SALEM — Oregon landowners don’t have a simple, reliable method to find out whether their property is considered a wetland.

That’s potentially a big problem if a structure is built on a parcel that state authorities later determine is a wetland, thus making the landowner liable for costly mitigation measures.

Jesse Bounds, a hay exporter near Junction City, Ore., learned that lesson the hard way.

Upon trying to rebuild two barns that had burned down last summer, Bounds was told by Oregon’s Department of State Lands the construction was unlawful because he hadn’t obtained a fill-removal permit. The permit is required when disturbing wetlands.

Bounds was shocked by the notification, since his 12-acre parcel wasn’t identified as a wetland under the State Wetland Inventory and he’d obtained all necessary building permits without a hitch.

Oregon lawmakers are now contemplating two bills that would resolve the problem.

One is aimed specifically at Bounds’ situation, while the other seeks to dispel the broader confusion over which properties fall under DSL’s wetland jurisdiction.

House Bill 2785 takes the narrow approach, by exempting the replacement of a farm building “destroyed by fire or other act of God” from state fill-removal laws.

House Bill 2786 is more expansive, creating an exemption for any property that’s not designated as a wetland under the State Wetland Inventory.

Much of the discussion during a Feb. 21 hearing before the House Agriculture Committee focused on the latter bill.

Proponents argue that landowners may believe their property isn’t subject to fill-removal laws — based on the State Wetland Inventory — without realizing that DSL can nonetheless arrive at a different conclusion.

“They have no idea the map is not right,” said Mary Anne Nash, public policy counsel for the Oregon Farm Bureau.

Landowners such as Bounds, who think they’ve followed all the applicable laws, may never hear from DSL unless a neighbor makes a complaint, said Dave Hunnicutt, executive director of the Oregonians in Action property rights group.

“Unfortunately, that’s the way that DSL exercises its jurisdiction,” Hunnicutt said.

While a housing developer may be able to afford wetland mitigation credits, that option is often too costly for farmers, he said.

Such credits, which effectively pay for the creation of wetlands elsewhere, cost about $77,000 to $81,000 per acre, according to DSL.

“Someone in Mr. Bounds’ position, it puts him out of business,” said Hunnicutt.

Opponents of HB 2786 claim the bill would jeopardize wetlands across Oregon because many aren’t included in the State Wetland Inventory.

The State Wetland Inventory only includes a “small subset” of wetlands that are under both state and federal jurisdiction, said Tom Wolf, executive director of the Oregon Council of Trout Unlimited, a group that advocates for fish habitat.

“It’s too broad a bill,” Wolf said.

The League of Women Voters of Oregon believes the wetland designation process should be made clearer but worries HB 2786 sets a definition that’s too limited, said Peggy Lynch, the group’s natural resouces coordinator.

“We need to have something more than the State Wetland Inventory to consider,” she said.

Several members of the House Agriculture Committee said they sympathized with Bounds’ predicament and the need to clarify wetland designations, including Rep. Brian Clem, D-Salem, the committee’s chair.

Clem said he favored a simpler alternative to the current system of identifying wetlands, under which parcels are evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

“That to me sounds horribly tiresome and painful,” he said.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The federal prosecutors who failed to convict Ammon Bundy returned to court Tuesday to try four lesser-known men who followed Bundy’s call to take a hard stand against the government and occupy a national wildlife refuge in Oregon.

Like the defendants in the first trial, the primary charge facing the men is conspiracy to impede Interior Department employees from doing their jobs at the refuge through the use of force, threats or intimidation.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Barrow spent a good portion of his opening statement telling jurors that a conspiracy does not have to include people gathering around a conference table and drafting a written agreement.

Barrow acknowledged there was no written agreement, but said circumstantial evidence will show there was a “meeting of the minds” to prevent federal employees from going to work.

The four defendants are Duane Ehmer of Irrigon, Oregon; Jason Patrick of Bonaire, Georgia; Darryl Thorn of Marysville, Washington; and Jake Ryan of Plains, Montana. The men, all free on their own recognizance, waived their right to a speedy trial last fall, preferring to have more time to prepare.

Three of them are also charged with possessing a firearm in a federal facility. Two are charged with depredation of government property.

They were among the more than two dozen men and women who answered Bundy’s call to occupy the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge to protest federal control of Western lands and the imprisonment of two ranchers convicted of setting fires on public rangeland.

“The defendants are not being tried for their political beliefs, no matter how baseless, radical and ridiculous they may be,” Barrow told jurors.

Andrew Kohlmetz, an attorney representing Patrick, countered that the beliefs of the men are at the heart of the case, because they are what drove them to the refuge. He told the Portland jury of seven women and five men that impeding workers was not one of those beliefs and there was no conspiracy.

“The evidence will fail to show that a single person went there with the conscious desire or goal to interfere with anyone who worked there,” Kohlmetz said.

The protesters gained control of the refuge on Jan. 2, 2016. The Bundys were arrested in a Jan. 26 traffic stop away from the refuge that ended with police fatally shooting Robert “LaVoy” Finicum, an occupation spokesman. Most occupiers left the refuge after Finicum’s death, but a few holdouts remained until Feb. 11, 2016.

There was no dispute the group seized the refuge and established armed patrols, but jurors last fall bought defense arguments that the takeover was an act of civil disobedience and the government failed to prove a conspiracy against employees.

Barrow and the other prosecutors who lost what initially seemed an open-and-shut case declined interview requests after the bitter defeat, and haven’t elaborated on what they think went wrong.

Unlike the first trial, they hired an outside consultant to help them with last week’s jury selection process, a sign they believe the seeds of defeat were planted before the first witness was called.

They also hedged their bets by adding misdemeanors such as trespassing to the mix of charges against the four men. The misdemeanor charges will be heard in a non-jury trial after the felony trial ends.

Bundy, the star of the first trial, is expected to appear in the sequel as a defense witness. Though cleared in Oregon, he’s in a Nevada jail awaiting trial on charges stemming from a 2014 standoff with federal authorities at his father’s ranch near Bunkerville.

The defense plans to put him on the stand for two days, letting him explain the occupation and what it hoped to accomplish.

SALEM — A desire to reduce inefficiencies — and neighbor conflicts — is driving Oregon dairy farmers to cut unwanted emissions, according to an industry expert.

Environmental activists often bemoan the lack of federal and state air quality restrictions for dairies, but farmers are taking steps on their own, said Troy Downing, dairy extension specialist at Oregon State University.

“As we get new science, our industry is adopting it quicker than we would through regulation,” Downing said at the Oregon Dairy Farmers Association’s annual conference on Feb. 20.

The prospect of Oregon’s government taking a more active role has been raised by Senate Bill 197, which would require the state Environmental Quality Commission to enact formal rules for reducing dairy air emissions.

The legislation seeks to formalize recommendations made by a dairy air task force in 2008, which proponents of SB 197 complain haven’t been acted upon, Downing said.

In reality, though, dairy farms have voluntarily implemented “best management practices” such as installing anaerobic digesters to capture gases and use them for energy production, he said.

“We have made significant progress,” Downing said.

Decreasing odors allows dairy farmers to be good neighbors as well as curtail volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, he said.

The adoption of automated scrapers has led to more frequent removal of manure and urine from barns, Downing said. Waste is more stable in a liquid state, which prevents volatilization and the release of undesirable gases.

Some measures also help farmers put the nutrients in manure to better use.

By applying to manure to fields with “big guns” at high pressure, more of the substance is released as an aerosol-like spray that’s prone to volatilizing into a gas, Downing said.

More farmers are now switching from the big guns to low-pressure or injection systems that preserve nitrogen while reducing gases, he said.

Manure is often assumed to be the culprit in dairy emissions, but feed and silage also release gases, Downing said.

Dispersing smaller amounts of silage several times a day — rather than a large amount once — decreases the amount of time it lays around, reducing VOCs, he said.

Storing silage in a narrower pit also shrinks the size of the open “face” as feed is removed, reducing volatilization of gases compared to a broader pit with a larger face, he said.

As gases are volatilized from silage, the material’s weight decreases, Downing said. “That’s dry matter you’re losing to the atmosphere that the cows aren’t eating, that you bought and paid for.”

Reducing emissions can be advantageous for dairies, but Downing noted that livestock production contributes to only 4 percent of U.S. emissions of “greenhouses gases,” according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The dairy industry’s share is less than 1.5 percent of total U.S. emissions.

Meanwhile, Oregon’s air quality is predominantly rated as “good” by the EPA, though some areas occasionally dip into “moderate” territory when people heavily use wood stoves during atmospheric inversions, Downing said.

“Oregon really has no air quality problem. What problem are you trying to fix?” he said.

CORVALLIS, Ore. — New and experienced small farm enthusiasts made up the near-capacity crowd at the 17th Annual Oregon Small Farm Conference Feb. 18 on the Oregon State University campus.

The sessions were geared toward farmers, agricultural professionals, food policy advocates, students and farmers’ market managers.

Attendees could go to some of the 27 sessions offered throughout the day and had access to 45 industry vendors, an industry-rich resource bookstore, a breakfast and lunch of local foods and “Think and Drink” information-sharing sessions throughout the day.

First-time attendee Sue Delventhal came with her husband, Joerg, and their 13-year-old son, Tim.

“This not only is our first conference, but we are new to farming,” Delventhal said. “Two-and-one-half years ago, Joerg and I followed our dream and bought five acres on a 1,400-foot elevation ridge on Chehalem Mountain near Newberg. The property is heavily wooded, which almost makes us more like homesteaders than farmers.”

She heard about the conference after a visit to the OSU Yamhill Extension office in McMinnville.

“After attending, I saw that it wouldn’t matter who you were or what you were doing, you could find something there of value,” she said. “My priority was the session on organic weed management and I was really impressed with what I was able to learn. I know now that I have basically two types of weeds, that I need to do more mulching and I need to do a lot more studying on the subject.”

Joerg was most interested in the dryland farming session.

“We have a great loam soil but living on top of a mountain gives us water issues,” she said. “Because I’m the one home in the daytime, I am able to do a lot of the farm work but Joerg and Tim get called in on all of the big muscle jobs.”

The conference started in Eugene in 2000 and moved to Corvallis two years later.

“There were 50 at the first one, then 180, 240, 800 and today there were 925,” Chrissy Lucas, one of the event coordinators, said. “Some people come every year, and some come if there are specific sessions they need. First-timers made up 40 percent of the attendees this year.”

Featured among the presenters this year were farmer-authors Ben Hartman of Clay Bottom Farm in Goshen Ind., and Josh Volk of Slow Hand Farm near Portland, Ore.

Their books “The Lean Farm: How to Minimize Waste, Increase Efficiency and Maximize Value and Profits with Less Work” by Hartman and “Compact Farms: 15 Proven Plans for Market Farms on 5 Acres or Less: Includes Detailed Farm Layouts for Productivity and Efficiency” by Volk are available at Amazon.com.

“Our goal is to bring people together to help solve problems of small-scale farming,” Garry Stephenson, OSU Extension small farms specialist and small farms program coordinator, said. “Both of our featured presenters drew 200 to 250 people each in their sessions.”

He said the target market for the conference is “both young people who are interested in and already doing it and an older group of people who are doing it as a second career.”

“We are trying to help them with profit, viability and, most of all, show them ways to stay nimble,” Stephenson said. “As soon as we get this conference evaluated, we’ll start on the next one set for Saturday, Feb. 24, 2018.”

Online

For more information, visit smallfarmconference.org.

Tuesdays

WEDNESDAY, FEB. 22

CEDAR MILL, Ore. — One of the key figures in Oregon agriculture right now is a gardener but not a farmer, writes a community newspaper but has no journalism training, and worries about insecticides but endorses a five-year state plan to kill invasive Japanese beetles.

“I’m at Ground Zero,” said Virginia Bruce. “This is a huge threat.”

That it is. The Oregon Department of Agriculture proposes to treat about 1,000 acres in Washington County, just west of Portland, with annual granular applications of Acelepryn, which will kill Japanese beetles in the grub stage. But to get after the beetles, department staff will have to treat yards and flower beds at about 2,500 private homes. And they might have to come back annually for up to five consecutive years.

These days, expecting the public to believe what government scientists say isn’t a sure thing. And some people in the treatment area might question the insecticide plan if it were being pushed solely by a business group, such as the plant nurseries whose product is at risk.

Clint Burfitt, who manages the eradication program for the ag department, said there is something akin to an “anti-expert” atmosphere at work, and a grass-roots effort stands a better chance of reaching people. Following that line, he identified Bruce, who has extensive community connections as editor and publisher of the monthly Cedar Mill News, as an important ally.

“It’s pretty clever,” Bruce said. “This guy Burfitt is an expert on these beetles and ways to deal with it. He said the only way to have a successful campaign is to have community partners.”

She said Burfitt recently attended a community meeting that included members of the Aloha Garden Club, which holds an annual plant sale and gets some of its plants from members who live in what Bruce calls “Ground Zero.” It’s quite possible, Bruce said, that some plant buyers took Japanese Beetle grubs home with them.

The agriculture department decided to take action after a record 369 beetles were found in traps last year and numerous live beetles were found eating roses and other plants in the area. Japanese beetles are capable of causing heavy damage. They’ll eat nursery plants, wine grapes, cannabis, hazelnuts and cane berries in addition to homeowners’ flowers.

Burfitt said failure to stop the infestation would cost Oregon agriculture an estimated $43 million a year in lost plant value, export restrictions and increased spraying and other production costs. The department says Acelepryn, the insecticide, won’t harm pets, birds, bees or people.

He’s won Bruce over, and she’s using her print edition, website and email newsletter, and her garden club connections, to help spread the word. She’s been writing about it since last August, and the windows of her office display informational fliers and maps of the affected area.

“If the problem gets out of control, everybody who grows that kind of stuff will have to spray, and that’s worse,” she said. “The importance of this whole thing is just mind-boggling.”

In addition to helping Burfitt make community connections, she helped convince the ag department to revise its outreach material. The first version urged homeowners to protect the “Rose City,” which is Portland’s nickname. But Cedar Mill and Bethany are proudly and distinctly outside the city in unincorporated Washington County, and residents don’t like to be called “Northwest Portland.”

“I understand how devastating an invasive pest can be,” Bruce said. “I understand how it can affect the economy and enjoyment of the community. The damage potential of these beetles far outweighs the reservations I have about using chemicals.”

The ag department will hold a pair of open house meetings on the project. The first is Saturday, March 4, from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Leedy Grange Hall, 835 N.W. Saltzman Road. The second is Monday, March 6, from 5:15 to 7:15 p.m. at the Cedar Mill Library, 12505 N.W. Cornell Road.

More information about the project is online: http://www.japanesebeetlepdx.info/

Virginia Bruce

Occupation: Editor and publisher of the Cedar Mill News.

Personal: Age 70, divorced. Her son, James Bruce, is an attorney in Tigard, Ore. Her daughter, Megan Bruce, suffered from depression and committed suicide. Virginia Bruce speaks openly about it in hopes of helping other families.

Ag connection: Has become the Oregon Department of Agriculture’s key community connection as it moves to eradicate invasive Japanese beetles in a 1,000-acre residential area of Washington County.

Professional development: Bruce said she fell into publishing the Cedar Mill News. Years before, when her children were young, she’d put together the Portland Family Calendar, a listing of activities and other information. In Cedar Mill, the local business association was seeking to reach more people and Bruce suggested a similar newsletter. From there, the monthly publication evolved into a community newspaper. It’s printed on high-speed copiers, with 800 copies distributed free. It also circulates by email and has a website, http://cedarmill.org/news/index.html

Office partner: Scout, an active 3 1/2-year-old Jack Russell-Dachsund mix. “Everything’s her business,” Bruce said. “She takes after me.”

SALEM — Oregon’s farm regulators may curtail inspections conducted on behalf of the federal government to free up time to tackle a backlog of state food safety inspections.

The Oregon Department of Agriculture performs 500 inspections a year to ensure food manufacturers are following federal sanitation standards and other regulations, for which the U.S. Food and Drug Administration pays the agency $700,000.

Last year, a state audit found that ODA’s food safety program had a backlog of 2,800 facilities — such as processors, dairies and bakeries — that were overdue for an inspection by at least three months.

As part of its plan to reduce the backlog, ODA is considering trimming the number of federal inspections to 400 a year, which would also reduce its federal funding for inspections by one-fifth, said Stephanie Page, the agency’s director of food safety and animal health.

That shift would free up about 700 hours a year that ODA employees could devote to state inspections, which are typically more streamlined and require less extensive reports than federal inspections, Page said during a recent meeting of the Oregon Board of Agriculture.

Currently, the ODA employs 32 inspectors, two field operation managers and 7 specialists who also conduct inspections.

It’s also possible that ODA will withdraw from the FDA’s Manufactured Food Regulatory Program Standards program, a cooperative food safety program that enrolls state agencies, Page said.

The ODA has enforcement authorities, such as suspending or revoking operating licenses, necessary to ensure food safety, she said. “We have the teeth we need to deal with issues.”

Oregon’s contemplated decrease in federal inspections comes at a time when the FDA is poised to become even more dependent on state officials to carry out the Food Safety Modernization Act.

The law was enacted in 2011 but the FDA spent several years completing the rules for farmers and manufacturers, which state agencies are expected to help implement.

The FSMA regulations will likely make federal inspections of food facilities even more time-consuming, likely further reducing the number of such inspections that ODA can handle, said Page.

Aside from enhanced inspections of manufacturing facilities, FSMA requires on-site inspections of farms that grow produce this is eaten raw.

The ODA isn’t certain it wants to perform such inspections, though the agency has asked state lawmakers for that authority just in case, said Page.

If the agency does conduct on-farm inspections for FDA, it would need a separate group of employees dedicated to the task, she said.

“We have to have federal funds to do it and we have to have additional staff,” Page said.

Saturdays

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A federal judge has dropped one of three charges filed against the lawyer for the leader of the armed occupation at an Oregon wildlife refuge.

U.S District Judge John C. Coughenour also said in court Thursday he will decide, not a jury, on the other two charges.

Coughenour dismissed a charge that accused Marcus Mumford of creating a disturbance by impeding the official duties of government officers because it encompassed the same conduct alleged in the second count, failing to comply with official signs that prohibit the disruption of federal officers’ official work.

The incident in question occurred when Mumford’s client Ammon Bundy was acquitted last fall and Mumford was tackled by federal marshals for refusing to stop arguing with the judge.

Mumford is also charged with failure to comply with the lawful direction of a federal police officer.

EUGENE, Ore. — Environmentalists claim the USDA’s contract to kill wolves on behalf of Oregon wildlife officials is unlawful because the federal agency hasn’t properly analyzed the environmental impacts.

The USDA, meanwhile, argues a lawsuit over the agreement is baseless because Oregon can kill problematic wolves even without federal assistance.

“This is predominantly a state program. The USDA is very much a bit player,” said Sean Martin, attorney for the agency, during oral arguments on Feb. 16 in Eugene, Ore.

Wolves in Eastern Oregon are no longer listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act but their population in that region is still managed under a state plan.

USDA’s Wildlife Services division killed two wolves at Oregon’s behest in 2009, which prompted environmental groups to sue the agency.

Under a settlement deal, USDA agreed to conduct an environmental assessment of its lethal wolf removal agreement with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

In 2014, the USDA’s analysis concluded its wolf control activities didn’t have significant environmental impacts, but five environmental groups — Cascadia Wildlands, Center for Biological Diversity, Wildearth Guardians, Predator Defense and Project Coyote — challenged that finding in federal court last year.

The plaintiffs asked U.S. District Judge Michael McShane to prohibit Wildlife Services from killing wolves in Oregon because USDA’s environmental assessment of the contract violated the National Environmental Policy Act.

USDA failed to take a “hard look” at the impact of killing wolves on the species’ population and ecosystem, said John Mellgren, attorney for the environmental groups.

Reducing predation on livestock by killing wolves hasn’t conclusively shown to be effective over the long term, so the strategy requires a greater degree of scrutiny by USDA, he said.

“It’s not settled science. There is controversy in the scientific community,” Mellgren said.

USDA’s analysis didn’t sufficiently consider the disruption to pack structure from lethal removal and neglected actions against wolves taken in neighboring states, he said.

The plaintiffs also argued that Wildlife Services will dispatch wolves more efficiently than Oregon wildlife managers, which casts doubt on the USDA’s claim that Oregon’s lethal control activities will proceed without federal help.

Non-target animals can be also killed by traps intended for wolves, but the USDA didn’t analyze those impacts as required, Mellgren said.

“We don’t know that because it’s not disclosed anywhere in the record,” he said of the number non-target killings.

The cumulative effects of USDA’s involvement in Oregon’s wolf control program should have triggered a more comprehensive environmental impact statement, or EIS, he said.

The USDA countered that even if Wildlife Services was ordered to desist from killing wolves, Oregon’s lethal control efforts would continue.

“This isn’t some brand new course of action,” Martin said.

The lethal expertise offered by USDA doesn’t trigger the need for an EIS because killing a few problem wolves has minimal consequences for the species, said Martin.

Lethal removal isn’t meant to be a long-term strategy against livestock predation, but rather a response to an immediate problem, he said.

“We’re talking about very limited removal of wolves under very circumscribed conditions,” Martin said.

The USDA minimizes unintentional killing of non-target species by using devices that reduce the chances smaller animals, such as coyotes and foxes, are caught in traps.

Larger animals, such as cougars and bears, are unlikely to be caught in traps set for wolves anyway, the USDA said.

Even if some coyotes, foxes, cougars and bears are caught in the wolf traps, they’re abundant enough in Oregon to render the environmental impact negligible, the agency said.

While it’s possible for non-target species to be caught in wolf traps, “I don’t believe this record shows us this has been a problem in Oregon,” said Martin.

At the conclusion of the hearing, McShane said he hoped to issue a ruling that would resolve the case within a month.

Sept. 24, 1920 — Feb. 10, 2017

EUGENE, Ore. — Environmentalists claim the USDA’s contract to kill wolves on behalf of Oregon wildlife officials is unlawful because the federal agency hasn’t properly analyzed environmental impacts.

The USDA, meanwhile, argues a lawsuit over the agreement is baseless because Oregon can kill problematic wolves even without federal assistance.

“This is predominantly a state program. The USDA is very much a bit player,” said Sean Martin, attorney for the agency, during oral arguments on Feb. 16 in Eugene, Ore.

Wolves in Eastern Oregon are no longer listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act but their population in that region is still managed under a state plan.

USDA’s Wildlife Services division killed two wolves at Oregon’s behest in 2009, which prompted environmental groups to file a lawsuit against the agency.

Under a settlement deal, USDA agreed to conduct an environmental assessment of its lethal wolf removal agreement with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

In 2014, the USDA’s analysis concluded its wolf control activities didn’t have significant environmental impacts, but five environmental groups — Cascadia Wildlands, Center for Biological Diversity, Wildearth Guardians, Predator Defense and Project Coyote — challenged that finding in federal court last year.

The plaintiffs asked U.S. District Judge Michael McShane to prohibit Wildlife Services from killing wolves in Oregon because USDA’s environmental assessment of the contract violated the National Environmental Policy Act.

USDA failed to take a “hard look” at the impact of killing wolves on the species’ population and ecosystem, said John Mellgren, attorney for the environmental groups.

Reducing predation on livestock by killing wolves hasn’t conclusively shown to be effective over the long term, so the strategy requires a greater degree of scrutiny by USDA, he said.

“It’s not settled science. There is controversy in the scientific community,” Mellgren said.

USDA’s analysis didn’t sufficiently consider the disruption to pack structure from lethal removal and neglected actions against wolves taken in neighboring states, he said.

The plaintiffs also argued that Wildlife Services will dispatch wolves more efficiently than Oregon wildlife managers, which casts doubt on the USDA’s claim that Oregon’s lethal control activities will proceed without federal help.

Non-target animals can be also killed by traps intended for wolves, but the USDA didn’t analyze these impacts as required, Mellgren said.

“We don’t know that because it’s not disclosed anywhere in the record,” he said of the number non-target killings.

The cumulative effects of USDA’s involvement in Oregon’s wolf control program should have triggered a more comprehensive “environmental impact statement,” or EIS, he said.

The USDA countered that even if Wildlife Services was ordered to desist from killing wolves, Oregon’s lethal control efforts would continue.

“This isn’t some brand new course of action,” Martin said.

The lethal expertise offered by USDA doesn’t trigger the need for an EIS because killing a few problem wolves has minimal consequences for the species, said Martin.

Lethal removal isn’t meant to be a long-term strategy against livestock predation, but rather a response to an immediate problem, he said.

“We’re talking about very limited removal of wolves under very circumscribed conditions,” Martin said.

The USDA minimizes unintentional killing of non-target species by using devices that reduce the chances smaller animals, such as coyotes and foxes, are caught in traps.

Larger animals, such as cougars and bears, are unlikely to be caught in traps set for wolves anyway, the USDA said.

Even if some coyotes, foxes, cougars and bears are caught in the wolf traps, they’re abundant enough in Oregon to render the environmental impact negligible, the agency said.

While it’s possible for non-target species to be caught in wolf traps, “I don’t believe this record shows us this has been a problem in Oregon,” said Martin.

At the conclusion of the hearing, McShane said he hoped to issue a ruling that would resolve the case within a month.

The federal government unlawfully expanded the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument onto public land that’s dedicated to timber production, according to a lawsuit by 17 Oregon counties.

The Association of O&C Counties claims the national monument designation will effectively prohibit logging on 35,000 acres of U.S. Bureau of Land Management forests that must be harvested on a “sustained yield basis” under a 1937 law.

Capital Press was unable to reach a representative of the U.S. Interior Department, which oversees the BLM.

The 53,000-acre national monument was initially created in 2000 under the Clinton administration and was recently increased by 48,000 acres in the waning days of the Obama administration, to the consternation of timber and grazing interests.

Much of the newly added acreage is comprised of lands the federal government originally granted to the Oregon & California Railroad in the late 1800s but later repossessed due to a contract breach.

Because that property was taken off county tax rolls, the O&C Act of 1937 committed it to forest production, with 50-75 percent of the logging revenues going to 17 counties in Western Oregon.

The Association of O&C Counties, which represents those governments, argues that O&C Lands can’t be included in the national monument because commercial logging is prohibited within its boundaries.

According to the complaint, the federal government has repeatedly backed off from including portions of the O&C Lands within a national monument, a wilderness area or a state park.

In 1986, the federal government concluded that O&C Lands may only be included in a plan to protect the threatened spotted owl if it doesn’t conflict with timber production, the complaint said.

Counties affected by the expansion were caught by surprise by the Obama administration’s announcement and had no input on the decision, said Rocky McVay, executive director of the Association of O&C Counties.

“We’re very disappointed we weren’t brought into this early on,” he said.

It’s possible that ranchers and inholding landowners may also file lawsuits against the expansion, McVay said.

The lawsuit has asked a federal judge to declare that expanding the national monument onto O&C Lands exceeds presidential authority.

McVay said his group hasn’t been in touch with the Trump administration about the lawsuit and whether the expansion could be rolled back under a settlement deal.

“We have to wait and see. The ink hasn’t quite dried on it yet,” he said, noting that Ryan Zinke, the nominee to head the Interior Department, hasn’t yet been confirmed by the Senate.

The Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center, an environmental group in the area, believes the acreage added to the national monument is valuable beyond its extractive uses, said Jeanine Moy, outreach director for the group.

“There are not many places that are as biologically diverse as this region,” she said.

The lawsuit’s understanding of the O&C Act is too narrow, as the statute also recognizes the importance of preserving stream flows and recreational uses, Moy said.

“Counties have largely intepreted it as ‘timber first’ when the Act doesn’t necessarily say that,” she said.

It’s uncertain whether environmental groups will seek to intervene in the lawsuit as defendants or how the Trump administration will react to the complaint, Moy said.

Expanding the national monument provides better access for researchers and the public while the lawsuit is focused on extracting timber, she said. “It really only goes to benefit just a few.”

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A jury of seven women and five men, as well as four alternates, has been selected to hear the trial of four men who joined Ammon Bundy at last winter’s armed takeover of a wildlife refuge in southeastern Oregon.

The Oregonian/OregonLive reported Wednesday that the jury was chosen after attorneys for both the prosecution and the defense interviewed about 58 prospective jurors out of a pool of 1,000 people. The trial is expected to begin next week.

This is the second trial in connection to the occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. Last fall, jurors acquitted Bundy and six others.

The defendants now on trial include Duane Ehmer, Jason Patrick, Jake Ryan and Darryl Thorn. All are accused of conspiring to impede Interior Department employees through the use of force, threats or intimidation.

BANDON – When Jonathan Hawkins and Nicole Rush purchased the McNair Building in 2015 they had big plans for the historic structure located at the entrance to Old Town. Those dreams are soon coming to fruition with the opening of…

BANDON – When Jonathan Hawkins and Nicole Rush purchased the McNair Building in 2015 they had big plans for the historic structure located at the entrance to Old Town. Those dreams are soon coming to fruition with the opening of…

Oregon’s heavy snow in January caused problems for wildlife staff who track the state’s wolf population.

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife said extreme weather in northeast Oregon, where most of the state’s wolves live, interrupted airplane, helicopter and ground surveys of wolfpacks. As a result, the annual wolf report has been delayed a month and won’t be delivered to the ODFW Commission until its April 21 meeting in Klamath Falls.

The report usually is released in March and typically includes an updated wolf population count and information on the number of breeding pairs in the state. The count provides an information baseline as the commission considers updates to the state’s Wolf Management and Conservation plan. The plan is reviewed every five years, and the commission will most likely adopt an updated version later in 2017.

Although heavy snow and an extended cold snap delayed ODFW’s field work, department spokeswoman Michelle Dennehy said it probably didn’t harm Oregon’s wolves.

“Wolves typically do quite well during the winter,” she said by email. “Winters that are hard on deer and elk may actually be easier on wolves. There is winter (prey) loss to scavenge and it is harder for ungulates (deer and elk) to escape in the deep snow.”

Oregon had a minimum of 110 wolves at the end of 2015, according to figures released by ODFW in February 2016. At least seven wolves died in 2016. Four members of Wallowa County’s Imnaha pack, including venerable alpha male OR-4, were shot by ODFW in March 2016 after repeatedly attacking, killing and eating livestock. Wildlife biologists speculated at the time that the group began attacking livestock due to OR-4’s advanced age and the fact that his longtime mate limped from an injured leg. They had two yearlings with them, and the four appeared to have separated from or been forced out of the main Imnaha pack.

In addition, a female wolf designated OR-28 was found dead in October 2016 in south-central Oregon. Officials have not said how the wolf died, and Oregon State Police are investigating. A $20,000 reward for information is available.

State police also are investigating a wolf found dead in Northeast Oregon in March 2016.

In May 2016, a sheep herder shot a wolf from the Walla Walla pack that was attacking sheep. State police judged the shooting was lawful under the “caught in act” provision that allows producers to kill wolves that are wounding, biting, killing or chasing livestock, according to ODFW.

Oregon water regulators want to raise fees for water rights transactions by nearly 16 percent over four years to avoid processing slowdowns for irrigators.

The Oregon Water Resource Department’s request to state lawmakers, House Bill 2295, would mark the third such increase since 2009.

Some groups representing irrigators are uneasy about the proposal, particularly in light of another bill that would impose a new $100 management fee on every water right in Oregon.

Under H.B. 2295, a transaction fee increase of 15.88 percent would be phased in over four years and a sunset on previous hikes — set to expire this year — would be eliminated.

If the fee schedule reverted back to 2009 levels, OWRD would have to cut 5.5 full-time positions, effectively extending the time that irrigators must wait to develop or transfer water rights, said Tom Byler, the agency’s director.

The increase is also necessary to maintain OWRD’s dam inspection program, which oversees roughly 900 large structures, he said. “These are all very important functions for the agency.”

Fees must be raised just to keep these services at current levels due to climbing expenses for salaries, benefits and retirement plans for state employees, Byler said at a Feb. 13 hearing of the House Committee on Energy and the Environment.

The Oregon Water Resources Congress, an irrigator group, wishes that fee increases wouldn’t occur so frequently but nonetheless supports HB 2295, said April Snell, its executive director.

The Oregon Association of Nurseries also testified in favor of the bill.

“Water transfers are a big part of how we do business,” said Jeff Stone, executive director of OAN. Nurseries typically rely on water rights transfers when they expand production onto newly bought or leased property.

Water for Life, an irrigator group, is concerned about the rate at which costs are growing, said Richard Kosesan, its lobbyst. “Water for Life is not enamored with the fee increases.”

The Oregon Farm Bureau is neutral regarding HB 2295 and won’t oppose the hike as long as another piece of legislation — House Bill 2706, which imposes the $100 management fee on water rights — isn’t passed, said Mary Anne Nash, public policy counsel for the group.

The cost of processing water rights transactions is currently split evenly between water users and OWRD. The Farm Bureau wants the agency to continue shouldering half the expense instead of shifting more of the burden on irrigators, Nash said.

LANGLOIS -- Love books? You can easily find the books you like to read at the Friends of the Langlois Library’s Book Sale, set for 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday Feb. 25, at the Langlois Lions Club, Floras Lake Loop in…