public affairs for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said national wildlife refuges across the nation and other sites run by the agency are exercising extra vigilance.

“Due to the evolving situation in eastern Oregon, all service stations are on alert and being advised to take appropriate caution,” Shire said in a statement.

The Malheur refuge has 17 employees, and they haven’t able to work there because of the occupation.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A federal grand jury has indicted Ammon Bundy and some of the men and women who joined him at the armed occupation of an Oregon wildlife refuge, authorities said Wednesday.

However, the indictment remained sealed and further details on the charges were unavailable.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Geoff Barrow said the documents would be unsealed within 24 hours.

Barrow said the indictment was returned against the 11 people who have already been arrested and others, perhaps a reference to the last four holdouts at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.

Defense attorneys demanded the immediate unsealing of the indictment — a request denied Wednesday by U.S. Magistrate Judge Janice Stewart.

“You will get a copy of the indictment in due course, don’t worry,” Stewart said. Arraignment was set for Feb. 24.

Authorities arrested 11 people last week on a criminal complaint charging them with felony conspiracy. They were accused of using intimidation to prevent federal officers from doing their work at the refuge in sparsely populated southeast Oregon.

In a criminal complaint, defendants have a right to a preliminary hearing in which they can question the arresting officer under oath about probable cause for the charges.

After an indictment, they are no longer entitled to such a proceeding.

The cancellation of preliminary hearings that had been scheduled for Wednesday dismayed attorneys for the accused.

Lisa Hay, who represents defendant Ryan Payne, said it appears prosecutors moved to scrap the hearings even before the indictment had been handed down. She was also annoyed that prosecutors presented the indictment to the judge and not to defense attorneys.

“That’s an unusual thing and it’s unfortunate in a case like this, where many of the people distrust the government to begin with,” Hay said.

The occupation began Jan. 2, with the group demanding the federal government turn public lands over to local control. While most of the occupiers have been arrested, four have refused to leave, despite Bundy’s urging.

They have said they want assurances they won’t be arrested. The remaining occupiers are David Fry, 27, of Blanchester, Ohio; Jeff Banta, 46, of Elko, Nevada; and Sean Anderson, 48, and Sandy Anderson, 47, a married couple from Riggins, Idaho.

The government is building a case to show the occupation was a threat to residents and federal employees. Prosecutors say the group was ready to use violence to hold on to the refuge.

Defense attorneys have said their clients engaged in civil disobedience and are being punished for political speech. They say the only use of force during the standoff was by police, who shot and killed occupier Robert “LaVoy” Finicum during a Jan. 26 traffic stop. Bundy and others were then taken into custody.

Federal authorities have released aerial video and said Finicum was going for a gun in his jacket pocket.

In a separate matter, an attorney for Shawna Cox — a defendant allowed to return home to Utah as her case goes through the court system — asked Wednesday for her client to be allowed to attend Finicum’s funeral on Friday. The funeral is in the same town where Cox lives.

Judge Stewart denied the request.

Capital Press

PORTLAND — A speaker at the Cannabis Collaborative Conference said the fast-growing industry has an entrepreneurial model to emulate in the organic food movement.

“As big as natural food industry has grown, this new cannabis industry stands to make it small by comparison,” said Tom Burns, who oversaw the success of Yogi Tea in Eugene, Ore., beginning in the 1970s.

But he cautioned that “sky is the limit” business projections must be tempered with social values and responsibility.

“All of us in this up-and-coming cannabis industry have a great opportunity to make a positive difference,” Burns said. “This industry is not just about getting high and storing cash in some safe place.

“Capitalism in a caring form can improve all of our lives,” he said. “We will need to be good on all levels, to be as safe, pure and certified as organic food. Don’t settle for easy, assure all of our products are safe.”

An estimated 1,200 people, plus about 90 vendors, are attending the two-day conference at the Portland Expo Center. Speakers are extolling the investment opportunities in cannabis as recreational and medical pot use becomes legal in more states. Vendors are pushing their equipment, security systems, professional services and more.

Conference speaker Steve Marks, executive director of the Oregon Liquor Control Commission, said his agency and state legislators are pushing hard to make cannabis a safe and well-regulated industry.

“We are very, very focused on making sure this rolls out the best we can,” Marks said.

The OLCC has received 438 applications from prospective pot producers, wholesalers and processors, but none yet from laboratories that would certify quality. He said that’s troubling, because lab work is essential to assure a flow of product to retail outlets. “We have to have that capacity there,” Marks said.

Master of ceremonies for the opening day was Noah Stokes, CEO of a pot security company called CannaGuard.

“This is a cannabis trade show, so we double-strengthed all the coffee,” Stokes joked in his opening remarks.

He congratulated entrepreneurs for pushing ahead in the industry even though pot is still illegal at the federal level, despite state-by-state approval.

“It’s no small feat to look the federal government in the eye and start a business doing that,” he said.

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Conservationists filed a federal lawsuit in Oregon on Wednesday that challenges the authority of a federal government program to kill wolves in the state.

The lawsuit targets the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services program, which controls the number of wolves, coyotes, grizzly bears, mountain lions and other wild animals.

It’s a similar lawsuit Cascadia Wildlands in Eugene and other conservationists won late last year in Washington state, where a federal judge said the program should have done a more thorough analysis of the effects of its activities and banned it from killing wolves in that state.

Cascadia Wildlands is the same group currently fighting Oregon’s decision last year to remove the wolf from the state’s endangered species list in a separate lawsuit.

ONTARIO, Ore. — There is some good news but a few headaches associated with the FDA’s final produce safety rule, Idaho and Oregon onion growers were told Feb. 2 during their annual joint meeting.

The good news? “It shouldn’t interfere with your ability to irrigate your onions,” Oregon State University researcher Stuart Reitz said during the 56th annual meeting of the Malheur County and Idaho onion growers’ associations.

That’s great news, he said, considering the FDA’s initial proposed produce safety rule would have made it extremely difficult to grow onions in the Treasure Valley area, where most farmers use surface water that mostly won’t meet the rule’s new agricultural water standards.

FDA’s initial proposal would have required produce growers whose irrigation water exceeds certain thresholds for bacteria to immediately stop using it. That would have made it impossible for most people in the valley to grow onions, industry leaders have said.

The final rule, released Nov. 27, requires growers whose water exceeds those minimum standards to adopt a mitigation strategy as soon as practicable but no later than the following year.

“This is the real sea change from what FDA had originally proposed in 2013,” Reitz said. “We are in a better situation than we were with the initial ... rules that were proposed.”

The final rule allows growers whose water exceeds the standards to comply if they can show that bacteria dies off at a certain rate in the field.

The bulb onions grown in this region are left in the field to cure for seven to 10 days and OSU researchers in Ontario have conducted field trials that show bacteria dies off quickly in those fields.

This die-off provision was also not included in the agency’s original proposal and onion growers were told the input they provided FDA on its original proposal was responsible for the favorable changes.

“If everybody didn’t step up like that, this rule would be a lot different than it is today,” said Idaho Onion Growers Association President Clinton Wissel.

Produce farmers with $25,000 to $250,000 in sales will have to start complying with the new produce rule in January 2020, growers with $250,000-$500,000 in sales have until January 2019 and growers with more than $500,000 in sales have until January 2018.

Growers who use surface water to irrigate their produce have to take an initial 20 water samples over a two-year period to create a water quality profile, and an additional five samples a year after that, recalculating their profile annually based on the most recent 20 samples.

Farmers who use well water also have to test but less frequently.

FDA will allow farmers to share test results if they use the same ditch and there is no obvious source of contamination between their fields.

Reitz said that as FDA releases guidance on the rule, OSU researchers will conduct outreach efforts to ensure “everybody is aware of the exact details and what they need to do to stay in compliance.”

SPOKANE — Theories about increasing global temperatures fail to take into account the impact of factors other than the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and the cyclic nature of climate, a well-known meteorologist told farmers on Feb. 2.

Art Douglas, professor emeritus at Creighton University in Omaha, Neb., spoke about global warming during his presentation at the Spokane Ag Expo and Pacific Northwest Farm Forum.

One problem he sees is relying on air temperature records.

“I trust sea surface temperatures more than I do air temperature,” Douglas said. “Air temperature is screwed up by cities. You have a whole mix of things that can screw up an air temperature record.”

Much has been said because the last two years were the warmest on record, with the globe warming by 0.7 degrees centigrade.

However, Douglas said that carbon dioxide and global temperature patterns from the last 50 years seem to match cyclical patterns going back 400,000 years.

He showed two charts — one of the carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere and one of the air temperatures — that were produced using Antarctic ice core samples and go back 400,000 years. In those cycles, global temperatures increase as the amount of carbon dioxide increases — and both cycle lower after reaching a peak before building back up.

Douglas said the recent warming trend can be attributed 50-50 to human activity and natural climate variability.

Assigning contributions to global warming solely by each carbon dioxide emissions ignores the impacts of other climate cycles and sun spots, Douglas said.

“Historically speaking, we’re in a very cold period and a low CO2 period in terms of the planet,” Douglas said.

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Oregon lawmakers on Tuesday held their first public hearing on Gov. Kate Brown’s scaled-back minimum wage proposal, and it immediately ran into criticism.

Legislators met at the Capitol in a room packed with union officials, business people, residents, local government leaders and others wanting to weigh in on whether Oregon’s $9.25 hourly minimum wage should be increased, by how much and where, and over what period of time.

Brown revised her earlier minimum wage hike proposal on Friday by calling for smaller increases that would be implemented sooner, a move she made in response to continued complaints from stakeholders who argue the measure would hurt small businesses, cost jobs and hamper rural economies.

But opposition remained strong at Tuesday’s Senate Committee on Workforce and General Government hearing, despite Brown’s revisions.

Linn County Commissioner Roger Nyquist told the committee his county won’t go along with any wage increases if the Legislature doesn’t dole out extra funding to cover the added costs.

“We think, based on the Constitution, we’re not required to participate, and we will likely not do so,” said Nyquist, adding the county’s position has been vetted by legal counsel.

Ted Reutlinger, chief deputy legislative counsel for the Office of Legislative Counsel, confirmed Nyquist’s assertions. Reutlinger said there is a certain portion in the state’s Constitution that essentially would allow Linn County to “opt out” of a wage increase imposed by the Legislature if it doesn’t pass with a three-fifths majority vote and with additional funding appropriated for local agencies.

“This section only applies to laws adopted by the legislature,” he said.

So if the minimum wage was instead raised by voters through a ballot initiative, he said, Linn County and others would be forced to comply.

Proponents of raising the minimum wage told lawmakers they appreciated Brown’s efforts because, at the end of the day, any immediate increase is meaningful to working-class families trying to make ends meet.

However, they said they still weren’t sure whether the revised plan is enough to thwart two more aggressive proposals for the November ballot, one of which would raise the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2019 and the other to $13.50 by 2018.

Brown’s scaled-back alternative proposal would slightly raise the minimum to $9.75 statewide starting in July. By 2022, the Portland area’s minimum would be $14.50 and the rest of the state at $13.25.

Representatives of Brown’s office were unable to answer the committee’s questions on certain specifics of the revised plan, such as how metro Portland’s higher minimum would apply to workers and businesses operating throughout Oregon.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The leader of an armed group that took over an Oregon wildlife preserve to protest federal land policies is remaining defiant behind bars.

While Ammon Bundy on Tuesday again urged four holdouts at the refuge to leave, he said local residents should control the federally owned property and U.S. officials do not belong there.

Bundy said the FBI and Oregon State Police surrounding Malheur National Wildlife Refuge are leading an “armed occupation,” words typically reserved for the ranchers and others that launched the standoff on Jan. 2. He said the refuge “belongs to the people,” according to a statement read by his attorney.

“I am requesting that the remaining protesters go home now so their lives are not taken,” Bundy’s statement said.

He is among 11 people arrested in connection with the standoff, whose adherents have called federal land restrictions burdensome and demanded the government turn over public lands to local control. Many were taken into custody during a traffic stop last week that left one occupier dead.

All face a felony conspiracy charge of using intimidation to prevent federal employees from their work. Bundy will stay behind bars while his attorneys build their case that the standoff was intended as a “peaceful protest and civil disobedience.” A federal judge has allowed a couple of others to go free pending trial.

Another court hearing in the case is scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.

Meanwhile, the handful of remaining occupiers offered no signs they are ready to leave. They gave an interview Monday on an online talk show on a YouTube channel called Revolution Radio.

“We’re still here,” said David Fry, adding that the four hope sympathizers will come out to back them up. “We need the American people to get the courage to stand up.”

Bundy pleaded for them to go home and aligned with his father, Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, on demanding federal and state authorities clear out of the area.

The elder Bundy, who was involved in a high-profile 2014 standoff with the government over grazing rights, sent a certified letter to the local sheriff Monday, saying the refuge should be placed under local control.

Unlike his son, Cliven Bundy has not called for the last occupiers to leave.

The Oregonian reported the Rev. Franklin Graham had spoken with the remaining occupiers.

Graham spokesman Todd Shearer told the newspaper that the religious leader had communicated by phone with the four occupiers and federal officials but Graham had “no comment” beyond that.

The last four occupiers had asked Graham to help them negotiate their departure. They have said they want assurances they won’t be arrested.

Federal prosecutors are building a case against Ammon Bundy and his followers to show that the occupation was a threat to residents and federal employees. Prosecutors say the group, once numbering a couple dozen, was ready to use violence to hold on to the refuge.

The standoff also has created divisions among residents that will take time to heal. Many locals want the occupation to end and are eager to get on with their lives. But others sympathize with Bundy’s complaints, which are part of a long-running dispute over federal management of public lands in the West.

Some have rallied in support and opposition to the standoff, the latter often citing the death of an Arizona rancher by police. Robert “LaVoy” Finicum was killed Jan. 26 during a confrontation with FBI agents and Oregon State Police on a remote road.

Federal authorities have released aerial video and said Finicum was going for a gun in his jacket pocket. Bundy’s relatives say the shooting was not justified.

As an occupation drags on, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service employees don’t know what they’ll find when they return to work at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.

Gavin Shire, Fish and Wildlife public affairs chief, said he has no information about conditions at the refuge headquarters south of Burns, scene of the armed occupation by Ammon Bundy and followers.

“We have received reports that the illegal occupiers accessed federal records locked away on the refuge and have evidence of them accessing government computers, but we know little more than that at this stage,” Shire said in an email.

News reports and social media posts indicated the occupiers fiddled with office computers and took down a section of barbed wire fence. One occupier was arrested in Burns after he drove a government vehicle into town. Another used refuge equipment to clear a new roadway.

Shire said the refuge contains items and places of “immense

cultural significance” to the Burns Paiute Tribe.

“The tribe has expressed their outrage at the callous disregard the occupiers have shown for their cultural heritage,” Shire said by email. “We share that outrage and will seek and exercise appropriate recourse at the appropriate time.”

Another agency spokesman, Jason Holm, was particularly angry about artifacts being handled and the road construction. He called it “deplorable” and said the roadwork might have damaged culturally significant sites.

“We share in the outrage of the Burns Paiute Tribe,” he said in a statement. “This is disgusting, ghoulish behavior.”

Holm also described the occupiers’ statements as “vaporous pablum.”

Bundy, his brother, Ryan Bundy, and six others were arrested Jan. 26 when FBI, Oregon State Police and other law enforcement agencies stopped their vehicles north of Burns. An outspoken Bundy follower, Robert “LaVoy” Finicum, was shot and killed by police during the stop. Video released by the FBI shows Finicum reaching into his jacket at least twice before he was shot by an OSP trooper.

Since then, several other occupiers were arrested as they trickled out of the refuge. Four occupiers remain at the refuge and have insisted they be allowed to leave without being charged with crimes.

Employees will repair and rebuild as necessary when they return to work at the wildlife refuge, the agency said in a news release.

USFWS has 17 employees at the refuge who haven’t been able to work for a month. The refuge also hosts researchers, students, firefighters and others.

SPOKANE — Pacific Northwest farmers will see warmer and wetter weather in the months ahead, meteorologist Art Douglas predicts.

Temperatures in February and March will run slightly above normal in the region, Douglas said, which means winterkill in wheat will not be a problem.

Douglas, a fixture at the Spokane Ag Expo and Pacific Northwest Farm Forum for decades, offered his annual forecast on Feb. 2. He is a professor emeritus at Creighton University in Omaha, Neb.

Spring rains will primarily occur in the Southwestern U.S., but moisture will also be slightly above normal in Eastern Oregon and Eastern Washington and in the Idaho panhandle.

The Pacific Northwest will be “very warm” in May, but still have moisture, he said.

California, Nevada, Utah and Arizona will also be wetter than normal in May.

The Pacific Northwest will be warmer than normal in the summer. Douglas said, but also have adequate moisture.

“You guys are in really good shape this spring and summer,” he told farmers in the audience.

July will be wet, which could cause problems with harvest, Douglas warned.

The weather will dry out in August as an enormous ridge of high pressure develops across the U.S.

Douglas also said it will be the first hot summer for the Corn Belt in four years, which could impact corn and soybean production, depending on the timing.

The El Niño condition that has been pumping storms across the Pacific Ocean to the West Coast will end this spring, he said. The planet will then enter a temperature pattern similar to 1976 through 1997, which means drier conditions in the Pacific Northwest, especially during the winter, due to more high pressure ridges along the West Coast.

“The entire period will end up with precipitation anywhere from 5 to 10 percent below normal, which may not sound like a lot, but when you start compounding it in terms of the effect on groundwater, runoff, reservoirs and lakes, it becomes a problem,” Douglas said.

“It’s encouraging,” farmer Raymond DeRuwe of Dayton, Wash., said of Douglas’ forecast for this year. “Moisture is yield. Every inch of moisture is worth eight bushels of wheat (per acre).”

Kevin Lyle of Connell, Wash., was pleased to hear about the moisture in the spring. It could make for a better crop than in recent years, he said.

But rain during harvest could increase sprout damage concerns, Lyle said. Farmers receive lower prices at country elevators when their grain has sprout damage,.

“Hopefully it’s not too wet into summer (during) harvest, is the main thing,” he said.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — An agreement by California, Oregon and the federal government on Tuesday boosted efforts to remove four dams in the Pacific Northwest despite opposition in Congress.

Officials from those two states and the federal government committed in the deal to pressing ahead on plans to remove the four hydroelectric dams on the lower Klamath River, which runs through Oregon to California.

Local tribes and other opponents of the dams say the structures blocked fish from spawning grounds and damaged habitat while generating comparatively little hydroelectricity.

The agreement to remove the dams had been part of a yearslong effort to end disputes among tribes, wildlife advocates and farmers and ranchers over use of the river and its water. The resolution had been put in peril when congressional Republicans opposed to the dam removal had declined to formally authorize the project.

The agreements on managing the Klamath River Basin were the result of “years of hard work and collaboration,” Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said in a statement Tuesday. “We can’t let that local vision go unfulfilled.”

Tuesday’s agreement means the two states, the federal government and more than 40 other parties involved in the negotiation will stick to plans to decommission and remove the dams, using existing funding, despite the lack of congressional support, officials said.

ROSEBURG, Ore. — Rancher Kurt Spencer had a close encounter with the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge occupation situation on Jan. 28.

Spencer, whose beef cattle business is headquartered in the Umpqua area near Roseburg, also owns and works four ranches in Harney and Grant counties.

While traveling north in his red pickup between his ranch near Frenchglen, Ore., at the base of the Steens Mountains and his ranch near Izee, Ore., in the Ochoco Mountains, Spencer and his wife, Veronica, traveled through two checkpoints that had been set up by law enforcement officers following the Jan. 26 killing of one refuge occupier and the arrest of several others. The rancher, whose Frenchglen ranch is just a half-hour drive south of the refuge headquarters and whose property borders refuge land, said the stop at the first checkpoint was “scary.”

“They were very professional and kind, but when you have guns kind of pointing at you, it is scary,” Spencer said in describing the scene. “They (officers) were very, very cautious. They asked us to get out and keep our hands free. They were FBI, but they looked like Army personnel. There were snipers around.

“It felt like a checkpoint in a foreign country,” he continued. “There was no room for error. They asked for ID and ran our license plate. They asked me if I had a gun and I told them I did and where it was in the rig. I told them to help themselves as far as looking, but they actually barely looked around. I guess they were comfortable with who we were after checking our IDs and plate.”

The couple were then allowed to drive on and at the checkpoint north of the refuge, their travel was barely interrupted. They assumed the first checkpoint had called ahead and given them the OK for the northern stop.

The 59-year-old Spencer, who grew up in Oakland, Ore., and has been a rancher for close to 40 years, said he has dealt with federal agencies in his business operations and has had mixed results. He has a grazing permit with the Bureau of Land Management for his Steen Mountains ranch and a permit with the U.S. Forest Service for his Ochoco ranch.

“I’ve been on both sides of the issue,” he said. “I basically have zero complaints with BLM. They’re been very, very good, easy to work with. The Forest Service has been more challenging. They have a different attitude. It is like they’re looking for you to make a mistake rather than helping you. BLM coaches me on what to do while the Forest Service is getting more finicky. But I’ve always done what they’ve asked me to do.”

The Bureau of Land Management is the land manager of 3.97 million acres, or 60.6 percent of Harney County. Private ownership totals 1.6 million acres, or 24.9 percent. The U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service manage a combined 711,231 acres, or 10.9 percent. The state of Oregon owns 197,417 acres and other government agencies own the remaining 36,507 acres.

Spencer said he has talked to some of his ranching neighbors and he said there is most definitely a split between them on how they viewed the occupation of the refuge headquarters since Jan. 2. He described the people as good farmers, good ranchers and solid people, but with different opinions.

“Some know we have issues with the federal management, but they wanted the protesters to go home,” he said. “On the other side, there were ranchers going there (the refuge) and having dinner with them and taking them supplies.

“We have an issue, but these were protesters from a radical standpoint,” Spencer added. “The people from Harney County, from Oregon, from the U.S., we’re all in it for preservation of the land. We need to find common ground. We’ll do it.”

Spencer said the general consensus of the Harney County residents was that the issue would be resolved peacefully with no casualties.

“Everybody was dismayed that somebody actually got hurt,” he said. “We were hoping there would be a peaceful ending.”

Spencer said he hopes there will be some good that eventually comes out of the situation.

“Let’s sit down with some people and talk about some of these issues,” he said. “It hasn’t been a good situation, so let’s find some good in it.”

PORTLAND — Oregon’s snowpack looks good as February unfolds, but the hydrologist who tracks it says anything can happen in the next couple months.

Thanks to heavy rain, snow and chilly weather through January — normal Oregon winter weather, in other words — the snowpack draped upon the state’s mountains is well above average for this time year.

Even the dry southeast corner is 140 percent of normal, said Julie Koeberle, a hydrologist with the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service in Portland. The only region lagging is Mount Hood and the Willamette River basin, but even it is near or at normal levels for this time of year, Koeberle said.

February is typically a heavy snowfall month, and March and April storms can add more stored water, so at first glance the state is in good shape, Koeberle said.

Trouble is, there are no guarantees.

“There’s a lot left than cat happen,” she said. Snow could continue to accumulate, but an unusually warm February or a heavy rain that melts snow could flip the situation. “We could lose some of our snowpack,” Koeberle said.

Long-range forecasts indicate somewhat warmer weather over the next couple months, but they lack detail and a good snowstorm could pop up as well, she said.

“February is crucial because so much can happen,” she said.

PORTLAND — About 2,500 prospective marijuana growers, investors, marketers and other entrepreneurs are expected to attend the Cannabis Collaborative Conference Feb. 3 and 4 at the Portland Expo Center.

The conference features more than 90 exhibitors and 80 speakers, highlighted by a keynote address by Cliff Robinson, the former Portland Trailblazers basketball player who now counts himself a cannabis activist.

Robinson, who was nicknamed “Uncle Cliffy” during his 18-year NBA career, reportedly plans to open a marijuana store called “Uncle Spliffy.” A spliffy is a marijuana cigarette.

The conference’s technology presentations will include the latest in growing, marketing and security products.

Conference organizers tout cannabis as the “fastest-growing agricultural businesses in North America” as more states legalize recreational and medical pot use.

The District of Columbia and four states, including Washington and Oregon, have legalized pot for recreational use by adults. Twenty-three states allow medical marijuana use. Seven states will vote this year on legalizing adult recreational use.

A conference news release said 2016 “will be the tipping point in which a majority of U.S. states transition from cannabis prohibition to some form of regulated legal market.”

A couple of cannabis industry consulting companies, New Frontier and ArcView Market Research, recently released a State of Legal Marijuana Markets report that said the industry is growing at a rate of 30 percent annually.

In 2015 it reached a estimated value of $5.4 billion. “Adult use” sales of pot grew from and estimated $351 million in 2014 to $998 million in 2015, a 184 percent increase, according to the groups.

Despite the growth, there doesn’t appear to be much room for conventional farmers in the pot market. Seth Crawford, an Oregon State University instructor who specializes in pot policy studies, told the Capital Press in 2015 that the entire Oregon demand could be met on 35 acres in Southern Oregon, and the entire U.S. demand could be grown on 5,000 acres.

Crawford said marijuana probably is Oregon’s most valuable crop, worth close to $1 billion. But he said conventional farmers would swamp the market if they started growing it, and quality might suffer.