Four water projects in Oregon have won nearly $6.3 million from state regulators, though only $5.1 million is available on hand to spend.

The $1.2 million shortfall is expected to be covered by the sale of $15 million in lottery bonds in 2019, which was approved by Oregon lawmakers earlier this year.

Three of the projects approved by the Oregon Water Resources Commission on Dec. 7 involve irrigation piping, while one aims to build a fish ladder to allow stream access past a hydroelectric dam.

Because the projects will take time to plan and build — and developers have access to matching funds from other sources — officials with the Oregon Water Resources Department felt confident in approving all four.

Members of the commission, which oversees the agency, debated the wisdom of allocating more money for projects than was readily available in Oregon’s water supply development fund, which lawmakers authorized in 2013.

Commissioner Carol Whipple, a rancher near Elkton, Ore., initially said she’d feel more comfortable approving the top-ranked three projects rather than all four.

However, the manager of the Middle Fork Irrigation District, Craig DeHart, said he’d be willing to wait until 2019 to seek reimbursement for the district’s pipeline project, which was the lowest-ranked of the four recommended by OWRD officials.

Fully allocating available money also sends a message to lawmakers about the strong demand for water supply funding, said April Snell, executive director of the Oregon Water Resources Congress.

In the end, the seven commissioners voted unanimously to approve all four projects:

• North Fork Sprague conservation piping: Trout Unlimited, a conservation group, was approved to receive $2.7 million for the project, which will cost $3.9 million in full to replace an irrigation canal with a pipe.

Currently, the ditch loses 35 percent of the water it conveys to seepage. About 90 percent of the water saved by the project will be dedicated to instream flows in the North Fork Sprague River within the Klamath Basin.

More than 3,000 acres will be served by the pipeline, which create enough water pressure to allow farmers to convert to sprinklers from flood irrigation. However, those changes aren’t included in the project’s cost.

• Powder Valley Connector: The Powder Valley Water Control District was approved to receive about $1 million of the total $1.4 million needed to replace an irrigation ditch with a pipe, conserving about 1,350 acre-feet of water that will instead remain in the Wolf Creek Reservoir. The system serves 17 farms that cultivate roughly 6,800 acres in Northeast Oregon.

While the project is expected to reap ecological benefits by storing more water in the reservoir, it was opposed by the WaterWatch of Oregon environmental group because the district isn’t formally allocating the water to instream flows. However, the Oregon Water Resources Department said this factor was taken into account in the review process and doesn’t disqualify the project from funding.

• Opal Springs fish passage: The Deschutes Valley Water District was awarded $1.5 million toward the $10.7 million cost of building a fish ladder to open up 100 miles of habitat for salmon and steelhead upstream of the Opal Springs hydroelectric facility in Central Oregon.

The environmental benefits of the fish ladder would qualify the facility for certification by the Low Impact Hydro Institute, allowing for the sale of renewable energy credits.

• Coe Branch pipeline: The Middle Fork Irrigation District will obtain more than $900,000 to build a pipeline from a stream to a sediment settling pond, which will cost $1.7 million in total. The district, which primarily serves orchards in the Hood River Valley, draws water from the Coe Branch, a tributary of the Middle Fork Hood River that’s high in sediment.

By allowing the sediment to settle in the pond, it won’t plug up highly efficient drip irrigation systems. Farmers who already have such systems wouldn’t have to “backflush” them out as often — saving water — and other growers would be more likely to invest in drip irrigation.

At this point, six farms with 300 acres have committed to making irrigation efficiency improvements as part of the project. The district expects the project will eventually spur similar investments by other growers in the full 6,300 acres served by the system.

Tuesdays

The Union County, Ore., landowner who recently discovered two of his llamas killed in a forested pasture near Five Points Creek is confident wolves are to blame for their deaths.

Howard Cantrell, a fifth-generation retired rancher, believes the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife erred when investigators stopped short of ruling either incident a confirmed wolf kill, based on evidence including trail camera photos of wolves in the area.

“It’s very frustrating,” Cantrell said. “People in northeast Oregon, they’re getting tired of all this stuff getting shoved under the table.”

Cantrell, whose property is about 12 miles west of La Grande, began rescuing llamas in 2006. He now owns 13 llamas, along with three horses, six goats and 25 chickens.

The first dead llama, named Sabra, was found dead Nov. 13 on a slope above Cantrell’s house. ODFW arrived the next day to investigate, reporting that most of the carcass was consumed except for the neck, head and shoulder. There was no sign of a chase or struggle, and without further evidence the death was ruled a “possible/unknown” attack.

After that, Cantrell said he began checking on his llamas every day. A second llama, Chrisy, was found dead Nov. 24 approximately 150 yards from the house, and ODFW again came the next day. This time, investigators found much more evidence of a predator attack including bite marks and at least two sets of wolf tracks in the mud on a road about 20 yards away, which appeared to be a day or two old.

Wolves were also spotted in several photos taken from a trail camera mounted 300 yards from where the carcass was found. But according to ODFW, the wounds were not consistent with extensive wolf-caused injuries and the death was ruled a “probable” wolf attack.

“There was sufficient evidence to confirm predation on the llama by a large predator, but not enough evidence to confirm which predator,” the investigation report states.

Michelle Dennehy, ODFW spokeswoman, said the injuries were “somewhat atypical” from what is usually seen in wolf depredation. She said the agency has investigated more than 300 potential wolf-livestock conflicts, and uses an evidence-based process to arrive at a conclusion.

The “probable” ruling still means Cantrell is eligible for compensation, Dennehy added. But Cantrell said he just wants to ensure ODFW is being truthful to the public.

“I’m not going to let this lie,” he said. “I want them to tell it like it is.”

On Friday, the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission met in Salem to begin its revision of the state’s Wolf Conservation and Management Plan. Representatives of livestock, hunting and conservation groups were on hand, though public testimony won’t be taken on the plan until the commission meets again Jan. 19.

In the meantime, Cantrell said he has moved his llamas from the pasture and into a 10-acre pen closer to the house. Wolf attacks on llamas are not unheard of in Oregon — ODFW did confirm members of the Shamrock pack killed a llama last year in Wallowa County.

LANGLOIS — The Bandon/Port Orford KOA Journey Campground has earned the prestigious 2018 KOA President’s Award from Kampgrounds of America, the world’s largest system of family friendly, open-to-the-public campgrounds. The award was presented Nov. 17 at KOA’s Annual International Convention…

March 9, 1922 – Nov. 29, 2017

SUNDAY, DEC. 10

The Oregon Water Resources Department will host a pair of meetings in Umatilla County to discuss new water metering requirements for farmers in the Walla Walla sub-basin.

Informational meetings are scheduled for Monday, Dec. 11 from 5-8 p.m. at the Milton-Freewater Community Building and Tuesday, Dec. 12 from 9 a.m. to noon at Weston Memorial Hall.

On May 11, the Oregon Water Resources Commission designated the 300,000-acre Walla Walla sub-basin as a “serious water management problem area,” meaning OWRD will no longer approve new agricultural wells within the boundary.

The designation also requires farmers and ranchers with permitted basalt wells to install flow meters and report water usage to regulators by no later than Jan. 1, 2019. Cost sharing opportunities are available through OWRD and the Natural Resource Conservation Service, which will be discussed at both meetings.

Justin Iverson, groundwater section manager for the department, said the designation was made to address declining groundwater supplies in the sub-basin, which includes Milton-Freewater and Weston.

“We’re pumping more than the aquifer is recharging,” Iverson said.

Iverson emphasized that exempt groundwater uses are still allowed in the area, including domestic use and stock water wells.

For more information, contact Iverson at 503-986-0933 or local watermaster Greg Silbernagel at 541-278-5456.

BURLEY, Idaho – While potato production nationwide in 2017 fell less than 1 percent, things were very different in the Pacific Northwest.

Combined production in Idaho, Washington and Oregon this year fell 6.3 percent on 21,000 fewer planted acres, according to the December crop production report by USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service.

In 2016, PNW production accounted for 60.9 percent of national production. That dropped to 57.5 percent in 2017, Bruce Huffaker, a potato market analyst, told growers attending the University of Idaho’s annual Idaho Ag Outlook.

The decline is significant as the region produces 78 percent of all potatoes processed in the U.S. and 61 percent of fresh russets produced in the U.S. While there’s no hard data, Huffaker would guess russets make up about 85 percent of the PNW crop.

“I think we’re coming up to a situation with russet potatoes where we’re going to run into crunch time on supply,” he said.

PNW stocks on Dec. 1 are estimated to be down 9 percent year over year. Processing usage June through November was up slightly and fresh usage was down only 0.8 percent – meaning the crunch is ahead.

“We did not cut back on usage during the first six months; all that (shortfall) has to come in the next six months,” he said

Processors and fresh buyers are going to be competing with each other for supply. Fryers have locked in most of what they need, so the competition will be between fresh buyers and dehydrators, he said.

He’s expecting PNW stocks to be 31.4 million on May 31, down 16.7 percent year over year. There could be as much as a 22 percent decline in fresh shipments December through June but with processing flat, he’s expecting fresh buyers to pull some supply out of processing channels.

But there’s no way to make up for all of the shortfall on table potatoes. Fresh shipments aren’t going to be anywhere near what Idaho shipped last year, he said.

Markets are already reacting to the tight supply, boosting russet prices more than 50 percent compared with a year ago. Prices in Idaho for Russet Burbanks for the fresh market are averaging $18.57 a hundredweight, and Russet Norkotahs are running $17.34. Prices to growers are close to $9 a hundredweight, compared with about $4 this time last year, he said.

Production is down nearly 8 million hundredweight and 5.7 percent in Idaho, 6.6 million hundredweight and 6.3 percent in Washington and 2.2 million hundredweight and 9.4 percent in Oregon, NASS reported.

After the fifth year of prices below cost of production in 2016, growers — especially table potato growers — were faced with tough planting decisions last spring. In Idaho, there was also a lot of uncertainty with a large processing operation in eastern Idaho changing hands, Huffaker said.

While prices on competing crops were weak, the situation decreased planted acreage. In addition, yields weren’t quite as good as they have been, he said.

Growers planted 15,000 fewer acres in Idaho, 5,000 fewer acres in Washington and 1,000 fewer acres in Oregon. Yields per acre were down 5 hundredweight in Idaho, 25 hundredweight in Washington and 40 hundredweight in Oregon, NASS reported.

SALEM — Environmental groups are alarmed by a proposal that would authorize lethal control of wolves in Eastern Oregon after only two livestock kills under “extreme circumstances.”

The regular threshold would be three livestock kills in 12 months, but the current draft of the Oregon Wolf Conservation and Management Plan would reduce it to two kills if non-lethal methods proved ineffective or couldn’t be implemented.

“It moves too quickly to lethal control,” said Noah Greenwald, endangered species director for the Center of Biological Diversity, during a Dec. 8 hearing in Salem, Ore.

Wolves in Eastern Oregon have been delisted under the federal Endangered Species Act, but they’re still regulated by the state government.

Representatives of livestock and hunting groups also found plenty they didn’t like about the plan, which the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife is updating.

For example, the plan sets a minimum population threshold of 300 wolves through 2022 but it doesn’t ensure that any particular zone doesn’t become overpopulated with the predators, said Todd Nash, wolf committee chairman of the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association.

“Nowhere does it address a maximum number,” Nash said.

Ranchers would like to see the agency create management units with caps on wolf numbers, but these suggestions have been largely disregarded, he said.

Currently, Oregon is estimated to have more than 100 wolves.

Based on trends seen in Idaho and Montana, however, that number can be expected to climb steeply in the coming years, for which the current draft plan fails to account, said Jim Akenson, conservation director for the Oregon Hunters Association.

“I don’t know why in the world we would not look to our neighbors to see what will happen here,” Akenson said.

The Oregon Farm Bureau would like to see the plan provide a greater allowance for lethal wolf control when they’re near homes or if they threaten livestock, pets and people, said Kevin Johnson, the organization’s representative.

The agency should also increase its focus on collaring wolves as their population increases, so their movements and potential livestock interactions would continue to be monitored, he said.

Ranchers feel the plan is overly prescriptive in its wolf management policies despite expectations of a surging population, Johnson said. “They don’t feel like their positions are being heard.”

Environmental groups, on the other hand, claim the plan is overly reliant on lethal wolf control, which they say is often ineffective.

“Lethal control has often not stopped depredations,” said Nick Cady, legal director for Cascadia Wildlands.

The loss of a top pack member can cause the remaining wolves to become increasingly desperate and more likely to attack domesticated livestock, said Greenwald of the Center for Biological Diversity.

“There’s increasing science that it creates more problems than it fixes,” he said.

The current draft plan doesn’t benefit anyone “whether they’re wearing cowboy hats or driving Priuses,” said Rob Klavins, Northeast Oregon field coordinator for Oregon Wild.

“This irresponsible and unscientific plan should be shelved,” he said.

Scientists who the agency found credible enough to cite in the plan have objected to how their research was applied, Klavins said. “Those scientists deserve a direct response.”

PENDLETON, Ore. — Driving from Portland to Pendleton on Wednesday, American Farm Bureau President Zippy Duvall said he was amazed by the change in scenery and even more surprised by the productivity of agriculture among the sand and sagebrush of Eastern Oregon.

“I thought a desert was a desert, and it wouldn’t grow anything even if it had water,” said Duvall, a third-generation farmer from Georgia. “But I’ve seen some beautiful crops right out in the middle of nowhere.”

Duvall arrived Thursday morning at the Pendleton Convention Center to address the Oregon Farm Bureau annual meeting, where he discussed a host of national agricultural issues including farm labor, international trade and what he described as over-regulation by the federal government.

The trip also satisfied Duvall’s goal of visiting all 50 states in his first term as president of the American Farm Bureau, which advocates for policies on behalf of farmers nationwide.

“This is a beautiful state, and you should be proud of it,” Duvall told the Oregon delegates.

The number one issue facing American agriculture, Duvall said, is labor. When asked later about legislation that would replace H-2A visas with a new H-2C program — which passed the House Judiciary Committee in late October — Duvall said there are still some problems to work out with the proposal, but added, “We want a workable program that not only deals with seasonal workers but year-round workers to bring some stability to our workforce.”

Duvall went on to talk about “burdensome” environmental regulations, though he was pleased with the Trump administration’s decision to revoke the contentious Waters of the U.S. rule. Landowners worried that WOTUS would give the Environmental Protection Agency and Army Corps of Engineers regulatory authority over virtually any waters, creating uncertainty for farmers and ranchers.

While the rule has been scrapped, Duvall said farmers need to keep up the pressure on lawmakers to ensure new regulations are clear and workable.

“We all know the other side that opposes us on our effort to rewrite the rule, they’re going to be ready to challenge the next rule that comes forward,” he said.

Unlike the previous administration, Duvall said the current leadership is much more receptive to the Farm Bureau’s concerns and interests. He praised fellow Georgian Sonny Perdue, President Trump’s secretary of agriculture, as someone who relies on sound science and data to make decisions.

“I’ve got high expectations for him doing the right thing,” Duvall said.

Along with Perdue, Duvall said he has seen plenty of promise from EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt and Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke. Together, Duvall said the three men are committed to putting federal land, timber and grazing back to work for rural America.

Duvall specifically mentioned Zinke’s recent proposal to shrink a number of national monuments, including the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument in Southern Oregon.

“The bottom line is we want to go back to using common sense,” Duvall said. “As they create those monuments, it becomes a huge burden on our farmers and ranchers who have been there for generations, using those federal lands to graze.”

On the trade front, Duvall said renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, has made for some concerns, though he remains confident the right people are in place to minimize the risk to agriculture.

“(President Trump) swings a big stick,” Duvall said. “He’s a businessman. We probably really know his techniques. We’re just scared of who’s going to call his bluff.”

Finally, Duvall said the Farm Bureau will be shifting its focus next year to the 2018 Farm Bill in Congress. The top priority will be to maintain federal subsidies for crop insurance.

The Farm Bill is not a safety net, Duvall insisted, but rather a food security act. “Hungry countries and hungry armies are not very strong,” he went on to explain.

Barry Bushue, Oregon Farm Bureau president, said the group was pleased to have Duvall on hand to talk about national agricultural interests. Closer to home, Bushue said they anticipate a fight heading into the 2018 Legislature against the proposed cap-and-invest energy policy, which he said could dramatically increase fuel and energy costs for Oregon farmers.

“When you’re hauling product and you’re running equipment, those costs add up,” Bushue said.

The annual Oregon Farm Bureau meeting is a chance for delegates from each county farm bureau to get together and set their policies for the coming year. The meeting began Tuesday and wrapped up Thursday evening with a reception and banquet.

Duvall said local engagement is critical moving forward, as state and county voices eventually echo their way back to Washington, D.C.

“We have people willing to listen now,” he said.

A dairy farm associated with a well-known Oregon cheese company is being sold off following repeated failures to follow wastewater regulations.

Volbeda Farms near Salem, Ore., violated the terms of its “confined animal feeding operation” permit numerous times over several years, prompting the Oregon Department of Agriculture to revoke the permit.

Violations included discharging waste into nearby waterways and not complying with the dairy’s animal waste plan, said Wym Matthews, manager of the agency’s CAFO program.

“This was an operational failure. It was not a facility failure, it was the failure of the operator to manage it correctly,” Matthews said.

Apart from the permit revocation, Volbeda Farms was issued a $90,000 civil penalty. ODA also obtained a temporary restraining order requiring the farm to remove its animals and clean the facility.

The agency permits about 260 dairy CAFOs in Oregon, and most of them comply with wastewater regulations, said Matthews. “This was an anomaly for our program. This is not something we see all the time.”

Capital Press was unable to reach Rod Volbeda, the farm’s owner, for comment.

The dairy farm is being bought by Brian Turley, whose family operates a grass seed and custom farming business, with the closing expected to take place in January.

Turley said he’s familiar with the dairy industry as his family raised replacement heifers in the 1990s and currently provides seed drilling and hauling services for dairy farms.

Once the dairy farm receives a new CAFO permit, Turley expects to initially keep 180 to 225 Jersey cows at the facility, roughly one-third the number it once housed at its peak.

Turley became aware of the opportunity to buy the facility after hauling away manure from the farm.

The Willamette Valley Cheese Co. will continue operating next to the site and Turley is negotiating about supplying the company with milk.

“We’d like to work out a deal with them,” he said.

Manure management problems aren’t a concern for the new owners, as they already apply dairy manure to multiple fields in the region, said Brianna Turley, Brian’s wife.

“We have a lot more acreage than they had to apply it,” she said, noting that the Turleys will also collect and dispose of wastewater from the cheese facility.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Ten strike teams from all over the state are on their way to help California firefighters battle several massive blazes north of Los Angeles.

The Oregon Fire Marshal said Wednesday it is also sending heavy equipment to help.

The largest and most destructive of the fires, an 85-square-mile wildfire in Ventura County northwest of Los Angeles, had nearly reached the Pacific on Tuesday night after starting 30 miles inland a day earlier.

Strikes teams from Oregon will come from Lane, Multnomah, Washington, Linn, Marion, Clackamas, Klamath and Yamhill counties.

A combined team from Polk, Linn, and Benton counties and a team from the Rogue Valley area are also en route.

State fire officials say five more strike teams will be dispatched later Wednesday.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Earlier this year, President Donald Trump ordered U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to conduct an unprecedented review of 27 monuments established by former presidents over more than two decades on lands and waters revered for their natural beauty and historical significance.

Zinke said Tuesday he’s confident the president will follow his recommendations, which include calls to reduce two other monuments in the U.S. West and to modify rules at six others. He also has said he’s recommending the creation of three new monuments.

Zinke released his full report Tuesday, which was previously leaked. Here’s a breakdown of Zinke’s recommendations:

Trump will shrink Bears Ears National Monument by about 85 percent to 315 square miles, divided into two separate areas. He plans to downsize the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument by nearly half to 1,569 square miles, divided into three areas.

Tribal and conservation groups are suing to block those cuts.

Zinke also advised trimming Gold Butte in Nevada and Cascade Siskiyou in Oregon, but the president hasn’t announced final decision on those monuments.

Zinke said Tuesday the cuts at Gold Butte would mainly come around a water district that shouldn’t have been included in the boundaries. He said he recommends making clear that hunting and fishing are allowed and asking Congress to approve a co-management plan to allows Native American tribes to help run the monument. Gold Butte protects nearly 300,000 acres of desert landscapes featuring rock art, sandstone towers and wildlife habitat for the threatened Mojave Desert tortoise and other species.

Zinke declined to specify how many acres he wants to remove from monument status, stressing that the administration is working with Nevada’s governor and congressional delegation to find a solution.

Similarly, Zinke declined specifics on Cascade-Siskiyou, which protects about 113,000 acres in an area where three mountain ranges converge. Changes will center on recent expansion of the site, which was first created by Clinton in 2000. Much of the additional land is on private property, while some is on land previously designated for timber production, Zinke said.

Zinke proposed more access for people and industry and other changes at six monuments:

• Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks and Rio Grande Del Norte, New Mexico: Modifications will be made to protect the long-standing culture of grazing and ensure hunters and fishers don’t lose access, Zinke said. At Organ Mountains, the U.S. Border Patrol will do a border-safety assessment to give Zinke a list of possible improvements to ensure they can do their job. He will also request congressional authority to give tribes co-management.

• Katahdin Woods and Waters, Maine: Zinke said he wants to allow more trees to be cut in some parts by a National Park Service company, and not commercial logging, to make the forest healthy by thinning and landscape improvement. He also wants to ensure that “traditional uses” like snowmobiling and hunting are taken into account in a management plan.

• Northeast Canyons and Seamounts, Maine: Allow commercial fishing in the first marine monument in the Atlantic Ocean.

• Pacific Remote Islands, Pacific Ocean: Allow commercial fishing within the marine monument that covers nearly 87,000 square miles near Hawaii.

• Rose Atoll, Pacific Ocean: Allow commercial fishing in the 13,500-square-mile marine monument around the Rose Atoll in American Samoa, a U.S territory.

During his travels to visit some of the monuments under review, Zinke said these six monuments would remain untouched: Upper Missouri River Breaks in Montana; Sand to Snow in California; Grand Canyon-Parashant in Arizona; Craters of the Moon in Idaho; Hanford Reach in Washington; and Canyons of the Ancients in Colorado.

Zinke has been silent on the other 11 monuments under review, from Giant Sequoia in California to the Marianas Trench southwest of Guam, but they are presumed to remain intact.

Zinke also recommended Trump create three monuments, including one in his home state of Montana:

• Badger-Two Medicine in an area within the Lewis and Clark National Forest in northwest Montana. Zinke said he sees a great opportunity to help generate some income for the locals and foster more cultural understanding by creating a monument in a sacred place for the Blackfeet Nation. He said he would request congressional authority to give the tribe co-management.

• Medgar Evers’ home in Jackson, Mississippi, where the first field secretary for the NAACP was assassinated on June 12, 1963. Evers organized boycotts over segregation during the civil rights movement.

• Camp Nelson near Nicholasville, Kentucky, which was established in 1863 as a 700-bed Union Army hospital, supply depot and recruiting center for African-American troops in the state.

JACKSON, Wyo. (AP) — Great wine starts with great grapes, the kind that can’t survive an 8-month-long winter.

Jackson Hole Winery co-owner and winemaker Anthony Schroth knows that struggle all too well.

“We attempted to grow them here,” he said. “It was terrible.”

In 2010, when the small local winery was getting off the ground, Schroth planted a variety of grapes known to withstand cold temperatures — bred and cultivated by the University of Minnesota — on the winery property in South Park.

The 20 vines of Marquette grapes had a shorter ripening period and had their own rootstock, meaning they didn’t need to be grafted to grow back the same grapes again.

“Every spring we would get new growth, about 6 to 8 inches,” he said. “And then we would get a hard freeze or frost and it would kill them.

They would always come back, but after five years of minimal growth and yield Schroth gave up on growing his own grapes.

“The vines made it through the wintertime, no problem,” he said. “The summertime, ironically, was too cold.”

A nice temperate climate is ideal for growing grapes and wine is usually made close by.

Schroth decided to mix up that model, using the altitude and cold temperatures of Wyoming’s mountainous climate to his advantage.

He uses grapes grown in the perfect climate of Sonoma and Napa counties in California and makes the wine in Wyoming.

“I started noticing there were a lot of benefits to fermenting at altitude,” he said.

At first he didn’t know what was going on, just that something was different than when he produced wine in California.

Then it hit him, the 6,237-foot elevation of Jackson was affecting the fermentation, just like it does with baking, boiling water and even a sea-level tourist’s lungs.

“Ideally this is one of the best places to make wine: high altitude,” he said. “Not necessarily Jackson Hole, but an area that has conditions where it’s freezing six months of the year and over 6,000 feet.”

The grapes are introduced to a low oxygen environment that’s known for low temperatures. From where the grapes are picked in Sonoma to the winery in Jackson, there is a 6,000-foot elevation difference and could be a 50-degree temperature swing. The United States Department of Agriculture says that above 2,500 feet, the atmosphere becomes much drier and the air has less oxygen and atmospheric pressure.

Schroth said the primary fermentation of wine peaks around 85 degrees and slows down below 50 degrees, which happens naturally at the Jackson winery.

“In some environments your fermentations may hit 100 degrees naturally,” he said, referencing California wineries. “In those environments you’re trying to keep the fermentations cooler so you don’t burn off aromatics.”

Schroth has the opposite problem; he said they hope it gets up to 85 degrees. The winemaking room has heating components and the barrel aging room has a heated floor.

“During the fermentation the fruit never really gets hot, the yeast never really take off,” he said. “We get these nice slow fermentations.”

Once the wine is put into barrels for aging the cold climate works its magic. Below 50 degrees, there is no activity in the barrels, which is what the winery wants, Schroth said. You want it to age, not ferment.

“We can keep that barrel room at 40 degrees and if we want to cold stabilize that barrel room down to 35 degrees we do that just by opening the door,” he said. “We’re just utilizing Mother Nature.”

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Schroth grew up in Jackson, but moved to northern California to study at Sonoma State University. He loved learning about wine and decided he wanted to open his own winery.

“I thought, ‘I could do this in Wyoming,’” he said.

He put together a business plan for Jackson Hole Winery, but people had their doubts. Most Californians thought it was a bad idea and that he couldn’t make it work. Even his father thought it was a bad idea (at first).

“They just kind of chuckled and said ‘yeah, I don’t think so,’” he said of when he told his parents.

So Schroth played it safe and started a label in California, Premonition. He started managing a vineyard in California and produced his first commercial vintage in 2009.

His parents were impressed and gave into his idea of a Jackson Hole winery. The business came to life in 2010 and the first two wines, a chardonnay and the Rendezvous Red Cabernet Frac and Syrah blend.

“We started out really small and it was really experimental,” he said.

Seven years later the winery has a lineup of six wines including the first two wines and Summit, a dry Riesling; Catch and Release, a Zinfandel; Outlaw, a Dry Creek Cabernet Sauvignon; and a Pinot Noir. There have also been a group of other specialty wines produced including a Rose, a Vioghiert and a newly made Port.

Schroth said he was always waiting for a shoe to drop and something to ruin it all. The weather would be too harsh, the environment unfriendly or the wines not cooperate

“And it never came,” he said.

-

A large amount of breweries and distilleries have made small Wyoming towns their home. Jackson Hole Winery is one of two winemakers in the state, although Schroth said he heard something about an operation starting in the middle of the state.

“Before prohibition, this is how it was,” he said. “Every town had its own winery, brewery or distillery. Then prohibition came in and wiped a lot of them out.”

Schroth said it wasn’t easy for those small businesses to start back up after the alcohol ban. Even now, it’s a hard business to break in to. It’s capital and time intensive, especially when it comes to wine.

The very first year of production is made up of buying (or growing) grapes and all the equipment involved in fermentation and aging. The second year you need to buy more grapes, more equipment and more barrels. It isn’t until the third year that you see if your work paid off. And you need to buy a lot of bottles.

“You get that one shot at a first impression,” he said.

Luckily, for the local winery, their work paid off.

“It’s a tough business to get started, but you’re seeing a lot of these communities get behind their local brewer, winemaker or distiller,” he said.

THURSDAY, DEC. 7

Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke has formally recommended revising the boundaries of Oregon’s Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument without specifying which areas may be excluded.

The monument’s expansion in early 2017 was opposed by timber companies and ranchers who rely on the public land and fear the designation will restrict logging and grazing.

The Trump administration is reconsidering numerous national monument designations made over the past twenty years, including the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, which faces several lawsuits against the expansion.

In his formal recommendation, made public on Dec. 5, Zinke said the monument should be modified to “address impacts on private lands and to address issues concerning the designation and reservation of O&C Lands as part of the monument and the impacts on commercial timber production.”

O&C Lands were set aside by Congress for sustained timber production, which is a key point in the litigation over the expansion.

Although he didn’t say how much the monument would be scaled back, the announcement was cheered by the American Forest Resource Council, one of the organizations suing the federal government.

“We thank Secretary Zinke and Interior staff for taking a closer look at this expansion and we urge President Trump to take action to follow the law,” said Travis Joseph, the group’s president, in a press release.

The organization has struck a deal with the Interior Department to postpone litigation until Jan. 15, giving the Trump administration more than a month to take action on the recommendation.

Zinke’s announcement was denounced by the Sierra Club, which claimed in a press release that the Trump administration is “effectively robbing American people of our country’s natural and cherished wonders.”

BANDON — City of Bandon electric utility customers will soon see a slight increase in their bills.

BANDON - City of Bandon electric utility customers will soon see a slight increase in their bills.

SALEM, Ore. — Grass seed farmers are heading into 2018 on a strong footing, as world supply is largely balanced with demand, according to a global seed marketing executive.

“We don’t have to worry about prices dropping dramatically this year or next year,” said Claus Ikjaer, president and CEO of DLF Pickseed.

The market outlook is positive despite the strong U.S. dollar, which generally hinders exports of U.S. products, Ikjaer said. For the same amount of money, foreign buyers can now purchase about 80 pounds of U.S. seed compared to 100 pounds in 2011.

Traditionally, strong grass seed prices would spur more production, but that largely didn’t happen when other commodity prices were healthy and those crops were competing for acreage, he said.

“Production is really not going up as it used to do,” Ikjaer said Dec. 5 during the Oregon Seed Growers League annual conference.

Now that commodity crop prices are weak, grass seed growers can be expected to respond by expanding acreage, he said. However, in Oregon, farmers have increasingly dedicated land to hazelnuts.

It’s estimated that Oregon’s grass seed acreage dropped from 525,000 acres in 2006 to about 375,000 acres in 2010, when prices were suffering due to the housing downturn and financial crisis, he said.

Grass seed production has since recovered to about 400,000 acres in 2017 and will likely remain flat next year, Ikjaer said.

In the U.S., three years of lower grass seed yields have depleted stocks of certain species, leaving dealers struggling to meet demand, he said. “That’s starting to create some issues for us.”

High prices are increasingly driving companies to use seed coatings, Ikjaer said.

Such coatings add weight to seed but they can also improve germination by retaining water and making nutrients readily available.

Annual ryegrass is the most commonly exported species, representing nearly 46 percent of the export market, and China is the top destination for grass seed.

“China is by far the most important market for us at the moment,” Ikjaer said.

While Europe is the second major destination for grass seed, the continent is largely self-sufficient and it’s been importing less seed in recent years, he said.

For example, exports of U.S. annual ryegrass to Europe have dropped more than a third since the 2013-2014 marketing year.

Poland’s production of the species has compensated for the decline, since U.S. prices are too high to fill the demand, Ikjaer said.

Ikjaer urged the U.S. industry to more accurately monitor its grass seed acreage, which would help better project available supplies.

In Denmark and Poland, for example, farmers are required to report acreage to the government, but in the U.S., surveys are voluntary and therefore not as dependable, he said.

“We don’t have reliable data,” Ikjaer said.

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