SALEM — A political dispute over new taxes on healthcare in Oregon is being blamed for an irrigation district losing $1.9 million to pipe an open canal.

Lawmakers approved money for the Bradshaw Drop Irrigation Canal Piping Project in July as part of a broader spending bill, but Gov. Kate Brown has now vetoed funding for that project and several others in Southern Oregon.

Rep. Sal Esquivel, R-Medford, said he agreed to vote for the healthcare taxes — giving the proposal the necessary three-fifths majority to pass the House — in return for the spending projects.

Since then, however, Esquivel has thrown his support behind an effort to refer the healthcare taxes to voters as part of a ballot initiative.

In retaliation, Brown has vetoed several projects that are important to his district, Esquivel said.

“She’s vindictive toward me,” he said. “She’s politicizing good projects just for vindictiveness.”

A spokesman for the governor did not respond to a request for comment, but in her written announcement of the vetoes, Brown said, “The cornerstone of all negotiations whether they occur in a public or private arena, is the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing.”

While it’s disappointing the “political feud” has caused the state funding to fall through, the Rogue River Irrigation District is still expecting to begin the piping its canal in autumn 2018, said Brian Hampson, the district’s manager.

The irrigation district still has $3.4 million available from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to pipe 1.2 miles of the 3.3 mile canal, he said.

This portion of the piping project is more complicated due to environmental studies and logistical complexities, which is why it’s expected to cost more than the remainder of the project, Hampson said.

The $1.9 million from the state government would have been dedicated to the more straight-forward task of replacing 2.1 miles of canal with piping, he said.

It’s unclear how the irrigation district will now pay for that segment, but Hampson said he’s hopeful to “quit all the political crap” and find funding for the project on its own merits.

Currently, the open canal is leaky, resulting in losses of water that could otherwise be dedicated to irrigation or left in-stream for fish habitat.

By pressurizing the irrigation system, farmers will be able to convert from flood irrigation to more efficient sprinklers, saving water while reducing sediment runoff.

Eventually, the irrigation district also expects to evaluate using the pressurized water to generate hydroelectric power.

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A group that represents farmers is calling the costs of saving imperiled salmon in the largest river system in the Pacific Northwest unsustainable and is turning to the Trump administration to sidestep endangered species laws.

The Columbia-Snake River Irrigators Association wants the government to convene a Cabinet-level committee with the power to allow exemptions to the Endangered Species Act. Known as the “God squad” because its decisions can lead to extinctions of threatened wildlife, it has only gathered three times — the last 25 years ago during a controversy over spotted owl habitat in the Northwest.

The irrigators association is frustrated with court rulings it says favor fish over people, claiming the committee could end years of legal challenges over U.S. dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers and bring stability for irrigators, power generators and other businesses that rely on the water.

Environmental groups call the request a publicity stunt and say it could hurt fishing companies and others that rely on healthy runs of federally protected salmon and steelhead.

The association sees hope in a series of pro-industry environmental decisions by President Donald Trump. His administration has rescinded an Obama-era rule that would shield many small streams and other bodies of water from pollution and development, enacted policies to increase coal mining on federal lands and proposed giving Western states greater flexibility to allow development in habitat of sage grouse, a threatened bird.

Darryll Olsen, association board representative, said the irrigators requested the committee during former President Barack Obama’s tenure but got nowhere. He said the Trump administration has been encouraging during talks, leading to a formal request last month for a meeting with Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke.

“What we’re asking for is that the secretary give direction to the (Interior) Department to work with us to review the steps for implementing the God squad,” Olsen said.

Zinke can gather the committee, which he would chair and would include other natural resource agencies, such as the Environmental Protection Agency. It also would include representatives from Washington state, Oregon, Idaho and Montana.

If five of the federal committee members agree, they could exempt U.S. agencies from Endangered Species Act requirements for one or more of the 13 species of salmon and steelhead listed since the early 1990s.

The irrigators group, which has 120 members growing food crops in Washington state and Oregon, expects to meet with Zinke soon, Olsen said.

Interior spokeswoman Heather Swift said in an email that the agency could not comment on a committee that had not been formed and that she had no information about Zinke’s meetings.

Joseph Bogaard, executive director of a coalition of conservation, commercial, sport fishing and business groups called Save Our Wild Salmon, blasted the irrigation association’s request.

“It’s a terrible idea that will deliver great harm to the people and businesses of the Pacific Northwest,” said Bogaard, whose coalition relies on the fish to produce millions of dollars of revenue.

A federal judge ruled last year that the government had not done enough to improve salmon runs despite spending billions of dollars and urged it to consider removing four dams on the lower Snake River.

Todd True, a lawyer with the environmental law firm Earthjustice who represented some plaintiffs in that 2016 ruling, said the God squad request should go nowhere.

“There isn’t any basis to convene the committee because there are reasonable alternatives to save the fish,” he said, pointing to the dam removal option. “Their removal would be a big step forward.”

This year, fish counts at dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers have been well below the 10-year average, which biologists blame on droughts in 2014 and 2015 and warming ocean conditions.

Various results have emerged the three times the God squad has convened. It refused to grant an exemption for a Tennessee dam in the 1970s over a fish called the snail darter. Regarding crane protection in the Midwest, a settlement was reached before the panel offered a decision.

In 1992, it voted to sidestep protections for the northern spotted owl and allow the Interior Department to sell timber on land in Oregon.

FRIDAY, AUG. 11

Traps set in conjunction with an Oregon Department of Agriculture eradication campaign in the Portland area caught a stunning 12,000 Japanese beetles, an invasive pest that can cause major damage to home gardens and to nursery, vegetable, vineyard and orchard crops.

A department official hastened to say the heavy count — only 372 were caught last year and that was enough to trigger the eradication effort — doesn’t mean the campaign didn’t work.

This past spring, department contractors treated the grounds of about 2,400 residences on 1,000 acres west of Portland with a granular form of the insecticide Acelepryn. Adult beetles laying eggs this summer weren’t harmed, but grubs that hatch in the treated areas will ingest the insecticide and die, interrupting the generational cycle. The ag department planned five years of annual treatments, a pattern that has worked in other states.

Clint Burfitt, who is in charge of the treatment program, said the insecticide targets beetles at their most vulnerable life stage but is not hazardous to pets or people.

In a department news release, Burfitt acknowledged the trap count was higher than expected but said the traps are providing good information.

“The good news is that the bulk of the catches are centered in the middle of our treatment zone, so there is a well-defined epicenter for this infestation,” he said in a prepared statement. When the traps are removed this fall, the department will analyze data and plan next year’s eradication work, he said.

Based on past experience, Burfitt expects the number of beetles trapped to decrease 90 percent each year. He predicted the count will drop to more than 1,000 next year, and to single digits by the fifth year.

About 2 percent of the beetles were found in traps set outside the treatment zone, Burfitt speculated that beetles traveled with yard clippings and landscape debris or hitchhiked on vehicles. To counter that, the department, Washington County Solid Waste & Recycling and Metro, the regional government, have asked residents to put grass clippings in curbside containers. Garbage haulers take it to a Hillsboro landfill for deep burial. At the same time, the agencies asked landscaping companies to take debris to a quarantined drop site in the area.

Wetland restoration projects on farmland will have to clear a new hurdle in Oregon’s Tillamook County to ensure they don’t disrupt agricultural practices.

However, the county’s newly enacted ordinance isn’t expected to block wetland projects as much as steer them to the least-contentious areas, experts say.

“Nobody’s intention was that we never see another wetland project in Tillamook,” said Mary Anne Nash, public policy counsel for the Oregon Farm Bureau.

Landowners throughout most of Oregon are allowed outright to convert properties in “exclusive farm use” zones into wetlands, allowing them to sell credits to offset development on wetlands elsewhere.

Wetland restoration projects have been prominent in Tillamook County, where moist conditions are prevalent, but the conversions have also been controversial.

In some cases, opponents criticize such projects for taking farmland out of production.

Restoring wetlands by removing levees or making other land modifications can also reduce drainage and increase groundwater tables on surrounding properties, impairing their agricultural value, said Nash.

“In our mind, this is like any other non-farm use moving into a farm zone,” she said.

In 2016, Oregon lawmakers considered a bill that would increase local government scrutiny of wetland projects across the state. Ultimately, the legislation — Senate Bill 1517 — was approved after being pared down to only affect Tillamook County.

Tillamook County’s commissioners have decided to take advantage of that statute by enacting the recent ordinance, under which wetland projects will be subject to a “conditional use” review.

Before such permits are approved or denied, the parties involved could go through a “collaborative process” to resolve potential conflicts.

Farm and conservation groups will also be helping to create an “inventory” of Tillamook County’s wetlands and areas where such projects might be suitable.

The inventory will be useful in guiding wetland projects away from “hot spots” where they’re likely to clash with neighboring farmers, said Nash.

The new approach to wetland siting in Tillamook County is currently a pilot project that’s set to expire after 10 years.

However, it could eventually serve as a model for the rest of the state if Tillamook County’s ordinance is deemed a success, said Nash.

For that to happen, the ordinance will need to “take the heat down” on controversies over wetland projects without effectively prohibiting them, she said.

Tillamook County’s ordinance will add another layer of complexity to wetland restoration, but responsible project developers should take impacts on neighbors into account, said Lisa Phipps, executive director of the Tillamook Estuaries Partnership, a local conservation nonprofit.

The processes required by the county will “codify” what wetland project developers are already doing, she said.

“What you don’t want to see is people using that to just stop projects,” Phipps said.

While the “devil is in the details,” Phipps said she’s hopeful the ordinance won’t serve as a disincentive to wetland restoration.

The inventory process could produce a “win-win” situation for farmers and conservationists if they can identify lower-quality farmlands that can be converted into wetlands while actually helping surrounding growers, she said.

For example, properties in low-lying areas near the Tillamook Bay can better filter bacteria and runoff if they’re turned into wetlands, while potentially improving drainage on upland farms, Phipps said.

“A lot of these lands were wetlands at one time,” she said.

Staff with Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife shot and killed two adult wolves in response to multiple attacks on cattle grazing in Wallowa County.

Department spokeswoman Michelle Dennehey said one uncollared wolf was killed Sunday night and a second was shot Tuesday morning. One was shot from the ground and one from the air, she said.

ODFW will monitor the situation and could take additional action if remaining members of the Harl Butte pack continue to attack livestock, she said. ODFW announced

Ranchers in the area have complained about the pack for some time and asked ODFW to kill the entire pack, which included 10 wolves at the end of 2016 and at least seven this past spring. They said the pack operated in an area that put them within striking range of several herds grazing on public or private land. The Oregon Cattlemen’s Association said the dry summer caused deer and elk to retreat higher into the mountains, making cattle “easy targets” for wolves.

Todd Nash, an area rancher and county commissioner who is the OCA’s wolf committee chair, said he was disappointed by ODFW’s decision to kill only two wolves.

“We have seen this happen before and we fully expect more cattle to be killed. It’s a very unfortunate way to do business,” he said in a prepared statement.

ODFW confirmed the Harl Butte pack attacked cattle seven times since July 2016. Ranchers or a hired range rider interrupted attacks seven other times by shooting at wolves, charging them on horseback or otherwise chasing them away.

Conservation groups opposed ODFW using lethal control against the wolves.

The Harl Butte Pack is believed to be made up of remnants from the Imnaha Pack. ODFW killed four members of that group in March 2016 after multiple attacks.

The department issued a lethal control order last week, announcing its intention to kill two adults. Dennehey, the spokeswoman, said ODFW hopes the remaining pack members will change their behavior. She said ODFW will monitor the situation and share information with producers and the range rider. At least one wolf in the pack, OR-50, is fitted with a tracking collar.

Northwest fire officials said Tuesday that record-dry conditions, continued heat and incoming lightning storms threaten to escalate a worsening fire season.

Some 17 large fires were burning in Oregon and Washington, with more lightning expected to strike the dried-out region over the next several days. Idaho officials reported a dozen active fires of more than 1,000 acres.

“We’re moving from a moderate to a high level of activity across the state,” said Washington Department of Natural Resources wildfire manager Bob Johnson, chairman of the Pacific Northwest Wildfire Coordinating Group.

“We’re in a position now where our fuels and our weather are working against us,” he said.

Fire and health officials briefed reporters in a conference call on the current status of wildfires and the outlook. Five large fires were burning in Washington, while 12 were burning in Oregon. Fires of more than 100 acres in timberlands or more than 300 acres in rangelands are categorized as large.

Moisture levels in heavy vegetation were at record lows and flames can be expected to spread rapidly at all elevations, according to a report by the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center.

Forest Service spokeswoman Traci Weaver said Washington has had 699 wildfires so far this season and 89 percent of them were caused by humans. A more normal percentage is 50 to 60 percent, she said.

“We need people to be really, really careful out there,” Weaver said. “Our fuels are incredibly dry. We had a wet winter and wet spring, but the faucet is turned off.”

Health officials said air-monitoring stations showed unhealthy levels of smoke throughout Washington. Some of that smoke drifted south from wildfires in British Columbia. Weaver and Johnson said the B.C. smoke actually kept down temperatures and slowed the spread of fires in Washington.

Winds are expected to ease hazy conditions, but the weather may bring new problems. The National Weather Service issued a warning Tuesday that all of Eastern Washington can expect temperatures much above normal Aug. 11-15. Thunderstorms are expected to move across the region for the rest of the week, particularly through Southern Oregon.

Also Tuesday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported that July was the fifth-driest on record for Washington. Records date back to 1885.

The percentage of Washington that is “abnormally dry” jumped to 48 percent from 18 percent during the last week of July, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.

Large fires in Washington include the 3,120-acre Noisy Creek fire in the Colville National Forest in northeast Washington. The fire is not threatening grazing allotments, forest spokesman Franklin Pemberton said. “It’s goat-rock country, straight up and down,” he said.

The 9,905-acre Diamond Creek Fire 27 miles northwest of Winthrop in Okanogan County is burning in thick timberland in the Pasayten Wilderness, according to fire officials. The human-caused fire has been burning since July 23.

The 1,150-acre North Fork Hughes fire is burning unchallenged in the Salmo Priest Wilderness near the Idaho border. Smoke jumpers were dispatched to the fire, but conditions were too dangerous and they have been pulled out. Officials said they are working on a plan to manage the fire.

In Eastern Oregon, officials expected to have the 52,223-acre Cinder Butte fire in Harney County contained by Wednesday. The cause of the fire, which started Aug. 2, is under investigation.

The 4,739-acre Blanket Creek fire is burning timberland 9 miles northeast of Prospect in Southern Oregon. Officials estimated Tuesday that firefighters will need the rest of August to contain the fire.

Fire officials anticipate the Chetco Bar fire in Southern Oregon will be a long-term battle. The lightning-caused fire broke out July 12 in the Kalmiopsis Wilderness in Josephine County. The fire had grown to 4,821 acres by Tuesday and was zero percent contained.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — State officials warned Monday that if California sea lions continue feeding below Willamette Falls, they could push winter steelhead trout to the brink of extinction.

The Oregonian/OregonLive reports that the state Department of Fish and Wildlife highlighted the threat in a population feasibility study. Without federal intervention, they said, there’s an 89 percent probability that least one population of the iconic fish species will go extinct in the near future.

“It’s pretty dire,” Shaun Clements, the agency’s senior fish policy adviser said in an interview from a Clackamas County park just down river from the state’s largest waterfall, where sea lions have been setting up shop around the time the trout try to make their trek to spawning grounds up river. “If we don’t deal with this near-term risk, there might not be fish,” he said.

The state’s report comes as two Pacific Northwest congressional leaders are trying to give Oregon and Washington broader authority to kill sea lions at Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River. The bill would also apply to the sea lion logjam at Willamette Falls in Oregon City.

For years, lawmakers have pushed for more latitude to intervene at Bonneville and prevent sea lions from eating spring Chinook salmon there. But state officials say the threat to steelhead on the Willamette River now poses a much greater risk.

In 2017, just 512 native steelhead made it past Willamette Falls on their journey to spawning grounds on the North and South Santiam, Molalla and Calapooia Rivers. That’s the lowest winter steelhead run ever recorded, according to Clements.

In the early 2000s, the winter steelhead run was close to 15,000.

Authorities believe sea lions have consumed one-quarter of the 2017 steelhead run.

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — President Donald Trump’s administration has opened the door to industry-friendly changes to a sweeping plan imposed by his predecessor to protect a ground-dwelling bird across vast areas of the West.

Wildlife advocates warn that the proposed changes would undercut a hard-won struggle to protect the greater sage grouse.

Representatives of the ranching and energy industries cheered the policy shift as needed to give states flexibility.

A document outlining the recommended changes was released Monday by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke.

It recognized for the first time the importance of livestock grazing on sage grouse habitat, said Jim Magagna, executive vice president of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association.

It also backed away from requirements to keep rangeland grasses and shrubs at a prescribed minimum height, which ranchers had complained was arbitrary.

“I was very pleased with what I saw there in terms of the tone,” Magagna said.

The ground-dwelling sage grouse has lengthy, pointed tail feathers and is known for the male’s elaborate courtship display in which air sacs in the neck are inflated to make a popping sound.

Millions of sage grouse once populated the West but development, livestock grazing and an invasive grass that encourages wildfires has reduced the bird’s population to fewer than 500,000.

States affected by the conservation plan are California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.

Just how much Zinke intends to tinker with the plan that was years in the making remains to be seen.

It was hashed out under President Barack Obama and unveiled in 2015 as a solution to keeping the sage grouse off the endangered species list following a decade-long population decline caused by disease and pressure on the birds’ habitat from energy development, grazing and wildfires.

The proposed changes, the result of a 60-day review of the plan by Zinke’s agency, could give states wiggle room in areas such as setting population goals for sage grouse and drawing boundaries of recognized sage grouse habitat.

Advocacy groups such as The Wilderness Society and National Wildlife Federation said the proposal was a backdoor attempt to allow unfettered oil and gas development that ignored previous scientific studies showing that drilling too close to sage grouse breeding areas would harm the birds.

“Wholesale changes to the plans are not necessary and could derail years of hard work,” National Wildlife Federation President Collin O’Mara said in a statement. “We cannot fall victim to the false dichotomy that pits wildlife conservation against the administration’s energy development goals.”

The birds inhabit parts of 11 states including large swaths of Wyoming, Utah, Idaho and Nevada — big ranching states that include areas with vast wind energy and gas drilling potential.

Wyoming has a larger number of greater sage grouse than any other state and keeping the bird off the endangered list remains a priority, Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead said.

“We’ve come a long ways to get to this point,” Mead said. “As we make changes — and certainly I think there’s room for improvement — we have to move cautiously because we don’t want to get to the point where the bird is listed.”

Wyoming officials are glad the Trump administration has been talking to them about sage grouse policy, and the proposed changes include improvements, Mead said.

Officials remain concerned, however, by how the administration wants to set population goals for sage grouse. The birds are difficult to count and their numbers can fluctuate significantly from year to year in response to weather patterns, Mead said.

“We want to move cautiously as to not disrupt the great work that has been done by so many over the many years,” Mead said.

Idaho Gov. Butch Otter said Zinke’s announcement marked an appropriate step toward giving the state more power to manage sage grouse. Idaho, along with Utah and Nevada, had filed a lawsuit challenging the Obama-era conservation plans for the birds.

“My staff and I stand ready to roll up our sleeves and work with the Department of the Interior to bring the federal plans into alignment with Idaho’s science-based conservation plan,” Otter said in a statement.

The proposed changes drew a muted reaction from some other Western governors who had been heavily involved in crafting conservation plans for the birds.

Democrat Gov. John Hickenlooper of Colorado, who co-chaired a federal-state sage grouse task force established in 2011, was still reviewing Zinke’s announcement, according to spokeswoman Jacque Montgomery.

In Nevada, Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval didn’t have any immediate comment. Sandoval had worked closely with former Interior Secretary Sally Jewell to develop sage grouse protection plans for the state.

Sandoval, Mead and Hickenlooper met with Zinke in April and urged him to coordinate with states before changing the Obama-era plans.

Areas where sage grouse habitat and gas drilling overlap include the upper Green River Basin of western Wyoming, home of some of the biggest onshore natural gas fields in the U.S.

A third gas field, the Normally Pressured Lance field, could add another 3,500 wells in a 220-square-mile area. Drilling could begin next year if the U.S. Bureau of Land Management signs off.

Jonah Energy LLC, recognizes the existence of sage grouse winter range in the southern part of its proposed gas field about 200 miles northeast of Salt Lake City, said Paul Ulrich, government affairs director at the Denver-based petroleum company.

“From our perspective, that definitely presents challenges but also provides an opportunity to do what we’ve done from day one, which is follow the science,” he said.

ROSEBURG, Ore. — June and July were profitable months for sheep producers in Douglas County, Ore.

The county’s spring lamb crop was sold at an average of $1.75 to $1.80 a pound live weight. The lamb price “was the best we’ve ever received,” said Dan Dawson, a county sheep rancher. Dawson said the price was 20 to 25 cents higher than a year ago.

According to the most recent National Agricultural Statistics Service, there are approximately 23,000 ewes in Douglas County. It is estimated the county’s lamb crop that went to market numbered 34,000. The average weight of the market lambs was 100 to 120 pounds.

“Lambs and sheep are still a major part of the county’s economy,” Dawson said. “The lambs are marketed as grass-fed natural, making them more appealing, and they go to specialty markets and restaurants. The lighter lambs are finished on irrigated pasture before going to market.”

The 43 producers who were participating in the Douglas County Livestock Association’s wool pool received 80 cents a pound for their fleeces from both ewes and lambs. The Woolgatherer Carding Mill of Montague, Calif., had the highest of the three bids received for the product.

Woolgatherer had bid on the county wool in the past, and purchased the pool in 2013.

“This is a very good price compared to the open market,” Troy Michaels said of the 80 cents a pound. Michaels is a sheep rancher and chairman of the wool pool committee.

However, the bid was 26 cents less than the pool price of a year ago. Hank Kearns, the chief operating officer for Woolgatherer, said the reason for the lower price is because China is importing less of the product than last year, diminishing the demand for coarse wool and creating an oversupply.

Kearns described the wool as “excellent quality for coarse wool.”

The total of the pool was 89,555 pounds. That tonnage is about the same as the pool’s weight for each of the last two years, according to Michaels. Two semi-truck box trailers were loaded and headed south to the mill in northern California, where the county’s coarse wool product will be made into batting for mattresses and furniture.

Kearns said the reason Woolgatherer bid for this wool was because of its low vegetation matter and its consistency, explaining the wool didn’t have a lot of dirt and grass tangled in it, leaving “a good clean product.”

“This pool has a lot of value to our business, we value the growers and we wanted the lot,” Kearns said of the high bid. “Our company will make it into batting and then sell it to mattress and furniture companies that use it in their products. Those folks are primarily interested in natural, chemical-free products.”

Helping out with the wool shipping process were 11 members of the Roseburg Mat Club and coaches Steve Lander and Doug Singleton. The teenage members unloaded the wool bales that ranged in weight from 400 to 500 pounds from trailers and flatbed trucks, rolled and lifted the bales onto scales to be weighed, then rolled them off the scales. A forklift lifted the bales and stacked them in the semi-trailers.

“It’s nice to have the wrestling kids in here to help with the physical work,” Michaels said. “It’s a good, different type of weight training for those kids. We make a donation to the mat club for their efforts and to help out their program.”

For many years back in the 1900s, Douglas County was home to about 100,000 ewes. Low lamb and wool prices through the years and lamb losses to predators were two key reasons ranchers downsized their flocks.

In addition to being an economic factor in Douglas County, Dawson said the sheep population is important because the animals help limit vegetation that can fuel possible wildfires. The sheep will eat back blackberry canes and other forage, decreasing the amount of ground fuel on valley and hillside pastures.

WEDNESDAY, AUG. 9

PORTLAND — Amid some light trash-talking and heavy pressure, Hermiston Mayor David Drotzmann faced off against Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler in the annual watermelon seed-spitting contest at Portland’s Pioneer Courthouse Square Aug. 4.

“I understand Mayor Wheeler has never done this before, so we’ll give him a practice round so he doesn’t get embarrassed by us professional seed-spitters,” Drotzmann said, to laughs from the crowd.

Wheeler appreciated the handicap.

“Normally, when doing something this important I’d have practiced,” he said, “But I’ve never spit a watermelon seed. You’d better win,” Wheeler he told his Hermiston counterpart, “Or you’re not going to have a job in Hermiston!”

Based on Wheeler’s comment, Drotzmann can keep his job, after he launched a seed past the one Wheeler spit, but not without a twist: both men were beaten by Wheeler’s director of strategic partnerships, Jennifer Arguinzoni, who stepped in at the last minute to participate.

Each mayor also spoke briefly about the event, to a crowd that had gathered to collect the free watermelons that some Portlanders have come to anticipate each summer.

“These are the best watermelons in the world and there’s no reason to get melons shipped from anywhere else,” Wheeler said.

Wheeler also spoke about other facets of Eastern Oregon’s largest city.

“Hermiston is a thriving city,” he said. “While we think of watermelons, there’s lots of good employment opportunities. They’re working very hard under this mayor on economic prosperity. It’s good to take a fun day like this and remember that we are one state.”

Drotzmann, too, said he was glad to be showcasing Hermiston’s most famous crop on the west side of the state.

“Normally when we’re here, we’re a hundred deep,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of good produce to give away.”

Debbie Pedro, president/CEO of the Hermiston Chamber of Commerce, estimated that they were giving away nine bins of melons, each of which contained between 20 and 30 melons.

Drotzmann added that partnering with Portland was important for both cities.

“It’s interesting because Portland is larger than us by about 650,000. So we think they have different issues — but when we sit down with them,, the issues we have are very similar. We’re thinking about economic development, public safety, housing, water. How do we, as a state, continue to be prosperous?”

After the brief remarks, Drotzmann, Hermiston city councilors Lori Davis, Rod Hardin and Jackie Meyers started handing out melons. They were joined by Hermiston Energy Services superintendent Nate Rivera and Debbie Pedro, Josh Burns, Shirley Parsons, Ian Coyle and Cindy Meyers from the Hermiston Chamber of Commerce.

Though the crowd wasn’t as thick as some councilors recalled in past years, there was a steady stream of people throughout the giveaway. Burns stood at the corner of Pioneer Courthouse Square, advertising the presence of free melons to Portlanders walking past, which brought in several waves of eager customers.

Some, though, came prepared.

Kathy Leichleiter and Brenda McSweeney were the first ones in line, waiting with a small cart with wheels.

“We’ve come before,” McSweeney said. “Maybe 10 or more times.”

McSweeney said she buys Hermiston melons when she can, and that her family loves the fruit.

“They’re nice and sweet,” Leichleiter said.

Wheeler was scheduled to meet Drotzmann, Hardin and Meyers for dinner on Thursday night, but canceled about an hour before due to a Portland City Council meeting that ran long.

“We take public comment, and it included use of force issues,” Wheeler said of his absence. “Unfortunately, I was not able to go to dinner.”

Though this was Wheeler’s first watermelon giveaway event as mayor, many of the Hermiston councilors and representatives have been coming for years.

“Over the years, we would have people up in their offices, looking down on the square and waiting for us to get out here,” Pedro said. “We’ll recognize people who’ve been coming for years.”

Pedro said it’s important to keep building a partnership with Portland.

“It’s very important to share the concerns we have in rural areas and they get to let us know what’s going on here,” she said. “When it comes to economic development, it’s really exciting to have friends across the state.”

The event, which was started in 1991 by former Hermiston Mayor Frank Harkenrider and former Portland Mayor Bud Clark, petered out in the late 2000s, and was revived three years ago by Drotzmann and then-Portland Mayor Charlie Hales.

Drotzmann remembered Harkenrider, who passed away late last month, in his opening remark at the events.

“He never knew an enemy,” Drotzmann said. “He served on our city council for over 50 years, and he was the pioneer of this event.”

Hardin remembered some of the earlier events, and the two flamboyant founders of the watermelon giveaway.

“Bud was kind of a controversial mayor,” he said. “I think they (Harkenrider and Clark) were a perfect fit. One from a small city, one from a big city. But both, you never knew what was going to come out of their mouths.”

He recalled one particular gathering, a few years ago.

“Bud Clark rode his bicycle to the event, and he showed up with a watermelon (bicycle) helmet,” Hardin said. “That was the last one they were at together.”

Hardin said the event is a good way to remind people in Portland of the role the east side of the state plays in their daily lives.

“It’s mainly to remind them, most of your food comes from our direction,” he said.

Tuesdays

Oregon berry and grape growers are watching for damage caused by unusually hot weather that settled into Western Oregon and the Portland area.

Excessive heat can blister or sunburn wine grapes, which are still developing and won’t be harvested until September. Late season raspberries may develop white drupelets due to sun scald.

Blueberry harvest of mid- to late-season varieties is underway, and crop consultant Tom Peerbolt said mature berries may shrivel in the heat, while green berries may not reach full size.

“The plant can’t pump enough water, so it shuts down and interferes with sizing,” he said. “Fortunately a lot of the commercial folks have installed cooling systems, and they pay for themselves in an event like this.”

He said overhead misting systems cool plants in the field. With temperatures topping 100 in Portland and throughout Western Oregon the first three days of August, some growers ran the misters eight hours a day, Peerbolt said. He said the systems are a large infrastructure expense, but are intended to handle situations of extreme heat.

Climatologist Greg Jones, incoming director of Linfield College’s wine education program, said the current heat wave is unusual for its magnitude and length, and may turn out to be Oregon’s most extreme since 1981.

“Vineyards without irrigation might be able to handle the heat due to available soil moisture, but others will likely see some heat stress, potential sunburn on the fruit, and even leaf desiccation,” Jones wrote on a Linfield blog. “Also, one conundrum is that even though it is hot and it should facilitate ripening, it might actually slow it down as the vines often do not get fully back to 100 percent functioning for some time after a heat event like this.”

At King Estate Winery and vineyard outside of Eugene, Communications Director Jenny Ulum recounted the observations of Ray Nuclo, the company’s viticulture and winery operations director.

Ulum said Nuclo told her grapes don’t accumulate sugar during heat waves. “Over time that would be cause for concern, but grapes can weather a few days with no problem,” she said.

The degree of sun damage to grapes may vary with the type of trellis system used, Ulum reported. In a “hanging” trellis, fruit at the top of the trellis is exposed to the sun. Upright trellis systems provide more protection, with leaves trimmed on the east side so grapes will be exposed to morning sun, but left in place to shield grapes from the hotter midday and afternoon sun.

Ulum said Nuclo told her grapes that develop in sunlight tend to be more resilient to sun scald. Clusters that develop in the canopy shade and then are hit by strong sun tend to be more easily damaged.

Sun damage is less of an issue with Pinot gris grapes than with Pinot noir, Ulum said. Skins of the Pinot gris grapes are pressed off during the winemaking process, so any sunburned skins aren’t included in the wine.

The Pacific Northwest Canola Association has received its certificate of incorporation from Washington state as a multi-state nonprofit organization.

The association will include farmers in Idaho, Oregon, Washington and Montana, said Karen Sowers, Washington State University Extension outreach specialist for oilseeds.

“It’s the first big step,” Sowers said.

The association is formalizing its bylaws.

Under current draft bylaws, the association will offer four levels of membership, ranging from $500 per year to $5,000 per year, with a voting seat on the board of directors at the $5,000 per year level.

Sowers is taking nominations of producer members for the board of directors. The nominees will be placed on a ballot. The association is seeking nominations of at least two growers from each state.

Sowers has an email contact list of 300 canola growers in the four states.

Sowers said the association also welcomes farmers in their first year of growing canola or who are thinking about trying it.

“I guess there’s not an ‘ideal’ candidate, just a passion for growing canola and knowing it makes sense in a rotation wherever you may be in the Pacific Northwest,” she said.

Canola is priced about 19 cents per pound for GMO canola to 20.5 cents per pound for non-GMO canola.

Spring canola harvest should begin the week of Aug. 7. Sowers expects average yields. Early yields look good, but the summer heat is “pretty wicked,” she said.

Most of the winter canola harvest is done, Sowers said. She expects average to above average yields, due to extended snow cover and spring moisture.

Sowers hopes to ramp up the search for an executive director in the fall. She said the association wants someone with a passion for and understanding of the region’s canola industry.

Draft bylaws currently state the association will meet twice a year. Sowers hopes the association will be official by the end of the year.

Oregon’s nursery industry has reclaimed the No. 1 spot on the state Department of Agriculture’s list of the Top 20 agricultural commodities for 2016, leap-frogging the cattle industry, last year’s leader in production value.

“(The nursery industry) has always historically been number one, and the message is that it’s slowly continued its growth,” Bruce Pokarney, ODA director of communications, said.

A new leader at the top was expected, as the cattle industry “tends to be cyclical,” according to the department. “The strong prices enjoyed in 2014 and 2015 weakened last year.”

At the same time, the hops industry saw a 99 percent increase in production value from 2015 to 2016, pushing it into the top 20 and landing it at No. 15 with $65 million.

“We had more planted, and that is a function of demand,” Pokarney said. “Oregon is really a national leader of microbrews.”

Pokarney estimated 4 million more pounds of hops were grown in 2016 than 2015, and while the number of growers hasn’t increased acreage was up by about 3,000 acres.

The top 10 commodities are: greenhouse and nursery, cattle and calves, hay, milk, grass seed, potatoes, wheat, pears, wine grapes and onions.

Rounding out the top 20 are: hazelnuts, blueberries, Christmas trees, cherries, hops, apples, dungeness crab, eggs, mint for oil and corn for grain.

“The top 10 list contains the same names as last year with a slightly altered order,” ODA said. “The potato and wheat industries exchanged positions at number 6 and 7, respectively.”

Oregon produces more than 220 agricultural and fishery commodities, of which 17 have a value of at least $50 million, according to ODA.

Greenhouse and nursery products brought in $909 million, an increase of about $15 million from 2015. The cattle industry fell about $213 million, or 23 percent, from the previous year to $701 million, according to the department.

Other industry increases in production value last year were pears at 19 percent, grass seed at 14 percent, hay at 9 percent and potatoes at 6 percent. Wheat saw the biggest decrease in production value at 15 percent, according to ODA.

Oregon is the nation’s leading producer of Christmas trees, hazelnuts, grass seed, blackberries, boysenberries, rhubarb, sugarbeet seed and potted florist azaleas.

NAMPA, Idaho — Farmers in the Treasure Valley of Idaho and Oregon are struggling to keep their plants watered and wet during a lengthy heat wave that could threaten a 142-year-old record.

“Trying to keep enough water on everything is definitely a battle,” said Meridian farmer Richard Durrant. This July was the second hottest on record in Boise in southwestern Idaho and across the border in Ontario, Ore., it was even hotter and the average high temperature for the month was 99 degrees.

For this region, “That is just scorching hot,” said Jay Breidenbach, a National Weather Service meteorologist.

The high temperature exceeded 100 degrees in Ontario 11 times in July and 10 times in Boise and August hasn’t brought any relief so far. The high temperature for the fist five days of August is expected to exceed 100 degrees in Ontario.

Thankfully, there’s plenty of water for irrigators in the region this year but the unrelenting heat is making it a struggle for farmers to keep their crops wet, said Meridian farmer Drew Eggers.

“It’s not like we don’t have enough water but you wish you could go faster across the field,” he said. “We’re trying to keep water on them the best we can but when you have this kind of heat for this period of time, it stresses the plants and hurts yields.”

Breidenbach said the high temperature in Boise had reached at least 90 degrees for 35 straight days as of Aug. 3, the fourth-longest stretch in recorded history.

The longest such streak is 50 days, recorded in 1875, and there is a chance that record could fall this year, Breidenbach said. The modern day record of 44 straight days above 90, set in 1994, is certainly within reach, he said.

The heat has affected size and yields for some crops in the region such as onions, said Stuart Reitz, an Oregon State University cropping systems extension agent in Ontario.

“When it stays this hot for so long, plants like onions shut down,” he said. “It’s not doing a lot of the crops any good.”

Nyssa, Ore., onion farmer Paul Skeen some onion tops in the region are starting to lay down. “That means they are starting their final process and they aren’t very big,” he said.

The biggest bulb onions grown in this region, colossals and super colossals, fetch a premium price but the heat wave could result in a shortage of those sizes this year, Skeen said.

“As of right now, it appears that we could be down a little in our biggest sizes because of this heat,” he said.

Durrant, who purchases wheat from other growers, said the heat is affecting wheat yields but so far, test weights haven’t been down as much as he had feared.

The heat has been hard on fruit crops in the area such as apples and peaches, said Williamson Orchards Manager Michael Williamson.

“The heat really slows fruit growth down,” he said. “It almost puts fruit maturity on pause.”

Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife approved a kill order for two adult wolves from Wallowa County’s Harl Butte pack, which has been responsible for seven confirmed attacks on cattle in the past 13 months.

Ranchers in the area had asked ODFW to wipe out the pack, which numbered 10 at the end of 2016 and at least seven when counted in March. The department decided instead to kill two adults and then evaluate the situation.

“In this chronic situation, lethal control measures are warranted,” acting ODFW wolf coordinator Roblyn Brown said in a prepared statement. “We will use incremental removal to give the remaining wolves the opportunity to change their behavior or move out of the area.”

The wolves will be trapped or shot from the ground or air in the next two weeks, according to an ODFW news release.

The Oregon Cattlemen’s Association said the order didn’t go far enough.

“As an organization, we are extremely disappointed that they are not taking out the entire pack with all the depredations that have occurred and all the work that has been done on the Oregon wolf plan,” Executive Director Jerome Rosa said in a prepared statement. “To not take the entire pack? This is code for our ranchers that cattle will continue to be killed.”

The association said dry summer weather caused the pack’s natural food source – deer and elk – to move higher into the mountains and made rancher’s cattle “easy targets.”

Cascadia Wildlands, a Eugene-based group, said it is “disgusted” the department will kill wolves. In March 2016, the department shot four wolves from the Imnaha Pack; the Harl Butte pack may include remnants of that pack and other wolves from the Imnaha and Snake River wildlife management units.

“It is becoming painfully obvious from every experience in Oregon and Washington that killing wolves leads to more conflict down the line and does not address the problem,” Cascadia legal director Nick Cady said in a prepared statement. “We are setting ourselves up for a perpetual cycle where we are throwing away public dollars and needlessly killing a still-recovering species.”

The Portland group Oregon Wild also criticized the kill order.

“If ODFW kills these wolves, it will demonstrate that Oregon has a failed wildlife agency and a broken wolf management plan,” Executive Director Sean Stevens said in a prepared statement. “It’s clear now that Gov. (Kate) Brown needs to step in and reform this failing agency so that the public can trust that its wildlife is being protected.”

In deciding to kill two wolves, the department determined livestock producers had taken proper non-lethal measures to deter attacks and hadn’t done anything to attract wolves to the livestock, such as leaving bone piles or carcasses.

Ranchers, their employees, a county range rider and a volunteer provided “daily human presence” in the area, ODFW said. One rancher in the area said the pack frequented an area that put them in the middle of several herds grazing by permit on public land.

On seven occasions in June and July, ranchers or the range rider hazed wolves that were chasing or were close to livestock. They chased wolves away by yelling, firing a pistol, shooting at them and riding a horse toward them, according to ODFW.

Ranch hands also spent the night with herds and kept stock dogs in horse trailers at night, as wolves are territorial and might be drawn to attack dogs. Some producers changed grazing practices, such as bunching cow-calf pairs in a herd so they could protect themselves. They also delayed pasture rotations to avoid moving into areas where wolves had recently been, according to ODFW.

Producers removed potential wolf “attractants” such as injured or sick cattle, taking them back to home ranches for treatment. A dead bull’s carcass was removed from an area near a pond where cattle were concentrated, according to ODFW.

The department first received a lethal control request from producers in October 2016 after a fourth confirmed depredation. ODFW turned it down at the time because cattle were being moved out of the grazing allotments. This time, cattle are expected to be grazing on public land until October and on private land until November. Brown, the ODFW acting coordinator, said there is a “substantial risk” livestock attacks would continue or escalate.

Online: ODFW wolf depredation reports

http://www.dfw.state.or.us/Wolves/depredation_investigations.asp

ELKTON — The seasonal produce stand at Elkton Community Education Center will open Saturday at 9 a.m. ECEC is located at 15850 Highway 38 in Elkton. Hours are 9 a.m.-3 p.m., closed Mondays. For information, call 541-548-2692

WASHINGTON (AP) — Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said Wednesday he will not recommend changes to Montana’s Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument as he continues to review national monuments for possible elimination or reduction.

Zinke said the monument is one of the only free-flowing areas of the Missouri that remains as explorers Lewis and Clark saw it more than 200 years ago.

Montana Gov. Steve Bullock had asked Zinke to keep the Breaks monument unchanged as he reviews 27 national monuments designated by previous presidents. President Donald Trump ordered the review, calling many monument designations unwarranted land grabs by the federal government. Monument designations protect federal land from energy development and other activities.

The Montana monument is the fourth Zinke has removed from his review ahead of a final report due later this month. Others removed from consideration are in Colorado, Idaho and Washington state.

Twenty-three other national monuments, mostly in the West, face curtailing or elimination of protections put in place over the past two decades by presidents from both parties. Monuments under review include Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante in Utah, Nevada’s Basin and Range and Katahdin Woods and Waters in Maine.

Zinke, a former Montana congressman, said in June that he was unlikely to recommend changes to the 586-square-mile Upper Missouri monument that President Bill Clinton created in 2001.

Zinke’s announcement about the monument in his home state did little to appease his critics, including a hunting and fishing group that supported Zinke’s confirmation as interior secretary but now is expressing frustration over what it calls the “misguided” monument review.

The group, the Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, launched a $1.4 million advertising blitz Wednesday across Montana to pressure Zinke to retain current designations for all 27 monuments under review.

The group is focusing on Montana because “this is where the secretary is from, where he grew up ... went hunting and fishing,” said CEO Land Tawney. When it comes to public lands access, “so goes Montana, so goes the rest of the country,” Tawney said.

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Associated Press writer Bobby Caina Calvan in Helena, Montana, contributed to this story.