PENDLETON, Ore. — Spirits were high at the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association spring quarterly meeting in Pendleton at the beginning of June with hope of rising beef prices and improved trade agreements.

The meeting, held May 31-June 2 at the Wild Horse Casino, had twice the attendance as the Cattlemen’s spring quarterly meeting in Sunriver, said Jerome Rosa, Cattlemen’s executive director, with about 150 in attendance.

“Everyone was really happy with the discussions and the positive tone,” Rosa said.

Colin Woodall, vice president of government affairs for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association spoke Thursday night about favorable developments on the federal level.

Rosa said, “There is great optimism going on in D.C. for the cattle industry.”

Much of that optimism centered on trade negotiations the Trump administration began with China in May that could benefit the U.S. cattle industry by opening up a market closed since 2003.

Another rallying point for the cattlemen was the culmination of lengthy conversations surrounding a proposal to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for not completing its environmental assessment to remove endangered species protection of the gray wolf in the lower 48 states. Before the meeting ended a vote was taken to proceed with litigation, Rosa said.

This winter and spring’s precipitation was a boon to Oregon cattlemen, another reason Rosa credited for the meeting’s upbeat tone.

“We’ve had a really good water year, the grass is green and there is a lot of feed out there.”

Hosting the meeting on the east side of the Cascades gave the Cattlemen an opportunity to introduce Alexis Taylor, the recently appointed director of Oregon Department of Agriculture, to the divergent terrain and climate of Eastern Oregon. After she spoke to the Cattlemen Wednesday night, Curtis Martin, a Baker County rancher and chair of the cattlemen’s water resources committee chairman, took Taylor and two of her staff members on a tour of eastern Oregon that included visiting irrigation reservoirs, a solar powered trough system and pressurized pipelines that run without electricity.

Martin said, “We wanted to show her all the complexities of how we manage water on the east side of the state.”

Martin said he showed Taylor and her staff examples of rotational grazing and how cattlemen are taking a holistic approach to sage steppe ecosystem management — such as enhancing the wetter areas of the desert where vegetation stays green longer than the rest of the range to improve sage grouse habitat.

“We wanted her to come and see how different this side of Oregon is, walk the ground and see the natural resource we manage to make ourselves economically viable and sustainable,” Martin said.

One of the wildlife topics discussed at the cattlemen’s meeting that affecting producers around the state is crops and haystack damage caused by deer and elk. Bill Moore lives in southern Baker County and represents the cattlemen in wildlife stakeholder meetings.

Moore said, “We’ve had collaborative meetings with Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and Oregon Hunters Association and we are just a long ways apart.”

He said the hunters want more hunting access on private land while the ranchers endure loss to cattle feed and forage due to burgeoning deer and elk management objective numbers. Moore said when the agriculture community turns to Fish and Wildlife for help they get fencing for haystacks, but not assistance for crops that are growing.

“It’s pretty frustrating,” Moore said. “They want us to provide habitat and feed and they want more and more numbers, but they don’t want to help with any of the problems.”

Moore said he believes some of the conflict stems from the imbalance of management between public and private land.

“One of the things we talked about was getting some active management on the national forest to help hold the elk,” Moore said. “Elk don’t like old, wolfy grass anymore than a cow, they like fresh tender re-growth.”

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 14

BOARDMAN, Ore. — The owner of a controversial new mega-dairy in Morrow County says his farming practices go above and beyond what’s required to protect the environment, and efforts to halt his operation would cause “tragic” injuries to the cows already on site.

Greg te Velde, a California dairyman with more than 40 years of experience, recently opened Lost Valley Farm on a portion of the former Boardman Tree Farm following an extensive permitting process.

Lost Valley Farm was approved in March by the Oregon Department of Agriculture and Department of Environmental Quality, which jointly administer the state’s confined animal feeding operation, or CAFO, program. Officials described the permit as the most restrictive of any CAFO to date, ensuring the dairy would properly handle waste from up to 30,000 cows.

Opponents, however, are urging regulators to change their minds. A coalition of groups has filed a petition for reconsideration, arguing the dairy does not go far enough to protect water quality. The petition also asks for a stay of Lost Valley’s CAFO permit.

Members of the coalition include the Animal Legal Defense Fund, Center for Biological Diversity, Center for Food Safety, Columbia Riverkeeper, Food & Water Watch, Friends of Family Farmers, Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility, Humane Oregon and Oregon Rural Action.

In response, te Velde said the permit “reflects the toughest and most stringent environmental safety standards applicable to a dairy in Oregon.” Lost Valley is required to install 11 groundwater monitoring wells, which is seven more than usual, and will be subject to a minimum of three annual inspections, versus one every 10 months.

Beyond state and federal regulations, te Velde said the dairy feeds its cows “a unique blend of food that includes high-quality starch and additives” to lower emissions, and has built a state-of-the-art lagoon system that rotates water and reduces ammonia emissions.

“I believe that a well-run dairy not only provides for contented cows and produces quality milk, but also proactively implements environmental emissions,” te Velde wrote in a declaration filed June 4 with ODA and DEQ.

For the past 15 years, te Velde has operated his dairy in Oregon on land leased from nearby Threemile Canyon Farms. He decided to relocate in order to expand and increase the amount of milk he sells to Tillamook Cheese, which runs a cheese-making plant at the Port of Morrow.

Lost Valley currently has 17,500 animals, including 8,500 milking cows. The dairy plans to build up to its full 30,000 herd over the next three years. It took several weeks and cost more than $200,000 to get the cows moved, te Velde said, and the idea of staying his permit is causing him to worry.

For starters, te Velde said dairy cows need to be milked twice a day or they will be in pain. Since he does not have anywhere else to go with the animals, te Velde said a stay means he would have to find another dairy to take on the cows, or else they would need to be sold for slaughter.

“In addition, even if any milking cows could be sold, the stress of transferring them to yet another new environment would take its toll, and I would anticipate a significant mortality rate,” te Velde said.

Te Velde said he has invested roughly $100 million into his Oregon dairy business, and leveraged his dairy operations in California to support Lost Valley. If the permit is pulled, he said he would likely face foreclosure.

“The ripple effects of a stay would be significant and devastating,” he said.

Along with his own declaration, te Velde included letters from the Morrow County Board of Commissioners and United Farm Workers, both of which expressed support for the dairy. At full buildout, the dairy is expected to employ somewhere between 125 and 150 people.

Wym Matthews, CAFO program manager for the Department of Agriculture, said the agencies are reviewing the matter and should have a decision about the coalition’s request to stay the permit by the end of the month.

The largest trade mission to visit Oregon — a 25-member team from China — will stop in Portland June 21-22 to check out specialty food, snack products and wine, craft beer and hard cider.

The Oregon Department of Agriculture is hosting the group, which will stop on their way back from the annual Summer Fancy Food Show in New York City. It is the Chinese group’s only other stop in the U.S., and the ag department encourages specialty food and beverage producers to make themselves available. Vendors would typically set up a booth, offer samples and provide information. Interpreters are available.

The Chinese buyers are especially interested in healthy snacks such as dried fruit and nuts, said Theresa Yoshioka, an ODA trade development manager.

Healthy snacks are served to guests and are “very, very popular in China,” Yoshioka said.

The country’s expanding middle class provides a market opportunity for Oregon producers, and the state’s reputation for high-quality food and drink products is an advantage, she said.

Chinese consumers in some regions are developing a taste for fine wine, and Yoshioka said she’s been to craft beer pubs in Beijing. With both parents in a household increasingly working and having less time to prepare meals, Chinese families also have a need for convenience foods, Yoshioka said.

The trade mission team is made up of people with the authority to buy products, she said. Oregon producers interested in selling to China may have to scale up production, however, and that’s a jump for some, she said.

Oregon has innovative snack producers, for example, who are making premium products, but are still quite small, Yoshioka said.

“You need to be big enough to have an established co-packer (an existing manufacturing company that may produce items under private label) or have your own facility,” she said. “You need to be at that level to ship to China.”

But she encouraged even small producers to visit with trade mission groups to learn what they’re looking for. “It’s a good market testing opportunity and a chance to get in front of a buyer,” Yoshioka said.

Vendors interested in the Portland event should contact Yelena Nowak, also a department trade official, at ynowak@oda.state.or.us.

Another Chinese trade mission, this time an all-woman team involved in the seafood industry, will visit Astoria and Newport on the Oregon Coast June 26-30.

Buyers from South Korea and Mexico will visit in July; Taiwan teams arrive in August and September; and two more Chinese trade groups will visit in August and October, according to ODA.

China is Oregon agriculture’s fourth largest export market, behind Japan, Canada and South Korea. A minimum of $240 million worth of Oregon ag products is shipped to China annually. The figure is incomplete because it counts only products shipped directly from Oregon ports. In some cases, Oregon goods are shipped from ports in Washington or California, Yoshioka said.

NYSSA, Ore. (AP) — Third-generation farmer Shay Myers thought his onion-packing sheds would be OK through last winter, even as other Malheur County buildings were collapsing under the weight of epic, heavy snow.

The Owyhee Produce buildings were relatively new construction. Myers believed they’d hold even as 3 feet and then nearly 4 feet of snow piled on top of the metal roofs.

He was wrong, Oregon Public Broadcasting reports.

Owyhee Produce is a family-owned farm operation that specializes in packing onions and asparagus and one of several onion-packing facilities in the small farming town of Nyssa, Oregon.

Nyssa (population 3,000) is in the heart of eastern Oregon onion country, where the locally grown crop is cleaned and packed after spending the winter in tall, airy sheds.

On Jan. 18, the snow came down thick and fast. Shortly before noon, one of Myers’ employees checked the sheds to make sure none were bowing under the weight. At the time, everything looked fine. But soon, an employee came running into Myers’ office, interrupting a family board meeting.

“Shed two collapsed!” she shouted.

Myers and his family rushed outside. A huge portion of the shed was reduced to a pile of wood and metal debris. Thousands of onions spilled out into the snow. That was the first of four buildings Owyhee Produce would lose to the snow.

Reconstruction: Idaho Or Oregon?

This spring, the quiet agricultural community of Nyssa showed few lingering signs of the traumatic winter that damaged or destroyed at least 60 buildings here.

A pile of rubble still needed to be cleared off Main Street — the remains of a local dance studio. A few blocks away, several houses still had plastic tarps stretched over gaping holes in roofs. On the edge of town, a tall metal farm silo had buckled under the snow; it looked like an empty soda can that’s been squeezed at the middle.

But the community was moving forward. Fresh onion starts, the king crop in this part of eastern Oregon, spread lush and green over miles and miles of fields that surround the town.

“This is a resilient, close-knit community,” said Jim Maret, Nyssa’s city manager. “We came together tremendously during the snow storm, and we’re moving forward.”

Owyhee Produce was one of five major onion packing sheds that saw huge losses from winter damage. Myers is one of the lucky ones — his insurance coverage included snow damage, and the cost to rebuild will be covered.

FEMA Rejects Oregon’s Request To Assist Rural Counties Slammed By Winter Storms

But the destruction forced the question of where to rebuild. Ultimately, Myers decided to make the move from Oregon to Idaho. At least one other packing shed and a number of other eastern Oregon businesses are also moving across the border. Their reasons vary business by business, but many cite the increasing cost of doing business in Oregon.

“When somebody has to invest half a million to a million in business, they start going through the details of ‘Well, will this cost my business in the long run?’” said Kit Kamo, executive director of the Snake River Economic Development Alliance.

Myers decided to rebuild his sheds just across the border into Idaho, just a three-minute drive from his Oregon location. The 1-mile move will ultimately add up to huge savings for his business.

“We’re competing with packing facilities and operators that are in Idaho that have a federal minimum wage,” Myers said.

Even though many agricultural businesses in Idaho pay more than the federal minimum of $7.25 an hour, it’s typically still less than Oregon’s current $9.25 minimum wage, Myers said. Last year, the Oregon Legislature voted to raise that wage to $12.50 in five years for rural communities such as Malheur County.

“When you add that much more to the labor costs, you’re unable to compete with either your neighbor states or with the imports coming from other countries,” Myers said.

Myers said that most of his workers have been with Owyhee Produce for years, and many earn even more than Oregon’s minimum wage. But when he hires someone new, they often start at the bottom. His current workforce will come with him across the border into Idaho.

Small Businesses Wary Of Oregon’s Increased Minimum Wage

“I have no plan on changing their wages,” he said. “I don’t think it’s fair for me to bring an employee across and cut their pay.”

But as the legal minimum wage continues to increase in Oregon over the next few years, he won’t be required to give employee raises at his new location in Idaho. He also won’t be subject to Oregon’s new paid sick-leave law, which mandates employers to provide certain workers with paid days off when they’re ill.

Another bill on the horizon this session in Oregon — one that would require employers to give workers advance notice of scheduling changes — also made Myers nervous. Advocates for the measure say it gives workers a reprieve from the stressful uncertainty of sudden scheduling changes, where they might have to scramble for child care.

In the farming business, sometimes employers have to make unforeseen adjustments to the work tempo.

“Equipment breaks,” Myers said. “We get rain or cold temperatures. There are events like that that are out of our control as an employer.”

Advocates for increasing the minimum wage, the sick leave law and the proposed employee scheduling law say that these protections are vital for low-income workers in a state where housing, day care and other costs are on the rise. Myers said he gets that. But in farming, profit margins are tight.

“An onion goes to the grocery store, we’ll make somewhere between 5 and 8 percent range on that,” he said. “All the margin is on the retail level.”

Kamo noted that the Oregon-versus-Idaho business realities are about more than labor costs. Utilities often cost more in Oregon because of state standards for renewable energy and drinking water.

“There are a lot of little small differences that we’re running across,” she said. “Maybe it would be the cost of permitting in one state versus the other.”

Permits in Oregon tend to cost more, and the process can take longer.

Land Owners, Oregon Want Very Different Things Within Bend’s Borders

But Kamo also pointed to several benefits of doing business in Oregon. As challenging as the urban growth boundary rule can be for small towns trying to attract new industry, the law does provide safeguards for Oregon’s farmland. And the state offers a number of economic incentives for businesses.

Snake River Produce, another onion shed in Nyssa, is hoping to take advantage of some of those incentives. They’re staying in Oregon after six of their buildings collapsed.

“We have applied to be within an enterprise zone, which will allow us to take advantage of not having to pay property taxes for a few years,” said Tiffany Cruickshank, the company’s transportation manager. “We’re also applying for refundable loans through Business Oregon.”

Maret, Nyssa’s city manager, says he appreciates how Oregon regulates the health and safety of its citizens.

“I think it’s a safer state,” he said. “I think we have a better quality of life over here.”

In rural Oregon, the relocation of a business with 20 or 30 jobs is a huge blow to small communities. Kit Kamo equates the loss a 30-worker agricultural processing facility in Nyssa to the closure of a manufacturing plant with 1,000 jobs in Portland.

“It puts a big hole in the tax structure and the tax base of that county,” Kamo said.

Relocation Or Automation

Myers warned lawmakers about the potential effect of the minimum wage increase in 2016, before the bill passed the Oregon Legislature.

“There were really two options,” he said. “We could relocate or we could automate.”

And automation means fewer employees and more robots. That’s what his business did with another arm of Owyhee Produce, an asparagus processing plant in Fruitland, Idaho. When Myers upgraded equipment at the plant last year, the work of robots cut his workforce in half.

Now, workers sort asparagus along a processing line that runs the length of the building. Robot cameras take hundreds of photos of each stalk of asparagus so the machine can sort by size and quality. The sorted asparagus is bunched together and wrapped in a rubber band by a robot claw. All of that work used to be done by human workers.

Myers looks back on his family’s decision to situate this plant in Idaho positively. Investments in new equipment can take years to pay off. And he doesn’t see Idaho making rule changes that could change the outlook for his bottom line.

Snake River Produce, the Nyssa facility that lost six buildings, is adding automation to its production process as it rebuilds, although the company has no plans to reduce its workforce. For their company, it made more sense to stay in Oregon.

“Our facilities are in Oregon, and the majority of our ownership is based in Oregon,” Cruickshank said. “With the short time frame it wasn’t very feasible for us to go looking for land in Idaho. We felt like we needed to move forward quickly with the upcoming onion season upon us.”

A New Start In Idaho

A bill before the Oregon Legislature would address some of the challenges for eastern Oregon’s border towns. House Bill 2012, cosponsored by House Speaker Tina Kotek, D-Portland, and Rep. Cliff Bentz, R-Ontario, would use state lottery dollars to fund economic development in the region for communities within 20 miles of the Idaho border.

“Basically it would give us opportunities to encourage businesses to stay in Oregon and expand,” Kamo said.

But even if HB 2012 passes, it will come too late to help Shay Myers.

At the construction site of the future Owyhee Produce sheds, workers recently poured the cement foundations for the new packing sheds. The site sits on a wide, dusty hill overlooking the Snake River and downtown Nyssa, just footsteps away.

For Myers, the decision to leave his hometown — and the community where his grandfather started the business — was not easy. His family has argued back and forth about the move for years.

“We wanted to support our community, we wanted to be in our hometown,” Myers said.

He felt conflicted about the idea of moving to Idaho until he spoke in front of the Legislature about the minimum wage increase.

“I testified and really pled and poured my heart out about what the net result was going to be, and for the most part was ignored,” Myers said.

Had it not been for the roof collapses, Owyhee Produce might still have made the move from Nyssa to Idaho, but maybe not for another four or five years.

“We had already been headed down that path,” Myers said. “This just very quickly made the decision for us.”

HERMISTON, Ore. — In all his years ranching, Terry Anderson had never received a phone call like the one he got Jan. 15, 2016.

Anderson, who runs Anderson Land & Livestock with his wife, Debby, was tipped off by one of their employees that something was seriously wrong at the winter pasture along Feedville Road near Stanfield. Not only had one of the cows been killed, but body parts were strewn all over the scene.

“The kid was just in complete shock,” Anderson remembers. “It’s more than emotional. Those cattle are family to us.”

What happened was two men — Anthony Haigh of Stanfield and T.J. Kestler of Hermiston — sneaked onto the property the previous night, shot the heifer dead and attempted to butcher the animal right there in the field. Though the cow was skinned out completely, Anderson said most of the meat was left to waste. He suspects the rest of the herd may have spooked Haigh and Kestler to flee before they could finish.

There were 160 cow-calf pairs in the pasture, which were part of a synchronized breeding program, Anderson said. His ranch, which is based outside of Pilot Rock, is a “seedstock” operation, meaning they breed and sell bulls for other producers to build their herds.

Based on the evidence, Anderson said it was clear to him that Haigh and Kestler knew exactly what they were doing.

“I don’t think I’ll ever get over it,” Anderson said, shaking his head. “I just can’t imagine someone going out there and doing that.”

Haigh and Kestler, then 21 and 20 years old, were arrested just four days later. They each pleaded guilty to first-degree theft earlier this year. Haigh was sentenced to six months in prison, while Kestler received 24 months probation and 100 hours of community service. Both men were also ordered to pay $3,000 in restitution.

The convictions might not have come without the help of another Hermiston man who decided to alert the authorities.

Grant Woods, 21, was in the room when Haigh and Kestler arrived to visit a mutual friend the same night they killed the cow. The two spoke freely about the crime as they cleaned their gun, according to Woods. The motive was apparently to sell the meat for beer money.

After talking on the phone with his fiancé, Woods decided to call the police.

“It was just completely wrong,” Woods said. “This was about doing the right thing.”

Though Woods did not know at the time, both Anderson and the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association were offering reward money for information leading to a conviction in the case. On June 9, Anderson finally met Woods face-to-face for the first time and presented him with a check for $5,000.

Another $1,000 was provided by the cattlemen’s association. Jerome Rosa, OCA executive director, said it is the first time in his three years on the job that they have actually paid the reward for cattle theft.

“OCA is more than willing to be a deterrent out there,” Rosa said.

Anderson said he and his wife appreciate what Woods did for them, and hope the incident will encourage more people to look out for each other in the community.

“Our society has created a mindset that if this type of activity doesn’t affect you directly, there is no need to get involved,” Anderson said. “Thankfully, there are individuals that are still guided by doing the right thing.”

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. (AP) — Massive waterfalls in Yosemite National Park and rivers raging in mountains throughout the western United States are thundering with greater force than they have for years — and proving deadly as warm weather melts the deepest mountain snowpack in recent memory.

Record snowfall on towering Western peaks this winter virtually eliminated California’s five-year drought and it is now melting rapidly.

But it has contributed to at least 14 river deaths and prompted officials to close sections of rivers popular with swimmers, rafters and fishing enthusiasts.

In Utah and Wyoming, some rivers gorged by heavy winter snowfall have overflown their banks and rivers in Utah are expected to remain dangerously swollen with icy mountain runoff for several more weeks.

The sheer beauty of the rivers is their draw — and represents a big danger to people who decide to risk selfies near the water or beat the heat by swimming or rafting with little awareness of the risks posed by the raging water.

This year’s velocity and force of the Merced River that runs through Yosemite Valley is similar to a runaway freight train, said Moose Mutlow of the Yosemite Swift Water Rescue Team.

“You step out in front of it, it’s going to take you,” he said. “You’re not going to stop that, and that’s what people need to get their heads around.”

Heavy storms this winter covered the central Sierra Nevada mountains with snow that remains at twice its normal level for this time of year.

While officials celebrated an end to drought in much of California, the snowmelt is so dangerous that park rangers fear its impact on the crowded park that drew a record five million people last year, when four people drowned.

So far this year, one 50-year-old man is believed to have drowned at Yosemite after falling into the Merced River from a winding trail. His body has not been found.

One of Yosemite’s deadliest days was in 2011, when three young church group visitors were swept to their deaths over the 317-foot (97-meter) Vernal Fall.

Elsewhere in California, there have been at least 11 drownings since the snowpack started melting in May.

At the San Joaquin River near Fresno, 18-year-old Neng Thao drowned last month swimming in the river during a picnic with his family days before he was set to graduate as the valedictorian of his high school.

And six people have died in the rugged Tule River south of Yosemite. Some drowned, but others suffered injuries suggesting their bodies were beaten to death by the river water slamming them against the riverbed.

“The force of that water pounds people into rocks and sends them over waterfalls,” said Eric LaPrice, a U.S. Forest Service district ranger at the Giant Sequoia National Monument in central California.

At the Kern River in central California, officials last month updated a sign warning that 280 people have died in it since 1968. The sign is already outdated, with four more drownings since then.

And in northern Utah, a 4-year-old girl playing at the side of the Provo River fell from a boulder into the water last month. Her mother and a man who was nearby jumped in to try to save the girl. All three drowned, illustrating how quickly one tragedy can multiply.

“As little as six inches of water can actually sweep an adult away at the rate of speed that the water is traveling,” said Chris Crowley, emergency manager for the county where Park City is located.

In Reno, Nevada, rising temperatures that have accelerated snowpack melting prompted officials to erect a sign next to the Truckee River warning people to stay away from it.

In Idaho, snowpack at double normal levels have prompted warnings from officials that densely populated areas near the Boise River could flood.

And in Wyoming, officials have placed sandbags and flood barriers to protect homes and public infrastructure from rivers and streams swollen with the snowmelt.

On his first trip to Yosemite, cartoonist Andy Runton, 42, steered clear of the turbulent Merced River.

He took a selfie at a safe distance from a grassy meadow with Yosemite Falls far behind him. Within a few hours of entering the park, Runton said the sweeping vistas and raging waterfalls had left a lifelong impression.

“You can see the power of the water,” Runton said. “You can feel it. Nature doesn’t slow down.”

———

Golden reported from Salt Lake City, Utah. Associated Press writers Scott Sonner in Reno, Nevada, and Bob Moen in Cheyenne, Wyoming, contributed to this report.

With roughly 60 percent of its population living on 1 percent of its land base, Lane County typifies the disconnect between Oregon’s urban and rural areas.

However, residents of the Eugene-Springfield metropolitan area can hardly be blamed for misconceptions they may have about agriculture and forestry, said farmer Marie Bowers.

“We can’t expect people to learn if we’re not willing to share,” she said.

Bowers and others hope to demystify the county’s natural resources industry through Lane Families for Farms and Forests, a nonprofit aimed at creating allies across the urban-rural divide.

The group organizes events where farmers and foresters can share a meal with members of community organizations and other Lane County residents, with the objective of building goodwill over the long term.

To add some entertainment value to education, participants compete in a natural resource-related trivia contest.

“I was skeptical about how many people would enjoy it, but it was a hit,” said Bowers, the group’s chairwoman.

By establishing trust, organizers believe Lane Families for Farms and Forests can be more effective in dispelling misapprehensions than by simply reacting to controversies and emergencies.

“Our goal is to be a resource for people,” Bowers said.

“A go-to group where if people have a question about an issue, they know to call us,” added Gordon Culbertson, a forestland manager and the group’s vice chairman.

The group plans to host tours of farming and timber operations to explain common practices and outline the regulations, such as the Oregon Forest Practices Act, they must follow.

The fear of pesticides is common among urbanites, who often don’t understand that farmers and foresters want to save money by reducing chemical usage, Bowers said.

“Immediately they think ‘poison,’” she said. “It’s the dose that makes the poison.”

Likewise, major timber companies are often viewed less sympathetically than small woodland owners, but in reality, the larger outfits own sawmills and other necessary infrastructure, said Culbertson.

“Those big companies are tremendously important to small woodland owners,” he said.

While it was once common for Oregon residents to have friends and family involved in natural resource industries, they’re now remote for many people, said Scott Dahlman, policy director for the Oregonians for Food and Shelter agribusiness group.

“We’ve gotten to a situation where more Oregon citizens don’t have that connection to agriculture and forestry,” he said.

Lane Families for Farms and Forests will help rekindle those relationships, Dahlman said.

Those connections may turn out to be significant in looming political battles, such as a proposed ballot initiative to ban aerial herbicide spraying in Lane County. Supporters are currently gathering signatures to get the measure before voters in 2018.

Such proposals tend to stir up negative emotions over natural resource industries, said Bowers. “Hopefully, we can change the narrative of what’s happening.”

People should realize that violations are rare and most farmers and foresters support Oregon’s regulatory oversight of spray applications, said Culbertson.

“We live out in the country where we use these things,” said Bowers.

Saturdays

SALEM — A couple of items emerged June 8 when the citizen commission that sets Oregon’s wildlife policy sat down once again to gnaw on the state’s plan for managing wolves.

Among them: There’s a question about who should investigate when Oregon wolves devour livestock. A “depredation,” as it’s called in wildlife management-speak. The Oregon Department of Fish Wildlife says it could use some help. Cattle ranchers would like to see properly certified local groups involved, to speed up the process. Depredation investigations are important because wolves involved in enough of them can end up dead. “Lethal control,” is the polite term.

Oregon State Police say no thanks. The OSP Wildlife Division head, Capt. Jeff Samuels, said his game officers would need eight hours of training each, about 1,000 hours total. That’s expensive.

“I don’t think it fits into our mission,” Samuels told the commission members. “Depredations are not a law enforcement issue.”

He said OSP is happy to help ODFW biologists, but making the call on whether wolves were responsible for killing livestock is not its responsibility.

While Samuels was handy, ODFW Commissioner Bruce Buckmaster said the commission has heard allegations that wolf poaching has increased.

“There certainly is poaching of wolves,” Samuels responded. He didn’t provide more details and the commission didn’t ask for any. Groups such as Oregon Wild, Cascadia Wildlands and Center for Biological Diversity maintain wolf poaching is on the rise.

Another issue: Does the burden of Oregon’s wolf management approach weigh too heavily on private landowners? People in Northeast Oregon, especially in Wallowa County and especially cattle ranchers, would say of course. Russ Morgan, ODFW wolf program manager, said 74 percent of confirmed wolf depredations occur on private land.

Michael Finley, the ODFW Commission chair, raised the question. He said it’s a dichotomy: Private land with private expectations, and a public resource — wolves — is doing damage and costing owners money.

He wondered out loud whether wolves on private or property ought to be managed differently. For example, require only two confirmed depredations on private land instead of three, the uniform private-public standard.

It’s complicated because Oregon land is about 50-50 public and private, often butting up against each other. Wolves go where they want and ranchers use both, because grazing is a permitted activity on land managed by the BLM and Forest Service.

Todd Nash, a Wallowa County commissioner who is wolf committee chair for the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association, agreed property lines are intermixed and sometimes unfenced. But he said cattle are private property, and ranchers wouldn’t allow someone to rustle their cattle, for instance, no matter where they were grazing. Insert eat for rustle and the point is made.

The ODFW Commission wasn’t taking public testimony during the meeting, but Nash, like Capt. Samuels of OSP, was present and the commission asked him a question.

The discussion came as the commission gathers its thoughts on a draft five-year wolf management plan. The commission has held three public hearings and will adopt a plan later this year.

The overriding issue may be local control. Some people who follow the process believe the rules should be loosened in Northeast Oregon, where most wolves live.

Jim Akenson, conservation director for the Oregon Hunters Association, said hunting and ag groups favor “active management” in the northeast corner of the state. Akenson, whose wife, Holly, is an ODFW commissioner, lives in Wallowa County. He said wolves should be managed more like cougars and bears, with “less caution” on lethal removal, more consideration for the impact of wolves on ag and hunting, and management decisions made at the local or district level rather than pushed up the chain to the ODFW director’s office in Salem.

“The whole process is one of normalization,” Akenson said. “That animal is still not normal; it has special game status. They’re not kidding when they say it’s special — it’s up on a pedestal.”

Akenson agreed with Nash and others who say some livestock producers no longer notify ODFW when they find dead cattle.

Jim Bittle, the newest ODFW commissioner, said some angry landowners in northeast Oregon might take matters into their own hands. He said a wolf attacking livestock on private land is similar to living in town and having a pit bull jump the fence and kill your dog.

Another tidbit: Oregon has a moose herd of about 50 animals in northeast Oregon, again in Wallowa County, in the Wenaha Wildlife Management Unit. It isn’t doing well. Biologists haven’t yet seen sign that wolves are wiping them out, but they are keeping watch.

Kathy Fry-Trommald, executive director of the Walla Walla Sweet Onion Marketing Committee, is retiring after 17 years.

Her last day is June 29.

“I feel very privileged to have been in this position to work with the industry and to promote the Walla Walla sweet onion,” Fry-Trommald said. “It’s been an awesome job.”

Michael J. Locati, chairman of the marketing committee, said Fry-Trommald has worked to maintain the federal marketing order that protects the variety and designated geographic growing area, preventing copycat onion producers from selling their crop as Walla Walla sweets.

“(She’s) really supported our efforts,” he said, noting his appreciation for Fry-Trommald’s dedication during her tenure.

Michael F. Locati, the uncle of Michael J. Locati, served as chairman of the marketing committee for 13 years, working with Fry-Trommald.

Fry-Trommald began as the committee’s bookkeeper, Michael F. Locati said.

“She took the whole industry very personally and did a very good job representing the Walla Walla sweet onions over the years,” Michael F. Locati said. “She’s done a real fine job. She’s defended our industry from day one and worked with the growers and packers very well. It’s been a very good relationship.”

The position is being split up. Administration of the federal marketing order will be taken over by Ag Association Management.

As executive director, Fry-Trommald also organized the Walla Walla Sweet Onion Festival, now in its 33rd year. The event will be run through the Downtown Walla Walla Foundation.

“The sweet onion festival has been near and dear to my heart,” Fry-Trommald said. “It’s going out much bigger than it was when I came in.”

The downtown foundation is best-suited to take over the festival, Michael J. Locati said.

“It really is a community event,” he said.

Walla Walla sweet onion farmers will begin harvest the week of June 12.

“We had a long spring, it was kind of wet,” said Michael J. Locati, chairman of the Walla Walla Sweet Onion Marketing Committee. “Things didn’t really want to grow real fast, so we didn’t start as early as we did last year, but this is more of a normal year for us.”

Walla Walla sweets are a specialty onion protected by a federal marketing order, which designates them as a unique variety and establishes a federally protected growing area, the Walla Walla Valley of southeast Washington and northeast Oregon.

The onions are noted for their low pyruvic acid content — pyruvic acid is what makes onions pungent — and high water content, which makes for a juicy, flavorful product.

Harvest typically lasts from mid-June to mid-August.

“There should be a steady flow that entire time,” Locati said.

Twenty farmers raise Walla Walla sweet onions on 500 acres, according to the marketing committee. Yields average 650 50-pound units per acre.

Fall-planted onions look good, Locati said, and he expects an easy transition into harvesting spring-planted onions.

Roughly 40 percent of the onions are usually jumbo-sized, about 3 to 4 inches in diameter, with 10 percent colossal-sized, at 4 inches in diameter or larger. The rest are medium-sized.

Locati expects an average crop, although some of the onions may be on the smaller side.

Farmers didn’t have to put up with a lot of disease and insect pressure thanks to the cold winter, Locati said.

“We didn’t see nearly the amount of thrips we usually see,” he said. “I think pest pressure was down. And then it didn’t get real hot. ... Hopefully everything comes out OK.”

Just as farmers are getting into their onion fields, the Walla Walla Sweet Onion Festival begins in downtown Walla Walla at 9 a.m. June 17.

Highlights include chef demonstrations, music, several dance companies and a Seattle Seahawks tour bus, said Kathy Fry-Trommald, executive director of the marketing committee.

The event is held in conjunction with the Downtown Walla Walla Foundation. She estimates the festival drew 5,000 people previously.

Walla Walla sweet onions are the Washington state vegetable, Fry-Trommald said. The festival promotes awareness of the onions and the history of the industry.

“We’ll be having an onion-eating contest, and I don’t know how much history those folks are going to be focusing on, but they’re going to have a good time,” she said with a laugh. “We usually have some pretty good people sitting up there willing to eat a raw onion.”

Several growers will sell onions at the festival, Locati said.

He hopes to be able to attend the event.

“We’re probably going to be in the thick of harvest,” he said. “Sometimes it’s tough, but there’s definitely a farmer presence there. There’ll be sweet onions there, for sure.”

Federal environmental laws do no preclude a class action lawsuit against Oregon by local governments seeking $1.4 billion for insufficient logging.

The lawsuit, on behalf of 14 counties and numerous taxing districts within them, argues that Oregon’s forest management policies have deprived local governments of logging revenues from forests they donated to the state.

Attorneys for Oregon claimed that federal environmental statutes, including the Endangered Species Act and the Clean Water Act, effectively prohibited state forest managers from maximizing timber harvests on that land.

Linn County Circuit Court Judge Daniel Murphy has now ruled those defenses are not valid, since the plaintiffs allege Oregon’s forest protections surpassed the requirements of federal law.

The state government also argued it properly formulated the 1998 “greatest permanent value” regulations, which the plaintiffs claim impermissibly reduced logging levels.

Murphy has ruled this defense is invalid because the regulations could have resulted in a breach of Oregon’s contract with local governments, even though the rules were lawfully enacted “through legitimate process.”

The judge disagreed with Oregon’s argument that local government can’t sue over the contract while continuing to benefit from timber revenues, since a lawsuit “for partial damages is allowed.”

He struck several other defenses offered by Oregon’s attorneys, such as arguments the lawsuit was time-barred or was outside the court’s jurisdiction.

Capital Press was unable to reach Oregon’s attorneys and the Oregon Department of Forestry to comment on the ruling Thursday.

The judge’s decision removes significant obstacles in bringing the lawsuit to trial, said John DiLorenzo, attorney for the plaintiffs.

“I have no doubt this case is going to be tried to a jury,” he said. “They tried to blow us out of the sky but we’re still flying.”

DiLorenzo said he expects the parties will now focus on gathering evidence in preparation for a trial that would likely take place during the summer of 2018.

The judge’s findings regarding the federal environmental statutes “really cleared the decks,” resolving complications in the case, he said.

Oregon’s forest managers have gone beyond what is required by federal law, which requires protection for endangered and threatened species but does not mandate that the state government create new habitat for them, DiLorenzo said.

“If they’ve done that, they’ve breached the contract,” he said.

The lawsuit’s philosophy is not to change Oregon’s forest policy, but simply to alleviate a burden that’s currently borne solely by rural communities, DiLorenzo said.

“They should spread the costs among everyone,” he said.

The “burden of proof” is now squarely on DiLorenzo to prove that Oregon could have actually logged more without violating federal law, said Ralph Bloemers, an environmental attorney with the Crag Law Center who has followed the case.

“This will be very challenging, if not impossible, for him to do for a number of reasons,” Bloemers said in an email.

Federal agencies have in the past found that Oregon has failed to adequately protect waterways and fish species, he said.

“The historical record from these expert agencies amply demonstrates that, if anything, the Department of Forestry should have adopted more protections and logged less, not more, to protect the salmon fishery and restore rivers and streams to a functioning condition for our salmon fishery,” Bloemers said. “The same can be said for those forests with terrestrial species that have been harmed by past logging practices.”

Bellevue, a sprawling satellite city of Seattle, is an unlikely place for agricultural milestones. But it’s where the National Farmers Union will have its 2019 national convention, and it’s where the Northwest division hopes to re-establish itself as a full partner in the 115-year-old organization.

“Our goal is to have a strong contingent at that event,” said the fledgling division’s president, sixth-generation rancher Kent Wright. “I will feel disappointed if we don’t have at least the most people.”

The National Farmers Union’s history in the Northwest goes back to 1907, the year a Washington division was formed. In recent years, though, the group has been mostly dormant in the region.

The rebirth of a Northwest division — Washington, Oregon and Idaho — and the national group’s decision to hold its convention in Bellevue are unrelated. The group meets each year in urban areas. This year, the convention was in San Diego and next year it will be in Kansas City.

But the 2019 convention will be an opportunity for the Northwest division to make a showing. This year’s national convention had two Northwest representatives, Wright and his wife, Tiffany, the division’s secretary.

Wright, 30, grew up on his family’s ranch near St. John in Eastern Washington and works there part-time. He said he expects to run the ranch full-time someday, but for now he lives in Vancouver, where Tiffany is a hospital nurse, and he pursues his other career as a baseball scout.

Wright played baseball at Walla Walla Community College and West Texas A&M University. For several summers after college, he played in independent professional leagues stocked with players, like Wright, striving to impress a Major League team.

Primarily a catcher, he played for clubs such as the Kalamazoo Kings, Fort Worth Cats, Rockford Riverhawks, Amarillo Dillas and Witchita Wingnuts. He wasn’t signed by a Major League organization, but he made a connection that led to a job as international scouting director for the Doosan Bears, a team in South Korea’s top baseball league. Wright scouts and signs the three foreign-born players allowed on the team’s roster.

Although he grew up on a ranch, Wright said that he had never heard of the National Farmers Union until he was picked in 2012 for the organization’s young farmer program. He soon was president of the Washington division, which had about 40 lifetime members, but few active ones. About two years later, the Washington, Oregon and Idaho divisions combined to create a Northwest division.

Wright, his wife and his mother, Peggy, are three of the division’s seven board members. Wright said the Northwest has about 180 members. It will need at least 1,250 members to have a vote in how the national organization is run.

Moses Lake cattleman Mark Ellis said that under Wright’s leadership the Northwest division has provided livestock producers with another avenue for speaking out on issues.

“Kent’s a very bright guy,” Ellis said. “I don’t know if there’s a better national organization than the Farmers Union as far as getting young people into farming.”

Wright said most of the division’s members are under 40, a generation younger than most farmers. Tiffany Wright started a division at Walla Walla Community College and has twice been honored at the national level for recruiting members.

Kent Wright said the group has history and clout, but it’s small enough for individuals to influence. “Your voice does matter if you work a little bit and show up,” he said.

The Farmers Union nationwide has almost 200,000 members, with 24 divisions in 33 states, the national membership director, Tom Bryant, said.

North Dakota and Oklahoma have the largest memberships, while the organization has no presence in many Southeast states. Membership tends to be steady, though it picks up when the farm economy slumps, Bryant said. “When things aren’t going so well, people realize it’s important to speak collectively,” he said.

The group is a little older, but much smaller, than the American Farm Bureau Federation, which has affiliates in 50 states and nearly 6 million member families.

Other differences between the two organizations are rooted in their histories. The Farmers Union was formed in 1902 in a time of agrarian populism. The Farm Bureau became a national organization in 1920, a period of conservative ascendancy.

The Farmers Union holds more liberal views on issues such as health care and climate change, and is more critical of trade deals.

“It’s all relative,” Farmers Union spokesman Andrew Jerome said. “A little more liberal than the Farm Bureau? Maybe yes. But a liberal group? Certainly not.”

Wright agreed that the Farmers Union is generally viewed as more liberal than the Farm Bureau on the national level. “Here in the Northwest, I say we probably fight that a little. We tend to be a pretty conservative group,” he said.

The National Farmers Union was founded in Texas by men concerned about the price farmers were paid for cotton.

By 1907, the Farmers Union was growing into a nationwide organization. The Evening Statesman, a Walla Walla newspaper, reported the formation of a Washington division under the headline, “Farmers Meet to Form Trust to Boost Prices.”

The goal was to make wheat farmers price-setters, not price-takers.

“The greatest product of the country is wheat and to fix the price of this cereal is now the great object of the union,” an organizer told The Evening Statesman.

Today, the Farmers Union still stresses the farmers’ share. Its website charts the relatively small amount farmers receive compared to the retail cost of staples such as potatoes, eggs and flour.

While the Washington Farm Bureau has a steady and influential presence in Olympia, the Farmers Union does not. Its main venture into state policy so far has been to oppose raising the fee on cattle transactions that ranchers pay to support the Washington Beef Commission. The position aligned with the Cattle Producers of Washington and was at odds with the Washington Farm Bureau and other cattle industry groups such as the Washington Cattlemen’s Association and the Washington Cattle Feeders Association.

Wright said the Northwest division has no plans to hire a lobbyist. “We don’t feel at this time it’s the best approach for a young, regrowing group to get its point across,” he said.

That, however, could change someday, he said.

Kent Wright

Age: 30

Residence: Vancouver, Wash.

Position: President of the Northwest division of the National Farmers Union

Occupation: Sixth-generation rancher from St. John, Wash. Owns Wright Way Angus with his mother, Peggy Wright.

Non-farm job: International scouting director for the Doosan Bears, a team in South Korea’s top baseball league

Education: Walla Walla Community College; bachelor’s degree in wildlife biology, West Texas A&M University; master’s degree in science, Western Kentucky University.

Family: Wife, Tiffany; son, Maverick, 4.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said Wednesday he is ordering a review of federal efforts to conserve the imperiled sage grouse to ensure that officials in 11 Western states where the bird lives are fully consulted.

While the federal government has a responsibility under the Endangered Species Act to protect the ground-dwelling bird, “we also have a responsibility to be a good neighbor and a good partner,” Zinke said.

Zinke made the comments Wednesday as he announced a 60-day review of a sweeping 2015 conservation plan put in place by the Obama administration. The plan set land-use policies across the popular game bird’s 11-state range that were intended to keep it off the endangered species list.

The plan was backed by more than $750 million in commitments from the government and outside groups to conserve land and restore the bird’s range, which extends from California to the Dakotas.

Even so, the plan drew criticism from opposite ends of the political spectrum. Environmental groups complained it was riddled with loopholes and would not do enough to protect the bird from extinction, while mining companies, ranchers and officials in Utah, Idaho and Nevada argued that the Obama administration’s actions would impede oil and gas drilling and other economic development.

The ground-dwelling sage grouse, known for its elaborate mating ritual, range across a 257,000-square-mile region spanning 11 states.

The grouse population once was estimated at 16 million birds across North America. It’s lost roughly half its habitat to development, livestock grazing and an invasive grass that encourages wildfires in the Great Basin of Nevada and adjoining states. There are now an estimated 200,000 to 500,000 greater sage grouse.

Zinke said in a conference call with reporters that “state agencies are really at the forefront of efforts to maintain healthy fish and wildlife populations,” and the government needs to make sure state voices are being heard.

In particular, Zinke said he has received complaints from several Western governors that the Obama administration ignored or minimized their concerns as the plan was developed. Republican governors in Idaho, Utah and Nevada all would prefer that the plan give them more flexibility and rely less on habitat preservation “and more on numbers” of birds in a particular state, Zinke said.

“That’s exactly what this secretarial order does — it provides more flexibility than the one-size-fits-all solution” ordered by former Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, Zinke said.

On other side, Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper of Colorado and Republican Gov. Matt Mead of Wyoming told Zinke they opposed any changes that would move “from a habitat-management model to one that sets population objectives for the states.”

“This is not the right decision,” they wrote in a May 26 letter. Hickenlooper and Mead co-chair a federal-state sage grouse task force that worked to develop the 2015 plan.

Zinke’s order calls for officials to evaluate both the federal sage grouse plan and state plans and programs to ensure they are complementary. A report is due in early August.

Nada Culver of The Wilderness Society called Zinke’s order “disruptive” and said “it undermines carefully balanced and negotiated plans against the advice of the stakeholders involved. The plans do not need to be revised — they need to be supported and implemented in good faith by Interior.”

Jim Lyons, a former Obama administration official who helped develop the 2015 plan, called the review “a thinly-veiled and unnecessary attempt to open up important habitat to oil and gas drilling, jeopardizing the important balance and flexibility offered in the existing plans.”

Capital Press

NAMPA, Idaho — Record winter snowfall followed by a steady string of spring rainstorms delayed by several weeks the planting of many crops in the Treasure Valley that straddles the Idaho-Oregon border.

It’s also pushed field work back significantly.

“Everything is behind,” said Meridian, Idaho, farmer Richard Durrant. “A lot of spraying, fertilization and other things that still need to be done hasn’t happened yet.”

Many farmers told Capital Press they are not overly concerned by the late start and expect their crops to turn out OK with a normal summer.

But they also say the late start means a repeat of last year’s record yields for many crops is unlikely.

“Without a doubt, it will make a little difference in yields,” said Eastern Oregon farmer Craig Froerer.

While yields for sugar beets grown in Idaho and Malheur County, Ore., set a record in 2016, he said, “I don’t think you can expect that this year with how late in the game we are.”

Many farmers in the area were late getting in their fields because record or near-record amounts of snowfall left fields saturated when it melted. That was exacerbated by persistent spring rainstorms that have only recently broken.

During the past 10 days the Treasure Valley has had much warmer and drier weather.

Many crops started slowly but are responding to the more favorable growing conditions, said Paul Skeen, president of the Malheur County Onion Growers Association.

Skeen planted the majority of his onions two to three weeks later than usual.

“But with this hot weather we’ve had (recently), they are really starting to jump,” he said. “Sugar beets are a little bit behind but they’re also really coming on.”

Skeen agrees the late start will have an impact on yields.

“We have a good crop coming but yields, in my opinion, are going to be below average because of the lateness,” he said.

According to Stuart Reitz, an Oregon State University Extension cropping systems agent in Malheur County, as of June 1 the area had 16 fewer heat degree days than last year and 12 fewer than in 2015. Heat degree days are calculated by subtracting a reference temperature, which varies by crop, from the daily mean temperature. The higher the mean temperature, the more heat degree days are recorded.

Reitz agreed that yields will depend on how the summer plays out.

“If we get some good, warm but not too hot conditions, things should finish off OK,” he said. “But if it stays cool and rainy, some of those late-planted crops may not turn out too well.”

Across Idaho and Eastern Oregon, sugar beets were on average planted two weeks later than during recent years, said Clark Alder, an area agronomist for grower-owned Amalgamated Sugar Co.

“But the crop is progressing nicely, especially with the nicer weather we have had” recently, he said. “I don’t think we’ll have the same type of bumper crop like we had last year but we will have a nice crop if we get a summer like we had last year.”

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