UNION, Ore. — Shelby Swindlehurst was one of the first to join Burnt River School’s FFA chapter when she was a sophomore at the high school. Now a sophomore at Eastern Oregon University studying agricultural sciences, she was awarded one of the organization’s top honors, the American Degree, at this year’s FFA national convention.

The degree is awarded to FFA members who have “demonstrated the highest level of commitment to FFA and made significant accomplishments in their supervised agricultural experiences,” according to the FFA website.

Less than 1 percent of members are awarded the degree each year.

“At first I didn’t realize how big it really was because I’ve never been around anyone who had it,” she said. “Same with my advisor, but she knew it was a big deal. This year when I went to nationals, it was an eye-opener about how big an accomplishment it was.”

Swindlehurst is the first in the Burnt River School District to receive this award.

Among the requirements for the American Degree are: receiving the State FFA Degree, being an active member for the past three years, having completed three years of systematic secondary school instruction in an agricultural education program, having graduated from high school, maintaining records to substantiate an outstanding supervised agricultural experience, earning at least $10,000 and productively investing $7,500 and having participated in at least 50 hours of community service.

Along with Swindlehurst, seven other students from Burnt River participated at the convention. Shayla Winton, Noah Ray, Stran Siddoway, Shea Swindlehurst and Tyler Belveal went for the experience, and Gustavo Ferrareto and Tim Barabas competed.

Ferrareto and Barabas were exchange students from Brazil and Germany, respectively. Their Agriscience project compared 13 countries’ agricultural knowledge.

“I didn’t believe when Mrs. Wilson sent me the message telling me that we made it to nationals,” Ferrareto said. “It was an incredible thing for Tim and I, the first people from Burnt River in FFA Nationals convention. Being exchange students made us feel a lot more special because we had the feeling that we did awesome even being against American high school students.”

The results of their project showed that agricultural knowledge in urban areas of the countries were “not outstanding at all,” Barabas said. The most surprising find: the U.S. ranked last in the overall average scores.

“Even in a country with an extremely effective agricultural education with FFA and subjects like animal science, ag mechanics, ag business and plant science, urban areas have a huge problem,” Barabas said. “In our opinion, the lack of agricultural knowledge is an international problem, which can be solved even better by the cooperation of nations.”

Ferrareto and Barabas placed ninth at the convention.

Although Burnt River High School, about 40 miles southwest of Baker City, Ore., has only 19 students enrolled at the high school, 17 of them are involved in FFA. Jessica Wilson, FFA advisor for the school district, said that half of the population is exchange students from around the urban U.S. and abroad.

“It’s an opportunity we have that’s available,” she said. “I’d like it if we could get more kids to come to the school, kids that want to be in ag and experience life in the West.”

Rory and Krystal Swindlehurst offer lodging for exchange students at the Burnt River Integrated Agriculture Research Ranch (BRIARR). Krystal Swindlehurst said she hopes that it helps the school grow.

“At our state convention almost every kid in our group was up there competing against schools with three thousand kids,” she said. “I just think it shows that as a group they’re very committed.”

Barabas and Ferrareto said FFA was instrumental in their exchange, and they thanked Wilson and the entire Burnt River School District for their support. Barabas said that next to the community, agriculture was what helped him and Ferrareto have a great year.

“Agriculture gave us no time to become bored in a town that consists of one main street, a gas station and one school. It brought us together with the entire school on the weekends and created a very special relationship between every single individual in school,” Barabas said. “It taught us to respect our food and the people taking care of our nutrition.”

ONTARIO, Ore. — Research by Oregon State University scientists relating to the Food and Drug Administration’s new produce safety rule is benefiting onion growers.

And onion growers have themselves to thank for that, industry leaders say, because they’re the ones who funded a good portion of the research through their checkoff dollars.

“That has been money well spent, no doubt about it, and I think everybody agrees with that,” said Kay Riley, marketing order chairman for the Idaho-Eastern Oregon Onion Committee. “It wasn’t a hard sell to the (IEOOC) research committee to fund those studies.”

Researchers at OSU’s Malheur County experiment station conducted several trials over the past four years that collectively showed onions are not at risk of being contaminated by irrigation water containing large amounts of bacteria.

Those studies helped FDA change its mind on some of the agricultural water standards originally contained in the produce rule, in a way that benefits bulb onions growers.

Beyond that, the research could also help growers who face industry-required Good Agricultural Practices audits, said OSU Extension cropping systems agent Stuart Reitz.

Many of the 300 onion growers in the Idaho-Oregon onion growing region face GAP audits, and some of them face several other types of audits as well, he said. Those audits require them to show they are growing onions in a safe and sanitary manner.

OSU researchers are starting to get the produce rule-related studies published in peer-reviewed scientific journals — one has already been published and another has been submitted for review. That will allow onion growers to incorporate the findings of that research into their GAP audits, Reitz said.

“We’re trying to finish getting some of the studies we’ve done published so we have scientifically valid studies that growers can incorporate into the farm safety plans that GAP audits require,” he said.

Clint Shock, director of the OSU experiment station in Malheur County, said the studies included loading irrigation water with large amounts of bacteria and then tracking E. coli contamination in the field and on onions.

Despite loading the water with bacteria, no traces of E. coli were ever found in an onion, Shock said.

Another study showed that using plastic bins instead of the wooden ones used for decades resulted in no difference in detectable levels of E. coli.

“There is no difference between plastic and wooden bins in terms of food safety,” Reitz said.

That research helped convince FDA to drop a produce rule provision that could have required growers to switch to plastic bins.

There are about 1 million wooden onion bins in the region, and replacing them with plastic bins would have been expensive, said Riley, who is also manager of Snake River Produce.

Plastic bins cost three times as much as wooden bins and hold two-thirds as much onions, he said.

A public-private partnership between the Indie Hops company and Oregon State University has yielded its first new hop cultivar after roughly seven years of research.

The variety, dubbed “Strata,” combines the sought-after citrus aroma with the “dank” smell often associated with cannabis, said Jim Solberg, CEO of Indie Hops.

“We’re pretty confident the hop will catch on and be a strong new variety,” he said.

Breeder Shaun Townsend collected the seed that would become Strata in the winter of 2010, when Indie Hops began contracting with OSU to develop new cultivars for craft brewers.

A field of female Perle hops had been open-pollinated by multiple male varieties from a nearby research yard, producing seed that germinated into roughly 10,000 plants with a wide range of characteristics.

At the time, the relationship between OSU and Indie Hops was controversial in Oregon’s hop farming community because a public facility would be used to develop controlled private varieties that aren’t widely available to growers.

Farmers had built trellises and other infrastructure at OSU that would no longer be used for public research, said Michelle Palacios, administrator of the Oregon Hop Commission.

“There was a lot of heartburn over that,” she said.

Since then, though, Oregon hop farmers have mended their relationship with OSU, which continues to cooperate with the industry on plant pathology and fermentation science, Palacios said.

“I think the industry has accepted it as it is,” she said of OSU’s public-private partnership with Indie Hops.

Disputes over public-private partnerships aren’t unique to the hop industry, said Ann George, executive director of the Hop Growers of America.

The “strings attached” to private money granted to public universities is a common point of debate, she said. “There’s always going to be that difficulty, when you have public research institutions that are not entirely funded publicly.”

Strata was one of roughly 10,000 seedlings that were exposed to mildews and other diseases in an OSU greenhouse, with the aim of weeding out plants susceptible to pathogens.

Those that survived were planted out to an experimental yard at OSU where they weren’t treated with fungicides and generally were not fussed over, as they would be at a commercial farm.

The goal was to identify naturally disease-resistant plants that would thrive without much encouragement, said Solberg. “They’re pretty hard on the plants at the experimental yard.”

As the plants were being evaluated for their agronomic traits, their cones were analyzed for chemistry and brewing potential on a small scale.

Hops that showed promise in the field and at the brewery were then moved to an advanced nursery trial in which their vegetatively propagated descendants were grown in about 30 different locations.

Strata was seen as having potential to stand out in the market, leading to further study in a commercial pilot where it was planted to five acres at several farms.

Strata’s vigorous growth, strong root system and decent early yields convinced Indie Hops to plant it commercially on three farms totaling 95 acres this year, with the first commercial crop to be harvested in 2018.

The cultivar had to be unique enough to warrant a commercial release at a time when growers have many more varieties to chose from than a decade ago, said Solberg.

Strata also came of age during a tough hop market, he said. “It’s definitely a market that’s oversupplied with hops.”

The new variety is now one of 84 on the official Hop Growers of America list of cultivars, said Ann George, the group’s executive director.

The list isn’t comprehensive, since some likely future varieties have yet to be added to it while some older varieties have fallen out of favor, she said.

More hop cultivars are now available to growers, but farms are also cultivating a greater diversity of them, George said. A typical grower now produces 12 or more varieties, up from the traditional six to eight.

“Most growers will agree they’re growing double the number of varieties they’re used to,” she said.

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Trial opens Tuesday in Las Vegas for Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, two of his sons and a co-defendant accused of leading an armed standoff in 2014 against government agents in a decades-long cattle grazing dispute.

Prosecutors will tell a jury that the 71-year-old Bundy, sons Ryan and Ammon Bundy, and co-defendant Ryan Payne of Anaconda, Montana, conspired to enlist a self-styled militia to defy government authority at the point of a gun.

Defense attorneys say the men didn’t conspire with anyone, didn’t wield weapons and didn’t threaten anybody.

The standoff near Bunkerville, Nevada, about 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas, was an iconic moment in a decades-long turf battle about federal control of vast rangelands in the Western U.S.

The men are accused of calling for a “range war” to stop government enforcement of lawful court orders to round up Bundy cows for failure to pay federal grazing fees and penalties.

The Bundys and Payne have been jailed since early 2016 as a danger to the community and at risk to not follow court orders or return for hearing dates.

The defendants have been attending court wearing red jail scrubs, to protest their nearly two-year detention without trial. Ryan Bundy is serving as his own lawyer.

Each man refused to enter a plea, saying he didn’t recognize the authority of the government. A magistrate judge entered not-guilty pleas for the men, who are expected to testify.

Bundy argues that his family has used the same public range for more than a century and the land belongs to the state, not the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

Acting U.S. Attorney Steven Myhre argues that the federal agency was enforcing lawful court orders to remove Bundy cows from what is now Gold Butte National Monument after the rancher racked up more than $1.1 million in unpaid fees and penalties.

Bundy’s lawyer, Bret Whipple, says Bundy was willing to pay his fees, and even tried to send a check in March 1994 to Clark County. It was returned with a letter saying the payment should go to the federal government.

Federal prosecutors in Nevada have twice failed to win full convictions at trial of men who had guns during the tense confrontation involving hundreds of protesters who stopped government agents from rounding up Bundy’s cattle.

Defense attorneys cast the standoff as a peaceful protest, with no shots fired and no one injured before overreaching government officials abandoned the cattle roundup and went home.

The men each face 15 felony charges, including conspiracy, assault and threats against federal officers, firearms counts, obstruction and extortion. Stacked together, convictions on all charges carry the possibility of more than 170 years in prison.

John Huffman, a Republican from the Dalles, has received one of the plum political appointments from the federal government.

Huffman left the Oregon House in October after 10 years to become Oregon’s director of rural development for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The position has frequently been filled by legislators. Huffman’s predecessor, Vicki Walker, is a former Democratic state senator from Eugene who filled the job during the Obama administration.  Former House Speaker Mark Simmons, R-Elgin, was appointed to the job in 2005 during the Bush administration.

In his new position, Huffman heads a staff of more than 50, in six offices around the state.

Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue on Friday announced appointees for the jobs in states around the country. Agency officials did not say how much Huffman will be paid in his new job.

But Walker, who left the job in January when Donald Trump became president, said she expected that Huffman would be paid between about $135,000 and $143,000 a year.

Walker said she encouraged Huffman to apply for the post and added that she thought Rep. Greg Walden, played a big role in helping him get the job.

The Oregon Hay & Forage Association Conference and Hay King Contest are scheduled for Nov. 17-18 in Lakeview, Ore.

The conference will be held in the Memorial Hall of the Lake County Courthouse on Nov. 17. Presentations will include a forage seminar by Oregon Tilth with information on how to become an organic hay grower, information on growing low carb hay for horses and a discussion and demonstration on the use of drones in agriculture.

The Hay King Contest will be held Nov. 18 in the shop building at SS Equipment in Lakeview.

More information on the hay conference and the contest can be obtained by calling Dan Roberts, the president of the Lake County Hay & Forage Association, at 775-742-0905.

— Craig Reed

KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. (AP) — Another gray wolf has been found dead in Oregon, marking the third such death of a federally protected wolf in the past year, state and federal wildlife officials said.

The wolf was found dead Oct. 29 in Klamath County on state forest land. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is offering a $5,000 reward for information on the killing, authorities said Monday.

The wolf was known to biologists as OR-25 and was believed to have killed a calf at a private ranch near Prospect earlier this year, according to state wildlife officials.

OR-33, a collared male, was found shot dead April 23 about 20 miles northwest of Klamath Falls in Fremont-Winema National Forest. OR-28, a collared female, was found dead Oct. 6, 2016, in Fremont-Winema National Forest near Summer Lake.

All three investigations remain open, and authorities do not believe the latest wolf died of natural causes, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife spokesman Brent Lawrence told the Mail Tribune.

Killing gray wolves in the western two-thirds of Oregon is a violation of the federal Endangered Species Act and of Oregon state game laws. The federal offense is punishable by up to a $100,000 fine, a year in jail or both. The maximum state penalty is a fine of $6,250 and a year in jail.

Wolves in Oregon hunt deer, elk, bighorn sheep and goats. But they also can target livestock and are loathed by many livestock owners.

State wildlife officials say 141 livestock or domestic animals have been killed by wolves in Oregon since they began returning to the state in the late 1990s.

In 2016, wildlife officials estimated a minimum of 112 wolves lived in Oregon in 11 packs that included eight breeding pairs.

Last week, an elk hunter shot and killed a gray wolf in eastern Oregon in self-defense after he said the wolf charged at him while he was hunting alone and he mistook it for a coyote. The hunter, who contacted authorities after realizing he had shot a gray wolf, will not be prosecuted because the shooting was ruled self-defense.

A retired U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist with 30 years experience said it is unlikely a wolf shot by an Oregon elk hunter was attacking the man.

Carter Niemeyer, who lives in Boise and oversaw or consulted on wolf recovery work throughout the West, also said descriptions of the bullet trajectory — in one shoulder and out the other – raise doubt about the hunter’s account that the wolf was running at him when he fired.

“That’s a broadside shot, not a running-at-you shot,” Niemeyer said. “If the bullet path is through one side and out the other, it indicates to me an animal could have been standing, not moving, and the shot was well placed.”

A bullet that hit the wolf as it was running forward most likely would have exited out the hips or rear end, Niemeyer said. He acknowledge the bullet or fragments could have deflected off bone, but said a forensic exam would have to explain that. Michelle Dennehy, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife spokesman, said the agency did not request a necropsy because the cause of death — gunshot — was known.

Niemeyer said the hunter’s account of taking a “snap shot into a ball of fur” is unlikely.

“I have to tell you I doubt the story,” he said.

Niemeyer, 70, said he’s hunted predators for 52 years as a government hunter and a taxidermist, and has dealt with fellow sportsmen and shooters for decades. “I’ve heard every story,” he said. “This story is very suspect to me.”

The elk hunter, Brian Scott, 38, of Clackamas, Ore., told Oregon State Police that the wolf ran straight at him. Scott told police he screamed, took quick aim and fired his 30.06 rifle once. Scott said he saw nothing but fur in the rifle’s scope as the wolf ran at him, according to published reports.

In an interview with outdoor writer Bill Monroe of The Oregonian/Oregon Live, Scott said he was terrified.

“People envision this jerk hunter out to kill anything, but that’s not me,” he told Monroe. “It frustrates me they don’t understand. I’m a meat hunter. I was looking for a spike elk. This wasn’t exciting. It ruined my hunt.”

Scott told Monroe he didn’t think he had time to fire a warning shot. He could not explain the bullet’s path, which entered the wolf’s right shoulder and exited the left, other than perhaps the wolf turned at the last instant or the bullet deflected.

Niemeyer, the retired wildlife biologist, said wolves will “turn around and take off” when they realize they’re near a human. Niemeyer said he had “many, many close encounters with wolves” while doing trapping, collaring and other field work for USFWS in Idaho, Oregon and elsewhere. He said wolves sometimes ran at him and approached within 6 to 8 feet before veering away.

Wolves are potentially dangerous, he said, “but all my experience tells me it would be fearful of a human.”

People in such situations should stand up if they are concealed, show themselves, and yell or throw things, Niemeyer said. Hunters could fire a shot into the ground or into a tree and “scare the hell out of them,” he said.

“That would have been the first logical thing to do,” he said. “The gunshot and a yell from a human would turn every wolf I’ve ever known inside out trying to get away.”

He also suggested people venturing into the woods should carry bear repellent spray, which certainly would also deter wolves, cougars or coyotes.

“If everyone shoots everything they’re afraid of, wow, that’s not a good thing,” he said.

Niemeyer acknowledged his reaction is based on years of experience with wolves.

“People say, ‘That’s easy for you to say, Carter, you worked with wolves for 30 years and you’re familiar with their behavior,’” he said.

The shooting happened Oct. 27 in ODFW’s Starkey Wildlife Management Unit west of La Grande, in Northeast Oregon.

Scott, the hunter, told police he was hunting and had intermittently seen what he thought might be coyotes. At one point, two of them circled off to the side while a third ran at him. Scott said he shot that one and the others ran away.

Scott went back to his hunting camp and told companions what had happened. They returned to the shooting scene and concluded the dead animal was a wolf. The hunter then notified state police and ODFW, which investigated. Police later found a shell casing 27 yards from the wolf carcass. The Union County district attorney’s office reviewed the case and chose not to file charges.

The Portland-based conservation group Oregon Wild raised questions about the incident. Rob Klavins, Oregon Wild’s field representative in Northeast Oregon, said he’s seen wolves in the wild several times and backed away without trouble or harm. Even the late OR-4, the fearsome breeding male of the infamous Imnaha Pack in Wallowa County, retreated and barked when it encountered Klavins and a hiking party.

“This (hunter) may have felt fear, but since wolves returned to Oregon, no one has so much as been licked by a wolf, and that’s still true today,” Klavins said.

“What has changed is we now have wolves on the landscape, 10 years ago we didn’t,” Klavins said. “Especially in the fall (hunting season), armed people are going to be out encountering wolves.”

Oregon Wild believes poachers have killed several Oregon wolves, and USFWS on Nov. 6 offered a $5,000 reward for information about a collared wolf designated OR-25 that was found dead Oct. 29 in South Central Oregon.

Klavins said wolf shooters might now use a “self-defense” claim as a “free pass to poaching.”

Tuesdays

Intensifying foreign competition hasn’t dimmed farmer Frank Tiegs’ enthusiasm for the frozen fruit business.

With his recent purchase of two processing companies — Rader Farms of Lynden, Wash., and Willamette Valley Fruit Co. of Salem, Ore. — Tiegs is betting on the industry’s resilience.

“There’s always going to be a place for U.S. grown fruit,” he said. “I wouldn’t have bought them if I didn’t think it was a good investment.”

For Northwest crops such as blackberries and raspberries, anxiety about the future of the U.S. frozen fruit industry springs from the easy availability of lower-priced imports from Mexico and South America.

Blueberries also compete on a global scale, with new plantings and production rising steadily around the world in recent years.

Tiegs said he’s not fazed by the industry’s changing dynamics, recalling the nervousness surrounding the Chinese apple industry in the 1980s and 1990s. Decades later, U.S. apple growers continue to find ways to compete.

In his time as a farmer, Tiegs has found it’s often wiser to invest during periods of uncertainty.

“My own experience has been to plant what’s not the hot thing,” he said.

In the 1970s, Tiegs began his agricultural career doing tractor and truck work for other farmers, then began buying land for himself in the 1980s.

Eventually, he moved into fresh packing of apples and potatoes, then invested in processing fruits and vegetables. Now, Tiegs owns about 15 facilities across Oregon, Washington and Idaho.

This “seed to fork,” vertically integrated approach allows Tiegs to better withstand agriculture’s economic cycles, he said.

When crop prices are high, growing his own supply of raw product helps mitigate costs at his processing facilities. When prices are low, the processing facilities add value to crops.

Though he primarily considers himself a potato grower, Tiegs regularly rotates this mainstay crop with sweet corn, onions, peppers, carrots, peas and green beans for processing.

Frozen fruit offers interesting opportunities for innovation, such as the retail smoothie mix kits that Rader Farms sells under the licensed “Jamba” brand.

Under Tiegs’ control, the newly acquired facilities in Oregon and Washington will generate more product for food manufacturers than previously, requiring an investment in building inventories.

Increasing the amount of crops processed at the facilities will also reduce their down time.

“I usually try to run plants as close to capacity as I can get them,” said Tiegs, who plans to buy crops from more farmers in the Skagit and Willamette valleys.

“We’re hoping to expand our grower base,” he said.

Inventure Foods, the previous owner of Rader Farms and Willamette Valley Fruit Co., was hindered by serious financial problems dating back to a food recall in 2015.

The recall was prompted by the detection of listeria, a bacterial pathogen, at its Fresh Frozen processing facility in Georgia.

Inventure lost money in every quarterly period since the recall, though the company also blamed the losses on lower frozen food prices and reduced distribution of certain products.

Before the recall, the company was reporting solid financial gains to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

In 2014, Inventure’s revenues topped $285 million, more than double from five years earlier. Its annual profits shot up from less than $4 million to nearly $20 million in that time.

By 2016, the company’s sales slid to $269 million and it lost more than $30 million.

Financial pressures led Inventure to sell its Fresh Frozen division to the Pictsweet Co. for $23.7 million and to sell Rader Farms, Willamette Valley Fruit Co. and other assets to Tiegs for $50 million.

Most recently, Inventure was taken over by Utz Quality Foods for $165 million.

Oregon Coast Podiatry LLC, a team coached by Kevin Dubisar, took first place in a year-ending tournament for teams in fourth through sixth grade for the Boys & Girls Club of Southwestern Oregon fall soccer program.

THE DALLES, Ore. — An enthusiastic audience cheered on the 50-plus contestants who competed in the 70th Annual Oregon Make it With Wool contest held Oct. 28.

Traditionally held during the Oregon Sheep Growers Association annual convention, the event took place during the Columbia Gorge Fiber Festival on the Columbia Gorge Community College campus in The Dalles. Children and adults of both sexes competed in the event. Sponsors included the Oregon Sheep Growers Association, Oregon Sheep Commission and Pendleton Woolen Mills.

The first-place Senior winner was 19-year-old Sara Treichel of The Dalles. The first-place Junior winner was 16-year-old Becca Zeigler of Cloverdale, and the first-place adult winner was Quinn Hanna of LaGrande.

They will represent Oregon in the national competition in San Antonio, Texas, during the American Sheep Industry Association Convention on Jan. 31-Feb. 3.

The first place Pre-Teen winner, which does not advance to the national competition, was 10-year-old Tora Jo Timinsky from The Dalles.

Treichel and Zeigler will model in the national competition while Hanna will compete by submitting her garment, photos and a video.

Chandra Worman, director of Oregon MIWW contest since 2012 and National MIWW fashion show director since 2013, was thrilled to see this year’s competition was such a success.

“I set a goal of 50 contestants and 60 entered,” she said. “It took a lot of volunteers and sponsors to put it on but it was definitely one of our best.”

Contestants were judged on quality of construction, fit, poise and marketability of the outfit.

“Years ago, it was common to see business suits in the Junior and Senior categories, but now it has shifted to age-appropriate garments that reflect the contestant’s lifestyle,” Worman said. “Sara won with houndstooth wool skirt and skirt length vest ensemble, Becca won with a wool skirt and a hooded wool coat made from a Pendleton Woolen Mills Melton and Tora Jo’s outfit was a wool summer dress.”

Hanna, a first-year sewer whose daughter challenged her to enter the contest, won with a pencil wool skirt and open front vest.

In addition to other prizes, each contestant received 1½ yards of Pendleton wool fabric, which many will use in the garment they enter next year, Worman said.

The 2018 Oregon MIWW contest will be at The Dalles Middle School on Oct. 27; deadline for entry is Sept. 20. For more information, visit oregonmiww.com or contact Chandra Worman at cwloves2sew@yahoo.com.

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Governors of 19 Western states are pressing the federal government to do more to prevent the spread of damage-causing invasive mussels from infected federally managed waterways.

The Western Governors’ Association on Thursday sent a letter urging Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to put in place by spring 2018 controls to prevent the spread of zebra and quagga mussels.

The governors are asking that federal agencies conduct mandatory inspections and decontamination of boats leaving infected water bodies.

The governors say they’re particularly concerned about the mussels reaching the Columbia River Basin, Lake Tahoe, and the Colorado River Basin above Lake Powell.

The mussels can clog water pipes, damage boat motors and affect other aquatic life.

Many states have spent millions on efforts to stop the mussels from infecting state waterways.

DENVER (AP) — With most private institutions and credit unions still avoiding the legal cannabis industry, many marijuana businesses remain without bank accounts.

But one idea is gaining acceptance among marijuana entrepreneurs and a growing number of cities and states: the formation of public banks to serve the cannabis industry.

The problem? It’ll be a while before any open their doors.

Cities that are looking into creating such financial institutions include Los Angeles, Oakland and Santa Rosa in California; Philadelphia, and Santa Fe, New Mexico. The states of Arizona and Maryland are also entertaining the idea.

“It’s important for local jurisdictions to do what they can to facilitate a successful cannabis industry,” said Dan Kalb, an Oakland City Council member who’s supporting his city’s efforts to study the feasibility of a public bank.

“It’s important for local governments to help their success, and the lack of banking services is a gap that no other industry faces. So, it’s important for local governments and elected leaders to step up and try and solve that problem.”

There currently is only one public bank in the United States — the state-owned Bank of North Dakota (BND).

The Bismarck-based bank was founded in 1919 to serve farmers and small businesses in North Dakota who felt they weren’t getting fair treatment from commercial banks, and it remains popular today in a solidly conservative state.

The state, not the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., insures BND’s deposits, and the North Dakota Department of Financial Institutions, not federal bank examiners, has oversight of the bank.

North Dakota’s medical marijuana program is due to go online in 2018, and a BND spokeswoman declined to discuss whether the bank would work with the state’s new medical marijuana companies. So banking could also soon be an issue for North Dakota’s medical marijuana businesses.

For state-compliant marijuana businesses — which are still considered illegal under federal law — the ability to bank at institutions that are regulated by local governments, rather than federal agencies, would be quite welcome.

Those financial institutions wouldn’t have to worry about losing a federal license or incurring some other punishment for banking businesses that violate federal law, and therefore would be more likely to accept marijuana plant-touching clients.

Backers of public banks are supportive of the concept because they would support small, local businesses and community projects — but they have also made no secret of their desire for these banks to serve local marijuana businesses.

“We have to figure out a way to make this industry work,” said Los Angeles City Councilman Herb Wesson, who recently explained to the council why he supports a public bank in his city.

Both Wesson and Kalb have said they’ve been in contact with marijuana businesses that support the idea of local government-owned banks.

Efforts to explore such institutions are in various stages of progress:

—Santa Fe paid for a feasibility study that showed support for a municipally owned public bank, then established a Public Banking Task Force whose mission is to decide whether the city should apply for a state banking license.

—The Northern California cities of Oakland, Berkeley and Richmond as well as Alameda County are jointly exploring the merits of establishing a public bank to serve their communities. The municipalities have chipped in $130,000 for a feasibility study.

—Researchers at Commonomics USA, a California organization that supports public banks, are drafting a template for how the state — which is responsible for issuing commercial bank licenses — could also issue public bank licenses. The goal is to get lawmakers to turn that template into a bill that could be considered as early as next year, said Marc Armstrong, a Commonomics official working on the draft. “If such a license exists, then a lot of governance problems go away,” he added.

While public banks can operate independent of some federal agencies, they still need to obtain a so-called master account from one of the nation’s 12 federal reserve banks. Financial institutions need master accounts to open accounts, process checks and interact with the rest of the nation’s financial system.

That issue has prevented Colorado’s canna-centric Fourth Corner Credit Union from opening. Although Fourth Corner possesses a Colorado state banking charter, the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City has turned down the institution’s application for a master account.

Proponents acknowledge that federal reserve banks can withhold master accounts from financial institutions that serve marijuana businesses. But that’s far less likely to happen if the public bank intends to serve many industries, not just marijuana.

“The reason Fourth Corner didn’t get (a master account) is because they were too concentrated in one industry, and the risk associated with that went way up,” Armstrong said.

Marijuana businesses should temper their hopes about public banking because it could take at least two or three years before such an institution jumps through the necessary bureaucratic hoops and accumulates enough capital to open.

And by then, industry observers said, it may be too late. A growing number of commercial banks are becoming open to accepting marijuana businesses as clients, so in a few years, public banks will face much more competition for cannabis cash than exists now.

“Public banks are a good idea, but by the time anyone gets around to opening one, you’re going to have - as far as California goes - more financial institutions for marijuana businesses to choose from,” said Lance Ott, CEO of Guardian Date Systems, a canna-centric financial services company in the Golden State.

“(Public banking) process could take years. By the time they launch it, they’re going to be too far behind to make a large impact unless they offer some very attractive incentives to potential customers to come on board.”

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Oregon has approved a developer’s plan to truck pesticide-contaminated soil from a proposed residential development in northeast Salem to a farm 6 miles away.

The soil, contaminated with dieldrin, would pose ingestion, inhalation and skin contact hazards for new residents, but “should be safe for farm use,” regulators said in a response to public comments on the controversial proposal.

Dieldrin is a breakdown product of the insecticide aldrin, which was banned for crop use in 1970. It persists in soil for years and can accumulate up the food chain.

Neighbors and government agencies raised alarms when the plan was announced in July, saying it had the potential to contaminate groundwater and surface water and could spread contaminated dust as the dirt is trucked through neighborhoods, passing three schools. They also questioned the safety of using the soil to grow crops.

In a written response to their comments, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality said its toxicologists do not expect risk standards to be exceeded in the air or dust during soil removal or trucking.

They also will require the developer to use dust-control measures.

Elizabeth Sagmiller, environmental and technical division manager for the city of Keizer, said that isn’t good enough.

The farm where the soil will be dumped is in Keizer, less than half a mile away from Clear Lake. The dirt would have to be trucked through Keizer neighborhoods.

“They used words like ‘DEQ does not expect there to be a problem.’ They don’t say ‘DEQ guarantees there won’t be a problem.’ That doesn’t give us a lot of confidence,” she said. “I was less than happy with their response but they’re the regulating agency and it’s up to them to make the decision.

As a result of public input, DEQ will require the contractor to cover the contaminated soil at the new site with three feet of cleaner fill soil before the farmer grows crops in it.

The farmer also has indicated he will plant hazelnut trees, which are unlikely to take up significant levels of dieldrin, said Don Hanson, DEQ’s Western Region cleanup manager.

The permit now specifies that the contractor must obtain floodplain and wetland permits from Marion County, the Department of State Lands and the Army Corps of Engineers before the southern quarry is filled.

Nichole Tarter, who lives near the proposed development, organized a community meeting in September, where neighbors heard from state environment, health and agriculture officials.

“We were told that the soil contamination is so minimal that we shouldn’t be concerned basically,” she said. “So the general consensus from those that I talked with was, why dig it up at all and move only part of it to a new location? It doesn’t sound right.”

“It still left neighbors wondering why the soil needs to be moved at all, if it isn’t a threat to us,” Tarter said.

Some neighbors had asked DEQ to approve a different option, such as taking the soil to a landfill licensed to handle the waste or treating the soil with an additive that lessens the contamination.

But Hanson said DEQ must choose the least expensive option that still protects human health and the environment.

“By law we get into trouble if we start requiring people to do more than is really required under the law,” he said.

The proposed residential development in northeast Salem includes plans for a community called Northstar, with 500 home lots, plus duplexes and apartments.

The soil will be taken to a farm at Windsor Island Road, where it will be used to fill two former quarry pits.

DEQ has allowed the developer to excavate soil from the east side of the contaminated property and temporarily stockpile it on the west side, where it is fenced, graded and seeded to prevent erosion.

Underground utilities will be installed over the winter, and streets will be paved in the spring.

Contaminated soil is tentatively scheduled to be removed between April and August 2018.

LANGLOIS — Looking for a reason to visit Dragonfly Farm & Nursery near Langlois? Christmas at the Farm will be 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily Dec. 8-10, at the nursery. You can visit with Santa, pickup a Christmas tree, stand by…

An Oregon elk hunter shot and killed a wolf he said was charging him, Oregon State Police and ODFW said.

The hunter, a 38-year-old man from Clackamas, Ore., who was not named in a news release, will not be charged in the case. The Union County district attorney’s office reviewed evidence and said the man acted in self-defense.

ODFW’s acting wolf program coordinator, Robyn Brown, said it was the first known incident of a wolf being shot in self-defense. Wolves are protected under state and federal law and killing them is a crime except in defense of human life and in certain cases where livestock are being attacked.

The incident happened Oct. 27 about 11:30 .am. in the Starkey Wildlife Management Unit in Northeast Oregon, where most of Oregon’s wolves live. The man told state police and ODFW he was hunting elk alone and repeatedly saw three animals he thought were coyotes moving around him. One of them eventually ran directly at him while another appeared to circle to the side.

The hunter said he yelled at the charging animal, then fired a single shot, killing it. The other two disappeared. State police later estimated the wolf was 27 yards away when the man fired.

The man returned to his hunting camp and told his companions what had happened. Uncertain whether he’d killed a coyote as he first thought, the hunters returned to the site and concluded it was a wolf. The hunter who fired the shot notified state police and ODFW, according to a news release. A wildlife trooper and an ODFW biologist responded to the hunting camp, went to the scene and took custody of the carcass for examination.

ODFW said the dead wolf was an 83-pound female associated with a male, OR-30, that wears a tracking collar. Initial examination indicated it was not a breeding female, but the wolf’s DNA will be analyzed to make sure, according to ODFW.

Brown, the ODFW wolf coordinator, said dangerous encounters between people and wolves, cougars, bears and coyotes are rare. The animals usually avoid humans and will leave an area when they see, hear or smell one, she said in a prepared statement.

She said people who see a wolf should talk or yell to warn it off. Those carrying a firearm could fire a warning shot into the ground, she said.

Aug. 20, 1975 - Oct. 25, 2017

FRIDAY, NOV. 3

Groups representing Oregon counties and timber companies want to resume litigation against the federal government’s expansion of the Cascade-Sisikiyou National Monument.

However, a federal judge is delaying proceedings in the two lawsuits until Dec. 1 to give the Trump administration more time to consider scaling back the monument’s size.

The monument’s boundaries were increased from about 66,000 acres to 114,000 acres in the waning days of the Obama administration, angering livestock producers and timber companies that rely on the public land for grazing and logging.

Most logging is prohibited within the monument and the designation also has the potential for grazing restrictions.

The Association of O&C Counties and the American Forest Resource Council both filed complaints against the expansion, arguing the national monument can’t include federal property that’s dedicated to timber harvest.

Those cases were stayed after the Trump administration decided to review the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument and others created in the past two decades.

During the summer, Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke submitted recommendations implying the monument should be reduced by roughly 16,600 acres that were previously open to logging under resource management plans.

The Association of O&C Counties is dissatisfied with this proposal, since Zinke did not address the inclusion of more than 35,000 acres of so-called O&C Lands in the monument.

O&C Lands were once granted to a railroad but then repossessed by the federal government and devoted to logging, with Western Oregon counties receiving a portion of the timber revenues.

The counties’ lawsuit against the federal government should be re-activated since their fundamental problem would not be resolved under the recommendations delivered during the summer, according to the Association of O&C Counties.

“Since that time, however, the Secretary has completed his review and submitted his final report to the President and there is no clear prospect of relief. If anything, the opposite is true,” the group said in a court brief.

The American Forest Resource Council likewise argued that its lawsuit might as well be resumed since it won’t be mooted by anything other than a complete reversal of the expansion.

“This inevitableness means that a stay only kicks the metaphorical can down the road, while continuing to worsen the harmful impacts the Monument expansion is having on the timber industry,” according to AFRC’s court brief.

The timber group claims the monument’s expansion has effectively shut down timber harvests that were planned for the next 10 years in the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s Klamath Falls Resource Area.

“Timber on federal lands is highly regulated, and the sudden evaporation of millions of board feet of timber in one resource area is not easily absorbed in another area that is under similar sustainable management,” the brief said.

Attorneys for the federal government said it “simply is not accurate” that timber harvests have completely ceased in the region, noting the expansion did not cancel timber sales that were already approved.

Delaying the litigation until Dec. 1 would prevent the court from wasting resources, since the Trump administration may reach a decision that “could simplify or moot the issues.”

Senior U.S. District Judge Richard Leon sided with the government in both cases and agreed to prolong the stay until Dec. 1, when the parties will submit a joint report on the status of the litigation.