WENATCHEE, Wash. — Fire blight, a bacteria that kills apple and pear trees, is more widespread throughout Central Washington this year than during any spring in recent memory, growers say.

“I fly a lot. I look down and see the funeral pyres burning. It’s substantial and extreme on the eastern side of Royal Slope. Winchester to Ephrata seems pretty substantial and Quincy not so bad,” said Mike Robinson, general manager of Double Diamond Fruit Co. in Quincy.

“Mattawa doesn’t appear as bad but I’ve never seen this much this widespread. I’ve never seen this many good farmers get this much. Usually they’re on top of their sprays and focused,” Robinson said.

It appears worse in some areas than others but all areas have more than usual, he said.

From his airplane, Robinson said he’s looked down and seen holes in orchards where trees have been removed.

On any given day in the past three weeks, he said he’s seen seven to nine columns of smoke from orchards burning limbs after cutting them from trees to keep the bacteria spores from spreading. They can spread by wind, water, birds and insects. Nicholas Stephens, owner of agricultural consulting firm Columbia IPM in East Wenatchee, said he’s talked with growers from Hood River, Tri-Cities, Yakima, Quincy, Wenatchee, Bridgeport, Brewster and Okanogan.

“I would say in 28 years doing this, I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s really widespread. A lot of orchards are in grave danger, young orchards, old orchards,” Stephens said.

It’s a “snowball effect,” a build-up of inoculum from the previous two years of perfect conditions, like this year, for fire blight, he said.

Once only a concern in pears trees, fire blight has been known since 1993 to damage apple trees. The years 1997 and 2012 were bad years, Tim Smith, Washington State University Extension tree fruit specialist emeritus, has said.

Fire blight over winters in trees and reactivates in oozing cankers around blossom time. It is exacerbated by extreme heat followed quickly by rain during bloom. It attracts flies and other insects that spread it to blossoms. Within a week or two, infection is ahead of portions of trees that show withering.

Antibiotics, copper fungicides, lime sulfur, other minerals and biological controls are applied before, during and after bloom but at best are 80 percent effective, Robinson said.

“Probably the biggest difference in recent years is that it’s pretty evident sprays 24 hours before the infection period are better than after,” he said.

A WSU Tree Fruit website post says this is the third year of “multiple severe fire blight infection periods during bloom.”

Cutting 12 to 18 inches back from withered foliage is recommended, but whole limb removal is recommended for more susceptible varieties and young, vigorous trees. Whole trees should be removed if they have multiple strikes.

“If I have a 5-foot limb with a strike at the tip, I take the whole limb,” Robinson said. “If you’re super aggressive on day one usually you can get in front of the problem.”

Stephens said production for individual growers will be affected but that overall crop loss may be offset by new plantings coming into production.

Cutting limbs, cankers and trees and replanting is laborious, he said.

It’s unusual to have three years in a row of progressively worse conditions, he said.

James Foreman, manager of Foreman Fruit Co. in Wenatchee, said company orchards from Sunnyside to Omak have been impacted. On June 6, crews were trimming infected limbs from trees in a Foreman orchard off Pogue Road near Omak.

Meanwhile, hail damaged about 200 acres of Oneonta Starr Ranch Growers Golden Delicious and Honeycrisp apples near Quincy on May 17, Jim Thomas, company co-owner, said.

Robinson said it was not widespread.

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — Geologists say it’s only a matter of time before a large-scale earthquake hits Washington’s Cascadia Subduction Zone.

KREM-TV reports the Washington Emergency Management Division has started initial planning for its second “Cascadia Rising,” the region’s largest disaster-scenario exercise, testing how local, state and federal agencies would respond if a 9.0 magnitude earthquake hit along the Washington and Oregon coast.

The first Cascadia Rising exercise was held two years ago. Officials say the second will happen in four years.

Lit Dudley, the exercise and training section manager at the state Emergency Management Division, says the 2022 exercise will test the response of Washington, Alaska, Oregon and Idaho, as well as British Columbia, FEMA, Public Safety Canada and U.S. Northern Command.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Mayors from six U.S. cities with legal marijuana have formed a coalition with the aim of preparing other states and the federal government for legalization.

Mayors from Denver, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and West Sacramento announced Monday on Twitter that they sponsored a resolution at the Conference of Mayors in Boston asking the U.S. government to remove cannabis from a list of illegal drugs, among other things.

Mayors from Oakland, California and Thornton, Colorado also pledged to actively advocate for federal reform of marijuana policy.

President Donald Trump said last week he would “probably” back a bipartisan congressional effort to ease a U.S. ban on the drug that about 30 states have legalized in some form. The bill supported by both parties was introduced June 7.

Agronomist Jim Klauzer gets the best view of the onion industry below ground level.

“We are really big on moisture monitoring,” said Klauzer, with Clearwater Supply in Ontario, Ore. He has been in the job for 18 years, often helping onion and other crop growers tap advances in drip irrigation.

Paying attention to onion plants and the water beneath them can help growers optimize quality and yield, he said. They don’t have to use drip irrigation to do this, though he has seen the mode become much more common in onion fields during his tenure.

One of Klauzer’s favorite tools is a sensor made of a hard-plastic tube about a fourth as long as a broom handle with a porous dome on one end and wire-connected readers on the other. It reads in centibars, which express water content as a tension force holding water in the soil to provide a sense of how hard the plant works to extract the moisture. If the sensor is in a bucket of water it reads zero. If it’s in the hot sun or an oven it reads 200.

He also likes graphs showing peaks and valleys representing water volume over time. Ideally, the graphs show the onion grower applied the right amount of irrigation water at the right time and made adjustments a key points in the growing season.

Onions grow best between 15 and 30 centibars, Klauzer said, citing research from Oregon State University’s Malheur Experiment Station near Ontario. In that range, the onions aren’t super-saturated so they invite butt-rot and other fungal diseases, and not too dry so as to curtail yield.

As an example, he showed a local grower’s irrigation graph from May 15 to June 23, 2016, a typical year for onions. Sensor data on a chart depict irrigation applications about seven to 10 days apart and centibar readings from 15 to 30, which is ideal.

“The onions are in a state of establishing roots and developing leaf mass,” Klauzer said, referring to this data set. “You don’t typically see bulbs.”

Fast-forward to the mid-May to early June of 2018. He’s seeing good root and leaf-mass progress as he visits local onion fields. Some light hail fell early in the growing season in parts of the Treasure Valley of southeastern Oregon and southwestern Idaho following a mild winter. The fields generally look good, helped by some timely rains, he said.

“Water levels have been maintained quite adequately,” Klauzer said.

The calendar shows it will soon be time for onion growers to change up their irrigation routines to stay in synch with what the crop wants.

“The next challenging aspect on the irrigation is providing adequate moisture as we approach the summer equinox,” Klauzer said. “At that point, the daylight-determinate onions shift gears and start bulbing. This radically changes the water demand from the crop.”

Water demand in this period rises substantially as the amount per application stays constant but the interval is cut by more than half, to about three days. “The moisture required to bulk up those onions increases dramatically,” he said.

The grower’s moisture graph from 2016 shows this sudden shift, with closer irrigation intervals reflecting higher demand from the onions for water as well as nitrogen fertilizer.

Fertilizer application is most intense during the June 20-July 4 period as the onions bulk up, Klauzer said. Around July 4, most growers stop applying nitrogen, which can be injected in combination with water through a drip irrigation system.

Nitrogen applications after about July 10 are known to prevent the onions from maturing, or curing, properly, he said. “They stay green, essentially.”

Insect monitoring and control become important from July 1 to Aug. 1, Klauzer said. Several insecticides are available for controlling onion thrips and other insects. He said they can be applied with irrigation water through drip tape — thin-walled tubing that resembles tape when rolled up for storage — using a system that directs the insecticide to roots and away from foliage.

Thrip pressure was light overall last year, Klauzer said. This year, he expects thrips to appear in greater numbers and pose more of a challenge to onion growers because the mild winter likely increased over-winter survival. Usually he sees them in June, but he saw some in late April of this year.

Water demand falls substantially around Aug. 1 as onion plants start scenescing, basically maturing and curing. At this point, “you need to really pay attention to the moisture levels to prevent over-watering,” he said. Over-watering at this stage can greatly reduce an onion’s suitability for storage, he said.

As August arrives, using a moisture sensor can help greatly, Klauzer said. Centibar readings from 15 to 30 remain ideal, but irrigation should be done less often, on an interval of 5 to 6 days, until most growers shut off their water — usually Aug. 10-20.

Though monitoring moisture content can be done regardless of the irrigation system used, “the ability to maintain the proper moisture level is best achieved using drip irrigation,” he said.

About 75 percent of this year’s roughly 22,000-acre onion crop in southeastern Oregon and southwest Idaho will be drip-irrigated compared to about 3 percent when Klauzer started in 2000 with Clearwater Supply, he said.

The Klamath Water Users Association is asking a federal judge in San Francisco to dismiss a lawsuit filed in May by the Klamath Tribes, arguing the case should be heard in a different venue.

The tribes are suing three federal agencies, including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Reclamation and National Marine Fisheries Service, seeking an injunction to hold more water in Upper Klamath Lake for endangered shortnose and Lost River suckers.

Both species of fish were listed as endangered in 1988. According to the tribes, harvests decreased from more than 10,000 to just 687 suckers between 1968 and 1985. Today, just two fish are harvested every year for ceremonial purposes.

The lawsuit was filed in federal district court in San Francisco before Judge William Orrick — the same judge that recently upheld a separate injunction for the Hoopa Valley and Yurok tribes in Northern California that requires greater flows in the Klamath River to protect threatened salmon from a deadly waterborne virus.

Both Klamath Basin suckers and salmon are managed under the same 2013 joint biological opinion, or BiOp.

The KWUA, along with the Sunnyside Irrigation District and California farmer Ben DuVal, filed Thursday to intervene in the Klamath Tribes’ lawsuit and have it dismissed from Orrick’s court.

In a statement, KWUA Executive Director Scott White the lawsuit must be heard “where the parties are or where they claim an injury happened, which is primarily Oregon.”

The water users’ motion states that a federal court in Oregon or Sacramento, Calif. would be allowable, but not in San Francisco.

“There are laws about where a lawsuit can be filed,” DuVal said. “You can’t just file a lawsuit in New Jersey because that is where you want to go. That’s what our motion says. The Klamath Tribes lawsuit claims that part of the Klamath Project is in the judicial district based in San Francisco, but that’s not correct.”

Don Gentry, Klamath tribal chairman, could not immediately be reached for comment. A hearing in the case will be held July 11 before Orrick.

According to the tribes’ lawsuit, the Bureau of Reclamation has allowed the water level in Upper Klamath Lake to dip below minimum conservation levels for the suckers on multiple occasions. It seeks both a preliminary injunction to keep higher water levels in the lake, and also calls upon the agencies to correct management deficiencies in the 2013 BiOp.

The Bureau of Reclamation is also responsible for diverting irrigation water into the Klamath Project, which serves roughly 2,000 irrigators and 200,000 acres of farmland.

Brad Kirby, KWUA president and operations committee chairman, previously said the group would intervene and oppose any action further limiting irrigation supplies. If a preliminary injunction is granted, Kirby said it would likely force the Klamath Project to shut off completely for up to several years.

“They want to require Upper Klamath to be held at unprecedented and artificially high elevations for suckers year-round,” Kirby said. “I wouldn’t expect there to be any water at all available for Klamath Project irrigation and wildlife refuges until there are new biological opinions, which is not expected until 2020.”

Tuesdays

Low winter snowpack combined with a drier-than-usual spring and rapid snowmelt will likely translate into critically low water supplies across parts of Oregon heading into summer, according to the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service.

The NRCS released its June basin report for Oregon, and the outlook is bleak, especially in southern and eastern Oregon. Gov. Kate Brown has already declared a drought emergency in Klamath, Grant, Harney and Lake counties, while the U.S. Drought Monitor shows nearly the entire state in some level of drought, from “abnormally dry” to “severe drought.”

Unusually warm weather in May led to rapid melting of already limited snowpack, said Scott Oviatt, snow survey supervisor and hydrologist for the NRCS. Of 81 real-time snow monitoring stations, only five still have snow as of June 1.

Snowpack is critical for water management, since it acts as a natural reservoir gradually replenishing streams into spring and summer. However, most of Oregon’s snowpack peaked around 70 percent of normal and melted away quickly over the last month.

Snow has almost completely disappeared statewide, except for basins in the far northeast corner of Oregon, which are still clinging to 27 percent of normal levels. Many sites melted out one to two weeks ahead of schedule, and several higher elevation sites had snow melting up to 2 1/2 times faster than usual.

Streams in the drought-stricken Klamath, Harney, Goose Lake and John Day basins are projected to run just 26-82 percent of normal levels through September. Forecasts improve closer to the Columbia River and west of the Cascades, which received closer to normal snowpack.

The Umatilla, Walla Walla and Grande Ronde rivers should experience near-average stream flows in northeast Oregon. The Willamette Basin, home to more than 1 million acres of farmland, should see streams flows ranging from 48 to 87 percent of normal, along with the Hood, Sandy and Upper Deschutes basins.

In southwest Oregon, forecasters anticipate the Rogue and Umpqua rivers will be slightly lower, at 47 to 81 percent of average.

Reservoirs remain a bright spot in this year’s water outlook. Most of the state’s major reservoirs are holding 70 to 110 percent volume, with the Umatilla, Walla Walla and Willow basin reservoirs faring best at 95 to 111 percent full.

The NRCS is advising irrigators to plan accordingly for water shortages, “especially in southern and southeastern Oregon where the snowpack was the lowest this season.”

A farmland conservation group is appealing a 73-acre solar project in Oregon’s Clackamas County which won land use approval because beehives will be raised on the property.

1,000 Friends of Oregon, a nonprofit, is challenging the county’s conditional use permit for the project near Estacada before the state’s Land Use Board of Appeals.

Meanwhile, the Oregon Board of Agriculture is also asking state land use regulators to consider issuing emergency rules in reaction to the project.

Clackamas County approved the permit from Steve Schmitt and Pacific Northwest Solar LLC last month, finding the solar facility will not preclude the property’s use as a commercial agricultural enterprise.

The project developer proposes keeping about 100 honeybee colonies at the site while cultivating “bee-friendly forage” around the solar panels and “shade resistant native plants” beneath them.

Under Oregon’s land use law, solar power facilties can be no larger than 12 acres without an exception to the statewide goal of preserving farmland.

However, a hearings officer with Clackamas County has ruled the project will take up less than 12 acres, since the area under the panels will be used for forage.

“There does not seem to be any dispute that an apiary is a farm use,” said Fred Wilson, the county’s hearings officer.

The project developer estimated the apiary will generate $75,000 per year but opponents claimed the actual revenue would be about 80 percent lower.

Despite these differences, the hearings officer was convinced the apiary qualified as a commercial agricultural enterprise.

“Even if income is less than the projected amount, the proposed apiary seems more likely than not to produce significant amounts of income that would still constitute contributing in a substantial way to the area’s existing agricultural economy,” he said.

Although the hearings officer found that using the site for renewable energy and a farm use “would seem to be a win-win scenario,” his rationale is troubling to the Oregon Farm Bureau.

A similar justification could be used to build a shopping mall on high value farmland if goats were allowed on the property, said Mary Anne Cooper, public policy counsel for the organization.

“As much as that would be a fun shopping mall, it’s not a farm use,” Cooper testified before the Oregon Board of Agriculture during its June 7 meeting in Hood River, Ore.

The board, which advises the Oregon Department of Agriculture, unaninously decided to send a letter to the Land Conservation and Development Commission to consider emergency rules for the situation.

A broader resolution calling for stronger land use protections for farmland when siting solar projects and other energy facilities was also unanimously approved by the Board of Agriculture.

For example, the resolution “supports a better definition of highly productive farmland” to consider factors other than just soil types, such as irrigation availability or unique climate.

Concern about solar development on farmland has already convinced Yamhill County to prohibit such facilities on top soil classes while Marion County has excluded them from “exclusive farm use” zones, said Jim Johnson, ODA’s land use specialist.

In a surprising reversal of position, the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission voted 4-2 Thursday not to reclassify the threatened marbled murrelet as an endangered species.

The vote came after hours of testimony from ODFW staff and environmental and timber industry advocates during day one of the commission’s two-day meeting in Baker City, Ore.

Commissioners had voted in February to “uplist” as endangered the marbled murrelet, a small seabird that nests in old growth forests along the Oregon Coast. The species was first listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act in 1992. ODFW listed the marbled murrelet as a threatened species in 1995.

In June 2016, a coalition of environmental groups — including the Center for Biological Diversity, Cascadia Wildlands, Oregon Wild, Coast Range Forest Watch, Sierra Club and Audubon Society of Portland — petitioned ODFW to reclassify the birds as endangered. The species is already listed as endangered in Washington and California.

The Fish and Wildlife Commission met Feb. 8-9 in Portland, and voted 4-2 to accept the petitioners’ recommendation, with commissioners Bruce Buckmaster and Jim Bittle opposed.

Four months later, the commission effectively overturned its previous decision, voting 4-2 not to list the marbled murrelet as endangered. Commissioners Greg Wolley and Holly Akenson remained in favor of uplisting.

“I didn’t feel good about what we did in February,” Bittle said. “I didn’t like the information that we got.”

Ultimately, the reversal came down to a shift in balance on the commission.

When commissioners voted in February, Chairman Michael Finely was excused from the meeting, creating an even number of votes. Commissioner Bob Webber, who initially opposed uplisting the marbled murrelet, relented and changed his vote to avoid a deadlock. At the time, Webber said his least favorite option would be to do nothing.

This time around, Finley was present, but former commissioner Laura Anderson — who voted in favor of uplisting — was gone after vacating her seat in March. Finley and Webber joined Buckmaster and Bittle in declining to uplist the species.

“I can’t come to the conclusion that the population is at serious risk,” Bittle said.

Timber workers also pleaded with the commission to reconsider the uplisting, which would have led to new logging restrictions to protect old growth trees and habitat for marbled murrelets on state-owned land.

Seth Barnes, director of forest policy for the Oregon Forest & Industries Council, said Oregon State University is conducting a 10-year study of marbled murrelets that will better inform a decision down the road.

“We need to stay as close as we can to the empirical data,” Barnes said. “A vote to not uplist the marbled murrelet is not a vote for the timber industry. It’s simply the right thing to do.”

Jim James, executive director of the Oregon Small Woodlands Association, said that while new guidelines to protect the marbled murrelet would apply only to state lands, they would create an incentive for private landowners to liquidate any habitat associated with the birds.

State Rep. David Brock Smith, R-Port Orford, also testified that imposing more logging restrictions would continue to harm rural communities that depend on the timber economy.

“Rural Oregon is struggling,” said Smith, who added he has the nation’s eighth-most impoverished school district within his legislative boundary in southwest Oregon.

Environmental groups that petitioned to uplist the marbled murrelet blasted the commission’s about-face Thursday.

Nick Cady, legal director for Cascadia Wildlands, said there is “no question this bird is doing very poorly.” He said the population declined by 50 percent near the central Oregon coast around the time it was initially listed as threatened, and has yet to recover.

“(The commission) flipped in the face of an incredible amount of scientific testimony,” Cady said.

According to ODFW’s own status review, highly suitable nesting habitat for marbled murrelets declined by an estimated 78,600 acres, or nearly 10 percent, between 1993 and 2012.

“I think the bird is still showing the effects of the rampant clear-cutting that was going on,” Cady said.

The Northwest Forest Plan Monitoring Report shows populations of marbled murrelets stabilized between 2000 and 2015, according to ODFW. However, demographic models predict an 80 percent chance of extinction over the next century.

The commission may still adopt survival guidelines for marbled murrelets on state lands, though the rules would be advisory, not required. Commissioners delayed consideration of the guidelines until their Aug. 3 meeting in Salem.

SILVER LAKE, Ore. — Daniel Miles, at the age of 16, was ready to take over the operation of his grandfather’s ranch.

But Harold Miles told his grandson to have patience and that finishing his schooling had priority. Daniel Miles did follow his elder’s advice, graduating from North Lake High School in 2010 and then from Oregon State University in 2013. His degree was in agricultural science.

Daniel, now 25, and his wife Leanna, have now taken over the Miles Ranch, a 1,300-acre hay, grain, pasture and cow-calf operation. Leanna is also an OSU graduate, having earned a degree in agricultural business management.

This type of generational transition doesn’t always occur in agricultural businesses because there are fewer younger people who have an interest in making agriculture a career. But Daniel grew up in this environment and has been helping on the ranch since he was old enough.

His father, Lloyd, was actually in the transitional stage of taking over the family operation, but died in a traffic accident in 2009 on a dusty, rural gravel road while en route to check an irrigation pump motor. That’s when the 16-year-old Daniel said he could take over, but his grandfather quickly re-directed the teenager back to getting an education.

“He was willing, but probably not ready,” Harold Miles said of Daniel.

Daniel still helped with the work, however. The neighbors helped the Miles family get the third cutting of hay in the barn during that tragic year and some of the ranch was leased for the next two years and some for the next five years.

After earning their degrees at OSU, Daniel and Leanna returned to work the family ranch with the blessing of their grandparents, Harold, 85, and Lois, 78.

“We’re very happy to have somebody in the family continue our labors,” Lois Miles said. “There are fewer young people who are taking over for the older generation. We feel fortunate to have Daniel and Leanna back here.”

Daniel said he feels blessed to have the opportunity to carry on the family’s ranching tradition.

“I feel more honored by the responsibility than overwhelmed by it,” the young man said of making sure the ranch continues to be a success. “It’s an opportunity to carry on and to build on what others have essentially done for me, to build something for their kids.

“The story of this ranch is how much I’ve been given, how much we’ve been given,” he explained. “When dad died, the community helped us so much and we’ve been helped a lot since then.”

Scott Pierson, another Silver Lake area rancher and vice president of the Oregon Hay & Forage Association, said it is wonderful to see young people like Daniel and Leanna step up and make agriculture their profession. Pierson was friends with Lloyd Miles.

“It is so imperative that we have the next generation coming into agriculture,” Pierson said. “For all the effort people like Harold and Lois Miles put out there, you don’t want to see it be in vain. We want our children to be the next generation. We want our children to be independent, but also interdependent so they’re able to work successfully in agriculture with other people in the industry.

“It’s a challenge,” he added. “It’s a volatile environment passing the torch from one generation to another, trying to keep the land without being taxed to death. You need to be really sharp in your business in navigating the process of passing the torch. It’s not an easy thing to do.”

Harold Miles is optimistic Daniel and Leanna can make that transition “because they are willing.”

“I have faith in Jesus Christ that they can do this successfully,” Harold said of Daniel and Leanna.

The young couple already has the next generation wanting to help. Their 6-month-old son, Marcus, has been on a tractor.

“He would like to steer,” Daniel said, drawing laughs and smiles from his wife and grandparents.

SEATTLE (AP) — More than 1,600 people arrested at the U.S.-Mexico border, including parents who have been separated from their children, are being transferred to federal prisons, U.S. immigration authorities confirmed Thursday. They said they’re running out of room at their own facilities amid President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration.

The move drew condemnation from activists who said the detainees may have legitimate claims to asylum and don’t deserve to be held in federal prisons.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and Attorney General Bob Ferguson issued a letter Thursday night seeking more information from the Justice Department and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement after learning that ICE had transferred dozens of mothers who had been separated from their children to the Federal Detention Center at SeaTac.

“The Trump Administration’s new family separation policy is inflicting intentional, gratuitous, and permanent trauma on young children who have done nothing wrong and on parents who often have valid claims for refugee or asylum status,” they wrote.

Historically, immigrants without serious criminal records were released from custody while they pursued asylum or refugee status. The Trump administration has ended that policy.

In an emailed statement, ICE spokeswoman Carissa Cutrell said that due to a surge in illegal border crossings and the Justice Department’s “zero-tolerance” policy — designed to discourage illegal border crossings — the agency needed to acquire access to more than 1,600 beds in Bureau of Prisons Facilities. The agency said those include 1,000 beds in Victorville, California; 209 beds in SeaTac; 230 beds in La Tuna, Texas; 230 beds in Sheridan, Oregon; and 102 beds in Phoenix.

“The use of BOP facilities is intended to be a temporary measure until ICE can obtain additional long-term contracts for new detention facilities or until the surge in illegal border crossings subsides,” the statement said.

The letter from Inslee and Ferguson followed a report from the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project earlier Thursday that as many as 120 asylum seekers had been transferred to the Federal Detention Center at SeaTac.

The organization said that on Wednesday it spoke with two of the women, who arrived at the southern border with their young daughters in mid-May seeking asylum. Both were separated from their children shortly after they were apprehended by Border Patrol. Instead of being returned to their children after being sentenced to time served for the misdemeanor of unlawful entry, they were transferred to Washington state while they seek asylum, the organization said.

“There is simply no moral or legal justification for separating children from their parents in this draconian effort seeking to deter other immigrants,” Matt Adams, legal director of the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, said in a written statement. “This is not only unlawful, but also contrary to basic human decency.”

Inslee and Ferguson said they wanted more information about when the women would be released and when they can expect to see their children again, as well as where the children are and who is caring for them

The American Civil Liberties Union is seeking a court injunction to stop immigration authorities from separating parents from their young children.

On Wednesday, a federal judge in California ruled that a case involving two mothers could go forward, saying that if the policy was being carried out as described in the lawsuit, it is “brutal, offensive, and fails to comport with traditional notions of fair play and decency.” The judge said he would issue a separate ruling on whether to expand the lawsuit to apply to all parents and children who are split up by border authorities.

Two products under development by Oregon State University could give Northwest berry growers new options for controlling the spotted wing drosophila, a particularly harmful type of fruit fly.

One product in particular, described as an “artificial fruit” that lures the pests away from the berries without directly competing against the crop, has Bernadine Strik excited.

“This is cutting-edge work,” said Strik, a berry crops specialist for OSU. “These patent-pending products have me doing a happy dance.”

Details about the product were limited — the patent is, after all, still pending. But Valerio Rossi-Stacconi, who works in the OSU Department of Horticulture, said it is a food grade attractant that can work for both conventional and certified organic growers.

Trials have shown the product reduces the number of fruit flies in berries by as much as 76 percent, Rossi-Stacconi said.

“We are very happy about this,” he said. “These keep the insect from the fruit throughout the whole fruiting process.”

The “artificial fruit” development may be available commercially by 2020, Rossi-Stacconi said.

Researchers shared the latest updates and information with about 40 growers June 6 during Strawberry Field Day at the OSU North Willamette Research & Extension Center in Aurora, Ore.

The other product, designed for blueberries to thicken the skin and protect against the flies, could be available as early as next year.

Spotted wing drosophila is troublesome for berry and stone fruit growers because, unlike other drosophila species, it infests them early during ripening, rather than later as they rot.

According to a study by the Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics at the University of California, yield losses can range up to 80 percent depending on the crop and location. In 2008, Oregon, Washington and California accounted for 76 percent of total U.S. raspberry, blackberry, strawberry, blueberry and cherry production.

Assuming maximum yield loss, the combined loss at the farm gate for all three states would be approximately $2.5 billion, including $1.5 billion for strawberries alone.

Oregon grows relatively few acres of strawberries, with just 1,800 statewide. Most are sold to food processors, though Strik said growers have increasingly tapped in to fresh markets over the last 15 years, which has added value to the crop.

“They are really relying on that higher value fresh market,” Strik said. “That has really helped our growers stay competitive.”

The field day also gives growers the chance to hear from experts about the latest information and cultivars to adopt in their fields, Strik said. Other presentations included fungicide resistance and an evaluation of the newest strawberry selections in breeding plots at the research station — with names like Sweet Sunrise, Puget Crimson and Rutgers Scarlet.

“Here’s an opportunity where they can come compare the varieties being grown, and see some of the stuff we are close to potentially naming,” Strik said. “We also want their input.”

Virginia Stockwell, a research plant pathologist with the USDA Agricultural Research Service in Corvallis, Ore., said fungicide resistance is now present in Oregon strawberries. She led a study isolating the fungus that causes gray mold in strawberries, known as Botrytis cinerea, and exposing it to several different fungicides.

The results showed resistance to multiple fungicides was common, Stockwell said.

“The number of tools you have to manage the disease is greatly limited,” she said.

Stockwell urged growers to use multiple methods to control gray mold. It is especially important, she said, to limit where spores can grow by keeping a dry canopy and clean field.

“That’s the cycle we’re most concerned with, is spore production,” she said.

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — A limited no-drink warning for tap water in and around the state capital was re-issued Wednesday, reinstating for at least two days guidelines advising medically sensitive people to find other water sources as a city spokesman acknowledged a lag in testing for toxins in the water.

The advisory, linked to toxins caused by algae, warns children under 6, people with liver conditions or compromised immune systems, on dialysis, or pregnant or breastfeeding not to drink Salem’s tap water.

The re-issued alert also highlighted a delay in reporting of toxin levels: Elevated toxins in water samples collected Sunday and Monday did not prompt an advisory until Wednesday.

Officials won’t know if Tuesday’s water samples were completely safe until test results are received Thursday, said Kenny Larson, a Salem city spokesman.

Mark Aubel, a chemist and head of a private Florida-based lab that performs the type of tests being used to monitor the city’s drinking water, said there’s no reason testing on the city’s water samples should take longer than a day.

Aubel said his own lab is able to receive municipal water samples via overnight mail and perform the tests the same day, transmitting the results back to city officials within 24 hours of when the sample went in the mail. More than 20 labs are listed by the Environmental Protection Agency as performing what Aubel described as the relevant tests.

Larson said the city is using a lab in Ohio that can’t guarantee results in less than 72 hours.

Officials will look for two days of test results below safe limits for the toxins before lifting the advisory. With Wednesday’s results not expected until Friday, officials won’t be lifting the alert any earlier than the end of the week, Larson said.

Officials issued a similar warning May 29. That warning remained in place through June 2, when officials said toxins had dropped to safe levels.

The warning issued Wednesday also applied to water in Turner, Oregon, and the Orchard Heights water district.

Meanwhile the Oregon Health Authority will soon require routine testing of water sources for toxins after contaminated water was discovered in Salem.

The Statesman Journal reported the new rules aimed at major drinking water systems in the state will be stricter than federal guidelines.

State health officials hope to install temporary rules by the end of the month that will require local officials to notify the public of test results.

FRIDAY, JUNE 8

Fridays

HOOD RIVER, Ore. — Oregon’s farm regulators are contemplating a request to increase their budget by approximately $10 million in the 2019-2021 budget cycle.

That amount would represent a roughly 8.5 percent boost over the Oregon Department of Agriculture’s current budget of $117 million in the 2017-2019 biennium.

The money would pay for 19 full-time equivalent positions in ODA’s natural resources, food safety and market access policy areas, as well as its administration.

The $10 million figure is tentative and will be refined over the summer, said Lauren Henderson, the ODA’s assistant director, during a June 6 meeting in Hood River of the Oregon Board of Agriculture, which advises the agency.

About $1.5 million would be invested in ODA’s information technology systems, including improvements to security, he said.

“We’re struggling to keep up with the threats we get every day,” Henderson said.

More than $1 million would go to replacing laboratory equipment in ODA’s food safety program, which “gets used a lot and wears out,” he said.

An unspecified amount of money for cannabis testing would be derived from the state’s cannabis tax funds, which are “oversubscribed,” he said.

Another major expenditure would be $1.7 million for three full-time positions in the “strategic implementation area” program for agricultural water quality, which seeks to reduce farm-related runoff and otherwise improve water quality in specific watersheds each year.

About $375,000 would be dedicated to establishing a position that would coordinate international marketing of Oregon farm goods.

In the short and medium terms, Japan will continue to be a major export destination, said Alexis Taylor, ODA’s director, who is soon heading a trade mission to that country.

However, Japan’s population is aging — likely corresponding with declining food demand — which means Oregon should seek new opportunities in China and Southeast Asia, she said.

Another $250,000 would go to promotion and branding activities beyond the “staff and rent” expenses that consume most of the ODA’s market access funds, Henderson said.

In the policy arena, ODA is considering asking for new tools that would help the agency recoup food safety inspection fees, said Lisa Hanson, the agency’s deputy director.

About 600 entities consistently fail to pay inspection fees, which translates into about $135,000 in missing food safety funds, she said.

The problem mostly pertains to retail outlets, such as small grocery and convenience stores, Hanson said.

The ODA continues to inspect these facilities to protect public safety but is currently limited to issuing civil penalties, which are often also ignored, Hanson said.

Exactly what new tools the agency may need will be discussed before next year’s legislative session, she said.

The agency is also contemplating “strategic fee increases” in its programs for food safety, confined animal feeding operations and weights and measures, she said.

“We’re still working on the numbers,” Hanson said, adding that specifics will depend on how much is available in the general fund budget. “It will be in flux throughout the process.”

ROSEBURG, Ore. — After several years of work, applying for grants and buying and modifying equipment, Oregon Sheep Growers Association members staged their first sheep shearing school last week in Roseburg, Ore.

Participants learned how to handle the sheep, lay out and pick fleeces, use and care for shearing equipment and how to disinfect and suture nicks and cuts to the animal should they happen. Students came away from the school with a certificate of completion and the go-ahead to shear small flocks for hire.

Dan Dawson, a sheep grower and shearer from Roseburg who was part of the team, sees training young sheep shearers is a way for them to earn money when regulations bar them from being employed in most jobs until they are 18 years old.

“One 18-year-old young man came up to me at the end of the school and told me that he had done a lot of hard things in his life but that this had been the hardest,” Dawson said. “I reminded him that it may be hard, but at least they don’t have to be 18 to earn money shearing sheep.”

In addition to Dawson, volunteer instructors included Kathryn Ritchie and John Fine from Roseburg and Wendy Valentine from Bandon.

During the four-day school, four high school students and one adult sheared more than 350 sheep. The program was financed with grant money from the American Sheep Industry’s Let’s Grow program and the Oregon Sheep Commission.

“We’ve been trying to get a sheep shearing school in Oregon for a long time, because we have a shortage of small flock shearers,” John Fine, a longtime sheep grower and former FFA teacher, said. “I had three requests to hire the graduates of this school in the first two days after the school. One producer had too many sheep for a student to handle but two of them will be a good fit.”

“In the past, Gene Pirelli (an Oregon State University Extension agent) and I tried to figure out how to bring Washington State University’s shearing trailer down from Moses Lake but it is was too difficult because of its size,” he said. “When Dan Dawson found one that we could easily collapse and haul on the highway, we set to work and got the funds to buy it.”

The trailer is only eight feet wide but pulls out to 20 feet wide, which provides training space, he said. The trailer complete with shearing equipment is the property of the Oregon Sheep Growers Association.

Ritchie, a sheep shearer with a small flock, used her experience of attending shearing schools in both North and South Dakota.

“We were glad to see so many young people in the class because that’s the best time to start,” she said. “Though the enrollment is limited to 10, having half that many worked well for the students because they got so much one-on-one attention. I thought we did well for our first year and after spending some time to appraise what we did this time we’ll be ready to set the date for the next one.”

The fees for the school were $250 for adults, $225 for students and included a one-year membership in OSGA. To receive information on the next school, email johnandpeggyfine@charter.net. For more information on the ASI Let’s Grow Programs, visit http://sheepusa.org/Growourflock Home

CORVALLIS – Oregon State University will hold its 149th commencement on Saturday, June 16, beginning at 10:30 a.m. in Reser Stadium. OSU is one of the few large universities in the nation to hand out students’ actual diplomas during the…