Despite losing control of his nursery company last year, Bob Terry isn’t eager to exit the industry.

In fact, Terry said he hopes to regain ownership of Fisher Farms, a nursery in Gaston, Ore., which he ran for nearly 20 years before his lender, Rabobank, seized the operation in 2015 as collateral for debt.

“I’m not the typical 70-year old,” he said. “Bob Terry is not going to sit on the front porch and whittle whistles.”

Management of the nursery was turned over to a receivership firm, Global Ventures, Inc., which was appointed to recoup as much as possible of the $16 million that Rabobank claims it’s owed by Fisher Farms.

Though a stipulated court agreement prevents him from becoming involved in the company’s management until mid-2016, Terry said he wants to take an operational role — potentially with the backing of investors — once that provision expires.

“I took it from a small farm to a large business,” he said.

The financial pitfalls of the nursery industry are nothing new for Terry, who was introduced to the industry in the late 1980s when he was recruited as a turnaround expert for the ailing Oregon Garden Products nursery.

Though he came into the business with practically no experience with plants, he was intrigued enough by the industry to buy his own nursery, Fisher Farms, in 1996. For the past five years, he’s also served on the Washington County Board of Commissioners.

Terry said he’s proud of his company’s accomplishments: It’s one of a handful of plant producers certified by USDA for overseas exports and owns numerous licenses for plant varieties. At its peak size, the company produced nursery stock across 250 acres in Gaston, Sherwood and Dayton.

According to court records, Fisher Farms took out an operating line of credit from Rabobank in 2011 for $10.5 million, using the nursery’s assets as collateral. That line of credit was extended several times, with the last extension ending Dec. 31, 2014.

Ownership of the nursery’s real estate was conveyed in 2011 under a forbearance agreement to a subsidiary of Rabobank, which sold off all the sites except for the Gaston location.

Fisher Farms then began renting that land back from Rabobank’s subsidiary to continue production, but the lender claims that by 2015 the nursery defaulted on the lease.

According to court records, the nursery failed to repay its loans and in June 2015 the bank petitioned the court to appoint a receiver to take over the nursery’s inventory, equipment and accounts, which served as collateral. At that time, Rabobank asserted that Fisher Farms debt had grown to more than $15 million.

The receiver, Global Ventures, later reported that the company had debts of $15.9 million debt and assets of $7.1 million.

It also fired the nursery’s operations manager for “lack of proper inventory controls and a willful act of insubordination.” Global Ventures said that Fisher Farms was missing more than 200,000 plants in its inventory, which it attributed not to theft but to a lack of paperwork maintenance.

Terry objects to this characterization, countering that the company meticulously tracked its inventory, including physically taking stock of plants twice a year.

Global Ventures’ executives terminated the operations manager for knowing more than they did, not because any plants were actually missing, Terry said.

Terry also claims that his company owed slightly less than $15 million, but the amount was inflated by expenses incurred by the Global Ventures.

“The receiver likes to make it look worse than it is, because it makes them look good,” he said.

Mark Boyd, president and CEO of Global Ventures, said that, as a court-appointed receiver, it wouldn’t be appropriate for him to comment on the situation. An attorney representing Rabobank, Joe VanLeuven, said the bank could not comment about a borrower due to confidentiality laws.

Fisher Farms sustained losses of $2.4 million in 2013, less than $1 million in 2014 and more than $1 million during the first half of 2015, according to a receiver’s report. By late 2015, Global Ventures claimed that the nursery had generated a profit of roughly $1 million.

The losses were caused by a plunge in demand for nursery stock following the housing meltdown, which the nursery industry began to feel as early as 2007, said Terry.

Financial problems were widespread in the nursery industry after the financial crisis, said Bob Boyle, senior vice president at Northwest Farm Credit Services, who said he could not comment on Fisher Farms in particular.

“It went through a very brutal cycle,” Boyle said.

Even so, Terry contends that his fortunes were improving in 2015 and the company would have generated a strong profit in 2016.

He attributed Rabobank’s decision to place Fisher Farms into receivership to the Netherlands-based company’s own financial quandaries related to turmoil in the eurozone, which prompted it to divest nursery assets, he said.

“They had to make some big worldwide decisions about how to manage their own issues,” Terry said.

SALEM — A bill to ratify removing wolves from Oregon’s endangered species list came under sharp questioning Tuesday in a key Senate committee.

House Bill 4040, which declares that Oregon wildlife regulators followed the law when delisting wolves last year, was approved 33-23 in the House on Feb. 12 and is now under consideration by the Senate Committee on Environment and Natural Resources.

Proponents of HB 4040 say it would buttress the credibility of the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission’s decision, while critics say the bill is intended to derail an environmentalist lawsuit against the delisting.

During a Feb. 16 hearing, Sen. Michael Dembrow, D-Portland, and Floyd Prozanski, D-Eugene, expressed reservations about the purpose of the bill.

The delisting was part of a three-step process described in Oregon’s management plan for wolves, which does not require the Legislature to ratify the commission’s decision, said Prozanski.

“Why are we doing that, if it was never part of the plan?” Prozanski asked Sen. Bill Hansell, R-Athena, who testified in support of HB 4040.

While the Legislature may not have previously ratified a delisting, it’s not unprecedented for lawmakers to ratify decisions by the state’s executive branch, Hansell replied.

The bill isn’t intended to preclude the environmentalist lawsuit, which claims the wolf delisting was not based on the best available science, he said. “If people want to sue, they’ll have the ability to do that.”

If the purpose of HB 4040 is simply to affirm that wildlife regulators have done a good job, then “it doesn’t seem like an appropriate use of our time,” Prozanski said.

Dembrow said he discussed the bill with the Office of Legislative Counsel, which advises lawmakers on legal issues, and was told HB 4040 would effectively force a judge to dismiss the environmentalist lawsuit.

Ratification by the Legislature would cure any legal deficiency in the delisting decision, which Dembrow said he found troubling due to the scientific issues involved.

“Essentially, what we’re being asked to do is say the science is right, the process is right,” he said. “I don’t how many of us in the legislature can say that.”

Dembrow also noted that he’s proposed an amendment to the bill clarifying that the legislature ratifies the delisting as long as the decision is in compliance with the law and administrative rules, which would cause HB 4040 to have no legal effect.

If the bill’s purpose isn’t to void the lawsuit, then “perhaps this amendment would be in order,” Dembrow said.

Hansell said the bill was intended to shore up the commission’s decision in court.

“I would never say it has no effect or would not make any difference,” he said.

Rocky Dallum, political advocate for the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association, said HB 4040 wouldn’t preclude a lawsuit but acknowledged that the legislature’s ratification would “go a long way” toward resolving the legal dispute.

If the Legislature doesn’t ratify the delisting, the policy decision will be made by a court or through a settlement between state officials and the environmental plaintiffs, he said.

“We do see this will have an effect on the litigation,” he said.

Opponents of the bill said they were worried that HB 4040 will set a dangerous precedent by having the legislature interfere in the delisting process.

“This bill opens the door for the Legislature to make political decisions about the fate of imperiled species across Oregon,” said Quinn Read, Northwest representative for Defenders of Wildlife, an environmental group.

SALEM — Oregon hemp growers would be free to propagate the crop from cuttings and grow it in greenhouses under a bill that’s won the approval of the House.

Under current law, hemp can only be seeded directly outdoors in fields at least 2.5 acres in size, which was intended to facilitate industrial production but proved too inflexible for growers.

At the time Oregon lawmakers originally legalized hemp production in 2009, they enacted these restrictions with the expectation the crop would be used for oilseed and fiber instead of human consumption.

Since then, the Oregon Department of Agriculture found that many hemp producers were more interested in growing the crop for cannabidiol, a compound used for medicinal purposes, than for such traditional products.

To this end, they wanted to use greenhouses, clone desirable plants and produce the crop on a smaller scale.

Under House Bill 4060, which was passed 54-4 by the House on Feb. 16, the minimum 2.5 acre field requirement would be scrapped and hemp farmers would be given the same flexibility in production and propagation methods as growers of other crops.

The Oregon Farm Bureau supports HB 4060 because it wants hemp treated like other crops.

The bill includes an amendment approved by the House Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources that clarifies hemp would be subject to the same Oregon Department of Agriculture water and pesticide regulations as other crops.

The amended version of the bill also clarifies that growers can cultivate all varieties of hemp and that the crop won’t be considered a food adulterant, among other provisions.

Growers can also send crop samples to accredited laboratories for required testing, which is expected to be cheaper than using ODA staff and facilities.

The Senate will now consider H.B. 4060, though it has yet to be assigned to a committee.

Another bill that was approved by the House Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resource, House Bill 4007, passed the House 59-1 on Feb. 15. The bill creates a new way to form rangeland protection association that fight wildfires.

Landowners must currently win approval from the Oregon Board of Forestry to create such associations, but HB 4007 would also allow them to be approved by county governments.

Currently, 20 rangeland protection associations staffed by volunteers protect 4.6 million acres in Eastern Oregon.

New associations organized by counties would still have to submit annual budgets to the Oregon Board of Forestry and enter into cooperative agreements with the Oregon Department of Forestry.

The Senate Committee on Environment and Natural Resources will now review HB 4007.

May 28, 1935 – Feb. 10, 2016

May 28, 1935 – Feb. 10, 2016

SALEM — A controversial proposal to set three regional minimum wage rates in Oregon is headed for a vote by the House of Representatives.

After holding a three-hour public hearing, the House Business and Labor Committee voted 6-to-5 Monday to recommend passage of the bill. The vote was along party lines, and Republicans said they plan to offer a minority report and alternative to the proposal on the House floor.

The vote could come as early as Thursday.

“I think what you have before you in this particular legislation is a policy decision and that is whether we expect that Oregonians who are working full time should be living in poverty,” Gov. Kate Brown told lawmakers Monday. “The answer for me is no.”

The Senate approved the measure 16-to-12 Thursday, also largely along party lines.

The bill hikes wages from $9.25 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 rates are based on median income and cost of living in those regions and what it takes to be “self-sufficient” – to pay basic expenses such as food, housing and transportation, said Sen. Michael Dembrow, D-Portland, who proposed the measure.

Rep. Jim Weidner, R-Yamhill, moved to amend the bill to slow its effective date and to allow Oregonians to vote on the measure, but the committee defeated the motion 6-to-5.

He also moved to send the bill for review by the Joint Committee on Ways and Means to determine how the measure would impact state and county budgets in future years.

He said the bill would drive costs up for businesses and drive businesses out of state to Washington and Idaho.

Rep. Peter Buckley, D-Ashland, co-chairman of Ways and Means and vice-chairman of the business and labor committee said such a review would be limited to the current budget and not future budgets. He said referring the bill to Ways and Means would delay the bill but would not necessarily provide any additional information.

“I find it amusing that we are essentially saying we don’t know yet the full impact on this and because it isn’t going to have a big impact on this budget we are just going to ramrod it through,” said Rep. Dallas Heard, R-Roseburg.

Rep. Paul Holvey, D-Eugene, said studies conflict on the impact of minimum wage hikes. He said the state has failed to reform the tax system to help income inequality and one of the only other ways to address the problem is raising the minimum wage.

Brown said Monday she supports the proposal because it “takes into account the economic reality in Oregon that some areas are growing faster than others.”

“It also gives businesses the time and certainty to prepare to implement a new minimum wage, and although the increase is phased in gradually, the increase starts right away giving hardworking Oregonians a much-needed boost,” Brown said in prepared comments she read to committee members. “Finally, it offers a middle ground between nothing and two problematic ballot measures that expedite increases with absolutely no accommodation for regional economic differences.”

Her comments refer to initiatives that would hike minimum wage to $13.50 and $15 per hour within three years and would lift a ban on cities and counties setting higher wages.

“We heard from a lot of business people who felt that would be really disruptive for them because it would be hard for them to predict when the next increase would come,” Dembrow said. “What they valued was predictability.”

The proposal hikes wages beginning in July from $9.25 to $9.75 statewide.

The minimum gradually would climb to $14.75 in 2022 in the Portland urban growth boundary, which includes parts of Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas counties. It will rise to $13.50 in Benton, Clatsop, Columbia, Deschutes, Hood River, Jackson, Josephine, Lane, Lincoln, Linn, Marion, Polk, Tillamook, Wasco, and Yamhill counties, and parts of Multnomah, Clackamas and Washington counties outside Portland’s urban growth boundary.

In rural areas, the minimum would increase to $12.50. Those areas include Malheur, Lake, Harney, Wheeler, Sherman, Gilliam, Wallowa, Grant, Jefferson, Baker, Union, Crook, Klamath, Douglas, Coos, Curry, Umatilla and Morrow counties.

BEND, Ore. (AP) — The Tumalo Irrigation District has added an additional fee for patrons in anticipation of mounting legal costs associated with recently filed lawsuits over Oregon spotted frog habitat.

The district instituted a $175 fee this year for each water right account holder to help pay for litigation as well as for public relations during the court case.

“We got estimates from the communication teams and legal teams and came up with an idea of what it would cost us,” said Ken Rieck, the district manager.

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Tumalo and other irrigation districts are being sued by the Center for Biological Diversity and WaterWatch of Oregon. The cases focus on Deschutes River flows and management of reservoirs. The two environmental groups first threatened legal action last summer.

The spotted frog has been listed as a threatened species by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The bureau and irrigation districts manage Crescent Lake, Crane Prairie and Wickiup reservoirs.

The Tumalo Irrigation District board, which is made up of five members, agreed on the $175 fee unanimously Jan. 12. The district has about 667 accounts, which add up to $116,725 expected to be set aside for lawsuit costs.

The Deschutes Basin Board of Control, a group of eight irrigation districts in Central Oregon, is proportionally dividing up costs for the court case among the districts.

Rieck said responding to the lawsuits is expected to be an “extraordinary expense.” He said the 2016 district budget was tight with little wiggle room to handle added legal costs.

“We’ll keep the accounting for the lawsuit separate, and if we’ve overcollected, we’ll return what we’ve overcollected,” Rieck said.

The Central Oregon Irrigation District, one of the others named in the federal suit, started collecting a $25 fee last year to help cover costs with the Deschutes Basin Habitat Conservation Plan, an assessment of future water needs and habitat conservation.

This year, the fee will go to defraying costs from the spotted frog litigation. The district manages two canals east of Bend that pass through Redmond and Terrebonne. It has about 3,600 patron accounts.

“It will barely even scratch the surface,” Shon Rae, the district’s project manager, said of the fee’s impact on paying for the lawsuits.

SEATTLE (AP) — A President’s Day storm brought record rainfall to the Pacific Northwest and sent rivers overflowing their banks in Western Washington on Tuesday.

The National Weather Service says the storm system, known as a “Pineapple Express” is now pointed toward Oregon.

The weather service had flood warnings in effect for certain rivers in Clallam, King, Kittitas, Mason, Snohomish and Whatcom counties on Tuesday morning.

KOMO-TV reports at least 16 roads were closed on Tuesday morning in Snohomish and King counties because of flooding. The water was several feet deep over several roads, mostly around Duvall and Carnation.

KCPQ-TV reports record one-day rain totals for Monday were set in Bellingham and Quillayute near Forks. The Bellingham Airport reported 1.64 inches of rain, breaking the old record of 1.02 inches set back in 1986.

The north Washington coast reported 3.34 inches of rain near Forks. The old record for Monday was 3.05 inches set 35 years ago.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A Nevada rancher is returning to court to seek his release from jail in Oregon, where he went to support the armed occupation of a national wildlife preserve.

Cliven Bundy has a detention hearing set for Tuesday, when a federal judge will decide whether to allow him to go home as he awaits trial. Prosecutors said last week that he should stay behind bars because they didn’t expect him to show up for future court dates.

Bundy was arrested in Portland last week on charges stemming from a 2014 armed standoff that forced federal officials to release cattle being rounded up near his Nevada ranch.

The 69-year-old came to Oregon to support the weekslong occupation at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge launched by his now-jailed sons, Ammon and Ryan Bundy.

Linfield College in Oregon has decided to begin a wine studies program.

The private college, located in McMinnville in the heart of the Willamette Valley’s Pinot noir region, will grant students a wine studies minor to go along with their major degree program.

Students will learn about the history, culture, production, business and science of wine, and its social and economic significance in Oregon and beyond, according to a Linfield news release.

The latter is well documented. A California firm, Full Glass Research, estimated the Oregon wine industry’s economic impact at $3.35 billion. The figure counts crop value, sales, jobs and direct and indirect services and businesses.

The Linfield program will aim to produce graduates with a broad understanding of the industry and who, combined with their major field of study, will be able to step into jobs. The college anticipates students will combine a wine studies minor with majors such as management, marketing, accounting, mass communications, biology, chemistry or international business, according to a news release.

Other universities offer deeper programs. University of California-Davis has taught all phases of winemaking for nearly 50 years, while Washington State University and Oregon State University have well-established viticulture and enology programs. OSU also established a Wine Research Institute on campus.

But Linfield has hosted the International Pinot Noir Celebration since it began 30 years ago, faculty are engaged in research projects and the campus houses the Oregon Wine History Project and wine archives.

After 41 days, 25 indictments and one man killed, the armed occupation of a federal wildlife refuge near Burns has come to an end.

The underlying issues of rangeland management, however, won’t be going away anytime soon.

John O’Keeffe, president of the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association, said things are far from perfect between ranchers across the West, the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service. Environmental regulations are making it harder to get rangeland improvement projects done quickly. Wildfires are getting bigger and hotter, scorching hundreds of thousands of acres. Noxious weeds continue to spread, choking out native vegetation for grazing.

Yet O’Keeffe was quick to condemn the militants who came mostly from out of state to the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, where they protested the sentences of Harney County ranchers Dwight and Steven Hammond and called for federal land to be returned to private citizens.

“What happened in Burns is outsiders coming in and occupying a refuge illegally,” O’Keeffe said. “We have a lot of issues to sort out with the agencies, but we absolutely intend to do it through legal channels.”

O’Keeffe runs cattle on about 75,000 acres of public land near the tiny community of Adel in isolated south-central Oregon — an average size family ranch, he says. His operation includes grazing permits with both the BLM and Fremont-Winema National Forest.

Ranchers understand the need to support multiple uses on public land, such as recreation and wildlife habitat, O’Keeffe said. But he worries further restrictions might become too much to take.

“There’s no guarantees,” O’Keeffe said. “Should these government regulations become too burdensome, ranchers could go away. That would create a whole new set of problems.”

The BLM manages grazing permits and leases on roughly 14 million acres in Oregon and Washington. That breaks down to a total of 951,000 permits for the region.

Of those, about 20 belong to Jacob Ferguson.

Ferguson is a rangeland management specialist for BLM Vale District in southeast Oregon. His area encompasses 850,000 acres south of Jordan Valley and east of the Owyhee River. From May through October, he travels usually once per week to visit his permittees and monitor conditions on the ground.

“We try to see it all,” Ferguson said.

Despite only being on the job for two years, Ferguson said he’s developed good relationships with ranchers around the area. He knows most of his permittees on a first-name basis, and they meet regularly in the field to review grazing plans and check forage conditions.

It’s around this time of year when Ferguson said he meets with ranchers to set grazing schedules and add up fees for the coming season. The BLM uses what are known as animal unit months, or AUMs, to determine its grazing fees. AUMs are measured by the amount of forage animals need for one month, and Ferguson said the limits are very strict.

“You can’t authorize more AUMs without (environmental) analysis,” he said.

The BLM recently adjusted its fees to $2.11 per AUM. The Forest Service, which is under the Department of Agriculture as opposed to the Department of the Interior, charges $1.69 per month per cow-calf pair.

Ranchers must also follow specific conditions laid out in their permits, which might include rotating pastures, maintaining fences and protecting vegetative cover for sensitive species like sage grouse.

“Orderly management of the range is our goal,” Ferguson said.

The problem, according to Mark Mackenzie, is not with local rangeland managers like Ferguson. Rather, it’s mismanagement and political pressure up the chain of command.

Mackenzie, who runs 900 head of cattle south of Jordan Valley, is largely dependent on federal AUMs. But with so many layers of new protections, he said local land management is becoming cumbersome. And when a change is needed on the range, he said the agency will likely be taken to court.

“It’s all driven by special interest groups,” Mackenzie said. “We’ve let the management of these resources become commandeered by the courts.”

Mackenzie figures grazing has fallen by about 40 percent since 1960 in the Vale District. Those losses create an economic ripple in small towns like Jordan Valley — population 180 — that threatens their very existence.

Grazing is also a management tool itself, Mackenzie said. Without grazing, grasses can become overgrown and increase the fuel load for large wildfires — like the Soda Fire that spilled over into Oregon from Idaho last year.

The occupation of the wildlife refuge was unfortunate, Mackenzie said, but the militants’ message of local control resonates strongly.

“We need the control of natural resources management back at the local level,” he said. “Let local people have a say in what goes on in their communities and counties.”

Ferguson did say the BLM is trying to be more proactive with fighting rangeland fires in the West. Oregon, Idaho and Nevada are collaborating on a program creating strategic fuel breaks where firefighters can safely fight fires before they get too big and destructive.

“The whole goal is to reduce the size of these fires,” he said.

Andy Bentz, a former Malheur County sheriff and owner of Bentz Solutions in Ontario, agrees the BLM doesn’t have enough flexibility to do proper management. He pointed to lawsuits from environmental groups as what’s hobbling the agency.

“Yelling at the BLM is like yelling at a fireman when your house is on fire,” Bentz said. “They can’t make on-the-ground annual changes, because it opens them up to challenges and litigation.”

Bentz, whose family has ranched in southeast Oregon since 1916, said there is enough local expertise to manage the lands for multiple use. But when the agency tries to adapt to Mother Nature, adjusting seasons or stocking rates, Bentz said it faces another lawsuit. He blamed the Equal Access to Justice Act, which compensates attorney fees if groups can prove their litigation is justified.

“They have to find a way to get flexibility back into management,” Bentz said. “The land continues to deteriorate because the land managers don’t have the flexibility to manage it properly.”

George Wuerthner, Oregon state director for the Western Watersheds Project, said most environmental groups don’t actually have a lot of money to spend on lawsuits, and therefore only the most egregious violations are challenged in court. Just as many others are left ignored, he said.

Wuerthner, who previously worked with the BLM as a botanist in Idaho, said many public lands are negatively impacted by domestic livestock. Water is limited in the desert country of southeast Oregon, yet cattle gravitate toward springs and streams, harming the ecosystem for other animals and fish.

Summer grazing can also put stress on native grasses and allow invasive species like cheat grass to take over, Wuerthner said.

“That’s one of the things squeezing ranchers, in fact,” he said.

Wuerthner said the BLM actually depends on some of these lawsuits to ensure they are following the laws passed by Congress, and not overly influenced by local pressure.

“They’re keeping the agencies honest,” he said.

The Umatilla and Wallowa-Whitman national forests have just shy of 2 million acres of rangeland deemed suitable for grazing. Those forests are also in the midst of 15-year updates to their respective land management plans.

Maura Laverty, range program manager for the two forests, said they have 135 active grazing allotments. She said they have good relationships with their permittees that have helped them come a long way in managing the land responsibly.

“We don’t graze like we use to,” she said. “We’re a lot more conscientious now.”

Currently, the Forest Service is working on environmental reviews for each allotment, which it hopes to finish by 2025. The reviews must take into account endangered fish on each site, as well as wolves which are becoming increasingly established in the northeast corner of the state.

Karl Jensen, a Pilot Rock rancher, runs about 80 of his 300 head of cattle on the Umatilla forest near Ukiah. He said the biggest challenge he’s faced is fencing off his cows away from nearby Five Mile Creek and Sugarbowl Creek, which are home to endangered bull trout and salmon.

Jensen said the Forest Service has been great to work with in both Heppner and Ukiah.

“There’s always regulations that come down from higher up,” he said. “We’re able to work those out and come up with a good management plan.”

O’Keeffe, president of the cattlemen’s association, said good rangeland management must include adequate grazing and a stable supply of forage. Funding and workload remain huge challenges for the BLM, The whole issue has him on edge.

“So far, we’re here and ranching. But the potential is there for it to no longer be workable,” he said. “If that happens, these communities will be trouble, These fires will be uncontrollable. It’s kind of a cumulative effect.”

Ferguson said there are areas they’d like to improve, but it’s not going to happen overnight.

“It’s a slow process,” he said. “We do the best we can.”

Work in the Northwest’s rangelands and forests has been reshaped in recent decades by the environmental laws that ranchers and loggers must navigate.

The changes are often propelled by conflicts decided in federal court, an arena where attorney Scott Horngren has made his mark as a defender of natural resource industries.

Important legal opinions can arise from lawsuits over relatively minor projects that affect endangered species and public lands — major subjects of litigation in the West.

For this reason, Horngren sees certain battles as worthwhile even if they don’t involve enormous timber tracts or grazing allotments, since losing one fight can have a domino effect.

“That precedent is going to hurt you in the next case,” he said.

The general thrust of major U.S. environmental statutes is set by Congress, and their enforcement is carried out by federal agencies, but key questions about how these laws should function are often answered by judges.

“It’s up to the courts to decide what (statutes) mean in the absence of clear direction,” Horngren said. “Those interpretations are a huge part of natural resource law.”

In nearly three decades of legal practice, Horngren has represented private companies — often when they’re caught in the middle of disputes between environmentalists and the government — and influenced federal policy as an attorney for the American Forest Resource Council, a nonprofit industry group.

Now, he’s turned his attention to educating the next crop of natural resource attorneys while continuing to litigate cases that impact agriculture, timber and mining at the Western Resources Legal Center, which is affiliated with Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland.

Unlike most nonprofit environmental law centers, WRLC is dedicated to helping natural resource industries rather than thwarting them.

The program represents parties in select lawsuits that have the potential to set legal precedent and provide an educational experience for law students.

Horngren is a natural fit for this role as a teacher-litigator, as he’s well-versed in a variety of industries affected by environmental laws, said Caroline Lobdell, executive director of WRLC.

“We can’t let all that talent just walk out the door,” she said. “He’s the true definition of a natural resources lawyer.”

New lawyers have long turned to Horngren for advice as a “wise sage” of natural resource law, said Tim Bernasek, chair of the agriculture, food and natural resources team at the Dunn Carney law firm.

After retiring from a successful private practice, Horngren is still contributing to the field instead of devoting himself to golf or other pastimes, he said.

“It’s a testament to his character and devotion to this industry,” Bernasek said. “There are not a lot of people who are willing to do that.”

During his career, Horngren has noticed subtle shifts in the effect of environmental litigation on natural resource industries.

While the public’s attention is often drawn to pivotal cases, the profusion of environmental litigation has also had a more gradual effect: Federal agencies have become more gun-shy about making decisions.

For example, due to pressure from environmentalists, the government is often persuaded to scale back watershed-scale thinning projects until they’re a fraction of their original scope, Horngren said.

“The agencies continue to be scared of litigation and the environmental groups,” he said.

The legal landscape facing natural resource users isn’t all doom and gloom. Horngren said the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, where many Western environmental cases end up, has grown more even-handed in recent years.

In the early days of Horngren’s career, the 9th Circuit was “stacked” with judges who weren’t sympathetic to federal management policies, he said. More recent 9th Circuit appointees, though, are less biased in favor of environmental plaintiffs.

A key 2008 opinion by a broad “en banc” panel of 9th Circuit judges, known as Lands Council v. McNair, has also helped level the playing field.

Horngren represented logging companies and local governments in that case, which pitted environmentalists against a 3,800-acre selective logging project in Idaho’s Panhandle National Forest.

In its ruling resolving the dispute, the 9th Circuit overturned two of its own previous decisions because they misconstrued federal forest management law.

The 9th Circuit held that it’s “not a proper role for a federal appellate court” to “act as a panel of scientists” that scrutinizes federal decisions and orders agencies to “explain every possible scientific uncertainty.”

“Since McNair, the pendulum has swung back more toward the middle,” Horngren said.

Though much of his work life has been spent in the courtroom, it was a love of the outdoors that started Horngren on his career path.

Long bicycle trips through the woods convinced him to pursue a career in forestry, he said. “I figured I’d be a forester and sit it a lookout tower all day and life would be good.”

After graduating from Oregon State University, however, the timber economy was depressed while the controversies over forest management were heating up.

In this climate, Horngren became a lobbyist for timber industry groups. However, he soon realized lawsuits were influencing forest managers more than reasoned arguments and he began studying for his law degree.

“I saw that the future of public lands management is all this litigation,” he said.

Scott Horngren

Occupation: Natural resource attorney

Age: 61

Hometown: Portland, Ore.

Family: Wife, Yona McNally, and a grown son

Education: Bachelor of science in Forestry from Oregon State University in 1977, juris doctor from Lewis & Clark Law School in 1988.

CAVE JUNCTION, Ore. (AP) — A southwest Oregon lumber mill is shutting down for the second time in three years due to a log shortage.

Rough & Ready Lumber co-owner Jennifer Phillippi tells the Grants Pass Daily Courier that she told the sawmill crew on Saturday.

She says 20 sawmill workers are out of work and another 40 working in other areas could be gradually phased out over the coming weeks.

The lumber mill has about 70 full-time workers. It’s one of the largest employers in Cave Junction.

Phillippi says it’s not clear when the mill can reopen at full strength.

The mill shut down for a year in 2013-2014 but reopened with $5 million in upgrades.

Phillippi and other mill owners say federal agencies are to blame for lagging timber supplies.

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — The electricity needs of Northwest states can be met in the next 20 years mostly through conservation efforts, with little need to construct new power plants, the Northwest Power and Conservation Council predicted.

The Portland, Oregon,-based council recently issued its 20-year plan for meeting the energy needs of Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana.

“By investing in energy efficiency at the levels recommended in the plan, we’ll be able to grow without initiating an aggressive program to build new generating resources, and we’ll keep Northwest electricity rates low,” Council Chairman Henry Lorenzen said in a statement last week.

However, some utilities might have to build new power plants to help integrate inconsistent natural resources such as wind power into the grid, the council said.

The council recommended programs that would pay some electricity consumers to voluntarily refrain from power use during times when power is in short supply. The 20-year plan accounts for planned closures of coal-powered plants in Washington, Oregon and Nevada that help supply power to the region. It also seeks to reduce carbon emissions by 33 percent from historical levels.

The Northwest Energy Coalition lauded the plan, saying conservation is “the region’s second-largest energy resource after hydropower.”

“Calling for no new natural gas plants for at least the next decade and beginning to acknowledge the full extent and expense of coal power consumed in the region ... are important victories,” the coalition said.

But the power council failed to properly study removing four dams on the Snake River to benefit wild salmon runs, the coalition said.

Members of the power council, two from each state, are appointed by the governors. They unanimously approved the latest power plan after conducting a 60-day public comment period.

“The new plan positions the Northwest to compete economically in a low-carbon 21st Century,” the council said.

The plan assumes that Northwest industrial output over the 20-year period will increase by 36 percent, from $125 billion to $170 billion.

The plan projects that the region’s electricity loads can be maintained at the current level of about 20,000 average megawatts. Since 1995, annual energy loads grew at an average rate of only 0.40 percent, thanks to the region’s investment in efficiency.

That’s even though the region has seen some huge energy users appear. For instance, “cloud-based” computer farms like the Google, Apple, and Facebook facilities in the Northwest consume as much electricity as the power production of Germany and Japan combined.

Maintaining the region’s low-cost, low-carbon power system will help attract desirable industries, academic institutions and medical research, sources of high paying jobs and magnets for skilled, educated workers, the plan said.

Hydroelectric power generated in the Columbia River Basin will continue as the region’s core, carbon-free source of energy.

Energy efficiency is the region’s second largest resource, saving consumers about $3.75 billion per year on electricity bills, and lowering annual carbon dioxide emissions by 22.2 million tons per year, the plan said.

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PORTLAND — After showing intense emotion during hours of FBI negotiations and live Internet broadcasts from the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, the last four occupants to surrender showed little of it when they were arraigned in U.S. District Court in Portland.

They have been indicted, along with more than 20 others, on a charge of conspiracy to impede officers of the United States.

Appearing Feb. 12 before Magistrate Judge John V. Acosta, Sandy and Sean Anderson of Riggins, Idaho, said nothing, instead nodding and letting their court-appointed attorneys speak as they pleaded not guilty and asked for a jury trial. Jeff Banta, of Nevada, did the same.

David Fry, a 27-year-old from Ohio who has been the most vocal of the four and set up several live streams from the refuge, said nothing more than “Yes, I do” when asked if he understood the charges and his rights. Fry, too, pleaded not guilty and asked for a jury trial.

Fry wore a padded anti-suicide smock. In the final moments of the occupation, Fry threatened to die by suicide if his demands weren’t met. He eventually surrendered peacefully.

On his way out of court Friday, Fry smiled and exchanged waves with Nevada state Assemblywoman Michele Fiore, who spent Wednesday involved in negotiations between militants and the FBI.

All four have a detention hearing this week and will be held in the meantime. Trials are scheduled to begin in April.

Two others also appeared in court Friday in connection with the occupation of the wildlife refuge.

Darryl William Thorn of Marysville, Washington, pleaded not guilty and asked for a detention hearing next week. He will be held in the meantime.

Geoffrey Stanek, a 26-year-old from Cornelius, Oregon, pleaded not guilty and was released Friday.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Moriah Jefferson had 25 points, eight assists and eight steals to help No. 1 UConn beat scrappy Temple 85-60 on Sunday for the Huskies' 61st straight victory.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Moriah Jefferson had 25 points, eight assists and eight steals to help No. 1 UConn beat scrappy Temple 85-60 on Sunday for the Huskies' 61st straight victory.

ROSEMONT, Ill. (AP) — Chanise Jenkins and Jessica January scored 17 points apiece and No. 23 DePaul rolled to its fifth straight victory on Sunday, 102-63 over Butler.

ROSEMONT, Ill. (AP) — Chanise Jenkins and Jessica January scored 17 points apiece and No. 23 DePaul rolled to its fifth straight victory on Sunday, 102-63 over Butler.

RICKREALL, Ore. — The first Mid-Valley Winter Ag Fest is the product of a labor of love for its organizers, who see agriculture as an integral part of the Willamette Valley’s past — and its future.

Deb Thomas has coordinated the Polk County Home and Garden Show — held each year at the end of February — since 2000. Last year, she started thinking about a larger event that would build on “this exciting time in agriculture with the resurgence of the family farm and Saturday markets.”

“The interest in the proposal for a February Ag Fest has been overwhelmingly positive,” Thomas said. The event will be held in the Main Building of the Polk County Fairgrounds, with agricultural seminars taking place at the adjacent Polk County Museum.

“The local 4-H Horse Club will bring horses and show tack and do riding demonstrations,” Thomas said.

Proceeds will benefit local 4-H and FFA chapters.

Some of the events featured over the two days:

• The 9th Annual Home and Garden Show will be held concurrently in another area of the Main Building and feature a Farmers’ Bounty Market.

• The 4-H will host a petting zoo from noon to 4 p.m. each day in the fairgrounds’ swine barn, along with a Favorite Foods contest.

• Artisan vendors will be in the Main Building.

• Antique Powerland volunteers will display old-time tractors and implements.

• An agricultural drone will be on display.

• An authentic covered wagon will be displayed by the Yamhill Historical Society.

• Representatives from the Chemeketa Community College Viticulture Center will talk about winemaking.

• Representatives from Two Towns hard cider and Rogue Brewery will be on hand.

• Eola Hills Winery will host an ag-themed brunch on Feb. 28.

A full slate of seminars will also be offered at the two-day Ag Fest:

Museum seminars

10:30 a.m.: John Burt, Farmers Ending Hunger, “Farm to Food Bank to Solve Things.”

11 a.m.: Sherri Noxel, Oregon State University’s Austin Family Business Program, “Planning for a Productive Family Farm Transfer.”

Noon: Stephanie Wood, “Native American Natural Harvesting.”

2 p.m.: Tiah Edmundson-Morton, OSU Hops and Beer History Archive, and Makaela Kroin, University of Oregon Folk Life Network, “History and Hop Lore in the Mid-Willamette Valley.”

3 p.m.: Amy Garrett, OSU Extension Small Farms Program, “Farming without Irrigation.”

Main Building Seminars

11 a.m.: Gretchen Anderson, “Secrets of the Lazy Urban Chicken Keeper.”

1 p.m. Dr. Ryan Scholz, district veterinarian for Western Oregon, “Avian Influenza.”

2 p.m.: Domenica Protheroe of MI Chicken Revolution, “Tips for the Winter Chicken Coop.”

Museum Seminars

11 a.m. Local authors forum.

2 p.m.: Robert Faust of Bio-Ag, “Restoring Soil Health.”

Main Building Seminars

1 p.m. Gretchen Anderson, “Other Tips on Raising a Flock from Chick to Hen.”

Information

What: Mid-Valley Winter Ag Fest

Where: Polk County Fairgrounds, Rickreall, Ore.

When: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 27, and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 28.

Admission: $5 for adults and free for those under the age of 18.

Parking: Free at the fairgrounds.

Website: www.mvwagfest.com

Email: mvwagfest@gmail.com