When a horse turned up dead earlier this month in rural Wallowa County after an apparent bloody struggle, wolves were investigated as the primary target.

The evidence, however, soon pointed to a much more unlikely suspect.

Wildlife officials determined the horse, which was found dead Sept. 18 in a pasture along the upper Imnaha River, had actually been gored by a bull elk — a scenario they admit is extremely rare, though not entirely unheard of.

The unusual ruling is tough for some local ranchers to believe in an area where suspicion of wolves runs high. But the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife says its examination clears the predators this time, and places the responsibility on the antlers of a feisty elk.

“It is breeding season for elk. Bulls are very aggressive this time of year,” said Mike Hansen, district wildlife biologist with ODFW in Enterprise.

The horse was initially found by elk hunters in a 20-acre pasture on the Grouse Creek Ranch, about 18 miles upriver from the town of Imnaha. ODFW arrived the same day to investigate, noticing the carcass was mostly still intact except for a piece of intestine on the ground 40 yards away.

After surveying the scene, Hansen said they identified elk and horse tracks indicating the animals had been in a tussle. There was a single half-inch cut on the horse’s nose, deep puncture wound into the groin and scrapes on its side matching the size and space of elk antlers.

The horse struggled and slid down the hillside, Hansen said, before it died of internal bleeding. There were no predator tracks of any kind in the area, and no sign of wolf bite marks.

Roblyn Brown, ODFW assistant wolf program coordinator, said elk attacks on livestock are very rare but have happened before. She cited an incident several years ago in southwest Oregon where a young spike bull charged a heifer and punctured the cow’s lungs and liver.

“All we can do is follow our investigation protocol,” Brown said.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services also agreed with ODFW that it was an elk, not a wolf, that killed the horse on Grouse Creek Ranch.

Despite the conclusion, several ranchers have their doubts. Eric Porter, who owns the ranch where the horse was killed, said the location of injuries were typical with those of a wolf bite.

This wasn’t the first time Porter was disappointed with the outcome of an investigation. In May, one of his calves was killed on the property, with wolf tracks spotted nearby and GPS coordinates placing a collared wolf in the area.

Yet even with that evidence, Porter said ODFW ruled the incident a “probable” wolf attack since bite marks appeared to be from a coyote.

“All the evidence was there, but they wouldn’t confirm it,” Porter said.

Oregon lists wolves as endangered species east of highways 395, 78 and 95, and it remains illegal to kill a wolf except under specific circumstances outlined in the state’s wolf management and conservation plan.

Todd Nash, a rancher in Enterprise and wolf committee chairman for the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association, said producers are frustrated by how difficult it is for them to prove wolves are responsible for attacking livestock. He sees the elk ruling as a huge stretch.

“I can sympathize with not finding wolf tracks, but because you find elk tracks in the area, that’s what you come up with? It’s crazy,” Nash said.

The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission will consider removing wolves from the state endangered species list in Eastern Oregon in the coming months, based on the department’s recommendation. Conservation groups argue the species’ population remains fragile and in need of protection.

Until then, Nash said producers need to make sure they continue to follow the rules. Oregon State Police is investigating two wolves recently killed in Wallowa County, known as the Sled Springs pair, found 50 yards apart from each other. An OSP spokesman told the Oregonian the deaths “do not appear to be natural,” and poaching is being considered as a factor.

Nash said neither he nor the cattlemen’s association would ever condone poaching, but added ranchers are tired of being the only ones asked to play by the rules.

“I certainly do not encourage people to take matters into their own hands,” Nash said. “We still need to do the things required of us. It’s our obligation as OCA members to work through this.”

Paulette Pyle says she is retired after 35 years as grass roots director of the lobbyist group Oregonians for Food and Shelter, but that may not be possible.

For one thing, she works 40 hours a month while new Executive Director Katie Fast gets her feet on the ground. “I told Katie I want to make sure she’s successful,” Pyle said.

Beyond that, her status as mentor and model — especially to women in agriculture and forestry — may not allow her to simply slide out of the limelight.

The Capital Press caught up with Pyle as she was once again on the move, this time to the Oregon Farm Bureau’s annual golf tournament. A sampling of the conversation:

Her best accomplishment?

“You mean what WE’VE done and what WE’VE accomplished?” Pyle corrected, emphasizing that a coalition of people have worked together to represent producers.

“I think the highlight for me has been engaging in a profession that is my passion,” she said. “Helping ag and forestry is very rewarding.”

She regrets that in an era of highly partisan politics, the people who supply society’s food, fiber and shelter have been “demonized.”

And yet there appears to be growing recognition, at least among legislators and agency policy-makers, that rural Oregon and natural resource industries are critical parts of the state’s economic structure. Producers have been able to make the case that their viewpoints deserve consideration, Pyle agreed.

“I think, politically, we have,” she said. “When we have time to tell our story and present the facts, we do prevail. It’s a struggle and it’s hard work all the time, but we can get it done.”

She has three major concerns over the next couple years. At the top of her list is the urban-rural divide.

“The biggest challenge is for rural Oregon to stay in business,” Pyle said. “Life begins and ends with politics, it’s a true statement. Until urban legislators take the time to understand the challenges of the less populated part of the state, that will be the number one challenge.”

Second on her list is another divide, this time between various types of farmers, “Initiated by our organic friends,” Pyle said. Oregonians for Food and Shelter supports all kinds of agriculture — organic, conventional or using genetically modified crops, she said. But she said organic farmers, hoping to get an edge in the market, are trying hard to bend public policy their way and complicate life for farmers who use other tools to get their crops to market.

“We ought to let them all grow what they want to grow on their own private property, and take it from there,” Pyle said.

Pyle did not include the flap between Oregon wine grape growers and other farmers over spray drift that can damage vineyards. Some wine grape growers explored taking the issue to the Legislature, but OFS helped steer it to farmer-to-farmer discussions instead.

“I think we are on track to resolve that issue,” Pyle said.

Third is the growers themselves. “I believe they need to step it up,” Pyle said. “Every farmer in this state, all farmers — GMO, biotech, conventional, organic — needs to stand up and tell their story in a positive way.”

On another topic, Pyle praised the young women farmers who have emerged to effectively tell ag’s story through social media and at the Legislature.

“They come as a whole person — a mom, a farmer — and present a different version of what agriculture is all about,” she said.

Paulette Pyle

Who: Retiring grass roots director of the lobbying group Oregonians for Food and Shelter.

Career: Came to Oregon in late 1970s, was hired by OFS as temporary campaign worker to defeat measures that would have banned application of phoenoxy herbicides. OFS offered her a job in 1980 and she was with them until announcing retirement this year.

Personal: 69, lives in Albany with her husband, Ken. They have six grown children and 16 grandchildren.

Awards and honors: Pyle will be presented the Oregon Agri-Business Council’s 2015 Ag Connection of the Year Award in November. A council news release said she “excelled at connecting natural resources groups with lawmakers to defend and protect Oregon’s natural resources industry.”

She previously received the 2013 Ted Young Award from the Oregon Forest Industries Council, which said she has “done so much to unite agriculture and forestry — and not allowed any one of our immediate interests to forsake the greater partnership. She also was presented the 2014 President’s Award from the Oregon Farm Bureau.

Advice to her successor, Katie Fast: “Stay close to the ground roots. Don’t take your eye off the ag and forestry businesses we represent.”

BOARDMAN, Ore. — The Oregon Department of Agriculture is drawing up a new strategic plan to guide the agency’s activities in the future.

The goal is to develop a document that’s actually useful to ODA officials rather than gathering dust on a shelf, said Ron Sarazin, a consultant who’s assisting ODA with the process.

“It’s got to be something that’s used on a day-to-day basis,” Sarazin said at the recent Oregon Board of Agriculture meeting in Boardman.

The department decided to update its strategic plan because the most recent version was completed before ODA Director Katy Coba was appointed in 2003, said Bruce Pokarney, the agency’s communications director.

“We really want to find out what we do well and what we need to improve upon,” he said.

To that end, members of the Oregon Board of Agriculture weighed in on the challenges facing the agency, including:

• Coexistence: The farming industry, and by extension the ODA, is struggling with coexistence among different types of agriculture, said Coba.

The battle over cross-pollination between biotech, conventional and organic crops is a prominent example, but the issue isn’t limited to genetic engineering, she said.

A similar dispute involves hemp and marijuana, as well as canola and the specialty seeds that are related to that crop, Coba said.

• Water: ODA is rolling out a program to increase its oversight of water quality in “strategic implementation areas” throughout the state, which involves identifying problems and persuading landowners to correct them. The agency aims for voluntary compliance but can issue civil penalties if landowners refuse.

While the agency has made significant progress in its water quality program, the objectives yet to be accomplished are “daunting and the resources are limited,” said board member Steve Van Mouwerik, vice president of operations for the Pacific Ag forage and residue harvesting company.

Even when the ODA does ensure that a landowner corrects water quality problems, the same property can easily slip back into non-compliance when it changes hands, said board member Doug Krahmer, a blueberry farmer in the Willamette Valley.

• Outreach: Some non-traditional farmers, such as those in urban areas, don’t know how to access services provided by the ODA or don’t feel like the agency speaks for them, said Laura Masterson, the board’s chair and a Portland-area farmer.

Such growers often aren’t involved in commodity commissions and other traditional channels that ODA is used to working through, she said.

Other farmers in remote rural areas are also reluctant to seek help from ODA because they’re intimidated by government agencies, said Tracey Liskey, a farmer in the Klamath basin.

• Retirements: With a large number of ODA employees expected to retire in coming years, the agency should build a “bench” of people who will be able to replace them, said member Barbara Boyer, chair of Oregon’s Water and Soil Conservation Commission.

The subject of developing future leaders to head key agency programs is definitely on ODA’s radar, Coba said.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says two salamanders in Oregon and Washington may qualify for Endangered Species Act protection.

The findings on Tuesday about the Cascade torrent salamander and Columbia torrent salamander mean the agency will initiate full status reviews for the species to see if they warrant protection.

The findings come in response to a petition by the Center for Biological Diversity. The Center first asked for protection for the salamanders in 2012. The petition said they are increasingly rare because of habitat loss due primarily to logging and road building.

The four-inch brown salamanders live in forest streams and are found only in a small stretch of the Cascades and Coast range. Biologists say their health is an indicator of the overall health of streams.

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — For the third consecutive year, gypsy moths have turned up near Grants Pass. In fact, half of the state total of 14 detections this year came from one single trap in the Azalea Drive area a few miles west of town.

The leaf-eating moths don’t pose an immediate threat at this level, but their presence makes foresters nervous.

“We’re catching these before they have populations high enough to damage trees,” said Clint Burfitt, manager of Oregon Department of Agriculture’s Insect Pest Prevention and Management Program.

In large numbers the moths, which were imported to Massachusetts from Europe in 1869, are among the worst tree defoliators around. In their caterpillar stage, they can eat as much as a square foot of leaves per day.

Of the 14 caught in Oregon this year, 12 are the European variety, while two of the more destructive Asian gypsy moths were caught in the Portland area.

That’s not exactly an infestation — more than 19,000 were trapped in Lane County alone in the mid-1980s — but it is cause for concern.

“This is an exceptionally destructive insect that would change the health of our forests, making them far more vulnerable to other invasive plant issues, causing a loss of foliage on trees as well as damaging agricultural-related industries that would face quarantines should the gypsy moth get established,” Burfitt said in a news release from the Department of Agriculture.

The Department of Agriculture put out 15,000 traps statewide in the spring. In addition to the moths found in Portland and Grants Pass, there were three others in the Portland area, one in Forest Grove and one in West Linn.

According to the agency, Asian gypsy moth females can fly, unlike the European strain, which could lead to more rapid infestation and spread. The Asian strain also has a larger appetite for what grows in Oregon, including conifers.

Only three Asian gypsy moths had been detected in Oregon before this year — a single catch in Portland in 1991, one in Portland’s Forest Park in 2000, and one in St. Helens in 2006.

The European strain most often arrives when people move from the Midwest and East where the moth populations are far higher.

The seven moths caught here indicate a breeding population exists, Burfitt said.

In 2013 only two moths were caught, and last year it was three, in the same area. Burfitt said it’s possible to find the “epicenter” where females are laying eggs.

As of now, there are no plans to spray, but there is the possibility of moth eradication projects next year in Josephine County and Portland, the ODA said.

For many years spraying for the gypsy moth was done annually in Oregon, but the most recent eradication occurred in 2009. Prior to this year’s 14 detections, there were only seven detected in the state from 2012 through 2014.

“We put a lot of resources into mitigating this statewide, and we’ve had a pretty successful track record for 30 years,” Burfitt said.

GOLD BEACH — Southwestern Oregon Community College is offering new fitness classes in Curry County to meet the demand for community members who want to stay active and healthy. All classes are taught by qualified instructors and offer a safe,…

GOLD BEACH — Southwestern Oregon Community College is offering new fitness classes in Curry County to meet the demand for community members who want to stay active and healthy. All classes are…

The annual Pre Run for Kids was another big success, with 113 runners from Coos Bay, North Bend, Langlois, Eugene and Coquille competing.

The annual Pre Run for Kids was another big success, with 113 runners from Coos Bay, North Bend, Langlois, Eugene and Coquille competing.

Charleston Oregon Artist, Betsy Lewis, Presents “Shipyard Fragments” Art Exhibition at South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve

SOUTH COAST — The South Coast Education Service District's Board of Directors announces an opening on its board for Position #4 Zone 1A, which includes all of the precincts within the legal boundaries of the school districts in Curry County…

SOUTH COAST — The South Coast Education Service District's Board of Directors announces an opening on its board for Position #4 Zone 1A, which includes all of the precincts within the legal bo…

BANDON — If you think you know your neighborhood community health center, you may want to take a fresh look.

BANDON — If you think you know your neighborhood community health center, you may want to take a fresh look.

Thank You all for participating in our Bandon Swimming Pool fundraiser extravaganza at the Langlois Cheese Factory! It was fun!

Thank You all for participating in our Bandon Swimming Pool fundraiser extravaganza at the Langlois Cheese Factory! It was fun!

Nik Wiman, an entomologist with extensive experience in integrated pest management, is Oregon State University’s new orchard crops extension specialist, a position designed to focus on hazelnuts.

Wiman, 38, started in his new position Sept. 16. He is based out of the North Willamette Valley Research and Extension Center in Aurora, Ore.

Wiman replaces Jeff Olsen as the lead hazelnut extension specialist in Oregon. Olsen served the hazelnut industry for nearly 30 years as a Yamhill County Extension agent before he died unexpectedly in January of 2014.

Wiman, however, will have more research responsibility than did Olsen, according to Mike Bondi, regional administrator of the Clackamas County Extension Office and director of the North Willamette Valley Research and Extension Center.

“Nik has more of a research expertise background (than Olsen did) and will be able to fill a role that more fully integrates the applied research as well as the extension and outreach piece,” Bondi said. “And because he has worked in the research realm as much as he has, we believe he will be in good position to bring in significant grant-contract funding, which will allow him to expand or to grow his program with faculty research assistance and or other program assistance.

“We ultimately decided, in conjunction with the hazelnut industry, to realign the position and relocate it at North Willamette, so the person would have more of a research community to work with and the facility to do the research,” Bondi said.

The college conducted a national search to fill the position, Bondi said, reviewing what he characterized as a small but relatively strong pool of candidates.

“We really felt that Nik was by far the strongest candidate,” Bondi said. “And we are very, very fortunate to get someone who has been working some with hazelnuts, because, obviously, it is hard to find people with a background with that crop.”

Bondi said Wiman is expected to invest about 80 percent of his time on hazelnuts, with the remaining 20 percent focused on tree fruits and other orchard nut crops.

Wiman holds a doctorate in entomology from Washington State University, where he worked extensively in tree fruits, and holds a master’s and a bachelor’s degree from Montana State University.

Wiman, who spent the past three years working as a post doctorate in Oregon’s brown marmorated stink bug project, said he already has started working with hazelnut growers to identify and prioritize research projects.

“I plan to be involved in issues like irrigation, weed management and cover crops. There are so many different interesting experiments to be done,” Wiman said.

“But the biggest thing I think is needed is effective communication to growers, particularly new growers coming on. There is really good information out there that OSU has put together. And also the hazelnut commission has good information, but there is not a one-stop place people can go and find out everything they need to know,” he said.

“I’m real excited,” he said. “You couldn’t pick a more exciting industry.”

Funding for the position was allocated in 2014, Bondi said, and is not part of the $14 million in additional funds lawmakers provided OSU’s statewide public services in the 2015 Oregon Legislature.

BOARDMAN, Ore.— The Oregon Department of Agriculture plans to create about 26 new positions with an increase in funding from lawmakers.

The agency fared well during the 2015 legislative session, with total funds growing to nearly $106 million over the next two years. That’s up from $97 million during the previous biennium, ODA Director Katy Coba said.

ODA will hire five new regulatory laboratory employees and upgrade its testing equipment, which is long overdue, she said at the Sept. 23 meeting of the Oregon Board of Agriculture in Boardman.

Three new people will also be hired to implement the agricultural water quality program, Coba said. Under that program, the agency uses aerial photography to identify problems in selected watersheds known as strategic implementation areas.

Landowners are encouraged to seek help from local soil and water conservation districts to correct problems on their properties, but ODA does have enforcement authority to issue fines.

Seven new strategic implementation areas were established this year, and ODA will identify six more next year, Coba said.

Concerns about pesticides led the legislature to devote more than $1.7 million in additional money to the agency’s pesticide program.

Those funds will be dedicated to four new pesticide investigators, a customer service representative and a case reviewer, she said.

As the federal government rolls out its new food safety rules, ODA will fund three full-time natural resource specialists.

To fully implement the Food Safety Modernization Act, which was signed into law in 2011, Congress will need to appropriate substantially more money to help states with outreach to farmers, Coba said.

It’s currently unclear what role ODA employees will play in on-farm inspections of produce operations, she said.

It’s possible the agency may focus on education and leave enforcement to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, she said.

With recreational marijuana now legal in Oregon, the agency will also hire a marijuana policy analyst, Coba said.

While the Oregon Liquor Control Commission has primary jurisdiction over recreational marijuana, ODA will likely be involved in the regulation of pesticides and edible products, she said.

Currently, no pesticides are registered for marijuana, which remains illegal under federal law, she said.

However, some pesticides have such general labels that they likely could be used on the psychoactive crop, Coba said.

The agency is considering developing a list of such products, she said.

The ODA is also facing an unusual situation with its regulation of industrial hemp, a related but non-psychoactive crop, Coba said.

Contrary to expectations, currently licensed growers are producing hemp for medicinal compounds rather than industrial products like fiber, she said.

“The things that have come at us are nothing we could have ever predicted,” Coba said of legalized marijuana and hemp.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Post Holdings plans to spend $90 million to buy an egg producer that serves the Northwest in a deal announced a few months after the cereal maker’s egg supply took a hit from a deadly bird flu outbreak.

St. Louis-based Post said Wednesday that Willamette Egg Farms LLC will be combined with its existing Michael Foods egg business after the deal is completed. The company expects that to happen early in its first fiscal quarter of 2016.

Willamette owns two egg production facilities in Oregon and Washington.

Post Holdings Inc. said in May that roughly 20 percent of its egg supply had been impacted by a deadly bird flu outbreak that hit the Midwest.

In June, Michael Foods sued an Iowa egg farm, accusing it of breaching its contract after bird flu disrupted the egg supply.

Michael Foods primarily supplies extended shelf-life liquid and precooked egg products and eggs used in food ingredients.

Shares of Post Holdings closed at $67.33 on Tuesday and have soared more than 60 percent so far this year.

IMBLER, Ore. — The spark from a cutting machine that ignited a blaze at Barenbrug USA’s seed-cleaning facility near Imbler earlier this year did more than damage the facility. It also served as the catalyst behind the purchase of the facility by Blue Mountain Seeds.

After the March 31 fire, Barenbrug decided to stop cleaning seed at the facility, creating an opportunity for Blue Mountain to expand.

“We needed room to expand,” said Bill Merrigan, manager of Blue Mountain Seeds. “We were right at capacity, both cleaning capacity and storage, and we were out of land to build on. We viewed this as a good opportunity.

“If growers choose to increase grass seed acres in Union County, we’ll have the facilities to handle it,” he said.

The purchase includes the plant’s 4-acre lot and 5 acres connecting an existing Blue Mountain seed-cleaning facility and the former Barenbrug plant.

The purchase also includes a slightly damaged seed-cleaning line, which Blue Mountain plans to refurbish and use for cleaning fine-leaf fescue and bluegrass seed. A second line was destroyed in the fire.

Blue Mountain has already begun storing seed in the west end of the Imbler facility, which was not damaged in the fire, Merrigan said. That section alone adds about 2.5 million pounds of seed storage capacity to Blue Mountain’s current capacity of 12 million pounds, he said.

Depending on how much of the facility Blue Mountain rebuilds, it could increase its storage capacity by another 2.5 million pounds, he said.

“We may not rebuild that facility the way it was,” Merrigan said. “We may put up a new building, or we may try and change the design of that building. That is something we are discussing right now.”

After the fire, Barenbrug USA decided to reinvest in a seed cleaning facility it operates in Boardman, Ore., rather than rebuild the Imbler plant, said company CEO and President James Schneider.

The Tangent, Ore.-based company has since added square footage to its Boardman plant and installed a third seed cleaning line, which is dedicated to cleaning bluegrass seed.

“Overall, it increases our capacity because it makes it more centralized,” Schneider said. “We will actually be able to clean more product.”

Adding to the incentive to sell the facility was its age, Schneider said. “It was an old facility, and because of our strategic plans, we felt it better to reinvest in our Boardman facility.”

He added: “We are thankful that good came out of such an unfortunate event. Blue Mountain Seeds has always been a great neighbor, and we can’t think of a better outcome than for the sale to allow both our companies to continue to invest in future growth.”

Barenbrug plans to continue contracting with growers to produce seed in the Grande Ronde Valley, Schneider said.

“We’re not abandoning the Grande Ronde Valley,” he said. “We still have a field man based there and we are contracting directly with growers there. But we are now cleaning that seed in Boardman.”

Among its plans for the facility, Blue Mountain is considering redesigning the plant’s seed storage facility with modern specs, improving the company’s capacity to handle modern seed production.

“Most of our warehouses were designed in the ’60s and ’70s,” Merrigan said. “They were set up for small trucks, smaller combines and smaller fields. And back then, harvest used to last a month.

“Today it is big combines and big trucks and harvest lasts about two weeks, and these warehouses aren’t designed for that,” he said. “We have small bins and a lot of labor involved in filling those bins.”

The sale leaves Blue Mountain Seeds as the only commercial grass seed cleaner operating in the Grande Ronde Valley.