AMERICAN FALLS, Idaho — Farmer Kamren Koompin said quality testing by his potato processor, Lamb Weston, consistently confirms Umatilla Russets make the best McDonald’s french fries, and growers willing to raise the variety are paid a slight premium.

But Koompin has found many growers in his area have given up on Umatillas, having failed to keep their vines alive long enough to yield crops with good size profiles.

Koompin — who raised his best Umatillas ever this season — believes he’s finally found effective Umatilla management guidelines for producing large tubers. Umatillas should be his most profitable russet variety this season. He also convinced some of his neighbors to give the variety another try.

According to USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service, the number of Umatilla acres has increased slightly in Idaho, from 2.1 percent of the state’s total spud crop in 2016 to 2.9 percent of the crop this season. Umatillas comprised 14 percent of Washington’s planted acres this season, and 13.1 percent of Oregon’s potato acres.

“Out of the original ones who started growing them in the American Falls area, we were the only ones that kind of stuck with it, and then a few others jumped back in,” Koompin said.

Before the 2015 season, Koompin managed his Umatillas similar to Russet Burbanks. Then a crop adviser showed him management guidelines developed by Washington State University potato specialist Mark Pavek for raising Umatillas in the Columbia Basin. According to Pavek’s recommendation, the variety needs 400 pounds of nitrogen per acre, with two-thirds of the fertilizer applied in the early season. Russet Burbank, by comparison, requires just 360 pounds, which is insufficient for maintaining good vine health in Umatillas.

Koompin said he tweaked Pavek’s guidelines based on Idaho’s shorter growing season, but believes his size-profile problems have become a thing of the past.

Pavek said his father, Joseph, made the initial cross for Umatilla in 1982 at University of Idaho’s Aberdeen Research and Extension Center, and it was released in 1998 by the Tri-State Potato Breeding Program. Pavek made his first Umatilla management guidelines in 2008 and updated them from 2010 through 2012, specifically increasing the nitrogen requirements.

However, Idaho farmers have been slow to learn of the changes and implement them in their fields.

Rupert farmer Duane Grant, who has been raising Umatillas four years, learned of the guidelines two seasons ago, while attending a WSU potato school. After struggling with Umatillas in his first two seasons, Grant said he has been “reasonably happy” with them since changing his nitrogen rates.

“I think there’s been a lot of bad experiences with Umatillas,” Grant said. “People try to raise them like a Burbank.”

Pavek said his Umatilla guidelines are available online at the Potato Variety Management Institute website, PVMI.org. In July, PVMI also posted his nitrogen-management guidelines for 15 varieties, including Umatillas. Pavek, however, acknowledges agricultural extension programs must do a better job of using modern media to quickly disseminate information to the industry.

Pavek believes raising Umatillas is “an art,” requiring careful attention to irrigation, fertilizer and planting depth. It’s also sensitive to white mold, black dot and early vine death. Though Pavek acknowledges it’s a “bit dangerous to grow,” he said farmers who produce good Umatilla crops are rewarded with better returns.

“This year, we’re seeing very large yields with Umatillas because the vines stayed alive,” Pavek said.

PULLMAN, Wash. — Amazon maybe heading for a food price war with its acquisition of Whole Foods, and initial cuts have targeted the organic produce sector that’s becoming more important to the Washington tree fruit industry, an industry expert says.

Seattle-based online giant Amazon closed a $13.7 billion deal Aug. 28 to buy Austin, Texas-based Whole Foods Market Inc. and the same day cut prices of bananas 38 percent, organic baby kale 12 percent and tilapia 33 percent. In a news release, Amazon said its vision is to make “Whole Foods Market’s high-quality, natural and organic food affordable for everyone.”

“The big problem for competitors is Amazon doesn’t appear to be worried about debt. It’s stock is $1,000 a share and keeps rising and as long as it does they can borrow from all sorts of markets,” said Desmond O’Rourke, retired Washington State University agricultural economist and world apple analyst in Pullman.

What items Whole Foods carries is being decided centrally instead of locally and brand representatives no longer may promote products or check displays in-store, the Wall Street Journal has reported.

Brooke Buchanan, a Whole Foods spokeswoman, had no comment on whether there will be price wars. She said Whole Foods will continue to discover and sell local products while selecting the best national products possible.

“This improves the customer experience and also ensures local supplier are represented in categories where they will be successful and positioned for growth,” Buchanan said.

With 460 Whole Foods stores, Amazon is estimated to be the fifth-largest grocery retailer in the country behind Walmart, Kroger, Costco and Albertsons, according to Cowen financial analysts.

“What worries the retail food industry is that Whole Foods will indiscriminately cut prices and companies like Walmart and Kroger will have to borrow the money or generate it from their own sales to cut prices,” O’Rourke said.

They’re not growing as fast and can’t borrow as much, he said.

Retailers will pressure suppliers such as tree fruit companies for lower prices but suppliers can only go so low given production costs, especially with organics, he said.

“I think retailers are very concerned. They are poised to compete at the retail level. Markets will settle where markets settle,” said Tom Riggan, general manager of Chelan Fresh Marketing in Chelan.

“The question is whether Whole Foods is willing to lower its overall margin. Any retailer will put pressure on suppliers to be as low as they can, but they have to keep supply and quality so it’s a fine balance,” Riggan said.

Bob Mast, president of Columbia Marketing International in Wenatchee, said Whole Foods has a “deep thinking group” that understands consumers.

“When Amazon speaks the world listens right now. They are a powerhouse. The day they made the purchase stocks of big retailers took a big dip,” Mast said.

Whole Foods is “aggressively” pricing fresh crop organic Gala apples at $1.49 per pound and other apples at $1.99 versus $2.49 to $2.79 every day pricing at this time last year, he said.

Whole Foods is “aggressively challenging” suppliers on price and appears to be passing the savings on to consumers, he said.

“We’re obviously concerned because on organics you have to have a premium over conventional because of cost of production,” Mast said.

Organic fruit costs more to grow and yields are lower, he said. Fruit is smaller and each drop in size equates to a 10 percent loss in volume of packed fruit, he said.

Organic fruit is also more perishable and doesn’t store as well as conventional fruit so its sales season is shorter, O’Rourke said.

Yet large Washington tree fruit companies — including Zirkle-Rainier, Domex Superfresh Growers and Stemilt Growers — are moving heavily into organics, O’Rourke said.

This fall’s Washington apple crop is forecast at 130.9 million, 40-pound boxes, and 13 million of that, close to 10 percent, is organic, Mast said. That’s up 20.8 percent from last year, he said.

Stemilt announced Sept. 21 that 30 percent of its apples this year will be organic and that it will continue the three-year process of converting more acreage from conventional to organic.

Despite higher costs and risks, companies are moving to organics because they and managed varieties are the two largest areas of growth with consumers, Mast said.

Kroger and Walmart are positioned well to compete and tree fruit companies are concerned a spread of lower pricing on organics could hurt their viability, he said.

O’Rourke said it may take two to five years to play out and that the situation may not be as threatening as other retailers perceive.

“I think Amazon is taking a huge gamble moving into the retail food business because it’s not familiar with it and it’s completely dispersed from the business model they run now,” O’Rourke said.

Amazon sells products online and ships them from large distribution centers where they have tight control of operations, he said. There are more operational variables with greater human factors in retail stores that companies like Kroger have had 100 years to master, he said.

Another danger for Amazon and Whole Foods is alienating its core consumers, who prefer to pay more for superior product, O’Rourke said.

But the key thing, he said, is the cost of organic production. Walmart tried to go heavily into making organics more affordable and it didn’t work, they lost supply, he said.

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The U.S. Forest Service and Idaho have forged 10 agreements for logging and restoration projects on federal land in what officials say could become a template for other Western states to create jobs and reduce the severity of wildfires.

Under the deals, Idaho foresters will administer timber sales on about 10,000 acres the federal agency has on its to-do list but can’t complete because the money for the work is instead going to fight wildfires.

So far this year, the cost of that fight has surpassed $2 billion — more than half the federal agency’s annual budget — during one of the worst fire seasons on record in the West.

The state work involves managing timber sales to a lumber company after determining how much is available and sometimes even marking what can and can’t be cut.

Money generated from the sales goes into accounts in the national forest where the timber was harvested, less expenses incurred by the Idaho Department of Lands for administering the sales.

The federal money is held in accounts to be used for additional work, which can include thinning projects to reduce wildfire threats and projects to improve habitat for fish and wildlife.

The federal-state partnership is possible under the Good Neighbor Authority passed by Congress more than a decade ago that initially involved Colorado and Utah. The 2014 Farm Bill expanded the measure to include other states.

Michigan, Wyoming, Oregon, Nevada and in particular Wisconsin have moved ahead with the partnership. But officials say Idaho — where 38 percent of the land is managed by the U.S. Forest Service — has made rapid progress.

“Idaho has really stepped up to fully embrace that ability for us to work with our state partners to get more work done,” said Intermountain Region Forester Nora Rasure, whose area includes 53,000 square miles of forest lands in Utah, Nevada and portions of Wyoming, Idaho and California.

Government, industry and environmentalists have developed a collaborative approach in Idaho following years of stalemated litigation over forests that were sometimes consumed by flames as decisions were delayed.

“They’re building agreements on being able to manage the forest in such a way that you can get timber off of them but you don’t compromise environmental values,” said John Freemuth, a Boise State University environmental policy professor and public lands expert. “It’s not a panacea, but it’s better than forest wars. That exhausted a lot of people.”

Watchdog groups say they’re concerned the policy might have more to do with avoiding environmental regulations than enhancing forest health. But for now, they are cautiously supportive.

The Idaho Department of Lands manages 2.4 million acres of state endowment land it received at statehood to primarily benefit public schools. About a million of those acres are forested.

Tom Schultz, director of the Idaho Department of Lands, said the work with the Forest Service helps Idaho by reducing the threat of giant wildfires spilling onto state and private forest land, and removing stands weakened by insects or disease to help prevent the spread of those problems to state and private lands.

Another major benefit is jobs. Shultz said an analysis suggests 12 to 15 direct and indirect jobs will be created for every million board feet of lumber harvested.

The watchdog groups wonder how well Idaho can mesh its forestry program, which is geared to maximize revenue over the long term, with the Forest Service’s multiple-use mandate that includes timber sales, recreation and wildlife habitat.

“We’d like to see them recognize that you can still have a profitable timber sale while protecting some of those sensitive resources,” said Jonathan Oppenheimer of the Idaho Conservation League.

The Idaho Department of Lands has received a three-year grant for $900,000 from the Forest Service for the program and Idaho lawmakers have authorized $250,000 from the state general fund. State officials say the goal is to have the program paying for itself with profitable timber sales in three to five years.

“We want to significantly increase the number of acres being treated,” Idaho State Forester David Groeschl told Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter and other elected officials during a Tuesday meeting of the Idaho Land Board, which previously approved entering into the agreements with the Forest Service.

The 10 projects in Idaho are in various stages, with two currently being logged and a lot of curiosity about how state-managed timber sales on federal land will turn out.

“There’s probably a natural tension between agencies, but I think that we’re making real progress in getting beyond some of that,” said Jane Darnell, a deputy regional forester with the Forest Service whose area includes northern Idaho. “We’ll get there.”

YAKIMA, Wash. — Even before this fall’s harvest, U.S. hop stocks are up substantially from a year ago, reflective of an oversupply that’s putting pressure on dealers and growers.

Stocks were up 15 percent at 98 million pounds on Sept. 1 versus 85 million pounds a year ago, according to a report released Sept. 20 by the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service.

It is the largest percentage increase in inventory of the four reports showing supply increases dating back to March 1, 2016. The new report shows dealers and growers with 64 million pounds of hops and brewers with 34 million pounds.

“It’s actually a pretty good-sized overage and it was expected. We knew craft (beer) was slowing while aroma variety hop acreage is still increasing,” said Pete Mahony, director of supply chain management and purchasing for John I. Haas, a major processor and grower in Yakima.

Previous overages, years ago, were high alpha commodity varieties that keep for years, he said. This year’s overage is of aroma varieties for craft beer. Aroma varieties need to be used in a year or two, he said.

This past summer, 47 Hops of Yakima, a hop broker, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to shield itself from creditors while developing a restructuring plan to pay more than $7.4 million in debts and remain operational.

Doug MacKinnon, company president, blamed the bankruptcy on craft brewers contracting for more hops than they needed.

“There definitely will be pressure on the entire supply chain, whether growers or dealers. And will there be other casualties? I don’t know,” Mahony said. “Larger dealers are pretty solid. We’ve lived through these markets for decades. Smaller ones may struggle. It’s all about proper management of inventories. Aroma varieties are expensive inventories.”

For years the proliferation of small, craft breweries fueled the demand for more aroma hop varieties. While still growing, the rate of craft brewery growth has slowed, resulting in some breweries renegotiating contracts that were based on expectations of higher growth, said Ann George, executive director of Hop Growers of America and the Washington Hop Commission in Moxee.

That returns the hops to dealer and grower inventories, she said.

George said the U.S. produces more than 80 hop varieties, and while there’s an excess supply of some, demand for others is still growing.

“The key is re-balancing by changing varieties in response to new contracts,” she said.

It takes a couple of years to bring new hops into full production and for the past five years the industry has been trying to catch up to brewer demand, she said.

“Now it appears hop acreage has exceeded current brewer demand, so it will be important to take the foot off the gas pedal until brewer demand catches up with hop acreage,” she said.

Another factor in the oversupply of hops, she has said, is big brewers are losing market share worldwide because of increased competition from other beverages. The top 10 breweries in the world decreased production by 11.4 million hectoliters — about 301.2 million gallons — from 2014 to 2015, she said.

While craft, export craft and import U.S. beer sales were all up in 2016, overall beer sales were flat, according to the Brewers Association in Boulder, Colo.

In June, NASS estimated Pacific Northwest hop acreage at 54,135, a 6 percent increase over the previous year.

“Hopefully, we won’t see increased acreage in 2018,” George said.

Prices of certain varieties have decreased due to plentiful supplies on the spot market, she said.

However, varieties still seeing increased demand likely will see stable pricing, she said.

BOISE — Taiwanese leaders’ Sept. 20 signing of a “letter of intent” to purchase 66 million bushels of U.S. wheat over the next two years was much more than a ceremonial pledge, Idaho wheat industry leaders said.

Taiwan’s annual purchases of U.S. wheat are extremely vital to the state’s wheat industry and about 200 Idaho farms are in business because of that, said Idaho Wheat Commission Executive Director Blaine Jacobson.

The Port of Portland handles about half of all U.S. wheat exports and about 10 percent of those exports are to Taiwan, Jacobson said.

About half of Idaho wheat is exported, most of it through Portland.

Given those numbers, Jacobson estimated that 5 percent, or 5 million bushels, of all Idaho wheat is sold to Taiwan.

“Your business is keeping about 200 farmers in Idaho in business. That’s a big deal,” he told Taiwanese officials during a ceremony at the Idaho Capitol, where Taiwanese and Idaho officials signed an agreement that says the Taiwan Flour Mills Association will buy 1.8 million metric tons of U.S. wheat in 2018 and 2019 combined.

That combined purchase will be worth an estimated $576 million and “a very good portion of that procurement will be from the wheat farmers of Idaho,” said TFMA Chairman Tony Chen.

Jacobson also estimated that Taiwan’s annual U.S. wheat purchases are keeping 800 farmers in the Pacific Northwest — Idaho, Oregon and Washington — in business.

A Taiwanese agricultural trade delegation visits the U.S. every two years to sign the agreement in several wheat-producing states.

Although the signings occur every two years, members of Idaho’s wheat industry weren’t just going through the motions when they traveled to Boise for the 2017 event, said IWC Vice Chairman Bill Flory, a North Idaho farmer.

Idaho’s farmers wanted to make sure the Taiwanese trade delegation understood how much the state’s wheat industry appreciates their relationship, Flory said.

He was one of four IWC board members and farmers who traveled from different parts of the state to attend the event in Gov. Butch Otter’s office.

“This is a big deal,” he said. “The growers of Idaho appreciate this beyond description.”

Chen said Taiwan has other options around the world to purchase wheat but prefers to buy it from the U.S. because of the high quality.

Flory pledged that Idaho would do its part in continuing to provide Taiwan a high-quality product.

“This commission and other Northwest commissions are serious about quality. That’s not going to change,” he said.

The 66 million bushels of U.S. wheat the TFMA has pledged to buy in 2018 and 2019 is 4 million bushels more than it agreed to buy during 2015.

Otter, a rancher and farmer, said it was important for the state’s wheat industry to continue to deliver on its commitment to provide the high-quality wheat Taiwan is looking for and in a timely manner.

“It’s been great to watch this relationship grow, (and) it’s because we kept our promise,” he said. “We delivered on everything we said we would. And, by the way, so has Taiwan.”

Like much of the high desert landscape across central and Eastern Oregon, the community of Ritter in rural Grant County is dealing with a scourge of unwanted Western juniper trees, crowding out native vegetation for wildlife and livestock.

In response, a collaborative group of landowners known as the Ritter Land Management Team recently purchased a small portable sawmill to turn the pesky plants into valuable lumber, while also providing much-needed jobs for the area.

The first juniper logs were milled at Ritter last week, and the team expects to sell the finished product to Sustainable Northwest Wood, a Portland lumberyard owned by the nonprofit Sustainable Northwest where juniper sales have jumped to 50 percent annually.

Patti Hudson, executive director of the Ritter Land Management Team, said harvesting juniper will not only help ranchers keep their land healthy and productive, but may revitalize the local timber industry in a new way.

“We eventually hope to have a number of people employed doing both the restoration work and the mill work,” Hudson said.

The operation is a prime example of what University of Oregon researchers are calling the “new natural resource economy” in Eastern Oregon, where entrepreneurs and small businesses are finding innovative ways to complement traditional farming and timber production.

A new study by the University of Oregon Community Service Center and School of Planning, Public Policy and Management details how natural resource industries are changing in Eastern Oregon, and how economic development groups — such as the Greater Eastern Oregon Development Corporation and Northeast Oregon Economic Development District — can support the sector moving forward.

The study lumps this subset of the economy into one of four general categories: agriculture, forest products, tourism and recreation. Businesses tend to be very small, and create non-traditional products such as biomass fuel and lumber from alternative sources like juniper.

Over the course of a year, researchers interviewed 42 businesses to gauge their needs and goals. The study area spanned 10 Eastern Oregon counties, including Umatilla, Morrow, Union, Wallowa, Gilliam, Wheeler, Grant, Baker, Harney and Malheur counties.

On Tuesday, members of the research team met with a group of about 20 people at the Eastern Oregon Regional Airport in Pendleton to discuss their findings. Susan Lurie, a research associate at the University of Oregon’s Institute for a Sustainable Environment, said the study was an opportunity to expand their understanding of what has happened to traditional Eastern Oregon industries, and define where the new natural resource economy is heading.

“It’s both defining it, and figuring out what these businesses need to thrive,” Lurie said.

Businesses raised a number of concerns in the study, ranging from complex government regulations to a lack of skilled and reliable workers. Participants at Tuesday’s meeting brainstormed ways to overcome those challenges locally, including pilot programs to engage students and compiling resources to navigate regulatory hurdles.

Susan Christensen, executive director of the Greater Eastern Oregon Development Corporation, said she sees collaboration as the key to success.

“To me, that means getting together partners that might not be the most obvious partners,” Christensen said. “The only way people learn about what the other person is doing is through communication and networking.”

The project in Ritter first took shape in 2013 when a group of about 30 landowners formed the Ritter Land Management Team, promoting sustainable development and environmental stewardship. Landowners soon identified the spread of Western juniper as one of the biggest threats to their farms and ranches.

Fully grown Western juniper can consume as much as 30 gallons of water a day, taking over rangeland and cutting into native forage. The trees are also susceptible to wildfire, exacerbating fire conditions on the range.

“It’s not just a range issue. It’s a forest health issue as well,” said Hudson with the Ritter Land Management Team. She noted that Western juniper can grow 30-40 feet tall in stands of ponderosa pine.

Last year, the team reached out to a consulting company based in California to determine if a juniper sawmill would be feasible. The final report showed that, within the total 105.650-acre study area, the group had enough juniper to feed the mill for 21 years.

The team was then able to tap into the Western Juniper Industry Fund, which was made available by the 2015 Legislature. The Oregon Community Foundation stepped up with matching funds, and a sawmill was finally delivered to Ritter about three weeks ago.

The mill is currently set up on the property of rancher Caleb Morris until they can find it a permanent home.

“We knew we had a lot of juniper, but we weren’t sure we had enough to keep the mill going,” Morris said. “But the study showed there’s at least a 20-year supply here, and more if we expand beyond the Ritter area.”

Hudson said juniper markets appear promising. Juniper wood is harder than ponderosa pine and highly resistant to rotting, which makes it ideal for landscaping.

Ryan Temple, president of Sustainable Northwest Wood, said they are looking forward to collaborating with the Ritter mill.

“Our customers will enjoy supporting the group’s rangeland restoration projects through the purchase of this lumber,” Temple said.

The biggest challenge, Hudson said, will be finding additional wood markets to ensure the mill can remain profitable.

“Everybody’s interested in juniper. A lot of people want it,” she said. “But we have to have a bigger market.”

However, she said the market is there and they are ready and willing to begin supplying logs.

“We’re optimistic we can make this work,” she said.

PORTLAND — Student researchers asked to find “clean tech” solutions to pressing problems came up with agricultural answers in this year’s Oregon Best Fest challenge.

The entries included NexGarden, a system of growing vegetables with a nutrient-rich mist circulating amid bare roots in a closed container while the plants grow out the top.

Presenters Hugh Neri and Skyler Pearson envision such systems producing food on building roofs or elsewhere. Neri, of Portland State University, said they could become “hyper-local” urban food systems serving stores, restaurants or homes within a mile or so.

Brett Stoddard, of Oregon State University, displayed the Hydrone, a soil moisture monitoring system. Sensors stuck in the ground take readings and transmit them by antenna to an overhead drone. Stoddard said the system can be built and deployed for $1 per sensor.

Four Portland State University engineering students formed an enterprise they call Aquarian Provisions, essentially a mobile hydroponics system for growing vegetables.

Students Greg Sakradse, Tyler Bray, Sarah Smith and Ryan Crist were driven by a particular problem: Rising ocean water flooding and salting crop land in the Marshall Islands. Sakradse said the team envisions their food production system mounted on barges to aid the Pacific islanders. For Best Fest, they put a working model on a small utility trailer and hauled it to the competition.

All were part of the Best Fest PSU Cleantech Challenge, in which students and faculty from Oregon universities and community colleges compete for $50,000 in development grants and prizes. In the initial round, students pitch their ideas to a panel, with winners receiving $2,500 to develop prototypes that are judged in the finals.

Oregon BEST, the hosting agency, connects startups and entrepreneurs with university scientists and state and federal funding sources. The annual Best Fest includes the clean technology competition and presentations from industry and academic experts.

In one panel discussion, “Eat, Drink and be Sustainable,” David Stone of OSU’s Food Innovation Center said there is a four-fold value increase when Oregon crops are processed into final products.

“Oregon is about ag in the middle, the small farms and companies,” he said. “The big deal for us is making the products we grow here into something value-added.”

Stone drew a laugh when he talked about consumer markets for Oregon products.

“Millennials will try anything,” he said. “Cricket powder or whatever it is, they’re going to try it. They all want protein, they’re looking at all sources. Oregon has a real stake in this game.”

The Food Innovation Center, OSU’s outpost in foodie Portland, helps entrepreneurs with product development, food safety issues and sensory evaluation.

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Oregon Gov. Kate Brown and Hispanic members of the Legislature vowed Wednesday to defend Latinos in the state, including those who entered the country illegally.

In a ceremony marking Hispanic Heritage Month in Oregon, Brown denounced U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ comments he made to law enforcement officials in Oregon. Sessions urged locales whose police don’t cooperate with federal immigration agents to reconsider their policies, and said federal grant money cannot be given to sanctuary cities.

“The comments that Attorney General Jeff Sessions made yesterday while in Portland do nothing to make America great,” Brown said. “Instead, they incite fear and chaos, and undermine Oregon’s workforce and our economy.”

Rep. Teresa Alonso Leon, the first immigrant to be elected to the Oregon Legislature, said the state’s Latino population has increased 72 percent since 2000 and the number of businesses owned by Latinos rose by 44 percent between 2007 and 2012, with Latinos in Oregon owning over 6,000 businesses.

“We are growing. We are powerful, and we are here to stay,” said Alonso Leon, adding: “It is important to build a better future for those who come after us.”

Alonso Leon, a Democrat who is from the predominantly Latino town of Woodburn, was brought to the U.S. illegally from Mexico as a child. Her family gained permanent residence status under a Reagan-era amnesty. She became a U.S. citizen in 2012.

Rep. Diego Hernandez, a Democrat representing Portland, told those gathered in Brown’s ceremonial office, including the consuls from Mexico and Guatemala, that there is “a lot of hate and xenophobia in our communities, especially here in Oregon.”

Hernandez said he has gone through a rough period. Hernandez was recently cleared of a rumor that he maintained a list of female lobbyists, ranking them by “attractiveness and certain physical attributes,” Willamette Week, a Portland newspaper, reported Tuesday. Hernandez has said the rumor was due to racism, prompted by his Latino heritage and because he advocates for immigrant rights.

He had requested the inquiry to verify the allegations and identify the source of the rumor. The office of the legislative counsel said in a letter that the investigation had shown the rumor was false, but that investigators were unable to identify the source.

Meanwhile, a group called Oregonians for Immigration Reform is seeking signatures of registered Oregon voters to place a measure onto the November 2018 statewide ballot that would seek to repeal a 30-year-old statute that made Oregon America’s first sanctuary state. The law prohibits law enforcement from detaining people who are in the U.S. illegally but have not broken other laws.

Oregonians for Immigration Reform said it needs 88,184 signatures.

“Illegal aliens can and do harm the American citizens to whom Oregon owes its foremost responsibility,” the group’s website said. “For this reason, enforcement of U.S. immigration law is central to the duties of Oregon’s police departments and sheriff’s offices.”

However the ACLU of Oregon says the law means immigrants can go to police, without fearing deportation, when they are a victim of a crime or witness one.

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Follow Andrew Selsky on Twitter at https://twitter.com/andrewselsky

SEATTLE (AP) — Washington’s Department of Ecology faces the possibility of losing millions of dollars in federal money after a judge Tuesday declined to dismiss a lawsuit brought by an Oregon-based environmental group.

The lawsuit, by Northwest Environmental Advocates, of Portland, is designed to force the state to do more to protect Puget Sound from pollution or risk losing more than $3.5 million per year in federal support.

The federal government is supposed to cut certain funding for states that don’t have an approved plan for protecting coastal waterways from pollution related to farming, logging and other activities. Cutting the funding — a punishment dictated by Congress — is supposed to pressure states to control the pollution.

According to the lawsuit, the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration haven’t approved Washington’s plan, but they keep giving the state money anyway. The state’s orcas, salmon and other species remain in peril.

“They keep talking about saving these species and protecting human health from pollution, but when push comes to shove they’re not doing anything,” said Nina Bell, the group’s executive director. “Our goal here is not to take money away from the Department of Ecology. It’s to use a tool Congress created to pressure them to do what they’re supposed to be doing, controlling the source of pollution.”

Such fixes include measures such as requiring farmers or loggers to leave enough vegetation on stream banks to keep eroded soil, pesticides or other pollutants from reaching the water, she said.

The federal government asked U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour in Seattle to dismiss the case, on the grounds that Northwest Environmental Advocates lacked standing to sue, among other grounds. But the judge ruled Tuesday that most of the group’s claims can go forward.

The law, he said, is clear. The agencies haven’t approved the state’s program, while awarding more than $83 million through last year.

“On this basis, the agencies have failed to meet their statutory obligation,” he wrote.

Mark McIntyre, an EPA spokesman, said the agency is reviewing the decision.

A spokeswoman for Washington’s Ecology Department, Jessie Payne, said the department is tracking the case and working to improve the state’s handling of such runoff — referred to as “nonpoint” pollution.

“We believe we have a good program, and have identified strategies for improving and strengthening our state’s nonpoint work - especially that associated with agriculture. EPA has been supportive of us moving forward.”

Northwest Environmental Advocates previously filed a similar lawsuit sued to block federal funding for Oregon. That eventually resulted in the state losing $1.2 million last year, and Oregon has made some improvements to its logging practices, Bell said.

Bell said Washington uses the money at issue to fund its pollution control program and to dole out grants for environmental work, such as paying for a farmer to put up a fence to keep cows out of a river. It may seem paradoxical for an environmental group to seek to deprive a state of such funding, but the state’s current approach is simply inadequate, she said.

“Obviously these projects, if they’re maintained, are good for the environment,” she said. “But if you put what they achieve against what needs to be done, it’s a drop in the bucket. We’ll give this guy some money, but everyone else keeps doing what they’re doing.”

LONG BEACH, Wash. — Cranberry growers, whose production has far outstripped demand, have started harvesting the 2017 crop, unsure of the percentage of their berries that will enter the market.

The USDA isn’t expected to decide whether to grant the industry’s petition for volume controls for several months. In the meantime, it’s farming as usual, said Malcolm McPhail, a grower on the Long Beach Peninsula.

“You’re still trying to produce as much as you,” he said.

The federal Cranberry Marketing Committee, made up of growers and handlers, asked the USDA in August to order withholding approximately 15 percent of this year’s crop and 25 percent in 2018 to at least prevent the surplus from growing. The surplus of cranberries exceeds one year’s demand.

The surplus has developed over several years, driven by abundant harvests in Wisconsin and the emergence of Canada as a major cranberry producer. The marketing committee petitioned the USDA for volume controls in 2014, but the USDA cut off consideration, complaining there had been too much chatter between U.S. growers and their Quebec counterparts about reducing the surplus. Since then, the marketing committee has reportedly squelched talk about Canada in meetings.

A USDA spokesman Tuesday said he couldn’t estimate when USDA will make a decision on the cranberry industry’s petition.

According to the proposal, cranberry farmers would deliver their crop as usual this fall, but handlers would be responsible for disposing or diverting to noncommercial uses, such as food banks, 15 percent of the crop, excluding some exemptions. Volume controls would not apply to organic cranberries or the first 12.5 million pounds delivered to a handler.

The handler would have to dispose of or properly divert the berries by Aug. 31, 2018.

In 2018, 25 percent of a grower’s historical production would be restricted.

“I’m very much in favor of withholding,” McPhail said. “You have to do something about the oversupply because it just gets bigger and bigger.”

The cranberry industry last used volume controls to reduce a surplus in 2001. The USDA authorized a 35 percent reduction in output after prices fell to 15 to 20 cents a pound.

Average prices rebounded to 58 cents a pound by 2008, but have fallen to about 30 cents a pound, according to the USDA. Prices vary widely depending on whether growers are independent or in the Ocean Spray cooperative. Growers also receive premiums for color, quality and harvesting earlier or later in the season.

The USDA has forecast the U.S. crop will be 905 million pounds, down 6 percent from 2016. But last year’s crop was a record 962 million pounds. Oregon and Washington are the fourth and fifth top cranberry-producing states, respectively.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Cleanups at some U.S. hazardous waste sites have stopped or slowed down because the Environmental Protection Agency does not manage its Superfund staff effectively to match its workload, an internal government watchdog said Tuesday.

Such work is at a standstill or moving slowly on at least four Superfund sites where “human exposure is not under control,” according to a report from the EPA’s inspector general. That means contamination at the sites is unsafe for humans and there is a reasonable expectation that people may be exposed to it, the report said.

The report comes as EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has said the cleanup up of more than 1,300 listed Superfund sites is a priority.

Though President Donald Trump’s proposed 2018 budget seeks to cut the Superfund program by 30 percent, Pruitt has insisted he can do more with less money through better management. He formed a committee to study the issue, adopting 42 recommendations. Pruitt has said he will give priority to sites that can be redeveloped or have nearby residents under threat from the spread of harmful chemicals.

Federal money for Superfund is already about half what it was in the 1990s. Though the federal government often goes to court to force those responsible for the pollution to pay, that sometimes fails, leaving taxpayers on the hook. The majority of cleanup money has been spent in just seven highly industrialized states, topped by New Jersey.

The inspector general review was conducted from February 2016 to July 2017, covering the last months of the Obama administration and the early months of Trump’s.

The report said EPA’s Region 10, which includes Idaho, Oregon and Washington, had stopped or slowed work at 49 Superfund sites because of a shortage of staff.

The report pointed to the languishing cleanup of the Lower Duwamish Waterway in Seattle. Eating some fish and shellfish from the river could expose humans to high levels of hazardous chemicals, and even though the state has posted warnings, some people don’t heed them, the report said.

More than half of EPA’s regions reported they could not start work or had to stop work on cleanup projects because of a lack of staff, according to the findings. At least some of those projects are under the Superfund program, which takes on sites that are generally among the most dangerous to humans or the environment.

The report did not list the sites affected, but it did cite another example, the Silver Bow-Butte Area Superfund site in Butte, Montana. A staff shortage has kept the EPA from starting some cleanup work there. The EPA said it does not have enough data yet to determine whether the site qualifies as one where “human exposure is not under control.”

The EPA has made only marginal changes in the way its Superfund workforce is distributed nationally in the past 30 years, the report said. It said EPA managers believe that frequently reshuffling the staff would be disruptive.

EPA did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday. In a response included with the inspector general’s report, the agency agreed to develop a plan to redistribute its Superfund workforce.

EPA also agreed to review how the Army and Navy assign priority to environmental cleanup projects at military sites and periodically shift employees to match the list. The inspector general suggested EPA could learn from them.

If you’re one of the 1.7 million Oregonians whose information was potentially compromised by the recent Equifax data breach, don’t expect to get a letter in the mail telling you about it.

That’s because under a 2007 state law, companies that experience electronic security breaches don’t have to personally inform victims if the cost of making such notifications would exceed $250,000 or if the number of people affected exceeds 350,000.

It’s part of a much larger bill that was known as the “Oregon Consumer Identity Theft Protection Act.”

In a state-mandated notification to the Oregon Department of Justice on Sept. 7, Equifax stated that 1,721,725 Oregonians were “potentially impacted” by the data breach, which occurred over a period of several months earlier this year.

That’s nearly half of the state’s population. Equifax said roughly 143 million U.S. consumers were affected overall.

The company, which collects information on consumer credit history, said its systems were “exploited” by hackers who were able to access names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses and in some cases driver’s license numbers.

The breach was the subject of a hearing at the Oregon Capitol on Tuesday.

Aaron Knott, the Legislative Director for the Oregon Department of Justice, told members of the Oregon House and Senate Judiciary committees that some of them were probably affected.  

“Look to the person to your right, look to the person to your left,” Knott said. “Probably at least half, if not more of you, have been impacted by this. This is an incredibly significant breach.”

Equifax isn’t completely off the hook when it comes to letting Oregonians know about the issue.  

The 2007 law requires companies that experience massive data breaches to post a notice on their website, and to notify “major statewide television and newspaper media.”

The law also requires companies to allow potential victims of a data breach to place a freeze on their credit history. According to the Oregon Department of Justice, Equifax is allowing Oregonians to do this for free until Nov. 21.

LEBANON, Ore. (AP) — Authorities say a small tornado damaged buildings at a dairy farm southeast of Salem in the area of Lacomb.

Lebanon Fire District officials say firefighters were called to Spencer’s Dairy Farm Tuesday afternoon.

Officials say crews found five buildings at the dairy were extensively damaged by wind.

Fire officials say two of the buildings were total losses and that a path of debris and damage was seen for nearly a mile.

Fire officials say none of the eight homes in the area were damaged.

Authorities say multiple power lines and tree branches were down in the immediate area but no injuries were reported.

The National Weather Service in Portland said on Twitter that a survey team assessed the scene and confirmed that a tornado rated EF0 with winds of 65-75 mph happened at 1:07 p.m.

KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. — Oregon’s Douglas County attempted to restrict hemp production under rules for growing marijuana before being warned the policy violated the state’s “right to farm” law.

Hemp is considered a crop under Oregon’s land use law, which means it can be grown outright in farm zones.

Medical and recreational marijuana, meanwhile, can be subject to reasonable “time, place and manner” regulations by local governments.

Before planting hemp, farmers must first obtain a permit from the Oregon Department of Agriculture.

As part of its hemp policy, Douglas County requested that ODA not approve hemp licenses unless county officials issued a “land use compatibility statement” to the growers.

The ODA refused because such regulation of hemp would violate Oregon’s “right to farm” law, which prohibits local ordinances restricting common farming practices as nuisance or trespass activities.

Douglas County and ODA have now agreed that hemp production isn’t subject to restrictions, though county officials can still ask to inspect a grower’s state hemp license, said Jim Johnson, ODA’s land use specialist, during a Sept. 19 meeting of the Oregon Board of Agriculture in Klamath Falls.

However, Johnson said other counties — including Jackson, Josephine and Clackamas — may be considering similar regulatory approaches to hemp as had Douglas County.

“All these counties have vocal rural residential populations that don’t like cannabis,” he said.

While hemp doesn’t contain enough of a psychoactive substance to cause similar mind-altering effects as marijuana, some residents nonetheless worry about strong odors and potential “criminal elements,” he said.

“It’s all the same concerns being expressed,” said Johnson.

While ODA objected to regulation of hemp growing, it has acknowledged Douglas County can restrict processing of the crop, similarly to other farm products.

Exactly what constitutes “processing” — as opposed to crop “preparation,” which is allowed outright in farm zones — will likely vary on a case-by-case basis, Johnson said.

Another concern is if county governments began charging fees to inspect hemp-growing licenses, he said.

“It’s something we’re going to keep an eye on,” Johnson said.

Other battles over land use in agriculture are also brewing, Johnson said.

Solar projects on high-value farmland are controversial, and two proposals approved by local officials in Jackson and Clackamas counties are being challenged before the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals, he said.

“We’re going to start to get some case law on that,” he said.

Oregon’s Land Conservation and Development Commission may also soon decide to review rules for solar facilities on farmland, he said.

Such efforts are likely to be opposed as unnecessary by the solar industry, Johnson said. “I anticipate this will be a real fun one.”

Another likely source of controversy is the proposed rezoning of about 800 acres in Columbia County from farm use to industrial use, he said.

The expansion of “Port Westward” is located close to the Columbia river but it also contains prime farmland with irrigation infrastructure and “phenomenal” drainage facilities, Johnson said.

“It’s got all the things highly productive agriculture requires,” he said.

One case that’s attracted a lot of attention probably won’t have much of an impact on Oregon agriculture overall, Johnson said.

In August, the Oregon Court of Appeals upheld an order requiring a Jackson County couple to pay more than $200,000 in damages to neighbors and to have their dogs devocalized, or “debarked.”

On its face, the ruling would seem to raise “right to farm” issues, but the dog owners did not established they were engaged in a commercial farm activity, Johnson said.

For that reason, the ruling isn’t likely to set a legal precedent for other farmers who rely on guard dogs, he said.

PORTLAND — Garry Stephenson, director of the Center for Small Farms and Community Food Systems at Oregon State University had some advice recently for the state’s organic producers.

Stephenson, keynote speaker at the annual Oregon Organic Coalition’s awards luncheon held in Portland, said organic producers need to be at the table when legislation affecting organic systems is debated. They also should be working directly with ag experts at OSU and should be involved in the upcoming search for a new dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences, he said. Dean Dan Arp announced he is retiring in 2018.

In an interview after his talk at the event, Stephenson said the continued market growth of organic products, and the need to support it, should be self-evident.

“I was there to advocate for more research money for organic farming,” Stephenson said. “I’m surprised I have to ask. We should be investing in it more deeply.”

Oregon and the West Coast are organic production hot spots. California leads the nation in organic production value, Washington is second and Oregon is fourth with $269 million in organic sales in 2016 — a $32 million jump in two years, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service.

University and industry funding for organic research projects “makes the engine run,” but boot-level research also takes place “on thousands and thousands of farms every day,” Stephenson said. “All that problem-solving that occurs there is the foundation for advancing these farming systems.”

Stephenson said farmers always look upon other farmers with respect, and the friction between conventional and organic production doesn’t happen at that level. Rather, it is farming systems and such issues as genetic engineering and herbicide drift that drive a wedge between producers.

“The battles we get into in ag are often about technology, not science,” Stephenson said.

Individuals and businesses were honored during the Oregon Organic Coalition’s annual awards luncheon. Recipients included operators on both sides of the urban-rural divide, such as a Portland brewpub and a livestock auction yard in Lebanon, a small Willamette Valley town.

Awards go to individuals or businesses that demonstrate “innovation in organic practices, service to the industry, expansion of organic business opportunities and overall achievement in the state’s organic industry,” according to a coalition news release.

Winners this year were:

Retailer: Hopworks Urban Brewery, Portland. Founded by Christian and Brandie Ettinger, the brewery uses locally sourced hops that are certified organic and certified Salmon Safe. It’s also a Certified B Corporation.

Livestock Farm: Lebanon Auction Yard, Lebanon. The facility dates to the late 1940s and was purchased by the Cowart family in 1987. It’s considered one of the most modern livestock facilities in Oregon, capable of processing a single animal or a herd. In 2016 it marketed 15,000 head of cattle plus sheep, goats and pigs. It was certified in 2015 as an organic livestock handler.

Organic Certifier: Steller Certification Services, Philomath. The company, founded in 2002, certifies 188 organic operations nationally. It also provides organic certification services to biodynamic farmers and processors, who have an additional set of standards.

Scientist: Ramon Seidler, a former professor of microbiology at Oregon State University. He’s also a retired senior research scientist and GMO bio-safety team leader with the federal Environmental Protection Agency, and prepared the EPA’s first bio-safety plan for evaluating genetically engineered microbes and plants.

Processor: Oregon’s Wild Harvest, Redmond. The business uses innovative composting methods and “regenerative” farming to sequester carbon, saves its own seeds from products it grows and is non-GMO, organic and biodynamic certified. Ten percent of its land is set aside as pollinator habitat.

Wholesaler: Bridges Organic Produce, Portland. The distribution company works with mid-size growers in particular, linking them with consumers and pursuing a business model that allows all stakeholders to make informed decisions and wise investments, according to the company website. It partners with organizations such as Fair Trade USA and the Sustainable Food Trade Association “to promote environmental responsibility, sustainable communities and the organic produce trade.”

Crop Farm: Groundwork Organics, Junction City. Founded in 2000, the farm sells organic fruit, vegetables and flowers at seven farmers’ markets, its own roadside stand, to 450 CSA customers and to restaurants, natural food stores and wholesalers. In 2016, Groundwork donated 60,000 pounds of fresh produce to Food for Lane County.

With cooler temperatures and rain hitting the region this week, some firefighters are headed home Monday. The Chetco Bar Fire in Southwest Oregon is 53 percent contained as of Monday morning, while the Eagle Creek Fire in the Columbia River Gorge is 32 percent contained. 

“We still have over 7,500 firefighters and support personnel working in our region,” said Carol Connolly, a public information officer with the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center in Portland. “But the Eagle Creek and the Chetco Bar numbers are down just slightly.” 

Connolly says despite the rainy weather, crews are expected to be working on both fires for weeks. The Northwest remains the nation’s top firefighting priority.

The rain forces firefighters to think about other hazards. 

“With the rain coming in it’s going to dislodge boulders, it will make the ground not as stable, we could see some mudslides, trees going, rocks falling,” Connolly said. 

Firefighters are working to create drainage and erosion controls in burned areas to reduce the risk of landslides. That’s in addition to continued work to control the fires.

State officials warn travelers to be extra aware when traveling through susceptible landslide areas. 

The current area of concern includes Government Camp, Detroit, Santiam Pass, Corbett, Rooster Rock, Multnomah Falls, Cascade Locks, Hood River, North Bonneville, Stevenson, Carson, and Underwood.

The Dunning family will break from tradition upon introducing their estate-grown Pinot gris later this year — the wine will debut in cans rather than bottles.

The idea is to target the “active wine drinker” who prefer not to lug around a heavy 750-milliliter glass bottle on hikes and other outdoor adventures, said Kyle Dunning, the family’s patriarch.

“There are places you can’t take a bottle where you can take a can,” Dunning said.

Kyle and his wife, Holly, planted the first grape vines on their property near Corvallis, Ore., in 1990, back when their two sons, Parker and Brayden, were still youngsters.

Since then, the family has mostly harvested and sold grapes to winemakers, but they’ve recently taken steps to become more vertically integrated.

Last year, their two grown sons launched a mobile bottling and canning service under the “Knotty Brothers” brand, under which the family’s wine will also be sold.

About 350 cases of the wine cans were fermented by winemaker Joe Dobbes from grapes that were harvested from the family’s vineyard last year.

The Dunnings have a ready-made clientele for the product among the wineries, breweries and cideries across Eastern Oregon and Idaho that contract with Knotty Brothers for bottling and canning services.

Cans offer convenient portion control, as each holds the equivalent of two wine glasses, said Holly. With a 750-milliliter bottle, consumers must either commit to drinking the whole thing or risk degrading the quality of leftover wine by exposing it to oxygen.

For breweries, the cans provide an opportune serving container, so they don’t have to invest in glasses, said Parker. “They don’t need to do anything to sell our wine.”

Many sports arenas and parks don’t allow glass bottles but can be entered with cans, which are also simple to recycle, said Robert Zarate, a canning consulant hired by the Dunnings.

“It’s growing for sure. It’s getting big,” he said.

Between 2012 and 2016, sales of canned wine surged from less than $2 million to more than $14 million in the U.S., according to the Nielsen research company.

That’s still only about 1 percent of the total wine market, but “portability” is seen as a big plus, with 73 percent of consumers saying easy-to-carry containers are important to them, according to Nielsen.

Canning wine involves a somewhat different process than canning beer, since the federal government requires a slightly larger can size — the equivalent of half a bottle, or roughly 12.5 fluid ounces.

The cans are also lined with a polymer coating to prevent wine from eating away at the aluminum container, since it’s more acidic than beer.

Also, each can must be dosed with nitrogen gas to replace oxygen, which spoils wine over time.

Wine cans are less readily available than beer cans, and moderately more expensive, said Kyle Dunning. “Manufacturing of wine cans has not caught up to demand.”