PORTLAND — Average temperatures in various parts of the Pacific Northwest have risen 1.3 to 2.5 degrees since the mid-20th century, forcing changes in how vineyards and wineries operate, speakers at the annual Oregon Wine Symposium said.

Climate change has altered the timing of harvest, changed grape ripening profiles and forced growers and wine makers to account for fluctuating sugar and acid balances and to deal with new pests and diseases, said Greg Jones, a Southern Oregon University professor who specializes in wine climatology.

The past year was the warmest in recorded history globally, Jones said. The “heat content” of the world’s oceans has increased tremendously, he said, which likely will have dramatic impact on weather patterns. “This may be the real issue as we go forward,” Jones said.

Jones and his counterpart from France’s famed Burgundy region, Benjamin Bois, headed a discussion that attracted an estimated 200 people. Mark Chien, coordinator of Oregon State University’s Wine Research Institute, moderated the discussion. Chien noted that Oregon’s niche success within the wine industry began with cool weather grapes, Pinot noir. A warming challenges the industry, he said. The wine symposium and accompanying trade show attract about 1,400 people annually to the Oregon Convention Center in Portland. The agenda each year includes detailed discussions of grape growing and wine making. Many of the sessions included Spanish interpretation, a nod to the workforce in most vineyards.

The trade show annually features equipment dealers, label makers and suppliers of corks, barrels and tanks, among many others. Vendor booths ranged from one staffed by the Davis Wright Tremaine law firm, which has a wineries, breweries and distilleries practice group, to MaxYield Falconry, which uses falcons to chase pest birds from vineyards, orchards or berry fields.

The climate change presentation was among the better-attended sessions. Bois, a professor of viticulture and climatology at the University de Bourgogne in France, lent some perspective to the relative youth of the West Coast wine industry when he said 2003 was the earliest Burgundy harvest on record — which dates to the 14th century.

But he said the region’s Pinot noir wine from 2003 is in good shape, suggesting there is some “range and space” within a warming environment in which wine quality is not harmed.

“That does not mean there are not some challenges in climate change,” Bois said.

He said temperature increases linked to climate change have shortened the grape growing season in Burgundy by eight days. Researchers compared bud burst to harvest records from 1951-2000 with records kept 2000-2015, he said. The growth process that took 162 days in earlier times now is done in 154 days, he said, and starts five days earlier. That puts grapes somewhat more at risk for spring frost or summer rain, Bois said.

He said some vineyards in southern France now irrigate, after centuries of not doing so. Soil temperature has increased at a greater rate than air temperature, with unknown impact.

“It’s a black box, we really don’t know what’s going on with soil,” he said.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — FBI personnel say they have completed the evidence-collection process at an Oregon wildlife refuge following a 41-day standoff.

The FBI said Tuesday they have turned control of the facility near Burns over to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Officials say it will remain closed until further notice.

Government prosecutors also filed a motion Tuesday to push back the trial dates for those arrested following the standoff.

Prosecutors want a federal judge to deem the case complex, citing the large number of defendants and other issues, which would likely send the case into 2017.

Defense attorney Lisa Hay filed a document opposing those efforts.

Standoff leader Ammon Bundy and 15 others are scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday on a conspiracy charge.

Prosecutors say a superseding indictment with additional charges could be filed next month.

The 41-day armed occupation at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge cost Oregon counties at least $1.2 million, according to documents obtained by OPB.

The FBI prepared the cost estimate Feb. 13. It illustrates how the counties incurred those costs, from lodging and meals to fuel expenses and overtime.  

The Harney County School District paid some $16,000 for security and counseling services. The school district also spent $160,000 in wages for teachers and staff to stay home during the first week of the occupation.  

Meanwhile, more than $700,000 was spent on backup law enforcement in the area from police and sheriff’s departments across the state. Nearly 200 law enforcement officials from 35 agencies worked 3,678 regular hours during the occupation, according to the documents.  

Of the $700,000, the biggest expenditure went to 4,588 overtime hours for law enforcement, costing those departments more than $400,000.  

The figures compiled by the FBI do not include costs incurred by the Oregon State Police, which played a visible role in assisting the FBI.

Clackamas County spent more than any other department assisting Harney County, racking up $136,000 in costs. Meanwhile, Lane, Marion and Multnomah counties each spent more than $60,000.

Lodging costs alone for all of the assisting law enforcement topped $52,000.  

Local and state officials were in Washington D.C. this week, lobbying the federal government to reimburse counties for the costs.

Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., and other Oregon representatives have introduced federal legislation and amendments since the occupation ended that would shift some of the costs to the federal Interior and Justice departments.

“The vigilantes who occupied the Malheur Wildlife Refuge for over a month sapped resources from local and state governments and inflicted tremendous damage to a valued national resource,” said DeFazio in a statement Monday. “It will take time, money and hard work to clean up the destruction left behind.”

An Oregon man who shot an endangered wolf while hunting coyotes last fall pleaded guilty Tuesday in Grant County Justice Court.

As part of a negotiated deal, Brennon D. Witty, 26, of Baker City, pleaded guilty to taking a threatened or endangered species, a Class A violation, Harney County District Attorney Tim Colahan said in a news release.

A companion charge of hunting with a centerfire rifle with no big game tag was dismissed. Witty originally was charged with two Class A misdemeanors; the reduction of one charge to a violation and dismissal of the other was part of the plea negotiation.

Witty was fined $1,000 and ordered to pay $1,000 restitution to Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. The rifle he used, a Savage .223 with a scope, was forfeited to the state.

The investigation began Oct. 6, 2015, when Witty voluntarily notified ODFW and Oregon State Police that he’d shot a wolf while hunting coyotes on private property south of Prairie City. Police recovered the carcass of a radio-collared wolf, designated OR-22, on the property.

The shooting happened in Grant County but Colahan, the prosecutor in neighboring Harney County, handled it as a courtesy. The Grant County district attorney was acquainted with Witty’s family and wanted to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest.

The shooting happened a month before Oregon removed gray wolves from the state endangered species list, but that had no apparent bearing on the case. The ODFW Commission on Nov. 9 removed wolves from the state list, and they remain on the federal endangered species list in the western two-thirds of the state.

The wolf was a male that had worn a GPS tracking collar since October 2013 and dispersed from the Umatilla Pack in February 2015. He was in Malheur County for awhile, then traveled into Grant County.

Wildlife biologists don’t believe he had a mate or pups. Young or sub-dominant wolves often leave their home packs to establish their own territory and find mates.

TUESDAY, FEB. 23

SALEM — The pastoral stereotype of a handful of cows living in a red barn isn’t doing the dairy industry any favors, according to animal science professor Frank Mitloehner.

Consumers can react with distrust when they encounter commercial dairies after being exposed to bucolic advertisements about “happy cows,” the University of California Extension specialist said during the recent Oregon Dairy Farmers Annual Convention in Salem.

“They say this and this here have nothing to do with each other and they feel betrayed,” said Mitloehner.

Farmers should instead promote the efficiency of the modern U.S. dairy industry, which has increased milk production 60 percent since the 1950s while reducing the number of dairy cows from 16 million to 9 million, he said.

Mitloehner also said there’s plenty of room in the market for organic and conventional producers without various dairy sectors trying to give each other a “black eye.”

“That must stop,” he said.

It has been a decade since the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization published a highly publicized report, “Livestock’s Long Shadow,” that blamed livestock for causing more greenhouse gas emissions than global transportation.

Mitloehner was a chief critic of the report, which pointed out that the “lifecycle” analysis of greenhouse gases from livestock production was much more extensive than for transportation, which considered only direct emissions.

Greenhouse gases caused by feed manufacturing and land use changes were included in the livestock analysis, but emissions from the manufacture of automobiles was not included in the transportation analysis.

While one of the UN report’s authors acknowledged this shortcoming, Mitloehner said the allegations of livestock’s disproportional impact on climate change have become ingrained in the global media.

Even though the UN has since shifted its position on livestock production, talk show hosts and advertisements continue to allude to the 2006 report, he said.

“It implies transportation choices are inconsequential,” he said. “The consumers now believe it’s true.”

The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization has since “come around full swing” on livestock production, though the change is not widely publicized, said Mitloehner, who’s involved in the organization’s environmental assessments of livestock production.

For example, a 2013 report, “Tackling Climate Change through Livestock,” found that improving livestock production efficiency through technology and breeding helps reduce emissions.

“You have to discuss this in public,” Mitloehner said.

While a cow in the U.S. can produce 20,000-25,000 pounds of milk a year, a cow in Mexico can produce about 4,000 pounds and a cow in India can produce about 1,000 pounds, he said.

That effectively means that U.S. dairy farmers can produce the same amount of milk with much smaller herds, shrinking their “carbon footprint” compared to more traditional systems, he said.

“Do you think the population knows that?” Mitloehner said. “They think the opposite is true.”

With growing populations, the world will have to adopt more intensive and efficient agricultural practices despite pressure from critics to abandon technology, he said.

China, for example, loses 40 percent of its hogs before weaning due to inferior nutrition, genetics and veterinary care, which isn’t affordable in the long-term, Mitloehner said. “They actually have to change the way they produce food.”

MILTON-FREEWATER, Ore. — Mahlon Zehr walks carefully down the middle row of his cage-free hen house, clapping his hands to scatter the flock of chickens that gather close around his feet.

“They’re very curious,” Zehr said. “If you’re working in here, they’ll come right up pecking at your hands and pecking at your shoes.”

For Zehr, the chickens came first — all 30,000 of them —and the eggs won’t be far behind. Zehr signed a 10-year contract last July to raise commercial eggs for Wilcox Family Farms of Roy, Washington, and has built a production facility at his home near Milton-Freewater.

The chickens arrived on trucks earlier this month, and Zehr said they should start laying eggs in the next week or two. He expects to raise 8.5 million eggs over the course of the year.

“It should be pretty busy here in the next couple weeks,” he said.

At 20,000 square feet, the hen house is longer than a football field and divided into three main rows where the birds are free to wander and roost. By summer, Zehr plans to turn the chickens out onto pasture, but for now he keeps them inside over concerns of avian flu.

An avian flu outbreak affected two backyard poultry flocks around the Tri-Cities early last year. If just one of his chickens gets sick, Zehr said the entire flock would be euthanized and that would put him out of business for at least six months, and possibly a year.

In the meantime, Zehr said he will build a meshed-in porch where the hens can go outside for some fresh air, while protecting them from other wild birds. The operation is cage-free, which Zehr said is becoming increasingly important for consumers.

“The cage-free market is growing,” he said. “It’s what people want.”

Wilcox Farms owns all the chickens and provides the feed, though Zehr has already invested $1.2 million on new equipment and labor. Nearly all the technology is automated, from the ceiling lights to the conveyor belts where eggs are carried off and sorted into trays.

“It’s automated enough to where I should be able to handle it myself,” Zehr said.

When the chickens are ready to lay eggs, they will head into one of many nesting boxes layered up and down each row. The eggs drop gently onto conveyors, which twist their way to the front of the barn. A separate line of conveyors also sweeps feathers and droppings into a nearby shed.

Zehr plans to sell the manure as fertilizer for organic farms and gardens. As for the eggs, Wilcox Farms pays by the dozen and sells at grocery stores across the Northwest.

“It’s a fairly stable investment,” Zehr said. “It’ll provide a good living for us.”

Zehr, who grew up in the Willamette Valley, moved to Milton-Freewater in 2008 to help start Blue Mountain Christian Fellowship, a Mennonite church where he serves as co-pastor. Two years ago, he sold his flooring and carpet business in town to buy 40 acres of land along Edwards Road, about halfway to Umapine.

As a child, Zehr lived on a small farm where his father bought and sold grass seed. Zehr said he is excited to return to his agricultural roots, and jumped at the opportunity to raise eggs.

“It’s a stay-at-home job. I’m working in my own back yard,” he said. “It’s a very family-friendly business.”

Zehr said he’s been working 14-15 hour days and walking 6-8 miles up and down the hen house getting everything ready for production. He’ll have this flock of hens for about 14-15 months, until they’re replaced by another shipment from Wilcox.

So far, Zehr said he’s drawn some mild curiosity from neighbors, but no complaints. As an animal lover, Zehr said raising chickens is a perfect fit for him.

“I’m pretty excited about it,” he said.

A former Oregon legislator and one-time Republican gubernatorial candidate thinks he has the answer to reviving container shipping from Portland.

Kevin Mannix, who spent more than 10 years in the Legislature and ran for governor against Ted Kulongoski in 2002, wants to create a container shipping authority that would take over Terminal 6 from the Port of Portland. The authority would be in charge of re-establishing container business after the terminal lost its two main carriers, Hanjin Shipping and Hapag-Lloyd, early last year.

Without container service in Portland, Eastern Oregon producers are paying between $500-$1,000 more per container to truck their goods up to Tacoma, Wash. Locally grown agricultural products, such as potatoes, onions and hay, are all shipped overseas in containers.

On Thursday, Mannix traveled to Boardman, Hermiston and Pendleton to discuss his proposal — the Oregon Trade and Container Shipping Act — which he plans to bring to the Legislature in 2017.

“What I hear universally is that we need options. We need Terminal 6 operating,” Mannix said during a meeting Thursday morning at the Hermiston Conference Center. “To deal with this problem so far, people are spending more money to ship their products.”

Common Sense for Oregon, a political advocacy group founded by Mannix in 2009, has put together a draft version of the Container Shipping Act which Mannix is now circulating among the state Capitol and local communities for feedback.

The bill would establish the Oregon Container Shipping Authority, or OCSA, focused on restoring efficient container service to Portland. It would be run by a board of nine directors appointed by county commissioners from across Oregon. Potential directors would need at least three years of experience in shipping, international trade or imports and exports.

The Port of Portland would transfer ownership of Terminal 6 to the OCSA, which as a public corporation would have the power to support projects, contract with other agencies and borrow money to support container shipping for Oregon businesses.

The OCSA could also renegotiate lease agreements with the terminal’s current operator, ICTSI Oregon Inc., and take action against anyone who illegally slows down operations.

“The shipping companies will want guarantees,” Mannix said. “We can set up a structure that can lead to this being capable of working.”

Port officials in Umatilla and Boardman were mostly non-committal about the bill, but agreed something needs to be done to get Portland’s container service back on track.

Kim B. Puzey, general manager at the Port of Umatilla, attended Thursday’s meeting in Hermiston. He said Portland used to have 12 ocean carriers in 1997, which has since dwindled to one: Westwood Shipping. That’s due to a number of factors, Puzey said, but most recently Hanjin Shipping and Hapag-Lloyd left Terminal 6 after slowdowns during contract negotiations between West Coast port operators and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.

“This is an enormously complex issue that relates to the global economy, the domestic recession and the relationship between dock operators and union interests,” Puzey told the East Oregonian. “I am appreciative that someone has taken the initiative at the level (Mannix) has.”

Puzey said he was “intrigued” by Mannix’s presentation, but did suggest it should be port commissioners — rather than county commissioners — who ought to have a larger say in appointing the proposed OCSA board.

Puzey has also been a longtime advocate of short sea shipping, which would allow inland ports to bypass Portland entirely. Mannix said that could be something the OCSA ultimately discusses.

“Every container that doesn’t go down the Columbia-Snake River system goes down Oregon and Washington highways,” Puzey said. “Our waterways are extraordinary, and they are vastly underutilized.”

Gary Neal, general manager at the neighboring Port of Morrow, said their rail yard is currently handling containers arriving from the Port of Lewiston in Idaho. Though Neal did not specifically weigh in on this proposal, he did say he appreciated Mannix trying to identify solutions.

“Our main goal is to see services back in Portland that our shippers can take advantage of,” Neal said.

Mannix said his group continues to fine-tune their bill based on the feedback they get from local ports and producers.

“I see an opportunity for us here to do something good for Oregon,” he said. “The worst thing that could happen is if we do nothing.”

A federal grand jury indicted Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and four others Wednesday on felony charges related to a 2014 armed standoff at Bundy’s ranch.

Bundy led that standoff near Bunkerville, Nev., after the Bureau of Land Management attempted to seize his cattle as restitution for unpaid grazing fees.

“The rule of law has been reaffirmed with these charges,” wrote U.S. Attorney for Nevada Daniel Bogden. “Persons who use force and violence against federal law enforcement officers ... will be brought to justice.”

Bundy and his sons — Ammon and Ryan Bundy — as well as Montana resident Ryan Payne and Ohio conservative Internet radio show host Pete Santilli were charged with a total of 16 felonies.

The charges were:

• 1 count of conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States.

• 1 count of conspiracy to impede or injure a federal officer.

• 4 counts of using and carrying a firearm in relation to a crime of violence.

• 2 counts of assault on a federal officer.

• 2 counts of threatening a federal law enforcement officer.

• 3 counts of obstruction of the due administration of justice.

• 2 counts of interference with interstate commerce by extortion.

• 1 count of interstate travel in aid of extortion.

All of the defendants listed in the indictment are currently being held in Oregon. They were arrested in relation to the armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.

Other than Cliven Bundy, all those charged in the Nevada standoff Wednesday also face charges in the Oregon standoff.

“Today marks a tremendous step toward ending more than 20 years of law-breaking,” said Bureau of Land Management Director Neil Kornze in a statement, referring to Cliven Bundy’s longstanding dispute with his agency.

If convicted of the charges in the indictment, Bundy and the other four men could be forced to forfeit any property they gained as a result of the alleged crimes — totaling at least $3 million, according to prosecutors — and any firearms or ammunition used during the 2014 standoff.

Wednesday’s indictment identifies Cliven Bundy as the “leader, organizer, and chief beneficiary of the conspiracy,” and states that he “possessed ultimate authority” over the 2014 standoff. 

“The remaining defendants are charged as leaders and organizers who conspired with Bundy to achieve his criminal objectives,” Bogden wrote in a statement.

The maximum penalties for each of the charges against the men range from five to 20 years in prison. Each charge carries a maximum fine of $250,000.

Salem-based attorney Noel Grefenson, who is representing Cliven Bundy in Oregon, said via text message Wednesday night that he hadn’t yet seen the indictment. “That being said, I have every confidence Mr. Bundy will immediately plead not guilty and will welcome the opportunity to have a jury of his peers decide what really happened,” Grefenson wrote.

Ammon Bundy’s defense attorney, Mike Arnold, also said that he hadn’t yet read the indictment, but added he wasn’t surprised by it because the criminal compliant against Cliven Bundy filed last week listed four unnamed co-conspirators. “It’s what we expected,” Arnold said. “It’s something we’ve learned about this last week. We’ve just been waiting for the indictment.”

Arnold later said by text message that “it’s important for the public to remember that there is a constitutional presumption of innocence in America.”

“A government charge is proof of nothing,” Arnold wrote. “That’s what courts and trials are for.”

SALEM — A proposal to give local governments more control over farm-to-wetland conversions has won the approve of the Oregon Senate, although in scaled-back form.

Under the original language of Senate Bill 1517, Oregon farms could not be converted into wetlands unless the local county government agreed the change wouldn’t disrupt nearby agricultural operations.

The scope of the bill has now been narrowed to a pilot project in Tillamook County, which needs to preserve farmland for its dairy industry and is a “big center of the most pressing issues” involving wetland conversions, said Mary Anne Nash, public policy counsel for the Oregon Farm Bureau, which supports SB 1517.

This amended version of SB 1517 was approved 25-3 by the Senate on Feb. 18 and will now be considered by the House Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources, with a hearing scheduled for Feb. 23.

However, some lawmakers have expressed misgivings about the bill’s reduced scope.

While Tillamook County certainly needs the pilot program, farmers elsewhere in Oregon also experience problems created by wetland conversions, said Sen. Doug Whitsett, R-Klamath Falls.

“It’s distressing to know the rest of the state won’t be able to protect themselves from being flooded out by a rampant neighbor,” he said.

These concerns were echoed by Sen. Michael Dembrow, D-Portland, who voted against the bill because the issue is statewide, as well as Sen. Alan Olsen, who voted in favor of SB 1517 despite wanting “to see this go further.”

Wetlands are currently allowed outright in Oregon farm zones, but Senate Bill 1517 would first require Tillamook County to consider whether new wetlands will significantly change local farm practices or disrupt agriculture.

Wetland developers could also opt to undergo a “collaborative process” with concerned stakeholders instead of the regular county conditional use permit process.

The Oregon Farm Bureau supported a change in land use rules for wetlands because the current approach doesn’t provide farmers with a “meaningful opportunity” to weigh in on such projects, said Nash.

Farmers cited numerous problems created by wetlands during earlier hearings on the original version of SB 1517.

Wetlands can increase the frequency of flooding and impede the drainage of nearby farmland, as well as attract birds and noxious weeds to an area, according to growers who support the proposal.

Joe Rocha, who farms near Tillamook Bay, said the changes in hydrology can kill grasses that dairies depend on for feed.

“They brought the saltwater closer to us,” he said.

Kathy Hadley, a farmer in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, said a 500-acre wetland bordering her property increases erosion during the wet season and attracts elk that damage fences.

Such problems can discourage potential buyers when farmers are looking to sell property, said Sharon Waterman, whose farm in Coos County is near a 400-acre wetland.

“Can we even sell our property? I don’t know,” she said.

Supporters of the bill emphasized that it would not block wetland conversions, but would enable a collaborative process in how they’re sited and designed.

“This bill allows rural Oregon and local governments to have a say in what happens in their communities,” said Mark Labhart, a Tillamook County commissioner.

A favorable ruling won by an Oregon farm in a legal dispute over radish seed may have positive consequences for other operations involved in the lawsuit.

Several farms in Oregon are fighting a legal complaint filed by Northwest Bank of Warren, Pa., that claims it has a security interest in radish seed they grew in 2014.

The bank claims the radish seed serves as collateral for a $7 million loan taken out by Cover Crop Solutions, a seed company that contracted with Oregon growers to produce a proprietary variety.

Radish seed is used as a cover crop in the Midwest, but weather in 2014 reduced demand among farmers in that region and resulted in an oversupply.

Northwest Bank’s lawsuit contends that its security interest in the radish seed has priority over that of the growers, but a federal judge in Portland has disagreed with that argument in regard to at least one farm.

U.S. Chief District Judge Michael Mosman has found that Hawman Farms of Hermiston, Ore., agreed to grow roughly $180,000 worth of seed and has a “possessory lien” on the crop that takes precedence over the security interest held by the bank.

Under a possessory lien, a party can retain possession of property until a debt has been paid.

Northwest Bank claimed the contract between Hawman Farms and Cover Crop Solutions invalidated all such liens, but Mosman decided that it only barred liens against the licensed radish cultivar — which was owned by another company — and not the physical seed crop.

Sanford Landress, attorney for Hawman Farms, said Mosman’s opinion may also be consequential for other farms, which claim they have possessory liens on the seed.

Hawman Farms grew, cleaned and stored the radish seed, which puts the company in a different legal position than growers who had another firm clean and store the crop, Landress said.

“People with continuous possession of the seed, like Hawman, are going to beat the bank,” he said.

Several other farms that also possessed the radish seed without interruption have filed similar motions citing the Hawman Farms ruling and asking the judge to declare that their possessory liens have priority.

Farms that did not retain possession of the seed still have other valid legal arguments aside from a possessory lien, Landress said. “The jury is still out as to whether they will prevail or not.”

Capital Press was unable to reach James Ray Streinz, the attorney representing Northwest Bank, for comment.

BEND, Oregon (AP) — U.S. Forest Service officials are preparing to take public comments on a plan that would create an off-road vehicle trail system in Oregon’s Ochoco National Forest.

The Bulletin reports that the plan was developed after a 2005 rule limited off-road recreation on federal forestland.

The federal plan is separate from a new proposal by Oregon Wild, a Portland-based conservation group. Their plan would limit vehicles to roads, rather than trails. It would also designate about 312,000 acres as a national recreation area.

The Forest Service says its proposal would allow regulated off-road use in the Ochoco Mountains and would rely primarily on existing trails and road segments. The system would be open to motorbikes, quads and other off-road vehicles for a four-month summer period.

SALEM — A three-tiered minimum wage plan cleared its last hurdle Thursday when the House of Representatives approved the measure 32 to 25.

Gov. Kate Brown said she plans to sign the bill. The Senate approved the bill last week.

“Today’s action advances one of my priorities for 2016: raise the minimum wage,” Brown said in a statement Thursday.

The plan increases wages to $14.75 in the Portland metro area, $12.50 in rural and coastal areas with struggling economies and $13.50 in the rest of the state by 2022.

The first pay bump starts in July, from $9.25 to $9.75 statewide.

“Thousands of working families are in poverty,” Rep. Paul Holvey, D-Eugene. “They can’t make ends meet. We have the opportunity to address this issue, which hasn’t been addressed in 25 years.

“It is time for us as a state to do everything we can to help the needy,” he said. “This is another tool to make that happen.”

The controversial measure has stirred fears that the increase could threaten the survival of the state’s small businesses.

Supporters of a ballot initiative to raise wages to $15 in the next three years said the legislative plan raises wages too slowly given skyrocketing costs.

They have yet to decide whether to pursue placing the initiative on the 2016 ballot. They are continuing to gather signatures but plan to meet in the next couple of weeks to discuss whether there is enough support and resources for the ballot measure to succeed, said Justin Norton-Kertson, campaign manager for Oregonians for $15 Now.

“We think this bill is grossly inadequate,” Norton-Kertson said.

The halls of the Oregon Capitol echoed with fury while the House debated the legislation.

Demonstrators supporting the $15 Now ballot initiative repeatedly disrupted the debate.

First, demonstrators filled the gallery of the House before House Speaker Tina Kotek, D-Portland, ordered them to be removed for interrupting Rep. Duane Stark, R-Grants Pass, during a floor speech and displaying signs.

Then, the demonstrators assembled in the front of Gov. Kate Brown’s office, located between the House and Senate chambers, and chanted slogans demanding higher wages and affordable housing.

A flier distributed around the demonstration indicated participants came from 15 Now, Portland Tenants United and several other groups.

Later, the demonstrators started pounding on the doors of the House chamber. Legislators in the back of the chamber said they couldn’t hear the debate, and some expressed concern for their safety. She said Oregon State Police were addressing lawmakers’ security concerns.

The debate stopped for about 20 minutes until demonstrators quieted down.

The bill increases wages to $14.75 in the Portland metro area, $12.50 in rural and coastal areas with struggling economies and $13.50 in the rest of the state by 2022.

The first pay bump would start in July, increasing the wage from $9.25 to $9.75 statewide.

During more than five hours of debate Thursday, the House rejected proposals by Republicans to send the proposal to the ballot.

“Let the 2.2 million voters decide what is best for Oregonians and for themselves,” said Rep. Bill Kennemer, R-Oregon City.

Lawmakers also rejected a proposal by Republicans to send the measure to the Joint Committee on Ways and Means for a fiscal analysis.

The legislative fiscal office has said the total cost of the bill to state government is indeterminate because the plan is phased-in and it’s unknown how many wages will be affected each year.

“The decision by the majority party to bypass our budget committee in favor of an expedited approach to passing this bill is nearly unprecedented,” said Rep. Greg Smith, R-Heppner. “We owe it to Oregonians to fully vet this proposal, figure out what it is going to cost taxpayers and make sure we have a plan for addressing those costs.”

Rep. Tobias Read, D-Beaverton, said raising the wage also would save revenue because fewer people would need public assistance.

The minimum gradually would climb to $14.75 in 2022 in the Portland urban growth boundary, which includes parts of Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas counties. It will rise to $13.50 in Benton, Clatsop, Columbia, Deschutes, Hood River, Jackson, Josephine, Lane, Lincoln, Linn, Marion, Polk, Tillamook, Wasco and Yamhill counties, and parts of Multnomah, Clackamas and Washington counties outside Portland’s urban growth boundary.

In rural areas, the minimum would increase to $12.50. Those areas include Malheur, Lake, Harney, Wheeler, Sherman, Gilliam, Wallowa, Grant, Jefferson, Baker, Union, Crook, Klamath, Douglas, Coos, Curry, Umatilla and Morrow counties.

LANGLOIS — Bandon’s girls didn’t panic when they trailed Gold Beach by 13 points in the first half of a must-win Sunset Conference tiebreaker game Wednesday at Pacific High School.

LANGLOIS — A stingy defensive performance and a big night from Austin Smith put Bandon’s boys basketball team in the Class 2A playoffs as the Tigers beat co-champion Toledo 47-36 in a Sunset Conference tiebreaker game at Pacific High School…

SALEM (AP) — The Oregon House has passed a bill to protect the identity of the officer who fatally shot refuge standoff spokesman Robert “LaVoy” Finicum in January.

The Oregonian reports representatives voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to approve allowing a judge to bar for 90 days the disclosure of the name of an officer who uses deadly force. The bill heads to the Senate for consideration.

Oregon State Police requested the bill, saying they have received death threats against the officer who shot Finicum.

The 55-year-old rancher died after law enforcement officers initiated a traffic stop near the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.

Finicum was a leader of an armed group that took over the refuge to protest federal land restrictions and object to prison sentences of two local ranchers convicted of setting fires.

Some against the bill say it could protect officers from public scrutiny.

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Oregon is trailblazing a national debate with a proposal that would not only make the state’s minimum wage for all workers the highest in the U.S., but also set the threshold through a unique tiered system based on geography.

As the federal minimum wage has sat unchanged since the start of the Great Recession, Oregon is expected to follow the lead of more than a dozen other states that have raised the rate within their borders since 2014. Another dozen or so are considering taking up the issue this year, either through legislative action or ballot initiative, as issues of wage inequality and middle-class incomes have climbed to the forefront of presidential campaigns by Democratic candidates Bernie Sanders and Hilary Clinton.

State lawmakers in Oregon are set to vote Thursday on whether to start a series of gradual increases over the course of six years. Oregon’s current $9.25 an hour minimum — already one of the highest in the nation — would jump to $14.75 in metro Portland, $13.50 in smaller cities and $12.50 in rural communities by 2022.

Those minimums would dethrone Massachusetts — where the statewide rate will climb to $11 an hour next year — from the top spot, according to D.C.-based Economic Policy Institute, which has been tracking wage increases across the nation.

Oregon’s regional approach aims to balance the needs of the rapidly growing urban powerhouse of Portland with the state’s struggling farming communities, which have long been deeply divided by their economic, cultural and political differences.

“Oregon has always been at the forefront of new ideas in the country. We were the first to actually have a minimum wage,” said Rep. Paul Holvey, a Democrat from Eugene, Ore. “We’re trying to move people to where they can reach closer to that self-sufficiency.”

Division over the minimum wage — currently at $7.25 in federal law — is often split along party lines and pits low-wage workers against business groups, as has been seen in Oregon this year.

The Oregon plan would follows moves in states such as Massachusetts, California and Vermont that recently boosted statewide minimums above $10. That stands in stark contrast to more conservative states such as Idaho, which has blocked previous efforts to raise its minimum beyond the federal level, and Arizona, where lawmakers are considering a bill that would cut state funding to municipalities that set a local minimum wage.

David Cooper, an economic analyst the Economic Policy Institute, said he applauds the Oregon Legislature for its creative tiered approach, but did express hesitation.

“I think any time you create these sorts of somewhat arbitrary geographic districts, that’s when you can create opportunities for some sort of economic disruption,” he said. “I would prefer the whole state got to the same wage level but at a slower pace by region so that everyone is held to the same standard.”

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A bill aimed at increasing affordable housing by easing Oregon’s land use requirements within two pilot projects is making headway in the House.

Under House Bill 4079, the process for expanding “urban growth boundaries” would be expedited by exempting local governments from certain land use rules or goals on two 50-acre parcels — one next to a city with fewer than 25,000 residents and the other with more.

On Feb. 17, the House Committee on Rules passed an amended version of the bill 5-3 and referred it to the Joint Committee on Ways and Means.

The committee’s amendment changes the size threshold of the pilot project cities to 25,000 residents, down from 30,000 residents.

Pilot projects are excluded from Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington Counties under the newest version of the bill.

Previously, the pilot projects were also barred in Marion, Polk and Yamhill counties, as well as a portion of Jefferson County, in addition to the Portland metropolitan area.

The bill previously won the unanimous approval of the House Committee on Rural Communities, Land Use and Water on Feb. 10.

The Oregon Farm Bureau and conservation groups have opposed HB 4079, arguing that new housing developments should occur within existing urban growth boundaries where roads, power and water are more readily available that in rural areas.

Another proposal to expedite urban growth boundaries more broadly across Oregon — Senate Bill 1575 — while allowing limited “inclusionary zoning” of housing tied to local incomes has died in committee.

In January, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife began carrying out a three-year plan to kill 95 cougars annually in four wildlife management areas.

In three of the areas — Interstate, Warner and Steens — cougars will be killed to rescue decimated mule deer or big horn sheep populations. In the Umpqua region, the intent is to “reduce conflict” with livestock, pets and humans.

Is that what the future holds for Oregon’s wolves?

That is, will Oregon eventually manage them like cougars, with targeted killings of problem wolves, and a sport hunting season? Is that where the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Commission headed when it removed wolves from the state’s endangered species list in November?

It’s way too early to make a call on that, said Derek Broman, who coordinates ODFW’s carnivore and fur bearer wildlife programs.

They are very different animals, he said, and the numbers aren’t comparable. An annual ODFW survey due out in March is expected to show the state has perhaps 100 confirmed wolves, while Oregon’s cougar population is estimated at more than 6,200.

Still, the question arises as Oregon wildlife officials review the state’s cougar plan this year.

Some who follow Oregon’s wolf recovery program believe sport hunting may be allowed eventually. Oregon’s wolf plan, which remains in place even though they were taken off the state endangered species list, allows “controlled take” of wolves in cases of chronic livestock attacks or decreases in prey. ODFW hasn’t ordered any wolves killed since two in 2011, however.

Wildlife biologists believe wolves’ migration from Idaho, establishment in Northeast Oregon and now their dispersal to the further reaches of Oregon is a success story. Wolves rapidly increased in numbers and range, much to the ire of many cattlemen. Only 14 wolves were confirmed in 2009; there were 85 by summer 2015, and the final 2015 count is expected to be above 100.

Broman said cougars also are a conservation success. They were nearly wiped out in Oregon, dropping to an estimated 214 animals in 1961, but recovered as ODFW classified them as a game mammal in 1967 and took over jurisdiction. The population rose to 3,114 by 1994 and has doubled since then.

A healthy population allows more management options, Broman said.

“I would love for wolves to have a robust population, where they’re not as fragile,” he said. “Cougars were kind of non-existent; now they’re back and healthy but we’re trying to find a balance. It would be great if we find the same with wolves.”

Both species prey on elk and deer, however, and that becomes part of the management puzzle. If both reduce ungulate populations, they will seek other prey, including livestock. Wolf packs go after sheep and cattle, while cougars are solitary ambush hunters and less wary of venturing into developed areas to take pets. Tales abound of startled suburban residents seeing cougars on their decks or near outbuildings.

Cougars can swiftly devastate prey populations and disrupt wildlife recovery work. In 2000, three of 17 Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep released in the Minam River area were killed by cougars within a week. The remaining sheep left the release area within 30 days, and ODFW’s transplant work failed.

In 2004, five of 10 radio-collared bighorn ewes released on Steens Mountain were killed by cougars and the rest scattered. A seven-year study in Northeast Oregon tracked the fate of 460 radio-collared elk calves. Of those that died young, 70 percent were killed by cougars.

Under the ODFW plan, approved last October, up to 50 cougars will be killed annually in the Interstate management zone, 10 in Steens Mountain, five in the Warner area and 30 in the Umpqua region. Cougars killed by legal hunters, struck by vehicles or other means will count toward the target totals in each zone. Broman said the management areas are large, ranging from 1,000 to 2,200 square miles.

Killing targeted numbers isn’t a permanent fix. Studies indicate cougars can multiply rapidly, with population increases of 15 to 20 percent per year.

Broman said Oregon has compiled 30 years of research on cougars and projects are continuing, including a Northeast Oregon study that looks at the interaction and competition between cougars and wolves.

“The body of work we have on cougars is unmatched by any western state,” Broman said. “As the science continues to get better, we can answer more specific questions.”