Capital Press

Sid Freeman of Sunny View Farms north of Caldwell, Idaho, likes what he sees in his sugar beet crop.

“We’ve got some of the nicest-looking sugar beets I’ve ever seen, in general,” he said.

Sugar beets in southern Idaho and eastern Oregon appear to be on their way to high yields and strong sugar content — an improvement over the late-to-plant 2017 crop — though field analysts advise growers to remain vigilant in scouting and treating for diseases and pests.

Freeman figured his beets would do well when he noticed his nearby corn was taller than usual in early July.

“That indicated the growing environment for the spring was very good,” he said July 12. “Anything planted early looks very well.”

Beets benefited from higher-than normal heat units — high temperatures and the number of ideal “growing-degree days” — and ample rain that helped keep soil moist, Freeman said.

Growers made the most of the good conditions by picking the right seeds, planting them using precision-agriculture approaches, and developing solid plans for using fertilizer and any chemicals, he said.

“The farmer controlled all the variables he could, and Mother Nature cooperated very well,” Freeman said.

Wendell Robinson, southwest Idaho district agriculture manager for Boise-based Amalgamated Sugar, said the area’s sugar beet crop looks good overall. Grower-owned Amalgamated grows beets and processes them into sugar at its factories.

“We are still actively scouting” for pests and diseases, he said. “Overall, the crop looks very healthy at this point. We’re watching data for pests and diseases, but I think we’ve still got a good crop.”

More growing days typically mean higher potential sugar accumulation in the beet root and greater yield given the longer growing season, Robinson said.

A handful of diseases and insect pests have shown up in Idaho sugar beet fields, though in controllable numbers, said Lance Pitcher, who works with growers as a crop consultant with Amalgamated.

“Now is probably prime time, the best time for treatment,” he said July 16. Waiting until mid-August to treat would substantially increase the risk that beet yield and quality would drop due to diseases and pests, he said.

Pitcher saw Powdery Mildew earlier than usual, though not necessarily in alarming amounts. Cercospora Leaf Spot has become more prevalent, and “we are starting to see Black Bean Aphid more,” he said.

Black Bean Aphid so far is not widespread, he said. In heavy populations, it can stunt plants and transmit the Western Yellows Virus.

Pitcher said he also has seen army worms and grasshoppers in some beet fields. Both can reduce photosynthesis — and, in turn, yields — if their populations get high enough, he said.

“Generally they are not a problem, but this year they seem to be a little more prevalent,” he said.

Robinson said Black Bean Aphids and other insects seen thus far “are certainly very treatable at this point.” Amalgamated recently has been helping growers and suppliers recognize and treat for pests and diseases.

He and Pitcher expect 2018 crop yield and sugar content to be between the excellent 2015 and record-high 2016. Last year’s crop produced solid yields overall, but disappointing sugar content.

Galen Lee, who serves on the American Beet Growers Association board and is president of the Nyssa/Nampa Sugar Beet Growers Association, said his beet fields look distinctly better than they did last year. He co-owns Sunnyside Farm LLC outside New Plymouth, Idaho, near the Oregon border.

Snowfall was especially heavy and long-lasting in early 2017 on south Idaho’s western edge. Lee said the cold compacted the ground, one factor in delaying planting and ultimately stalling maturation.

This year, the sugar beet crop at Sunnyside looks good, he said. He sees closed rows of strongly standing plants with canopies sufficient to provide good shade.

“It’s that time of year when we are seeing mildew, so we are spraying for mildew,” Lee said. “And we are just trying to keep water on them, keeping them healthy and going from there.”

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho — Officials at Anheuser-Busch have set a goal of including 100 percent of their U.S. barley growers in a corporate sustainability program, called SmartBarley, by 2025.

Already, nearly 80 percent of the grower base participates in the voluntary sustainability program, which surveys growers about their production methods, irrigation usage, agronomic inputs and yields.

The company provides growers with anonymous data comparing their practices to others in the region, and throughout the world, hoping growers will implement the best practices to improve efficiency.

The program already includes 525 U.S. participants, and 4,500 participants worldwide. Company officials declined to say if they would ever mandate participation to reach their goal.

Idaho is the nation’s top barley-producing state, with an estimated 530,000 planted acres this season.

During a July 13 Grower Days event at its Idaho Falls malt plant, Anheuser-Busch celebrated 50 years of working with Idaho growers.

“Almost half of the beer we deliver to consumers (in North America) is dependent on barley grown in Idaho,” said Dave Taylor, an Anheuser-Busch brewmaster and vice president of supply. “Our partnership is essential to us, and we are the biggest buyer of barley in Idaho.”

The event included a SmartBarley booth, where staff showed growers a cluster chart on nitrogen application rates. They explained they’ll likely contact growers represented by a few outlying dots who appear to be overapplying fertilizer.

“It gives us a good comparison on where to benchmark what we could be doing and what others are doing,” said Hamer, Idaho, grower Justin Place. “We all need to be looking at a way to conserve and maintain our quality of what we’re doing, using less fertilizer and inputs of water.”

In addition to SmartBarley, the company is helping growers improve sustainability through development of new barley varieties, crop-management trials, funding AgriMet weather stations to provide farm-specific evapotranspiration data and research into new pivot irrigation technology designed to conserve water and power.

The company recently updated its overall sustainability goals ­— covering its own operations and its entire supply chain through 2025.

In addition to its grower program, the company is working to improve water stewardship, reduce energy use and emissions and to boost the amount of reused and recycled material in manufacturing and packing.

“Every time we’ve launched sustainability goals, we’ve achieved them much sooner than our original timeframe,” said Ingrid De Ryck, vice president of procurement and sustainability for Anheuser-Busch. “The difference now is we’ve raised the bar significantly. We’re going wider.”

The company, which reduced its water use by 38 percent during the past decade, aims to conserve another 9 percent by 2025. At its Idaho Falls malt plant, John Drake, director of western malting operations, explained the company is investigating a plan to reuse a million gallons of wastewater per day, or to clean it and inject it into the aquifer to boost groundwater levels.

The company aims to cut carbon emissions by a quarter throughout its value chain — including its grower base. Toward that end, the company has ordered 40 Tesla electric trucks and recently announced the purchase of 800 hydrogen trucks, hoping to pilot the zero-emissions fleet by next year.

All of its packaging should soon be made from majority recycled or returnable materials.

In May, the company added a logo to cans acknowledging its goal of using 100 percent renewable electricity. Anheuser-Busch recently covered half of its power goal by opening an Oklahoma wind farm.

Anheuser-Busch also has a global breeding program to release more sustainable barley varieties, producing about 1,300 experimental lines per year.

Gary Hanning, director of the company’s global barley research program, said the company has an experimental line close to release that should give growers a hardy new winter barley that uses a quarter less water and is suited for a broader area of Idaho. Hanning said Anheuser-Busch is also evaluating an Oregon State University winter barley, called Thunder.

Betsy Verhoeven, an agricultural scientist with international credentials, is coming home.

Verhoeven, whose mother, Mary Verhoeven, worked in the wheat program at Oregon State University, and who worked in OSU barley breeder Pat Hayes’ lab as a teenager, has been named Oregon State University Extension’s new field crops agent for Marion and Clackamas counties.

Verhoeven holds a Ph.D. in agricultural sciences from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, or ETH-Zurich, as well as a master’s in soils and biochemistry from University of California-Davis, and a bachelor’s degree in biology from Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio. She started June 20.

“What you see in Betsy is someone who grew up in (OSU’s Department of) Crop and Soil Science, someone with a great foundation, and somebody who well identifies with agriculture as we know it here in Oregon,” said Jay Noller, head of the College of Agricultural Sciences’ Department of Crop and Soil Science.

“She is super intelligent, loves solving problems, including big problems, and she wanted to come home, so here she is,” Noller said.

Verhoeven said she chose to return to Oregon “to be closer to family” and because of her connection with the state.

“Growing up here, both the natural and farmed lands of Oregon were a huge part of my life,” she said. “I want Oregon agriculture to thrive, because I want it to be there and be prosperous for many future generations.”

She said her immediate plans are to connect with growers in the mid-Willamette Valley, listen to their concerns and “get the word out that there is someone here.”

“Longer term, I want to work with growers, faculty and researchers to develop and improve practices that maintain and enhance the long-term productivity of Oregon lands,” she said.

Verhoeven is the third field crops extension agent recently hired by OSU’s College of Agricultural Sciences, including the second serving the Willamette Valley, and she is the first field crops extension agent to serve Marion and Clackamas counties since Tom Silberstein left in 2013 to take a position as faculty research assistant in Klamath Falls.

Will Jessie, an Oklahoma native, was introduced May 23 as field crops extension agent for Linn and Benton counties and parts of Polk County. Christy Tanner started June 25 with the Malheur County Extension Service.

“These hires represent the commitment of the College of Agricultural Sciences and OSU Extension to place faculty where they are needed,” Noller said. “We recognize that doesn’t happen as fast as everyone would like, but, nevertheless, it has happened.”

Bryan Ostlund, administrator of three Oregon grass seed commissions, as well as the Oregon clover and mint commissions, said the industry is looking forward to working with the new hires.

“It is a long time coming,” Ostlund said. “Grower issues seem to be stacking up more and more all the time, and we’ve got a lot of work to do, so it is nice to see new people come in.”

Ostlund said he appreciated the commitment of former College of Agricultural Sciences Dean Dan Arp to bring on the new field crops personnel. Arp retired June 30.

“There is a lot of pressure on OSU budgets, and it is much appreciated that he came through for us and put in these new agents,” Ostlund said.

Noller said the latest round of new hires may not be over, noting that he hopes in a few weeks to announce the hiring of a weed scientist who will fill the position formerly held by Carol Mallory Smith, who has retired.

He added: “And I think we have a few more surprises coming up.”

Oregon State University will receive nearly $500,000 from the USDA to continue studying mass timber in commercial building design.

The latest grant comes on the heels of the Timber Innovation Act, which was recently included in the Senate version of the 2018 Farm Bill. That legislation would create a new research and development program under the USDA for mass timber, including cross-laminated panels, glue laminated beams and laminated veneer lumber.

Mass timber is not currently recognized as an official construction material in U.S. building codes, leaving it without a standard rating system for quality and safety such as fire and earthquake resistance. Researchers at OSU are now investigating the effects of moisture accumulation in mass timber buildings.

“Obviously in the Pacific Northwest, rain and moisture is a factor,” said Iain Macdonald, associate director of the TallWood Design Institute at OSU. There’s pretty good anecdotal evidence that these buildings perform well in moisture. ... We see a need for a bit more empirical analysis of the whole thing.”

The TallWood Design Institute — formerly the National Center for Advanced Wood Products Manufacturing and Design — combines the forestry and engineering colleges at OSU and the University of Oregon’s School of Architecture and Allied Arts to focus exclusively on advancing structural wood products.

Macdonald said the interest in mass timber is twofold — one, to lower the carbon footprint of buildings versus using traditional concrete and steel, and two, to reinvigorate the timber economy in rural communities that depend on forestry for jobs.

“Our aim is to try and help people innovate these new products,” Macdonald said.

Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley, who pushed for the Timber Innovation Act, said Oregon is working to become a hub for mass timber manufacturing using locally sourced wood.

“This research at OSU supports the innovative manufacturing that helps to create jobs in rural parts of the state, and lays the groundwork for tall building construction in urban parts of the state,” said Merkley, a Democrat. “I will continue to use my seat on the appropriations committee to get this important research and development funded.”

Other research projects at the TallWood Design Institute include fire-resistance testing, seismic and structural performance tests, studying the carbon and environmental impacts of mass timber products and mass plywood development.

Anthony Davis, acting dean of the OSU College of Forestry, said the university is at the forefront of research to inform engineering design guidelines for these products.

“This grant award is another example of the excellent research done by scientists affiliated with OSU and the TallWood Design Institute,” Davis said.

Tuesdays

Thomas Maness, dean of the College of Forestry at Oregon State University since 2012, died Thursday in Corvallis following a 2 1/2-year battle with an undisclosed illness. He was 63.

Under Maness’ leadership, OSU was ranked the second-best college of forestry in the world in 2017 by the Center for World University Rankings, behind only the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Uppsala, Sweden.

“Thomas will be greatly missed,” said OSU President Ed Ray in a statement released Friday by the university. “Thomas’ effective and strong aspirational leadership of the College of Forestry helped guide many key decisions and served to advance the university, our environment and the wood products industry.”

Maness arrived at OSU in 2009, serving as head of the Department of Forest Engineering, Resources and Management before succeeding Hal Salwasser as dean of the College of Forestry.

In January, Maness stepped away from his day-to-day duties as dean to focus on his health. Since then, Executive Associate Dean Anthony Davis has served as acting dean.

In a letter posted on the OSU website, Davis described Maness as “true visionary.”

“One only needs to look at the Institute for Working Forest Landscapes and the TallWood Design Institute to understand Thomas’ dedication to improving the health of our lands, people, businesses, and ecosystems, and to do so through collaborative work,” Davis wrote. “Through his vision, he helped propel our college into a globally recognized leader in forestry.”

The College of Forestry is currently undergoing a massive restoration with the $79.5 million Oregon Forest Science Complex, which is anticipated to open next spring. The 95,000-square-foot project will include the new George W. Peavy Forest Science Center, A.A. “Red” Emmerson Advanced Wood Products Laboratory and Richardson Hall.

Before joining OSU, Maness spent a decade in private industry as a research engineer, and in 1994 he founded the Canadian National Centre of Excellence in Advancing Wood Processing at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.

Working closely with industry, he led research in sawmill optimization and real-time quality control systems. He also founded the British Columbia Forum on Forest Economics and Policy a decade later, guiding research in forest policy and sustainability.

Maness earned his bachelor’s degree in forest resources management from West Virginia University in 1979, a master’s degree in forest operations from Virginia Tech in 1981 and a doctorate in forest economics from the University of Washington in 1989.

Ed Feser, OSU provost and executive vice president, said Maness carried on a long tradition of leadership excellence and advances during his time at the College of Forestry.

“His stewardship in expanding the college through the new Oregon Forest Science Complex will serve students, research and OSU’s outreach and engagement mission for many future generations,” Feser said.

Maness was also a board member for the Oregon Forest Resources Institute, established by the Oregon Legislature in 1991 to encourage responsible forestry practices through public outreach.

“Thomas was an incredible OFRI board member, thought leader and trusted friend,” said Paul Barnum, OFRI executive director. “His leadership, professionalism and vision for the future of Oregon’s forests — and all forests — will be greatly missed.”

SALEM, Ore. — Temperatures near 100 degrees couldn’t stop Willamette Valley 4-H and FFA members from showing their livestock and other animals at this week’s Marion County Fair.

Melanie McCabe, Marion County 4-H Youth Development Educator for Oregon State University Extension, said Friday that even with the hot weather, the fair has been going well. She said the barns are a little crowded because of record entry numbers. They have also had to shuffle a couple of shows between show rings, but aside from that there haven’t been any major problems.

“The kids are all still in good spirits. The animals, so far, are holding up OK,” McCabe said.

FFA exhibitors, due to the heat, were allowed to show their animals without their signature blue corduroy jackets on Thursday, showing instead in their plain white shirts and official scarves and ties.

4-H member Wylie Bean, from St. Paul Ore., has a brother who shows pigs, so he decided to follow in his footsteps. At age 13, he has no intention of quitting the show ring any time soon and is looking forward to showing in a blue FFA jacket when he gets into high school.

Nick Anderson didn’t start out showing cattle, but he decided to switch from market goats. Anderson’s steer took the FFA grand champion title this year and placed third overall.

“I am really happy, it was a good year,” he said.

This year is Anderson’s third year showing, but his first year he showed a market goat. He said that he always admired FFA and when he started at Cascade High School and found out they had an FFA program he wanted to join. Anderson’s father showed steers when he was younger and pointed him in the direction of a friend who helped him learn to show.

This year is Madi McKenzie’s first year showing goats, and she received second place for both of her entries, Oliver and Buster. A member of the Jefferson Livestock Club, McKenzie has a sister who shows sheep.

Soon to be a high school junior, Abbie Barber started out showing sheep, but now the Cascade FFA member shows Hereford cattle. This year, her heifer is the supreme female for FFA at the fair. Barber’s bull calf also won supreme, and she showed a steer that took first in his class.

Barber said that her favorite part of showing is the animals themselves aside from the money she can make selling them at the auction, describing the cattle as “cute.”

Showing is a generational thing in Barber’s family. When her father was young he also showed cattle at the fair.

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — The agency overseeing Oregon’s legal medical marijuana industry conceded in a report Thursday it has not provided effective oversight of growers and others in the industry, creating opportunities for weed to be diverted to the black market.

The blunt internal review echoes complaints from federal authorities that Oregon hasn’t adequately controlled its marijuana businesses, and that overproduction of pot is feeding a black market in states that haven’t legalized it.

Oregon was one of the first states to legalize medical marijuana in 1998, and in 2014 voters approved allowing recreational use. The state’s struggle to transform a business that for decades had operated illegally in the shadows into a regulated industry sets an example for other states moving toward legalization.

Oregon Health Authority Director Patrick Allen ordered the internal review amid complaints from state and local law enforcement officials about lack of oversight of the pot industry. The health authority directs the state’s Medical Marijuana Program, while the Liquor Control Commission regulates recreational pot.

The review showed there were more than 20,000 grow sites, but only 58 inspections were carried out in 2017.

The Oregon Medical Marijuana Program has far too few inspectors, while the tracking of growers and the pot they produce has been inadequate and inaccurate, the report concluded.

“Potentially erroneous reporting coupled with low reporting compliance makes it difficult to accurately track how much product is in the medical system,” the report said. “This limits OMMP’s ability to successfully identify and address potential diversion.”

The report said the medical marijuana oversight agency lacks reliable, independent tools to validate grow site locations and relies on inconsistent county databases.

Law enforcement authorities say they often have trouble identifying which marijuana growers are legal. Seen from a helicopter just before harvest season, marijuana grows are like a green patchwork across one southwestern county, one drug enforcement officer recalled.

In Deschutes County, the sheriff and district attorney in February went public with their frustrations, saying the state was allowing black market operations to proliferate through lack of oversight. They asked the Health Authority to provide a list of medical marijuana grow sites, but the agency refused, saying the law doesn’t permit it to provide such a list. The agency could only respond on a case-by-case basis.

Deschutes County District Attorney John Hummel commended OHA director Allen for ordering the study. The two met last month and agreed to use the results of the study to discuss improved oversight.

In a statement, the health authority said the confidentiality of grow site addresses is protected by law, but added it’s exploring ways to work more closely with law enforcement to ensure medical marijuana grow sites are operating legally.

“We are taking steps to maintain the integrity of Oregon’s medical marijuana program and make sure medical products reach the patients who need them,” Allen said. “The actions we’re taking include better tracking of growers, better enforcement, and making sure product that fails testing has been destroyed.”

Warren L. Chamberlain of Oregon and Brad J. Scott and Pauline Tjaarda of California were reappointed to their seats on the National Dairy Promotion and Research Board in an announcement from Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue.

Michael R. Oosten of California, has also been appointed to fill an open seat.

The new terms begin in November and will last three years. Oosten, however, will only serve until October of 2019.

The National Dairy Promotion and Research Board, known as the Dairy Checkoff Program, promotes dairy products and provides funding for research.

Dairy farmers pay a 15 cent-per-hundredweight assessment on their milk, and importers pay 7.5 cents to fund the program.

Purdue said the new appointees will aid in the “promotion and research to maintain and expand” dairy markets. He also said that the individuals will serve the dairy industry well.

The board is made up of 37 individuals from 12 regions.

Each member is selected by the secretary after nominations are submitted by various dairy and farm organizations.

REARDAN, Wash. — Shepherd’s Grain, a farmer-owned company based in the Northwest, brought farmers and bakers together at the same table this week.

The company is owned by wheat farmers and focuses on no-till farming practices. It uses the cost of production to set its prices instead of the commodity market.

Shepherd’s Grain has sales offices in Seattle and Portland. Farmers grow wheat in Eastern Washington, Idaho and Eastern Oregon.

Forty-four customers who use Shepherd’s Grain flour on July 11 visited farms in Ritzville, Reardan and Davenport, Wash.

“The farmers love to see who it is who’s using their wheat and on the other side, the users like to see who’s growing the wheat,” Shepherd’s Grain general manager Mark Swenson said.

Company co-founder Fred Fleming, who farms near Reardan, said the company tests new wheat varieties to see how well they meet Shepherd Grain standards, checking for milling and baking quality.

Some varieties don’t meet the company standards, Fleming said. One didn’t have the needed flavor component; another yielded well, but also didn’t have the necessary flavor. Others had too strong a mixing component, because much of Shepherd’s Grain flour must be worked by hand, he said.

Tom McLaughlin, merchandiser for Archer Daniels Midland, told tour participants that his company keeps Shepherd’s Grain wheat separate from other wheats when milling.

“It’s a niche compared to the commodity world, no doubt, but it’s a quality product with much more consistency in its production,” McLaughlin said. “The biggest thing is being able to pick the varieties that meet the customer’s end need.”

Shepherd’s Grain’s approach is unique, McLaughlin said, primarily because it came from a grassroots level.

“A lot of producers don’t look at net margin per acre,” he said. “They focus on yield. If we could get producers to start looking at net margin per acre — we’re going to give up 10 percent yield, but guess what? (The farmer is) getting 20 percent more revenue — that would facilitate the process.”

Swenson estimated 20 percent of the wheat produced by its 37 farmers goes to Shepherd’s Grain. Farmers sell the remainder on their own or on the commodity market. The company would like to increase demand to sell the remaining 80 percent, he said.

Shepherd’s Grain farmers received $9.54 per bushel for dark northern spring wheat, $6.71 per bushel for hard red winter wheat and $5.63 per bushel for soft white wheat. Prices are arrived at by calculating the grower’s costs of producing the wheat and a fair rate of return to the farmer, Swenson said.

There is a waiting list for farmers to join the company, Swenson said. The group is not likely to add new members for several years, unless it reaches a point where demand exceeds supply.

All wheat produced by Shepherd’s Grain is sold domestically. Swenson said the company is looking at several overseas opportunities. It is also in discussions with several larger grocery stores, he said.

A new pest has burst on the scene at Oregon State University’s North Willamette Research and Extension Center.

Rose stem girdler, a small, metallic beetle that bores into raspberry and blackberry canes, was discovered last year at the station, prompting faculty to come up with a plan of attack to control the damaging insects.

With reports of rose stem girdler in cane fruit on the rise across the Willamette Valley and southwest Washington, researchers discussed the latest infestation during Caneberry Field Day Wednesday at the station in Aurora, Ore.

Patrick Jones, faculty research assistant, said the problem first arose in late July and early August last season, when they noticed wilting among the tops of blackberry and raspberry plants.

Typically, Jones said the plants will die all the way down the crown if there is an issue with root rot or general health. These canes, however, were snapping around the middle.

“That was the big tell that we had a new pest problem,” he said.

Jones figures rose stem girdler was present at the station for years, but last year they did not conduct early season spraying for spotted wing drosophila, which may have allowed the beetle population to explode.

“It was just kind of a fluke year,” he said. “At least it’s on everybody’s radar now.”

In response, the station began spraying pesticides to control rose stem girdler, based on a 2015 Utah State University Extension report. While it is still tell, Jones said he is optimistic the results will be positive.

“I think we’ll do better than last year,” he said.

About 50 growers attended Caneberry Field Day, which featured updates on field trials for new varieties of blackberries and raspberries, along with presentations on pest and weed control.

Oregon produced 42 million pounds of cane fruit in 2017-18, according to the state Raspberry and Blackberry Commission. Those numbers were down from 59 million pounds in 2016-17, though Bernadine Strik, berry crop specialist for OSU, said part of that is due to growers tearing out older varieties of blackberries to replace with newer ones more highly sought by processors — namely Black Diamond and Columbia Star.

Together, Black Diamond and Columbia Star accounted for more than 70 percent of plant sales in Oregon in 2017. The next closest was Marionberry, at just more than 8 percent.

As for raspberries, Tom Peerbolt, director of the Northwest Berry Foundation, said he is excited about several new varieties in development that he hopes will break through the “bottleneck” currently facing growers.

Oregon grew roughly 4.5 million pounds of red and black raspberries last year, with 72 percent of sales from just four varieties: Cascade Delight, Cascade Harvest, Cascade Gold and Meeker.

Peerbolt said he is particularly enthused about Cascade Premier, a just-released variety from Washington State University.

“I think these guys really have potential to be grown here economically in heavier soils,” Peerbolt said. “If we can help accelerate that even a year or two, it could really help growers out there, and the industry as a whole.”

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Father and son ranchers, who were the focus of a battle about public lands and were freed from prison after receiving a presidential pardon, were welcomed home Wednesday in Oregon by relatives and horseback riders carrying American flags.

A lawyer for the family of Steven and Dwight Hammond said they remain focused on their attempt to restore grazing rights on Bureau of Land Management acreage.

Attorney Morgan Philpot also told The Associated Press the men feel persecuted by federal officials after they were convicted of setting fires on public land and sentenced to five-year prison terms under an anti-terrorism statute.

“We’re exploring potential civil suits on behalf of the family to make sure they have their rights over land restored to them, that they’re protected from more harassment and overzealousness of government agencies,” Philpot said.

The family also wants a dialogue between ranchers, politicians, federal agencies and bureaucrats, he said.

A news conference that had been set with family members outside the high-desert town of Burns was canceled when their convoy was delayed by a roadblock set up to allow a wide-load vehicle to pass.

“The family has already gone through enough. They were tired and wanted to go home and spend time with family,” Philpot said. “Perhaps it was sheer coincidence that the oversized load was coming through the same road we were using.”

The local BLM office did not immediately return a phone call or email seeking comment.

Earlier in the day, Steven Hammond and his father Dwight stepped from a private jet and into the arms of family members at a municipal airport outside the huigh desert community of Burns. A day earlier they were pardoned by President Donald Trump and released from a federal prison near Los Angeles.

“We’re going to do a lot of decompressing and get back to our families,” Steven Hammond said.

Just 25 miles (40 kilometers) away is Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, which was taken over in 2016 by armed protesters angered by the sentences given to the Hammonds.

The standoff lasted 41 days, ending when occupation leaders Ammon and Ryan Bundy were arrested and LaVoy Finicum was killed by police.

The occupiers, who believe federal control of public lands violates the Constitution, insisted the Hammonds were victimized by federal overreach.

Steven Hammond thanked Trump and many people on Wednesday for writing to him and his father while they were in prison.

“We received thousands of letters. There’s a time you get to that point where a letter means a lot,” Steven Hammond said, his voice choking up in video posted on Twitter by The Oregonian/OregonLive.

Some environmentalists see a pattern in the way Trump is approaching public lands, which comprise almost half of the U.S. West, and have linked the pardons to his position on the issue.

Witnesses testified that a 2001 arson fire occurred shortly after Steven Hammond and his hunting party illegally slaughtered deer on BLM property. The fire destroyed all evidence of the game violations, the U.S. attorney’s office said.

The jury also convicted Steven Hammond for a 2006 blaze that prosecutors said began when he started several back fires, violating a burn ban, to save his winter feed after lightning started numerous fires nearby.

Federal anti-terrorism law called for mandatory five-year sentences for the 2012 convictions. A federal judge said those sentences wouldn’t fit the crime, and instead sentenced Dwight Hammond to three months in prison and Steven Hammond to a year and one day.

A federal appeals court in October 2015 ordered them to be resentenced to the mandatory prison time.

“The use of anti-terrorism laws to prosecute Western ranchers makes no sense, from our perspective,” Philpot said.

Michelle Moore steps inside one of several commercial greenhouses on display at Adapt8 headquarters in Salem, Ore., noting how sunlight reaches into every nook and cranny of the structure.

“There are no shadows in the greenhouse at all,” said Moore, company president and CEO. “It’s a surprising effect.”

Adapt8, formerly Adaptive Plastics Inc., is known for manufacturing corrugated plastic panels used for greenhouses and greenhouse coverings. The material, branded as Solexx, is highly dense and translucent, meaning it diffuses light to spread over the entire space.

Solexx greenhouses have been sold in all 50 states, Moore said, and in May the company announced it received a $50,000 economic development grant from Marion County for additional product testing and research.

With the money, Adapt8 plans to build a new 2,500-square-foot greenhouse at its offices on Brooklake Road Northeast, where employees will try out new systems and products to reduce energy while maximizing plant growth. Eventually, Moore said the greenhouse will be used to grow fresh fruits and vegetables for the community, with 1,000 pounds donated annually to the Marion-Polk Food Share.

Employees will also establish their own community-supported agriculture program, or CSA, and begin teaching classes to the public on how they can grow their own healthful food at home.

“We want to show people how we’re doing things differently,” Moore said.

The goal, Moore said, is to help commercial growers and hobby farmers conserve resources and become more sustainable. Solexx greenhouses, with their light-scattering polyethylene panels, offer 25 percent more plant growth versus direct light provided by polycarbonate panels, and 30 percent more insulation, she said.

Adapt8, a second-generation family-owned company founded by Moore’s parents, actually got its start by accident. At the time, they were selling plastic totes made from a material similar to Solexx to growers for harvesting fruit. The totes caused less bruising than metal buckets, Moore said.

One day, they left a plastic tote upside down in their yard. The grass underneath, they found, had grown 6-8 inches tall, and was a deep verdant green.

Moore’s father, Mike Perry, quickly realized the material would make for a good greenhouse.

“The family has deemed him the mad scientist,” Moore said with a laugh. “That’s how the company started, as a hobby greenhouse business.”

Today, the business has about 20 employees, and expects to hire 10 more with construction and maintenance of the new test greenhouse. Moore said they plan to break ground sometime before the end of the year.

In 2009, Moore said the company managed to harvest $5,000 worth of food in one season out of an 8-foot-by-8-foot greenhouse. She believes they can produce the same results on a larger scale in a commercial-size building.

“We want to challenge the status quo of how that’s done,” she said. “It’s really a pretty astounding amount of food.”

SALEM — Goats galore, STEAM labs and record-breaking entry numbers will be a part of the Marion County Fair this weekend.

The fair kicks off Thursday and wraps up on Sunday.

Approximately 27,000 people attend the Marion County Fair each year, held at the Oregon State Fairgrounds in Salem, Ore. Jill Ingalls, the event coordinator, said the fair is one of the few in the state that is growing each year.

This year’s fair is no exception, according to Melanie McCabe, 4-H Youth Development Educator for Oregon State University Extension, animal show numbers are up in every category.

Ingalls credits the fair’s board of directors.

“The board of directors here are very savvy about changing the fair to match the culture,” she said.

The Marion County Fair began in the 1860s, after the state fair moved to Salem from Oregon City, according to Jolene Kelley, the public information officer for Marion County.

Not only are the animal entry numbers up, Ingalls said that some of the numbers are higher than they have ever been.

The biggest jump in entries this year comes in the form of goats. Dairy goat entries more than doubled to 61, and meat goats are up by 21 to 72 compared to last year, according to McCabe.

In other animal categories, 33 dairy entries, 55 beef cattle, 18 llamas, 171 swine and 205 sheep are entered to show.

Of the 33 dairy entries, 24 are showing leased cows from Veeman Dairy. Some 17 are 4-H participants and seven are in FFA, according to Rod Veeman, who is the dairy cattle superintendent at the fair and owns the leased cows. This is about the fourth year that the program has been going, he said.

Not many kids were showing dairy at the time that the leasing program started, according to Veeman, and he began the program in an attempt to get more people involved.

Exhibitors of the cattle work with the cows at Veeman’s farm, where he feeds them, so his organic dairy production remains consistent and then the cows go to the fair, where the participants show them.

Besides the show animals, the fair hosts many different vendors, including a cotton candy art booth where works of art are created from spun sugar. This year’s main stage acts include Easton Corbin, a country singer with a couple of chart-topping songs, and Steve Augeri, a former lead singer for the rock band Journey.

The STEAM stage offers labs in “science, technology, engineering, arts and math,” where fair goers can learn about the engineering of Ferris wheels, growing plants and how fireworks are made, among other things.

A STEAM game is also offered in which participants search the fair for answers to STEAM related questions. The “A” in STEAM at the fair also stands for agriculture, not just art, and some of the questions in the game are agriculture-based, Ingalls said.

Full schedules of each day of the Marion County Fair can be found at the fair’s website http://marioncountyfair.net .

Marion County Fair

Where: Oregon State Fairgrounds

Address: 2330 17th St. NE, Salem, Ore.

When: 10 a.m.-10 p.m. July 12, 10 a.m.-11 p.m. July 13-14, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. July 15

Cost: $9 for adults, $5 for seniors 62 and older, $5 for youths ages 6-11

PORTLAND — Environmentalists hope to convince a federal appeals court that USDA must study the environmental effects of assisting Oregon wildlife regulators with killing wolves.

Last year, a federal judge decided that an agreement by USDA’s Wildlife Services to kill wolves at the direction of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife doesn’t qualify as a “major federal action” warranting analysis under the National Environmental Policy Act.

During oral arguments in Portland on July 11, Cascadia Wildlands and four other environmental groups asked the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn that ruling.

According to legal precedent, NEPA review is required even when the government simply provides grant money for a building project, said John Mellgren, an attorney for the environmental plaintiffs.

“Here, by contrast, there is actual federal action,” Mellgren said, noting that USDA would send out federal employees with federally owned equipment to kill wolves.

Although U.S. District Judge Michael McShane found that the decision to kill wolves rested with ODFW, the state agency can’t force USDA to perform a lethal operation — that’s still at the discretion of federal officials and should be studied under NEPA, he said.

Sean Martin, an attorney for the federal government, countered that NEPA review is only mandatory when a federal agency has control over an activity.

“Here, that kind of supervision is absent,” Martin said. “Those kinds of judgment calls are left to Oregon and Oregon alone. ... It’s the state calling the shots.”

In this case, USDA did conduct a NEPA environmental assessment but the environmental groups claim it was insufficient.

The government argues it only completed the analysis to settle a previous lawsuit and McShane correctly decided the review wasn’t otherwise legally required.

Even if it was required, the USDA properly concluded the assistance of Wildlife Services in killing problem wolves wouldn’t harm the overall population, which is increasing, Martin said.

“Limited control isn’t going to impair that trend,” he said.

The primary limiting factor for wolf survival in Oregon is human acceptance, which necessitates resolving livestock conflicts and managing the species, he said.

However, Mellgren argued that USDA failed to take a “hard look” at the effects of killing wolves as required under NEPA.

The agency should have considers the impacts of wolf killing in Idaho, which is a prime source of wolves migrating into Oregon, he said.

Capital Press

A study funded by a recent grant aims to help the Owyhee Irrigation District determine how and where to modernize.

OID General Manager Jay Chamberlin said the approximately $250,000 grant, through Energy Trust of Oregon and Pacific Power & Light, is funding the evaluation by Hood River, Ore.-based Farmers Conservation Alliance.

“They are looking at every aspect: hydro potential, gravity pressurized sprinkler potential, canal lining, water conservation. … Really, the project is being completely evaluated and assessed,” Chamberlin said. “It’s almost an inventory of what we are doing now and what we can do to improve.”

Farmers Conservation Alliance spokeswoman Marla Keethler said Owyhee Irrigation District enrolled in its Irrigation Modernization Program, “and we are currently working with them to understand their district’s needs and goals as we work towards developing a system improvement plan and eventually a modernization strategy.”

Chamberlin said the modernization study will help identify the best opportunities to maintain and improve function even as OID deals with current facility needs and some recent changes in how customers use water.

After irrigation season ends each fall, Nyssa, Ore.-based Owyhee Irrigation District starts projects such as repairing or automating infrastructure, and replacing some sections of open canal with pressurized pipeline.

An upcoming major project aims to stabilize more than one-third of Malheur Siphon, an above-ground, 80-inch steel pipe that runs for more than four miles north to the Malheur River. Chamberlin said the approximately $750,000 project is expected to start in early October and conclude in early March, ahead of the 2019 irrigation season’s start.

“This phase will complete the most difficult section of repairs,” he said. The pipe, whose foundation legs have been moving in unstable clay soil, is wrinkled in three different locations, he said. Additional phases will be completed later as OID builds its reserve funds.

The Owyhee Irrigation District serves about 120,000 irrigated acres and more than 1,200 customers in Oregon and Idaho. Its annual budget is about $4 million, funded by a customer charge per acre of $65 — up from $62 last year and including $1.50 special assessment for the siphon project.

Chamberlin said the district in the last decade has seen client farms become fewer in number, but larger overall.

“It really changes the distribution of water,” he said.

Many of the larger farms grow one crop on 100 acres instead of three or four, and use pivot irrigation systems that in the long term can reduce total water usage but in the short term run frequently, Chamberlin said. “With pivot and sprinkler irrigation, you can’t get behind because you don’t have the deep percolation.”

Similarly, drip irrigation rarely shuts down altogether as it moves water across different zones in large acreages. Chamberlin said this constant, level irrigation flow means peak demand periods are less pronounced and water can stay longer in Owyhee Reservoir.

Owyhee Reservoir was about 60 percent full in mid-July, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation reported, including water left from the heavy snowmelt of 2016-17. OID customers this year received full allotments of water, Chamberlin said, but the district has tried to stay conservative and leave as much in the reservoir as possible in the event low snowpack materializes again this year in the large Owyhee River drainage.

The district early this year tapped its supplemental Snake River water right more than usual, he said. The Owyhee River is a Snake tributary.

GLIDE, Ore. — Austin VanHouten, at just 15 years old, has developed a business plan. He’s working at developing his sheep shearing skills and turning them into a seasonal job.

To help him in that process, he put together an application, explaining his business plan, and submitted it to the Douglas County Farm Bureau. The application was reviewed by bureau members and then VanHouten was selected as the recipient of the organization’s Young Entrepreneurship Grant.

The grant is for about $1,300. VanHouten will use the money to purchase a shearing motor, clippers and the accessory tools needed for the job.

“On the application, I had to explain why I was applying,” he said. “I want to start up my own business in agriculture. I want to start up my own sheep shearing business. It’s a great way to make money in your free time.”

Following his selection for the grant, the Oakland, Ore., High School student spoke at a Farm Bureau meeting, explaining his plan and his appreciation for the financial support.

VanHouten has a sheep background, helping his grandparents, John and Peggy Fine, with their flock. He has watched his grandfather and others shear sheep so he’s aware that it’s a physical task. And as a member of the Heavenly Ranchers 4-H Club, he has slick sheared numerous lambs for entry at the annual Douglas County Lamb Show.

Matthew Brady, the vice president of the Douglas County Farm Bureau and the coordinator of the Young Entrepreneurship Grant program, said the goal of the program is to give high school aged youth help in getting started in an agricultural project.

“We want to at least help in part these young people overcome some of the monetary obstacles involved in getting into farming,” Brady said. “It can be fairly expensive, pursuing equipment and tools, and these grants can help get the wheels rolling for a young person.”

Brady added that a past recipient of the grant started an asparagus business, using the money to purchase starts, soaker hoses and some other accessories.

To learn how to be most efficient with his new shearing equipment, VanHouten attended a four-day sheep shearing school on the Dawson Ranch in late May. The Oakland High School FFA Alumni Association paid the $225 fee for VanHouten, who then proceeded to shear 50 sheep a day.

“I’m pleased with the progress I made,” the teenager said of shearing. “I learned for a commercial shearing job, you don’t have to make all the lines perfect. You have to know how to handle a sheep properly and to keep the blades on the skin.”

Brady said there is a need for more experienced sheep shearers. He attended the sheep shearing school and was pleased to see the progress VanHouten was making as a shearer.

“Austin saw a need and an opportunity to shear his own sheep as well as others,” Brady said. “It can be hard to get shearers scheduled in a timely manner because there is a shortage. It’s difficult and back-breaking work that is not really attractive to a lot of people. You usually have to wait in line to get your sheep sheared every spring.”

VanHouten has a flock of 15 ewes. His goal is to shear, save money for college and following graduation, start his own sheep, cattle and pig operation.

“I’m really appreciative of this grant,” he said. “I don’t know if I would have been able to start up a shearing business if not for this grant.”

Attorneys for the Trump administration are siding with environmentalists in defending the legality of the Obama administration’s expansion of Oregon’s Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument.

Shortly before leaving office in early 2017, former President Barack Obama increased the monument’s size by more than 70 percent to about 114,000 acres.

The decision was met with lawsuits by representatives of timber companies and county governments, who claimed a prohibition on commercial logging within the monument violated the Oregon & California Revested Lands Act.

The monument’s enlarged boundary includes nearly 40,000 acres of “O&C Lands” that must be managed for timber harvest under that statute, according to their complaints.

While the legal arguments primarily concern logging, ranchers who operate within the monument also fear they’ll be subject to grazing curtailments.

As part of a wide-ranging review of national monument designations, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke recommended shrinking the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument without specifying how the boundaries should be adjusted.

Litigation over the expansion was delayed several times to allow the Trump administration to implement Zinke’s recommendation but was reactivated earlier this year when the government didn’t take action.

Plaintiffs in three complaints against the federal government — the American Forest Resource Council, Association of O&C Counties and Murphy Co. — have filed motions seeking to invalidate the monument’s expansion onto those 40,000 acres.

In two cases pending in Washington, D.C., attorneys for the Trump administration are now asking a federal judge to deny that request, arguing the expansion decision was within the president’s authority and can’t be reviewed in federal court.

The government has yet to reply to a similar motion in the third lawsuit filed in Oregon.

Even if the expansion can be challenged in federal court, the plaintiffs have “misconstrued” the O&C Act because that law “does not require the agency to manage every tree on every acre of O&C lands for timber production,” the government’s attorneys said.

The Trump administration’s arguments are similar to those made by environmental groups that have intervened in those cases — the Soda Mountain Wilderness Council, Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center and Oregon Wild.

It’s unclear what the Trump administration’s legal position portends for a possible reduction in the monument’s size by administrative action, said Lawson Fite, AFRC’s general counsel.

“I don’t think this filing rules it out, but it’s hard to say,” Fite said.

The Trump administration is probably defending the Obama-era decision to “defend the presidential prerogative” and preserve the “power of the executive,” he said.

Legal challenges to monument designations and expansions haven’t been successful in the past, but the current litigation is different due to the unique aspects of the O&C Act, which requires a sustained timber yield, Fite said.

“Our view is they don’t have as much discretion as they say they do,” he said.

Between 2013 and 2014, the Wild Rivers Coast, which includes the towns of Bandon, Brookings, Gold Beach, Langlois and Port Orford along Oregon’s South Coast, participated in Travel Oregon’s Rural Tourism Studio program. This was the first time the region…

BEND, Ore. (AP) — A weed-killer that killed thousands of ponderosa pines near Sisters has been linked to the deaths of other trees outside the Sunriver resort community and possibly across Oregon.

An investigation spurred by the incident in Sisters found that the active ingredient in the product known as Perspective may have killed dozens of ponderosa pines outside Sunriver and other trees in central Oregon, said Dale Mitchell, an Oregon Department of Agriculture program manager. The department monitors pesticides and herbicides in Oregon.

“We are looking at gathering additional information on this ingredient,” Mitchell said.

The Deschutes County Road Department sprayed the herbicide along two main roads that lead in and out of Sunriver in 2013 and 2014, the Bulletin reported. The roadside spraying is done to reduce the amount of flammable grass, said Chris Doty, the road department’s director.

Employees for the road department and the U.S. Forest Service found ponderosa pines with brown and ill-formed needles in the area where the herbicide was applied and reported it to the agriculture department.

Results from testing in 2015 showed that the damage had spread, according to a U.S. Forest Service report.

Although it’s not confirmed if the herbicide caused the damage, Doty said some of the tree deaths and damage were the result of root damage or other unrelated issues.

In any case, the damage was much less than in the Sisters incident.

The active ingredient in Perspective, aminocyclopyrachlor, has been linked to deaths of thousands of spruce and pines trees outside of Oregon, according to The New York Times.

Tree damage was also reported in other parts of Deschutes County after Perspective was applied near several roads. But Jean Nelson-Dean, public affairs officer for the Deschutes National Forest, said research shows the damage could have been caused by mountain pine beetles.

The Oregon Department of Agriculture has notified the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency of the situation. The offices are discussing the possibility of strengthening the language on the label for Perspective.

The county has discontinued its use of Perspective, Doty said.