A disease that infects Christmas trees erupted in some Pacific Northwest tree plantations last year, leading to tree loss and triggering a renewed round of research into better understanding the disease.

The disease, web blight, has been a sporadic, but relatively minor problem in Christmas trees since it was first identified in the Northwest in the late 1990s.

“I suspect that one of the reasons it was so severe this past year was because of all of the wet weather that we’ve had,” said Washington State University plant pathologist Gary Chastagner. “That provides an environment that is super conducive for spread of the pathogen.

“You need cool, moist conditions for it to spread from needle to needle,” he said.

The web blight pathogen is a type of Rhizoctonia, Chastagner said, but not the one that causes root rot or damping-off of seedlings. The disease primarily infects Douglas-fir, but this past year also showed up on noble, grand, Nordmann and Turkish fir.

Outside of some research into web blight in forest situations conducted through Oregon State University, little research has been done on the disease since preliminary studies on Christmas trees were conducted at Washington State University in the late 1990s. Chastagner said he now is revisiting that work.

“We are looking at the optimum temperature for the growth of the pathogen and development of the disease and, in collaboration with (OSU Extension Christmas Tree Specialist) Chal Landgren, we are looking at the ability of the pathogen to survive over the summer and cause problems again in the fall,” he said. “We don’t know whether those same trees that are damaged in a planting are likely to be damaged the next year, or whether new infections from the spread of inoculum from other sources, such as nearby forest trees, result in new infections.

“We don’t fully understand the sources of inoculum, what the types of inoculum are and the optimal conditions for the development of the problem,” Chastagner said. “Nor do we fully understand the extent of the susceptibility of some of the species of Christmas trees that we are growing.”

According to the Pacific Northwest Plant Disease Management Handbook, web blight first appears on trees as a browning of outer foliage in roughly circular areas. Chastagner described a typical symptom as volleyball- or basketball-sized patches of brown needles, often connected by a web that can hold infected needles in place.

“What happens is this pathogen is basically growing as a web of mycelia that you can see over the surface of the needle, and it just kind of spreads from one needle to the next,” he said.

According to the handbook, under moist conditions, the fine fungal webbing may be visible. The disease, which can spread to affect as much as half the side of a tree, can be distinguished from Botrytis, or gray mold, in that the latter affects only current-year needles and shoots, and symptoms initially appear on the new growth in the spring.

In cases where trees are marginally infected, new shoots the next year will likely cover up the damage, and trees can still be brought to market. In more severe cases, growers tend to cut out trees.

“This past year there were some Douglas-fir where I would say half the tree didn’t have any needles on it anymore,” Chastagner said. The infection tended to be directional, he added. “In other words, infection was most severe on sides of the tree that were up against a forested area, or the north sides of the trees, where you might expect it to be cooler and moist longer.”

Among questions Chastagner is hoping to answer in his research is how the disease is spreading from tree to tree. “It could be doing so by spores, but that has not been demonstrated. There is a spore stage to this pathogen, but it is not clear what role that stage plays in the development of the disease, and we don’t know when the pathogen would actually be producing those spores. It could be a limited time period, or a long period of time,” he said.

“But there are other ways it can spread,” he said. “If I have trees that have the disease and I was doing culture work on the trees, I could have some of those colonized needles transferred from one tree to the next on, let’s say, a shearing knife. Or, just by walking through a planting, sometimes the needles can fall off and get on your clothes, and the next time you walk by a tree, maybe you transfer the colonized needles to another tree.

“We don’t have a good sense on how it is spreading, but there are a number of ways it could potentially spread, including the wind. If you had a windstorm, it could possibly blow needles from nearby timber into the edges of a Christmas tree planting,” he said.

Researchers also don’t know whether the pathogen survives over the summer on needles on the ground and produces a spore stage that re-enters trees, or whether it is the needles that get hung up in the tree that are able to cause infections the following year.

Chastagner and his team have collected foliage samples from several fields and are looking at the survival of the pathogen on several different types of trees, including Douglas-fir, Turkish fir, Nordmann fir, grand fir and noble fir.

“We want to see whether there is any difference (in survival of the pathogen on different hosts), so we are monitoring those (samples),” he said. “But this is the first year that we’ve done some of those types of studies.”

Among past findings from research Chastagner conducted in the late 1990s, it was shown the pathogen is sensitive to some fungicides, including Bravo, or chlorothalonil. But, Chastagner said, sprays applied in the spring to control a disease such as Swiss needle cast are unlikely to affect web blight, which appears in the fall.

Among cultural control methods identified by Chastagner and the Pacific Northwest Plant Disease Management Handbook are to avoid planting trees in low-lying areas with poor air drainage and avoid planting near native stands of Douglas-fir that appear to have the disease.

Azure Farms, the organic operation that was at the center of a weed control argument in Sherman County this spring, is responding quickly to complaints and generally living up to its side of an agreement with county officials, Commissioner Tom McCoy said.

“So far, so good,” McCoy said in an email update. “I explained that I considered the weed agreement like a farm lease — not so important as a legal document, but important as a written statement of what each party should expect of the other.”

Neighboring wheat farmers, especially those who grow certified seed, have complained for years about weeds blowing onto their ground from Azure Farms, which as an organic operation would not use conventional chemical herbicides to deal with the problem. County officials said they would ask the Oregon Department of Agriculture to quarantine the farm’s production and warned they would spray herbicide and bill the 1,922-acre farm for the work if the weeds weren’t controlled.

Azure Farms and its parent company, Azure Standard, of Dufur, Ore., appealed to supporters on social media. County officials were flooded with anguished, angry telephone calls and nearly 60,000 emails from around the country and even internationally.

The issue came to a head at a county court meeting in May, held at the local high school gym because the crowd was so large. Brothers David and Nathan Stelzer, who head the farm and product distribution company, apologized for the social media response. They ultimately agreed to keep weeds in check using methods that won’t cause them to lose organic certification.

McCoy, the commissioner, said the county has received several complaints about noxious weeds flowering at Azure Farms and being close to producing seeds.

“When we contacted the Stelzers, they responded quickly — usually by mowing down the weeds,” McCoy said by email. “They have always seemed to accept their responsibility to keep noxious weed seeds from blowing into their neighbor’s fields.”

Portland’s downtown disappeared from view this week as thick smoke from wildfires settled in for an uncomfortable stay.

And that made it a problem, even though forest fires have been burning elsewhere in the West for several weeks.

All told, there were 65 active fires in nine Western states as of mid-day Sept. 6, including 19 in Oregon. The active fires have burned 1.4 million acres.

The biggest fire in Oregon, by far, is the Chetco Bar Fire in the Kalmiopsis Wilderness northeast of Brookings on the Southern Oregon coast. As of mid-day Sept. 6 if had burned nearly 177,000 acres, destroyed six homes, damaged another and threatened 8,523 more.

As multiple rural residents said in effect on social media: Welcome to our world, Portland.

Some Oregonians who work in or support the state’s stagnant timber industry had another response: We told you so.

What got Portland’s attention was the Eagle Creek Fire in the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area east of the city, a spectacular 80-mile stretch of river, timber, basalt formations and waterfalls that attracts legions of climbers, hikers and scads of tourists. The chair of the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners mourned the damage to what she called “our playground.”

The Eagle Creek Fire lit up the Gorge like a vision from hell. It began Sept. 2, jumped to 10,000 acres by mid-week and merged with the Indian Creek Fire to cover 20,000 acres.

It filled Portland with dense smoke that obliterated all scenic views. It dusted cars and porches with tiny bits of ash, forced evacuations, closed I-84 from Troutdale east to Hood River and threatened the 92-year-old lodge at Multnomah Falls, the state’s most popular natural site with 2.5 million annual visitors.

Oregon State Police said fireworks started the fire. They’ve interviewed a 15-year-old Vancouver, Wash., boy and described him as a “suspect.”

Pushed by hot, boisterous east winds, the Eagle Creek Fire hurled flaming debris up to three-quarters of a mile and even jumped the Columbia to start a fire on the Washington side. About 150 hikers on the Eagle Creek trail system had to retreat, stop in place overnight or hike out to Wahtum Lake, but were successfully evacuated.

Citing smoke and heat, Portland public schools sent students home two hours early Sept. 5 and canceled soccer games and sports practices. Many of the city’s hardcore bicycle commuters wore handkerchiefs to cover their noses and mouths. The sun and moon took turns glowing orange in the smoke filled sky. The Oregon Department of Agriculture expressed concern that farmworkers might be breathing smoke while working outside in orchards and vineyards.

If Portlanders were stunned by the wildfire’s leaping fury, many rural Oregonians and people who work in natural resource industries said the state, and much of the West, is paying the price of paralyzed forest management policy.

Critics say the state’s publicly-managed forests are primed for disastrous fires. They believe timberland agencies, especially the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service, are shackled by decades of lawsuits and continued argument over endangered species, wildlife habitat, logging roads and water quality.

A stark statistic illustrates the state of affairs: Federal agencies manage 60 percent of Oregon’s forestland, nearly 18 million acres, but that land accounts for just 15 percent of the annual timber harvest, according to the Oregon Forest Resources Institute.

The institute was created by the Oregon Legislature to enhance collaboration and to provide information about responsible forest management. One of its more recent reports estimated more than 350 million individual trees are standing dead on national forestland, providing ready fuel for catastrophic fires.

Nick Smith, executive director of a group called Healthy Forests Healthy Communities, said many urban and suburban residents in Portland, Seattle and elsewhere “don’t understand the grave conditions on the ground in our federally-owned forests.” Much of the forested landscape is at risk to fire, disease and insects due to dense and overgrown conditions, he said.

“What we’re seeing right now is just how outdated and unresponsive our current federal management policies are to conditions on the ground,” Smith said.

His group and others believe federal forest agencies lack the funding and legal and policy tools to increase logging and thinning. In particular, they believe fire suppression costs should be treated as other forms of disaster relief, like hurricanes. The Forest Service spends half its budget on wildfire suppression, Smith said.

Oregon Sens. Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden agree, but haven’t been able to bring about change. In a statement issued Sept. 6, Merkley said the fires “reinforce how important it is to get a long-term fix that would fund fighting huge wildfires the way that we fund other natural disasters.”

“Many of us are frustrated with current forest management practices,” Merkley said. “I will continue working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle and in both chambers to find collaborative solutions and funding to return our forests to health.”

Meanwhile, Oregon State Police want to speak with anyone who heard fireworks in the Eagle Creek Trail or Punch Bowl Falls area between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 2. The state police phone number is 503-375-3555.

Environmental Protection Agency officials reacted to the wrath of federal lawmakers over What’s Upstream by going into “damage-control mode,” simultaneously saying they couldn’t have controlled the anti-agriculture campaign but nevertheless promising to fix it, according to newly released EPA records.

The records, mostly emails between EPA employees, show an agency caught between looking impotent or complicit in an advertising and lobbying campaign waged at taxpayer expense by a Puget Sound tribe to mandate 100-foot buffers between farm fields and waterways in Washington.

In response to criticism from a U.S. senator, Liz Purchia, then EPA’s head of communications, urged colleagues to “acknowledge” that “we are not associated with it.”

“Anytime EPA and ‘campaign’ is used together it is not helpful,” she wrote in an email April 5, 2016.

The email, made public Aug. 31, is among the final batch of records released by the EPA in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by Save Family Farming, a group formed to counter What’s Upstream.

The group filed its FOIA request 16 months ago and has received more than 1,000 documents, detailing EPA’s part in funding and monitoring the half-million-dollar lobbying campaign.

Since the group asked for the records, the EPA’s inspector general, the Washington Public Disclosure Commission and state Attorney General Bob Ferguson have cleared the EPA, tribe and Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission of any illegal lobbying.

“Much has been accomplished by simply exposing this activity,” Save Family Farming Executive Director Gerald Baron said Tuesday. “It would have gone on. That’s the lesson. If farmers don’t stand up for themselves, they’ll get run over.”

Dennis McLerran, EPA Northwest’s administrator during the five years the agency funded What’s Upstream, said Tuesday that he tried to tone down the campaign, but didn’t have the authority to dictate its contents.

“I do recall the lawyers at the very top level of the EPA didn’t consider it lobbying and a violation of any federal requirement,” he said. “Like I said all along, this is an unfortunate situation. I tried to get the tribe to take down the billboards and change the content of the website, but it was not something under EPA control.”

Gov. Jay Inslee recently appointed McLerran to serve in an unpaid position on the Puget Sound Leadership Council, a state agency that coordinates environmental projects.

In response to criticism from U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kansas, about the campaign, McLerran wrote a statement April 4, 2016, that for the first time said EPA funds should not have used for What’s Upstream. “We are in the process of correcting that,” he wrote.

Purchia suggested editing the statement to say the campaign “was not approved by the agency.” The statement was released saying the campaign didn’t reflect EPA’s views.

“Let’s add the word ‘outside’ before ‘campaign’ and get this out,” McLerran wrote April 5.

The statement didn’t disclose that the tribe and its hired lobbying firm, Strategies 360, had regularly submitted written updates and yearly work plans for EPA’s approval since 2011.

As criticism of the campaign increased, EPA adopted a policy of not answering questions.

McLerran, however, was sending emails to other public officials seeking to explain his side of the controversy. “We are clearly in damage-control mode,” he wrote to Washington State Conservation Commission officials.

Said McLerran: “From my perspective, I wanted for them to know facts, as I knew them.”

The newly released emails reinforce that the tribe’s environmental director, Larry Wasserman, was forthright about his goal to pass a state law and eager to get approval to spend EPA money on billboards and radio ads to rally grass-roots support during the 2016 legislative session, capping years of preparation and collaboration with environmental groups.

“I am concerned that additional delays will make our effort less effective because we have a short legislative session and we are hoping for some impact while the legislators are in Olympia,” Wasserman wrote Jan. 26, 2016, to a manager in the Puget Sound recovery program.

The records also affirm that mid-level EPA officials had misgivings about the campaign, but their concerns were rejected as having no legal grounding.

A few weeks before the agency disavowed the campaign under congressional criticism, EPA Puget Sound program specialist Gina Bonifacino wrote an email to a colleague referring to an EPA document prohibiting spending funds on political activities, including raising public support to introduce state-level legislation.

“Hi, I did not mean for you to have to spend more time on this and I know I am sticking my neck in where I don’t belong :) it just seemed so clear to me when I read this again that this website is lobbying,” Bonifacino wrote in an email Feb. 4, 2016.

The colleague, Lisa Chang, who expressed reservations about how the tribe was spending EPA money as earlier as 2012, cited EPA attorney Garth Wright in answering Bonifacino.

“I will have to go back and look at Garth’s most recent analysis, but my understanding is that since there is no specific piece of legislation — they are just asking for stronger protection of water quality — that the lobbying restrictions are not violated. That is my layperson’s understanding,” Chang wrote.

McLerran said Tuesday that he was unaware of Bonifacino’s concern. “This is the first time I have heard of that,” he said.

The EPA redacted emails from Wright, citing an attorney-client exemption. EPA’s legal advice was upheld in an audit by the inspector general.

Media reports about EPA’s funding of What’s Upstream in March 2016 provoked a strong reaction from some federal lawmakers, which brought the campaign to the attention of top-level EPA officials in Washington, D.C.

“Holy smokes this needs attention. Do we have someone on this?” EPA Deputy Chief of Staff John Reeder wrote in an email April 20, 2016, the day one-third of the U.S. House signed a letter demanding to know why the EPA funded an “anti-farmer campaign in Washington state.”

Matthew Fritz, EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy’s chief of staff, replied: “We do. I have been talking to the (Northwest) Region about this. Long story.”

An Oregon judge has rejected claims by several Klamath Basin irrigators that state regulators wrongly shut down their groundwater wells based on faulty scientific analysis.

Marion County Circuit Court Judge Channing Bennett has ruled the Oregon Water Resources Department properly relied on “substantial evidence” to halt pumping from the four wells because they were interfering with surface water rights in the Sprague River.

Attorneys for the groundwater irrigators say the case is troubling because the OWRD’s reasoning — which was approved by the judge — effectively expands the agency’s jurisdiction over wells not only in the Klamath Basin but elsewhere in Oregon.

The dispute also pits groundwater irrigators against Klamath Basin farmers who use surface water and who support the actions of water regulators.

“We think this is the best result to protect senior water users,” said Richard Deitchman, attorney for the Tulelake Irrigation District, which intervened in the case.

The four groundwater wells in question are within less than one mile of the Sprague River, which opens them up to regulatory scrutiny for potentially affecting surface water.

After OWRD ordered pumping from the wells to stop in 2015 and 2016, a lawsuit against the agency was brought by their owners, Stanley and Dolores Stonier and Larry and Joan Sees, as well as Garrett and Cameron Duncan, who lease property from the Sees.

The plaintiffs argued their wells were drilled into a confined aquifer that’s separated from the Sprague river by layers of rock and clay, as well as a shallower alluvial aquifer.

Shutting down the wells isn’t allowed because OWRD only has jurisdiction over wells drilled into an aquifer “adjacent” to the surface water, the plaintiffs argued.

However, the judge said he couldn’t determine that those layers were of such low permeability as to hinder water flowing from the confined aquifer into the Sprague River.

Effectively, the decision accepts OWRD’s argument that it can regulate a broader “aquifer system,” even if a well isn’t drilled into an aquifer directly adjacent to a river, said Laura Schroeder, an attorney representing the groundwater irrigators.

“There’s nothing to stop Oregon Water Resources from regulating every aquifer in a basin (within a mile of surface waters) and calling it an aquifer system,” she said.

The groundwater irrigators fault OWRD for wrongly concluding that groundwater contributes to surface water flows along the portion of the Sprague River in question.

The agency improperly applied a scientific model by overestimating the ability of groundwater from the confined aquifer to eventually flow into the river, they claimed.

If used correctly, the model would have showed that water from the confined aquifer didn’t affect the surface water to a degree that would warrant regulation, according to the plaintiffs.

The judge’s decision is disappointing because he sided with OWRD without explaining how the trial evidence affected his rationale, said Sarah Liljefelt, an attorney for the groundwater irrigators.

“He really didn’t make any decision about the science,” she said. “You’re in a difficult position in which there’s a ruling against you without any real reason why.”

Richard Deitchman, attorney for the Tulelake Irrigation District, disagreed with this characterization of the ruling.

The judge must decide whether the OWRD’s actions were reasonable based on the evidence, rather than choose whose scientific theories were more convincing, he said.

“You have experts on both sides,” Deithcman said. “The judge’s role isn’t to play hydrogeologist himself. It’s to determine if there’s substantial evidence for the decision, which is what he determined here.”

The groundwater irrigators have until Sept. 25 to decide whether to appeal the judge’s opinion. They also have another case pending against OWRD related to its 2017 decision to shut down the wells.

A spokesperson for OWRD did not respond to requests for comment as of press time.

GLIDE, Ore. — The front acreage of the French Creek Ranch made a transition almost overnight on Aug. 9 and 10.

When lightning strikes started multiple fires in the Umpqua National Forest about 30 miles east of this small community, officials were quick to call ranch owner Phil Strader about turning his livestock pasture and hay ground into the Umpqua North Fire Complex Fire Camp.

Strader gave his permission. The cattle that had been grazing in the field were quickly moved to another pasture on the ranch and the next day personnel began to arrive to set up a camp that would provide for a management team, hundreds of front line firefighters, a helicopter base and its pilots, a support staff and supplies, vehicles and equipment for all.

The mission of the fire camp is to contain the complex of fires that had reached almost 32,000 acres as of Tuesday, Sept. 5.

There’s close to 100 acres in the two-level pasture camp that is the temporary home of about 1,000 people, most of them firefighters with the rest being management and support staff.

Setting up a fire camp on the ranch is nothing new. Strader said in the last 15 years, this is the eighth or ninth time a fire camp has been set up on the ranch that has been in his family for 95 years.

The ground is leased to the U.S. Forest Service so there is reimbursement for the ranch, but Strader said he also gives permission for the fire camp because it benefits many of his neighbors and their businesses in nearby Glide.

“If they were to set up the camp farther up into the forest, there would be no economic benefit for this small community,” Strader said. “They’re spending a good deal of money fighting these fires so I’d like to see a benefit for the community. It’s just a guess, but the local restaurants, stores, gas stations may do more like a month’s worth of business in just a week with the influx of personnel.”

On the camp’s lower level, there are large tents for sleeping and smaller tents, each with a different purpose, including operations, planning, logistics, human resources, air operations, finance, and medical and safety. There is also a kitchen that runs the inside length of a semi trailer, a large portable barbecue, a dining area, three or four trailers that offer wash basins and soap to clean up, a couple trailers that offer showers, a laundry service, port-a-potties and stacks of supplies such as bottled water, energy drinks, fire retardant pants and shirts, and numerous other items.

The upper level is a helicopter base.

Spread out under the oak trees on both levels are a couple hundred colorful popup tents that provide individual private resting places.

“It’s right alongside a road (Highway 138), it’s near a community, it’s close to a (Forest Service) district office,” Cheryl Caplan, a spokeswoman for the Umpqua National Forest, said of the benefits of the ranch as a fire camp. “The amenities are really great with electricity and the internet available. Having the two fields allows us to put a type 1 heli base next to a type 1 incident management team and the firefighters. It’s unusual to find all that packaged together so close to a national forest.”

Kyle Reed, a public information officer with the Douglas Forest Protective Association in Roseburg, said it is of great benefit to know in advance that a landowner will be cooperative and give permission to use his land when a fire camp needs to be established.

“Everything you would need is there or close by and it is easily accessible,” Reed said of the ranch.

Strader said fire management officials have expressed their appreciation of his cooperation. He said before any changes have been made to the camp that impacts the ground, officials have checked with him first.

He explained that with vehicles, heavy equipment and hundreds of people using the camp, the ground is impacted.

“Generally they are good about reimbursing the cost for rehabbing the fields,” Strader said of the disking and reseeding that must be done after the camp is taken down. Typically, it gets done and there is grass there the next spring.”

The ranch is home to 400 mother cows. The ranch’s latest crop of calves has been shipped.

While smoke from the fires is hanging low over the area, Strader said he hasn’t seen any negative effects on the ranch’s cows that are in early gestation of their pregnancies.

“This is probably going to continue until some season ending rain storms in late September or early October,” said Strader.

Until those rains, part of his ranch is a fire camp that has the look of a mini city.

Current staff member Mallory Phelan has been appointed interim executive director of Oregon Aglink, the non-profit organization that attempts to help urban Oregonians better understand agriculture.

Phelan, who turns 30 in September, confirmed she has applied to replace Geoff Horning, who left to become CEO of Oregon Hazelnut Industries. Phelan, who has worked for Oregon Aglink four years, is vice president of operations.

The stated mission of Oregon Aglink is to bridge the gap between urban and rural Oregonians by helping people better understand where their food and fiber come from.

The organization’s activities include placing roadside crop identification signs, which it does in partnership with Oregon Women for Agriculture. Phelan said she is especially proud of Oregon Aglink’s “Adopt a Farmer” program, in which schools link up with producers for field trips and presentations. The program has grown from 18 schools and farms a few years ago to 50 this fall.

Phelan grew up working on her family’s grass seed farm between Albany and Lebanon in the mid-Willamette Valley. She earned a business administration degree at the University of Portland and at first had “no intention of working in agriculture,” as she put it. She taught English in Peru for eight months before returning to the U.S. and taking what initially was intended as a six-month position at Oregon Aglink.

“It was kind of like coming home,” she said. “I didn’t realize what I was missing.”

Phelan said she most enjoys working with producers and helping them tell their stories

BOISE — Agricultural land values around the Northwest continue to increase, despite relatively low commodity prices.

“We would suspect that with commodity prices being low for the past two years, we would have seen some drop in (agricultural) land values, but that is not the case,” said John Chidester, an ag land assessor in East Idaho. “I’ve seen no indication that values are going down.”

USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service estimates the average value for all cropland in Idaho at $3,400 an acre in 2017, a 3 percent increase over $3,300 an acre in 2016. NASS estimates irrigated cropland value in Idaho at $5,150 an acre and non-irrigated cropland at $1,460 an acre. Both are up 3 percent from the previous year.

Around the nation, average cropland value is estimated at $4,090 an acre, unchanged from 2016 and below the $4,130 total in 2015 and $4,100 in 2014.

Bob Morrison, an independent ag land appraiser in Idaho Falls, said NASS Idaho estimates for 2017 appear solid.

“Ag land values have been steady to slightly increasing,” he said. “It’s surprising when you consider that commodity prices are down, but the values are still holding strong.”

Doug Robison, Northwest Farm Credit Services’ senior vice president for agriculture in Idaho, said ag land value trends have shown some gains on an annual basis with overall transaction counts declining.

“The combination of limited supply, investor appetite and low interest rates have provided strong support for land values,” he told Capital Press in an email. “Land values have been surprisingly resilient over the past few years. High-quality farm land remains in tight supply.”

NASS also projects that cropland values in Washington and Oregon are on the rise in 2017.

The agency estimates average cropland value in Oregon at $2,860 an acre, up 4.8 percent from last year, with irrigated cropland averaging $4,850 an acre and non-irrigated cropland at $2,120 an acre.

In Washington, average cropland value is estimated at $2,890 an acre, up 4.7 percent, with irrigated cropland at $8,700 an acre and non-irrigated cropland at $1,380 an acre.

According to a Northwest Farm Credit Services market report on 2017 ag land values, limited supply is anchoring land values in the Northwest “despite concerns surrounding weaker commodity prices. ... Both irrigated and dry cropland values continue to remain strong despite lower commodity prices for many crops.”

A large volume of the farm land sold in Idaho this year is purchased by investment groups that are keeping the land in farming, said Morrison.

“We’re seeing investment groups buying large blocks of farmland in southern Idaho,” he said. “These people are looking at farmland as an investment and ... it gives them an annual return.”

Most of the farmer-to-farmer land sales are in the neighborhood of 160 acres and purchased by producers from their neighbors, Morrison said.

HUBBARD, Ore. — Northwest Hazelnut Co. has completed the installation of a 435-kilowatt solar power system that offsets 100 percent of the electricity the processing plant uses.

Company co-owner Larry George said the project, including the replacement of halogen lights in the facility with LEDs, ran up a bill of roughly $1 million. With the energy savings and government incentives, however, George plans to offset the costs within five years.

Northwest Hazelnut Co. is part of a network of facilities that process the Oregon Hazelnut harvest, and has three sister processing plants, according to its website.

As a result of going solar, Northwest Hazelnut Co. expects to save $1.6 million on its electricity bills over the next 25 years, said Jordan Sinn, Oregon Earthlight branch manager. The panels should have a lifespan of over 40 years.

The company partnered with Earthlight Technologies, a SunPower Elite Dealer, to install 1,000 E20-435W commercial panels. The 435-kilowatt system produces enough electricity to power about 40 average Oregon homes, David McClelland, senior program manager at Energy Trust of Oregon, said.

The cost of solar systems vary based on size and location, and there are state and federal incentives available for some businesses, McClelland said.

Northwest Hazelnuts held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Sept. 1 at the processing facility. The ceremony was attended by Oregon Gov. Kate Brown.

“It’s a great step forward for sustainability,” Brown said. “(Northwest Hazelnuts) is leading the way and impacting the future. They’re setting an example for Oregon agriculture.”

Hazelnuts rank 11th in farmgate value among Oregon’s agricultural commodities. Brown said she expects the rapidly expanding crop to shoot to fifth in the next couple of years.

“Thanks for investing in Hubbard, Marion County and Oregon Agriculture,” she said.

“SunPower’s reliable solar energy solutions coupled with Earthlight’s commercial experience and local presence were strong reasons why we decided to move forward on the project. And knowing this is a long-term investment, the robust warranty and higher efficiency panels were extremely important to us,” George said.

Earthlight Technologies was founded in 2008 as a family-owned and -operated business. Since 2012 the company has installed over 2.5 megawatts of solar PV in both residential and commercial sites, and has over 50 employees at its Ellington, Conn., and Silverton, Ore., offices.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

Corvallis, Ore. — Brothers Nick and Phillip Lorenz make mead, a beverage with lots of history behind it.

Mead is one of the oldest alcoholic beverages. It was widely popular in ancient Greece and during the Middle Ages, especially in northern European countries where grapevines didn’t flourish.

“On one hand, it’s not new at all — it’s the oldest alcohol, but it’s new commercially,” Nick Lorenz said. “Especially our style. It’s a niche, but emerging marking. The opportunities are endless and it’s just growing.”

The production of mead starts with fermenting honey in a tank with water, yeast and — depending on the brew — additional flavoring ingredients, such as berries. The mead is then filtered and carbonated in a tank before packaging. The process takes around a month, Nick Lorenz said.

At their company, Nectar Creek, the brothers produce session style mead, which refers to alcohol content, that ranges from 4 to 8 percent alcohol. Nick Lorenz describes the taste as light and similar to beer and cider.

For mead with additional fruit flavors, the company picks flavors that pair well together, along with giving brewers freedom to experiment. Nick Lorenz said that ginger-honey is one of their most popular meads, along with their lemon-lime brew they called “Nectorade.”

Nectar Creek formed in 2012, but the brothers had the idea since high school to start a value added agriculture business.

“Selling strawberries is great, but strawberry jam is available all year round,” Nick Lorenz said.

Experimentation with alcohol started young. Phillip Lorenz was caught drinking at 20 years old, but instead of being grounded, his parents took him to a brewery, the thought behind it being: “if you’re going to be around alcohol the rest of your life, you should see how it’s made.”

Phillip Lorenz started home brewing before going to work at Queen Bee Honey Co. When the brothers first started Nectar Creek Phillip Lorenz kept bees, but eventually sold them to Queen Bee Honey Co.

“It’s too much,” Nick Lorenz said. “Beekeeping is a whole separate business.”

Instead, Nectar Creek receives honey from local beekeepers and describe themselves as a “honey co-op.” Nick Lorenz said that they try to add a new honey supplier each year.

As the company has grown, the brothers have decided to double the size of their operation and expand into a new facility that can also work as a tap house, as well as a distillery. The facility is expected to increase operational efficiency by 50 percent. Nick Lorenz hopes that the building will be done in November.

The biggest struggle that the brothers have had is educating consumers about what mead is.

“People in the beer industry know everything about beer and have never head of mead,” Nick Lorenz said. “Or they’ll say, ‘My uncle made mead in his basement and it was gross,’ but they don’t really know what it is.”

He described interactions with bar owners where it took multiple attempts and samples for the owners to even try the product. He said that even when the owners do like it, they aren’t sure if they can make any money from it. He contrasts that with getting a new IPA in bars.

“A bar will just take it without trying it or even knowing if it’s good or not,” he said.

Although Nick Lorenz knows there is still a lot of education to be done about mead, one of the most rewarding aspects for him is seeing customers’ eyes light up after trying it.

“It’s the impact we have on people,” he said. “The goals we have rests on our positive impact on the environment, people and community.”

Nectar Creek employs five workers, and Nick Lorenz said that the first time he wrote an employee’s paycheck he knew “it was real.”

“The more mead we’re making, the more people are drinking it and the more we can care for our employees,” he said.

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Firefighters across the U.S. West struggled with wind-driven flames, hot temperatures and dry conditions even after the unofficial end to a summer of devastating wildfires, including those bearing down on two popular national parks.

The dozens of fires burning across the Western United States and Canada have blanketed the air with choking smoke from Oregon, where ash fell on the town of Cascade Locks, to Colorado, where health officials issued an air quality advisory alert.

A 14-square-mile fire in Montana’s Glacier National Park emptied its busiest tourist spot as wind gusts drove the flames toward the doorstep of an iconic lodge.

Lake McDonald Lodge, a 103-year-old Swiss chalet-style hotel, sits on a lake as the famed Going-to-the-Sun-Road begins its vertigo-inducing climb up the Continental Divide, making it an endearing park symbol for many visitors.

Fire crews got bad news Monday: The wind had shifted and gusts were driving the fire down the mountainside toward the lake’s shores.

Losing Lake McDonald Lodge on top of the destruction of Sperry Chalet, a historic backcountry building consumed by the fire last week, would be “unimaginably devastating,” said Mark Hufstetler, a historian who worked at the lodge for several years in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

“These are some of the most remarkable buildings anywhere in the United States and they are an integral part of the Glacier experience and the Glacier tradition,” Hufstetler said.

Fire crews understood the significance of the lodge and were ready to protect it, fire information officer Diane Sine said.

“It’s important to all of us and a very high priority to do whatever we can to preserve that,” she said.

Outside California’s Yosemite National Park, a wind-fueled fire made its way deeper into a grove of 2,700-year-old giant sequoia trees on Labor Day. Officials said the fire had gone through about half the grove but had not killed any trees.

Giant sequoias are resilient and can withstand low-intensity fires. The blaze burned brush and left scorch marks on some big trees that survived, said Cheryl Chipman, a fire information officer.

“They have thick bark and made it through pretty well,” Chipman said.

There are about 100 giant sequoias in Nelder Grove, including the roughly 24-story-high Bull Buck sequoia, one of the world’s largest. Fire crews also wrapped 19th-century cabins in shiny, fire-resistant material to protect them from the flames.

The fire threatening the grove was among several in the area — one of which closed some trails in Yosemite. A road leading to the park’s southern entrance also shut down.

Brenda Negley woke up Monday in her Oakhurst home 14 miles away and found her truck covered with ash. Her mother was there, too, after evacuating her own home, but Negley’s thoughts were with the peaceful and secluded sequoia grove that she has regularly visited since childhood.

“I’ve been sick with worry over Nelder Grove,” she said. “As much as Nelder Grove is my home, and I don’t want to lose my home, I want to save my mom’s home and everyone else’s home.”

Elsewhere in Northern California, a fire destroyed 72 homes and forced the evacuation of about 2,000 people from their houses. The fire has burned 14 square miles in the community of Helena about 150 miles south of the Oregon line.

In Los Angeles, a fire that destroyed four homes and threatened hillside neighborhoods is no longer actively burning, but firefighters kept watch in case the wind reignited the blaze, Fire Department Chief Ralph Terrazas said.

Thanawala reported from San Francisco.

SALEM (AP) — Much of Oregon was wrapped in a haze of smoke this week as dozens of wildfires burned in the state, with one blaze forcing part of an interstate highway to be closed.

In the Willamette National Forest alone, 16 fires covering 71 square miles were burning, officials said. Campfires were banned and a third of the forest was off limits, the forest service said.

In southwest Oregon, evacuations were ordered in a rural area near Cave Junction because of another fire. The current size of the blaze was unknown because heavy smoke has kept infrared mapping flights grounded, fire managers said.

“Smoke levels are creating unpleasant and unhealthy conditions across much of southwest Oregon,” the Joint Information Center said in a statement.

But smoke also filters sunlight, limiting additional heating of potential fuels on the ground and stifling small fires, the center said.

Air quality alerts were issued for several parts of the state. Doctors recommended that anyone with existing pulmonary conditions such as asthma stay indoors.

On the northern end of the state, a fire in the Columbia River Gorge that separates Oregon from Washington state caused ashes to drift onto the town of Cascade Locks. A stretch of Interstate 84 that runs by the town was closed because of the fire, the Oregon Department of Transportation said Monday evening. The highway will reopen when authorities determine that the road is safe.

Evacuation orders remained in place in and around Cascade Locks for 283 structures, including 15 businesses. After quickly spreading since it started on Saturday, apparently from a youngster playing with fireworks, the fire held the same position overnight and is an estimated 3,200 acres.

Native Americans who fish for salmon in the broad Columbia River consider Labor Day their busiest day to sell the smoked fish, but a market where they sell it by the Bridge of the Gods was quiet, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported.

Some hikers on Pacific Crest Trail, which runs through the area, were seen in Cascade Locks and told OPB that fires had prevented them from hiking about half the trail in Oregon.

The fire in southwest Oregon, which has burned more than 219 square miles was also threatening a tree that marks the site of a bombing of the continental United States by the Japanese during World War II, fire management officials said.

The redwood was planted as a symbol of reconciliation over a half-century ago by the family of Nobuo Fujita, a Japanese Navy pilot who dropped incendiary bombs on the forest near Brookings, the Bulletin newspaper of Bend reported.

Firefighters wrapped the redwood in a fire-retardant sheet to protect it, and the flames were believed to be about a mile (1.6 kilometers) away, said Terry Krasko, a spokesman for the firefighters.

Fujita’s two bombs had little effect. He returned to Brookings after the war to apologize.

Saturday was the 75th anniversary of the firebombing. Fujita died in 1997.

The Pacific Northwest sweet cherry industry finally had the year of its dreams in good weather, but maybe the year of its nightmares in pricing and returns.

Stellar weather this year led to record cherry volume. The crop of around 27 million, 20-pound boxes was well above the old record of 23.2 million in 2014.

But the record crop caused wholesale prices to tumble below $16 per box, making it unprofitable. Early grower returns were good, but post-Fourth of July returns, not fully known until mid-October, are not expected to be good. Some picked fruit was dumped.

So the big question growers, packers, shippers and marketers will grapple with over the next several months is whether the industry can expand market consumption enough to handle 27 million-box and larger crops.

Or are the crops too much of a good thing?

The answer seems obvious. Supply exceeds demand. Cut supply. But it might be more complicated than that.

There are lots of variables that shape any given season. Weather is one of them. Rain, hail, excessive heat or poor pollination usually hold down crop size, but that didn’t happen this year.

“The reality is every cherry season is different, and this one played out in a manner that is unacceptable to me, my growers and shippers,” said B.J. Thurlby, president of Northwest Cherry Growers in Yakima, Wash., the industry’s promotional arm.

Next year, the market might respond differently and there may be more demand than supply, he said. The key is repeat consumer purchases, and this year “our retail partners saw our core consumers did not make as many repeat purchases as we needed,” Thurlby said.

“We had two-and-a-half months of sustaining huge volume, competing with lots of other summer fruit. California had a lot of cherries before us at good pricing and good volume. Why it tanked for us was just supply and demand,” said Denny Hayden, a Pasco, Wash., grower.

It was a tale of two seasons for the Northwest. Pre-Fourth of July brought “good to moderate” prices, and post-Fourth of July brought too many cherries and prices at $16 a box and lower, Hayden said.

“The problem was not having enough sales for it. We couldn’t move out packed fruit,” he said.

PNW cherries were the No. 1 advertised item in retail produce departments for four weeks. They were in the top three for seven weeks against more than 800 other items on average, Thurlby said.

“You hope we picked up some new consumers, which is part of the necessary growing pains we go through in producing larger crops,” he said.

Consumer-friendly retail pricing and good displays were the norm in most stores as major chains focused on cherries for over two months, he said.

More than 500,000 boxes per day were shipped for 42 straight days — an “unbelievable” amount, he said.

Northwest Cherry Growers began new programs in the Philippines, Myanmar and Cambodia and the industry exported more than 8 million boxes. More than 3 million of that went to China. The previous export record was 7.5 million in 2014. Last year, 1.8 million boxes went to China.

“To me the bottom line is there are just too many cherries planted. There’s not enough infrastructure to get them packed. Until the huge supply drains away, it isn’t a good market. It’s a good market early and in the end but not in the middle until we reduce the amount of fruit being picked,” said Norm Gutzwiler, a Wenatchee, Wash., grower.

Brenda Thomas, president of Orchard View Farms in The Dalles, Oregon’s largest cherry grower, said people talk about growing markets but she’s not sure where that is because “certain retailers reached a lot people with low pricing and it still didn’t create enough demand.”

“We packed all our fruit and sold all our fruit for very poor pricing. There was little or no demand for cherries in general. It was that way all season long except right at the beginning,” Thomas said.

Small growers will get squeezed out first if supply is reduced, she said, adding she does the best she can for her growers.

Orchard View packs for a couple dozen growers. Beyond that, it grows 80 percent of what it packs.

Charles Lyall, a Mattawa, Wash., grower, said it’s tough to make a profit this year on $20 per box at a 30 percent cullage rate.

Small growers, particularly 5- and 10-acre growers, are likely to get out of business first because they can’t handle food safety compliance and other regulations as efficiently as large companies, Lyall said.

“I would like to increase markets but if you can’t increase markets fast enough to take care of the volume and can’t sell at a profit, then you have to start looking at reducing production,” he said.

A short-term solution, he said, is heavier pruning to reduce crop load and produce larger cherries. The next option is removing less productive trees and varieties, which he will start doing this winter or next, he said.

Big companies have increased a lot of cherry acreage in the Mattawa area in the past 30 years and a lot of that, with some ups and downs, has been fueled by good prices, Lyall said.

“We’ve been riding that train. We might be back to a point where we’ve overproduced and it’s going to have to go back to lowering volume,” he said. “You tear out Bing at 6 tons per acre and plant Skeena that averages 10. The day of growing small fruit that doesn’t get packed is trouble.”

New varieties that produce large cherries would be good, he said, “but I’m afraid there’s more of these years ahead than in the past.”

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — An Oregon court has ruled a couple must have their dogs surgically “debarked” after causing their neighbors several years of disruption.

The Oregon Court of Appeals determined Wednesday that the devocalization operations were necessary since the dogs’ owners, Karen Szewc and John Updegraff, had not done enough to quiet the Tibetan and Pyrenean Mastiff dogs, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported. The surgery involves cutting an animal’s vocal cords and is banned in six states under certain circumstances, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association.

Neighbors Debra and Dale Krein of Rogue River decided to file the lawsuit as a last resort after enduring more than a decade of nuisance barking by six or more dogs. The loud barking begins as early as 5 a.m. and has caused the family and their guests discomfort to the point where the children dread coming home, according the Kreins.

The dogs bark when they sense predators and are necessary to keep the livestock on her rural southern Oregon property protected, Szewc said in an interview with The Oregonian/OregonLive.

“The dogs are my employees,” she said. “We do not have the dogs to harass the neighbors. We have the dogs to protect our sheep.”

In April 2015, the Jackson County Circuit Court ordered Szewc and her husband Updegraff pay $238,000 to the Kreins as compensation, but the Kreins argued the court ruling would not do anything to stop the noise. The Appeals Court upheld the $238,000 decision and a ruling ordering the dogs be debarked to avoid a “judicial merry-go round.”

Szewc fears that the court ruling will put her small farm in danger. In 2010, the couple went through with court directive and had one of their dogs debarked. As a result, a cougar successfully made off with six lambs in a week, resulting in a $3,000 loss, Szewc said.

County hearings officer Donald Rubenstein determined that the Szewc and Updegraff’s land did not qualify for farm-use laws that permit the sound of barking dogs.

Szewc is debating whether they will follow the court order or appealing the decision.

SALEM, Ore. — Alea Minar, 14, has been keeping busy this year at the Oregon State Fair. A 4-Her for six years, Minar shows in every small animal category.

“Rabbit, poultry, cavies (guinea pigs), pigeons and dogs,” she listed off.

Along with showing animals, Minar, who is from Deschutes County, also competes in the static 4-H exhibits such as fashion, sewing, cooking, food preservation, art, photography and leadership.

This is her second year at the fair.

“It’s really awesome,” she said. “We have helpful stewards and volunteers, and great judges. It’s running smoothly.”

Minar enjoys all the opportunities that come with 4-H, and she said that it helps her grow as a person. Although she has many favorite parts, one of them is the lead up to the fair.

“Everyone is stressed out, and you’re studying with your friends, quizzing one another and cleaning the animals,” she said.

For 14-year-old Tatum Heathershaw from Washington County, the fair gives her the chance to be around people who share her love for poultry.

“There’s not a lot of places like that,” she said.

Once at the fair, Minar and Heathershaw said they like meeting new people from around Oregon. This fair year in particular has given them ample opportunity to do that.

“It’s the first year that 4-H and FFA club members have shown animals together since I’ve been alive,” Candi Bothum, 4-H program coordinator, said.

In past years, 4-H would show one week and FFA would show the other, but because many students are going back to school earlier and the groups utilize the same judges, it made sense to show all the youth competitions together, Bothum said.

“It’s been fun. A great opportunity with great organizations,” she said. “The state fair is an opportunity for kids to meet from all over the state. Young livestock raisers and ag enthusiasts — they’re the future of ag. A terrific group of young people.”

Combining the shows also helped lower the number of turnovers the clubs had to make to clean out the animal pens.

Bothum said that she thinks the two groups will continue showing together, but they have some logistical issues regarding space to fix for next year.

“It’s a big group,” she said, noting that the number of animal entries has gone up.

Elsewhere at the fair, the agriculture stage has also been a hit, Brooke Broadbent, the showcase organizer, said. She estimated 30 to 50 people attend the presentations and for the activities it “ebbed and flowed.” So far, the most popular event has been egg day, where 1,500 eggs on a stick were handed out.

Although the fair has stopped keeping daily attendance tallies, Dan Cox, the fair spokesman, said the fair had a good opening day and there have been more discount incentives this year to bring people out.

“I’ve been around fair a long, long time and can see the ebb and flow of the crowd. We’ll get a first wave that stays for several hours and then a second wave of people at night for the concerts,” he said. “On the hot days close to 100 degrees we might see people heading inside more towards the AC, but the one thing we’ve always seen is Oregonians come out no matter what, it’s an interesting thing.”

Cox says the fair offers something for everyone.

“It’s not just for the urban center,” he said. “It’s for the entire state.”

Promising table grape cultivars, not to mention tasty grape samples, will be on display and up for discussion during a field day at Oregon State University’s North Willamette Research and Extension Center.

The field day is Wednesday, Sept. 13, from 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. at NWREC, 15210 N.E. Miley Road, Aurora.

Research Assistant Amanda Vance, who has spent the past three years evaluating cultivars, will talk abut her findings. Oregon is known for its wine grapes, of course, but Vance believes there may be a table grape niche for small-scale growers who sell at farmers’ markets or roadside stands.

The grapes Vance found most promising include Neptune, a green grape from the University of Arkansas with high yields year after year, and Canadice, a smaller red grape from Cornell University with good flavor and uniform clusters. Agricultural researchers often share cultivars among themselves for evaluation and OSU received several over the years from John Clark, a University of Arkansas plant breeder and horticulture professor. Clark will attend the field day and talk about his work.

Vance has a viticulture background and volunteered to take on the OSU table grape research project. She’ll discuss her work, and OSU berry crops professor Bernadine Strik will talk about grapevine morphology, physiology, trellising, pruning and training. Javier Fernandez-Salvador, an OSU Ph.D. candidate and an assistant professor, will talk about organic table grape production, including disease and weed control.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Wildfires in Oregon are burning an area roughly equivalent to half the state of Rhode Island, affecting air quality throughout the state and forcing the evacuations of more than 4,500 people, fire authorities said.

Two dozen fires in southern, eastern and central parts of the state had scorched a total of 571 square miles.

And although fire crews appreciated cooler weather and some fog on some fire lines, they are bracing for triple-digit temperatures and the return of windy conditions and extremely low humidity later this week and into the weekend, said Terry Krasko, a U.S. Forest Service spokesman.

The largest fire is near the coastal town of Brookings near the California border.

That 196-square-mile blaze is 5 percent contained and 4,568 people have fled their homes. Firefighters have managed to carve out a containment line along the southwestern edge of the fire to protect the 6,500-person town that will be bolstered by the arrival Wednesday of six Oregon National Guard teams.

The fire started July 12 from a lightning strike in the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest but grew rapidly last week.

“That 5 percent doesn’t sound like a lot but it’s very critical to this town and we feel very good about that. There have been people asking, ‘What about the other side of the fire, what about the east?”’ Krasko said. “But we have to put our efforts first where the homes and businesses are — where people live. These are our family and friends.”

Also in the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest, but further east, a complex of fires forced the evacuation of six homes Tuesday in a rural community called Joe Bar near the Applegate River Valley. Several of the fires have merged and firefighters have divided the largest ones into three areas of attack, fire authorities said.

About two dozen blazes all began on Aug. 12 after a lightning storm in the area but most were put out quickly by crews.

In central Oregon, a 34-square-mile fire west of Sisters is now 44 percent contained. No mandatory evacuations are in effect.

Fires statewide continue to generate thick smoke that’s affecting air quality in southern and central Oregon.

Smoke forced the Oregon Shakespeare Festival to cancel its outdoor performance on Tuesday.

Nine cities, including Bend, Medford, Ashland and Klamath Falls, had unhealthy air conditions on Wednesday, according to the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality.

Smoke from all the blazes has also converged on Portland, which is several hundred miles away, and has obscured the iconic view of Mount Hood.

On Tuesday, some Portland residents reported finding ash on their parked cars.