Stoller Family Estate, a Dayton vineyard and winery, is the latest Oregon agricultural operation to gain “B Corp” certification for meeting social and environmental standards.

Companies granted the certification are part of an international movement that seeks to redefine business success and to follow business practices that make them a “force for good.” To that end, they are judged on the way they treat their employees, engage with their communities and protect the environment.

Worldwide there are 2,221 Benevolent Corporations in more than 50 countries and involving 130 industries. Oregon agriculture is well represented, with companies such as Glory Bee Honey and Rogue Creamery already certified.

Several Willamette Valley wineries also have gone through the certification process. In addition to Stoller, A to Z, Sokol Blosser, Winderlea and Patton Valley are certified. Oregon Wine Board President Tom Danowski said Oregon has more B Corp certified wineries than any other state.

Stoller founder and owner Bill Stoller explained his thinking in a news release.

“I wanted to build a company that could last at least 200 years,” he said, “and to do this, we must take care of our land and community.”

Patton Valley, which gained B Corp certification in June, explained the decision on its website: “We became a B Corp because we believe that doing business goes beyond the financial performance of a company, and is the natural extension of what we do in the vineyard, in the winery, and beyond.”

Glory Bee Honey, a Eugene, Ore., company, made a similar decision three years ago. Senior Executive Vice President Rae Jean Wilson, whose parents Richard and Pat Turanski founded the business and are still active, said certification was an opportunity for the company to “walk the talk.”

“We’re not trying to be anything we’re not already,” she said. “We’re a faith-based and values-based organization — but for profit, of course. The combination is always interesting.”

The family went through “angst and anxiety” about whether certification would be too controlling of their business, but decided it aligned with their values. In addition to her parents, the discussions included her brother, Alan Turanski, who is company president, and their sister, Carole Walls, who is a board member.

They had to create some paperwork to document what they were doing in terms of worker wages and how decisions are made, made a more complete list of unacceptable product ingredients and wrote a code of conduct for their suppliers, some of which are international. Among other things, suppliers have to state they don’t use slave labor and aren’t involved in such things as sex trafficking.

“You’re somewhat on the honor system when you do business with people internationally, but we let them know the dos and don’ts,” Wilson said.

As a B Corp, the company would have been excluded from a business tax increase proposed by the Legislature a couple years ago. But Wilson said the company opposed the tax anyway because it would have put the state at a disadvantage.

“My brother and I are aligned on fact that our job is to be a company that our employees can feel proud to work at,” she said. “All in all, we carry the torch of using our business to make our community be a better place.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

WEDNESDAY, AUG. 16

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

———

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

Tuesdays

TUESDAY, AUG. 15

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

LANGLOIS — The Trinity Alps Chamber Players ensemble of world-class musicians will come to the Oregon Coast, for a special concert of chamber music that will feature wind and string instruments. This group of talented musicians will give a free…

LANGLOIS — The Trinity Alps Chamber Players ensemble of world-class musicians will come to the Oregon Coast, for a special concert of chamber music that will feature wind and string instruments. This group of talented musicians will give a free…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“It’s been a good run,” Arp said.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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