Farm regulators are investigating a flurry of complaints about water quality problems from agricultural activities in Oregon’s Polk County.

The Oregon Department of Agriculture received 26 complaints about alleged violations of water regulations in the county over the winter, which is a high volume over a relatively short time period in one area, said John Byers, manager of the agency’s agricultural water quality program.

“That’s certainly not the norm,” he said.

The situation is also unusual because all of the complaints were filed by a farmer who serves as a director of the Polk Soil & Water Conservation District, which aims to mitigate water quality problems, Byers said during a recent meeting of the Oregon Board of Agriculture.

“As a private citizen, he has the ability to do that,” Byers said.

However, the concern is that Polk County residents may think the complaints were brought on behalf of the district, which could dissuade them from inquiring about water quality questions due to a fear of enforcement, he said.

Creating that perception wasn’t the intent of the farmer, who was concerned about prospective violations in his area, Byers said.

“I don’t think it was malicious,” he said.

The goal of ODA’s agricultural water quality program is to ensure compliance with the rules, rather than take enforcement actions such as issuing penalties, Byers said.

Landowners who have water quality violations are assisted by the local soil and water conservation district, so the recent complaints in Polk County raised questions about straining that district’s capacity, he said.

“It becomes a bigger burden on them,” Byers said.

Even so, the complaints have invigorated discussions about water quality in the region, which may ultimately help further the program’s goals, he said.

Investigations of the complaints are ongoing, though some have been closed without finding any violations, he said.

The vast majority of the complaints pertain to erosion from a lack of vegetation or crops being planted up and down a slope, though several relate to livestock and manure piles.

Kelly Gordon, a farmer from Monmouth and director of the Polk S&WCD, said he was prompted to file the complaints due to worries about the effect of heavy rains, which likely caught farmers off guard.

Gordon said he did not file the complaints as a representative of the district and doesn’t believe water quality problems have gotten worse in the county.

The district’s manager and another director suggested that Gordon first approach the Polk S&WCD before filing a complaint with ODA, which he plans to do in the future, he said.

“I don’t think it’s a pervasive thing. It just pops up now and again,” Gordon said.

A cheesemaker in Central Oregon faces the revocation of several licenses for his dairy because state farm regulators have accused him of threatening inspectors.

The Oregon Department of Agriculture is seeking to revoke the licenses of Patrick Sullivan, who runs Cada Dia Cheese in Prineville. The Licenses are necessary to operate a fluid milk facility, a dairy products plant, a confined animal feeding operation and a commercial scale.

The agency claims the revocations are warranted because Sullivan has repeatedly barred inspectors from coming onto his property and has subjected ODA employees to “hostile, abusive, and threatening communications.”

ODA has also filed a petition for a restraining order to block Sullivan from “harassing or menacing” its employees or entering the agency’s offices.

Sullivan said he plans to contest both actions by ODA.

“I want to be heard in a court of law,” he said.

Inspectors must access Sullivan’s dairy and cheese-making facility to ensure he’s following laws pertaining to food safety and water pollution control, according to ODA’s revocation order.

Sullivan first refused to allow inspectors to collect necessary samples in 2010 and has since been uncooperative and intimidating on several occasions, including sending emails to ODA about his hatred of government officials, the document said.

His conduct, as well as statements that allude to defending himself with a firearm, “are reasonably perceived as written threats to inflict serious physical injury on ODA employees,” the agency said.

In October 2015, the agency obtained a warrant to enter Sullivan’s property to perform inspections and requested help from the Oregon State Police, the document said.

However, OSP declined because it was unable to get assistance from additional law enforcement officials, preventing the ODA from taking necessary samples, the agency said.

In 2016, Sullivan has told ODA that he will be implementing “anti-terrorist procedures” at his farm and said he’d travel to the agency’s headquarters in Salem to discuss these “terrorist concerns,” according to the revocation order.

Sullivan told Capital Press his problems with ODA are part of a broader conflict with neighbors and law enforcement officials.

“These things don’t happen in a vacuum,” he said.

Sullivan said he encountered complaints shortly after buying the farm in 2009, when neighbors and county officials claimed that visitors to his dairy were causing traffic.

He said a dispute with a neighbor who was formerly a police officer has resulted in harassment from law enforcement agencies.

Sullivan said his relationship with ODA also soured early on, when an inspector tried to make his dairy license contingent on county inspections of his family’s living quarters.

Since then, Sullivan said he protested several actions by ODA, such as an inspector waiting to chill his milk samples instead of putting them on ice immediately and attempting to hang a milk sampling device on an unsanitary sink.

Most recently, Sullivan said he objected to the frequency of water tests and to an ODA inspector entering his property unannounced to take water samples.

Sullivan said he believes the U.S. is “descending into a police state” and wanted to implement similar procedures for government officials as people must follow before boarding an airplane.

“Why shouldn’t I do that to them when they come onto my property?” he said.

Local lakes: South Coast lakes are now loaded with rainbow trout and more are on the way. This week Garrison Lake in Port Orford is scheduled to receive an additional 200 trophy-size trout. Last week, anglers reported catching rainbows in…

Oregon’s best known wandering wolf, OR-7, was photographed by a remote trail camera in the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest in late February after not being heard from since his tracking collar failed last June.

The wolf’s dispersal from the Imnaha Pack in September 2011 attracted international attention as GPS collar data points shared by Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife allowed the public to follow his travels.

After leaving Northeast Oregon’s Wallowa County, OR-7 cut through Oregon on a diagonal route, traveling southwest through Baker, Grant, Harney, Crook, Deschutes, Lake, Klamath, Douglas and Jackson counties. On Dec. 28, 2011, he entered California, becoming the first known wolf in the state since 1924. By then, wildlife biologists estimated he’d traveled 1,062 zig-zag miles.

He spent most of 2012 in California, then returned to Oregon in 2013. In 2014, ODFW announced he’d found a mate, an uncollared and unknown female. They’ve produced two litters of pups in what is now called the Rogue Pack.

OR-7 was most likely sired by OR-4, the longtime alpha male of the Imnaha Pack who was among four wolves shot by ODFW March 31 for repeated livestock attacks.

Unlike others from his home Imnaha Pack, OR-7 apparently hasn’t bothered cattle or sheep since taking up residence in Southwest Oregon.

“He’s behaving himself, I’m happy to report,” said John Stephenson, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist who tracks wolves in the western part of the state, where the federal Endangered Species Act listing of gray wolves still is in effect.

Stephenson said the trail camera photo was the first direct evidence since last year that OR-7, now about 7-years-old, is alive and well.

He said OR-7 has produced two generations of pups, and said he saw tracks of six or perhaps seven wolves in the snow this past winter.

OR-7 still has a hold on people’s imagination. Stephenson said. He knows of three books being written about the wolf, two of them children’s books. At least one of the authors refers to the wolf as “Journey,” the name given him by conservation groups as they publicized his wanderings.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Oregon, California, the federal government and others have agreed to go forward with a plan to remove four hydroelectric dams in the Pacific Northwest without approval from a reluctant Congress, a spokesman for dam owner PacifiCorp said Monday.

The dam removal is part of an announcement planned Wednesday in Klamath, California, by the governors of both states and U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell.

Tearing down the dams would be a major victory for tribes that have fought for years to restore the river for salmon they rely on for subsistence and ceremony.

The move also could breathe new life into a struggling effort to allocate more water for farmers and ranchers in the drought-stricken Klamath Basin.

Under the deal, a nonprofit corporation recently formed in California would take ownership of the hydroelectric dams and assume liability for any damage that stems from their removal, said Bob Gravely, a spokesman for Portland-based PacifiCorp.

The plan, which aims to remove the dams in 2020, still needs approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Going through FERC avoids the need for congressional approval for dam removal, which was required in earlier Klamath plans but met opposition from Republican lawmakers concerned about setting a precedent.

A water settlement agreement expired at the end of 2015 when Congress failed to approve the dam removal. Going around Congress on dams could make it more politically palatable for lawmakers to back other elements of the water agreements.

Dams thwart salmon migration, degrade water quality, alter water flows, and contribute to fish diseases and algae bloom problems. Three tribes depend on the fish for subsistence and ceremonial needs, and a fourth hopes fish will return once the dams are removed.

One of the tribes already has obtained water rights through the courts, limiting water available for farmers and ranchers, and the others could pursue that process. Klamath Basin agriculture is valued at about $670 million annually.

Thomas O’Rourke Sr., chairman of the Yurok Tribe in Northern California, said the Klamath River can begin to heal if the dams come down.

“That’s our livelihood,” O’Rourke said. “If the river’s sick, our fish are sick, the animals that live around it become sick, and the people become sick.”

PacifiCorp has supported a dam-removal agreement because it offers the utility liability protections and caps the costs to its customers. Several studies have shown that dam upgrades likely to be required would significantly reduce electricity generation and would cost millions more than dam removal and replacement of hydropower with other sources.

Funding for the $450 million project would come from PacifiCorp customers in California and Oregon, along with a water bond approved by California voters in 2014.

MULINO, Ore. (AP) — Authorities arrested a 37-year-old man accused of starting a fire that a destroyed a barn in rural Clackamas County.

The sheriff’s office says deputies had been sent to the property in Mulino on a separate matter late Monday. Shortly after leaving, they were called back because the barn was ablaze.

The deputies found the structure engulfed in flames and it was total loss. Nearby residents were evacuated, but there were no reports of injuries.

Deputies arrested Justin Smith of Mulino. He’s charged with arson and criminal mischief.

JORDAN VALLEY, Ore. — Ranchers and others who would be in the middle of a proposed 2.5 million-acre national monument strongly opposed the idea April 3 during a town hall meeting.

People who oppose the proposal should speak up and make sure their voices are heard, said Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., who hosted the meeting, which attracted about 300 people, most of them ranchers.

When someone asked what locals could do to make a difference, Walden said, “Education, education, education. Because people just don’t get it and we’re outnumbered. Your involvement matters and it makes a difference.”

The Bend-based environmental group Oregon Natural Desert Association, backed by the Keen Footwear company of Portland, has proposed the establishment of the Owyhee Canyonlands national monument and wilderness area on 2.5 million acres of Bureau of Land Management land in Malheur County.

The Obama administration, which could establish the canyonlands area by presidential proclamation, has given no sign what it will do.

Though proponents say traditional land uses would be allowed under the proposal, opponents believe having more than 40 percent of the county’s land designated as a national monument would restrict grazing and access to these lands and harm the local economy.

When people who support the proposal say the Owyhee Canyonlands is one of the most extraordinary places on earth, “I say, it’s that way because of how it’s being managed today,” Walden said. “It’s that way because of the way you’re taking care of it.”

He encouraged local residents to repeat that point.

“We need to show them what good stewardship looks like and move the public debate because we have a good story to tell,” he said. “It’s critical to show them the good work being done today on the range.”

Jordan Valley is in the middle of the proposed monument area.

“It would have a huge impact on this area,” local rancher Bob Skinner, former president of the Oregon Cattle Association, told Capital Press. “These people are really scared.”

The April 3 meeting is among several town hall meetings being held to help inform people of the proposal and allow them to weigh in, Skinner said.

“We’re trying to make a statement every time we meet,” he said. “We think it’s going to have an impact ... because politicians listen to numbers.”

Walden said a national monument designation could have a huge negative effect on ranching.

“Their plan is to get cattle off the range. Let’s just say it,” he said.

The proposal would encompass about 33 percent of the county’s total grazing land and local ranchers are concerned about access, not only for grazing but to fight fires, manage noxious weeds and maintain water resources, said rancher Elias Eiguren.

He said locals, in conjunction with federal and state land managers, are doing a good job now managing the area.

“There have been literally decades of cooperation between federal and state management agencies and local people who utilize this land in order to make this resource what it is,” he said.

For most ranchers in the area, half of their grazing season depends on the use of public lands, Eiguren said.

“We would be affected 100 percent by” a national monument designation, he said. “It will change our businesses.”

The actions of two rural Oregon sheriffs during an armed standoff at a national wildlife refuge were striking: One worked with federal officials to end the siege while the other questioned the FBI’s authority and offered words of support for the occupiers.

Sheriff Dave Ward of Harney County, where the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge is, cooperated with federal and state police, urging standoff leader Ammon Bundy and his followers to stand down and respect the law.

Meanwhile in neighboring Grant County, Sheriff Glenn Palmer called the occupiers “patriots.” When Bundy and others were arrested during a Jan. 26 traffic stop, they were on their way to his county. An Arizona rancher who police fatally shot when they say he reached for a gun shouted he was on his way to meet Palmer.

Palmer is a member of the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, a group that bills itself as “the last line of defense” against a federal government they contend overreaches on gun control and other issues. They see sheriffs as the ultimate law enforcement authority in their dispute with the federal government over control of federal lands.

The group’s founder said they are recruiting people to run against sheriffs that don’t support their cause and that the group’s website includes lists of county sheriffs and whether they need to be “recalled or replaced.”

Critics say the group’s views are far outside the mainstream. Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which for decades has advocated against groups it considers extremist, called the CSPOA “a remarkably radical organization, considering who their members are.”

“Many constitutional sheriffs believe they can pass a local law and forbid federal authorities from coming into a county,” he said. “That is patently false.”

Richard Mack, a former Arizona sheriff and CSPOA founder, said he didn’t support the occupation of the wildlife refuge, “but I understand the complete frustration people have in this country towards this government.” Mack said the group will work to defeat Ward in the November election.

Mack’s group, founded in 2011, claims more than 400 of the nation’s more than 3,000 county sheriffs support its positions, which hold that elected county sheriffs should oppose federal agents whose conduct appears to violate the U.S. Constitution.

The CSPOA is unequivocal about gun rights. It supports the right of criminals and the mentally ill to carry firearms and opposes gun registration or background checks.

In conservative Kootenai County, Idaho, popular sheriff Ben Wolfinger has drawn two opponents who support the concept of constitutional sheriffs. Tina Kunishige, one of the candidates, said sheriffs need to decide which laws are constitutional.

“I’m very comfortable with that,’ said Kunishige, who has no law enforcement experience. “I’ve studied the Constitution for a number of years.”

Wolfinger said he doesn’t need an outside group like the CSPOA to approve how he does his job. “I believe that the people I serve in Kootenai County will hold me accountable to do the job that they elected me for,” Wolfinger said.

Sheriffs who support the CSPOA have faced backlash.

Palmer, the sheriff who sided with the Oregon occupiers, has drawn an opponent in the November elections who criticized him for making his own interpretations of the Constitution.

And Palmer, who did not respond to interview requests from The Associated Press, is being investigated by the state for his actions during the Oregon standoff. If Palmer is found to have violated standards, he could lose his police certification.

The Oregon occupation started on Jan. 2 and ended Feb. 11 when the last holdouts surrendered to authorities. It began as a protest amid mounting tension over the case of local ranchers Dwight and Steven Hammond.

The Hammonds lit fires on federal land in 2001 and 2006 to protect their property from wildfires and invasive plants. The two were convicted three years ago and served time — the father three months, the son one year. But an appeals court ruled the sentences were too short under federal law, and a federal judge ordered them back to prison for about four years each.

Mack backs Palmer in the ongoing investigation into his actions.

“He’s an honorable man who has done nothing wrong.” Mack said.

SATURDAY, APRIL 2

ONTARIO, Ore. — Water will start flowing into the Owyhee Irrigation District’s 400 miles of canals, laterals and ditches a week earlier than planned.

OID board members have decided to start the system on April 4 rather than April 11 in part because persistent high winds have dried soils out and a lot of farmers have already planted, said district manager Jay Chamberlin.

“We figured if we waited until the 11th, we would be behind the eight ball,’ he said.

OID provides irrigation water for 1,800 farms and 118,000 acres in Eastern Oregon and part of southwestern Idaho.

OID board member and farmer Frank Ausman said there are spots on the system near Adrian with lighter soils that dry out quicker than other soil in the area.

“Those guys have a lot planted and they’re needing a drink,” he said.

That area near Adrian didn’t receive some of the rainstorms other areas did, said farmer and OID board member Bruce Corn.

Temperatures are also starting to reach into the 70s.

“It will take seven to 10 days for the water to get clear to the end of the system,” Corn said. “I think everybody will be ready for it by the time it comes.”

The board set the 2016 allotment for OID patrons at an initial 3 acre-feet but it’s expected to increase as the Owyhee Reservoir continues to fill.

The board opted not to increase the allotment during its March 30 meeting, Chamberlin said, in part because reservoir in-flow levels decreased a little bit recently as cooler temperatures slowed the pace of snow melt.

Corn said board members are conservative on where they set the allotment.

“It’s easy to raise it but if we over-allocate and then have to lower it, that would be difficult on people who have already made plans,” he said.

Corn anticipates the allotment will be increased April 19 during the board’s regular monthly meeting but he said it’s too soon to say whether patrons will receive their full 4 acre-foot allotment.

“I think everybody knows the allotment will be increased some amount. How much still remains to be seen,” he said.

The Owyhee Reservoir had 402,000 acre-feet of usable storage water as of March 30, which is 56 percent of it’s total capacity.

Based on U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and Natural Resources Conservation Service estimates, between 250,000 and 400,000 acre-feet of water is still headed for the reservoir this year.

Farmers in the region have received only a small portion of their full 4 acre-foot allotment the past three years and this year’s positive water outlook couldn’t have come too soon, said Ausman, who owns a dairy and normally grows his own feed on 300 acres.

However, he hasn’t received enough water to meet all his feed demands recently and has had to purchase it elsewhere.

“Between that and low milk prices, it’s starting to take a toll,” he said. “The last three years have been a killer for me.”

Oregonians listening to the Pandora streaming music website might hear a seemingly surprising commercial about Gov. Kate Brown and the environment.

The new ad, from the environmental advocacy group Oregon Wild, complains about how Brown has handled issues ranging from Portland air pollution to endangered wolves. It charges that she “is failing to protect the things that make the state special.”

Brown has received plenty of favorable publicity on environmental issues. She recently won national praise from many environmentalists for signing major climate-change bills aimed at phasing out coal and reducing the use of fossil fuels in vehicles.  

But many Oregon environmental activists say she hasn’t done enough on some of the state’s long-running conservation issues. And they hope to use the 2016 campaign season to push her into developing a more vigorous agenda.  

“We’re looking for that leadership from her, and so far we haven’t seen that to the degree we would like,” said Doug Moore, executive director of the Oregon League of Conservation Voters.  

Moore’s group, which serves as the political arm of the environmental community, has so far not issued an endorsement in the gubernatorial race. Moore praised many of the governor’s decisions but said she hasn’t staked out a strong vision for what she wants to accomplish if she wins election. Brown faces little opposition in the May 17 Democratic primary and is considered the favorite in the fall against either of the two main Republican contenders, businessman Allen Alley and Salem physician Bud Pierce.  

Brown’s communications director, Kristen Grainger, said in a statement that during Brown’s first 13 months in office, “she has successfully advanced many of the environmental community’s priorities.” In addition to the climate-change bills, Grainger said Brown had a long list of legislative accomplishments that includes winning additional funding for the state’s fish and wildlife agency and a measure reducing toxic chemicals in children’s products.  

Moore and other environmental activists say they recognize that Brown, catapulted into the governor’s seat when John Kitzhaber resigned in early 2015, didn’t have time to craft a prepared list of environmental priorities or even her own environmental staff.  

But Sean Stevens, executive director of Oregon Wild, said his members are troubled by what they’ve seen over the last year. Thus the Internet ad.  

“It doesn’t seem like the environment is high on her priority list,” he said. He noted, for example, that Brown was not the driving force behind either of the climate change bills the legislature passed in 2015 and 2016.

Stevens, whose group focuses on protecting wilderness and wildlife, criticized Brown for not pushing legislators last year on legislation putting new restrictions on aerial spraying in forests. And he said that the long-delayed release of information about alarming air pollution from Portland glassmakers reflected long-standing concerns about the Department of Environmental Quality’s enforcement.  

DEQ Director Dick Pedersen resigned as the pollution scare attracted major news coverage, and Brown outlined several steps she was taking to deal with the problem in a Feb. 15 statement. She acknowledged that “federal and state regulatory programs are clearly inadequate to assure the public that their health is being protected.”  

Sen. Michael Dembrow, D-Portland, who has worked closely with the environmental community, said the governor moved quickly once the pollution problems came to light. And he praised Brown’s work in the passage of the coal and clean-fuel bills. 

“But I would agree that her positions have so far been reactive, even if reactive in what I would consider to be a good way,” Dembrow said in an exchange of texts with OPB while traveling abroad. He said Brown needs to “articulate a proactive vision of how Oregon can be a leader in protecting the environment.”  

Stevens, however, said too many of Brown’s reactive decisions have gone in the wrong direction. He said the “straw that broke the camel’s back” and helped spark his group’s ad was Brown’s signing of a wolf bill this month. The measure seeks to shut down a lawsuit challenging the removal of the gray wolf from state’s endangered species list.  

Stevens said efforts to bar environmental litigation have long rankled conservation activists, and he worried that Brown was setting a bad precedent for her administration.  

When she signed the wolf bill, Brown said she was committed to recovering the species in Oregon. She pledged to make sure that state regulators work with a wide variety of groups on wolf recovery. Her decision to sign the bill was praised by many rural legislators and agricultural groups who have often charged that environmental groups resort to lawsuits as a delaying tactic.  

Several environmental activists said they didn’t want to speak publicly about Brown’s record because they wanted to maintain good relations with the governor. Many acknowledge they have little alternative to Brown since the Oregon Republican Party is more closely allied with the natural resource industries.  

Moore, of the Oregon League of Conservation Voters, said that the support of environmentalists is important to Brown. He noted that she not only faces an election in 2016, but another in 2018 if she wins.   

“This is a governor who has two elections back to back,” Moore said, “and having an uninspired part of her base is something that no politician would want to see.”

Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife will kill four Imnaha Pack wolves involved in five confirmed livestock attacks in the past month.

The “lethal take” order, adamantly opposed by a key conservation group, involves a Wallowa County pack with a long history of attacks on cattle and sheep and an equally significant influence on the growth of other wolf packs in the state.

ODFW wolf coordinator Russ Morgan said four wolves targeted for killing include an aging alpha male, OR-4, and an alpha female, OR-39, that has limped with a back leg injury for the past couple years. The male is nearly 10 years old, which Morgan said is “very old for a wolf in the wild.”

Morgan said it’s possible the male’s age and the female’s disability caused the wolves to turn on livestock instead of deer and elk. Two younger wolves, possibly yearlings, are believed to be traveling with them. The four appear to have split off from the rest of the Imnaha Pack, which numbered at least eight at the end of 2015.

In March alone, the group led by OR-4 has struck multiple times on private pastures in the Upper Swamp Creek area of Wallowa County. A calf was killed March 9; a sheep on March 25; two calves were attacked on March 26, with one dead and the other euthanized due to bite injuries; another calf was found dead March 28; and a sheep was found injured March 30, according to ODFW depredation reports.

Morgan said Imnaha Pack members commonly visit the area of the attacks but it’s unusual for them to remain there, as the four have this time. That suggests there’s been some change in the pack dynamics, he said.

Morgan said ODFW will shoot the wolves from the air or the ground, and intends to carry out the order immediately. He said the agency is following guidelines of the state’s wolf management plan, which is up for review this year.

He called the decision unfortunate, but said it is a necessary response to the pack’s chronic livestock attacks.

“The (wolf) plan is about conservation, but it’s also about management,” Morgan said.

ODFW has not killed any wolves since May 2011, when two Imnaha Pack members were dispatched for livestock attacks. The agency sought to kill two more pack members in September 2011, but conservation groups won a stay of the order from the Oregon Court of Appeals.

Oregon Wild, a Portland based conservation group with long involvement in wolf issues, opposes lethal control.

“ODFW should not be killing members of the Imnaha Pack, or any wolves for that matter, while the wolf plan remains under review and out of date,” Executive Director Sean Stevens said in a prepared statement.

“Given ambiguity in the current wolf plan, increased poaching, premature (state endangered species) delisting, and renewed calls from special interest groups for aggressive killing, the public has every reason to be concerned for Oregon’s recovering wolf population.”

Oregon Wild questioned whether the livestock producers involved have taken sufficient defensive measures against wolves.

Morgan said the sheep producer had three protection dogs with the sheep, checked the livestock three times a day, employed a range rider to haze the wolves and used midnight spotlighting. The cattle producer delayed pasture rotation to keep cattle closer to a public road, pastured yearlings with cows, frequently checked calving cattle and used range rider patrols as well, Morgan said in a news release.

The onset of lambing and calving season made more attacks a possibility, he said.

“Even more cattle and sheep will be on these private lands soon as calving and lambing season continues, increasing the risk for even more losses from this group of depredating wolves,” he said.

Cascadia Wildlands, a Eugene-based conservation group, said it was “deeply saddened” by the ODFW action but said it appears the state agency “has meaningfully deliberated over its decision.”

The group said it doesn’t condone using public taxpayer money to “kill wolves on behalf of private interests” but acknowledged the “situation appears to be escalating in Wallow County.” The group said lethal control is allowed under the state’s wolf plan.

The inclusion of OR-4 in the kill order is particularly difficult because he’s sired many wolf pups over the years and “fueled wolf recovery across the state,” said Josh Laughlin, executive director of Cascadia Wildlands. “His role and that of the other three wolves should be celebrated and remembered.”

The Oregon Cattlemen’s Association supports the kill order, acknowledging it is a “difficult” decision.

“It’s an unfair situation for the livestock owners and the wolves themselves,” said OCA wolf committee chair Todd Nash, a Wallowa County rancher.

“Wolves are doing what they naturally do, but have been put in a situation in Oregon where they are going to be in constant conflict with livestock and hunter’s game,” Nash said in a prepared statement.

Eliminating specific, problem animals so that multiple species can live together is sometimes necessary, Nash said.

The ODFW Commission this spring began review of the state’s wolf management plan, an effort that may take nine months.

Oregon farmers who want to crack the organic market might think about growing strawberries. Raspberries and dry bean varieties such as garbanzos, pintos and black beans wouldn’t be a bad bet, either.

But a new analysis from Oregon Tilth, which certifies organic operations, makes it clear that figuring out what to grow is only part of puzzle. The report, on-line at https://tilth.org/resources/organic-market-in-oregon/, says supply gaps, infrastructure problems and technical issues hamper what is otherwise a strong segment of Oregon agriculture.

Make no mistake, organic sales aren’t hurting. Nationally, sales expanded 12 to 21 percent annually between 1997 and 2008, slowed during the recession and picked up again in 2012, according to the analysis. By 2014, organic sales hit nearly $36 billion, an 11.4 percent increase over the previous year.

But a closer look at Oregon’s organic scene shows producers will have to step it up, according to Oregon Tilth. A number of issues snag production, processing and distribution, the report showed.

“A look at trends in the mainstream grocery industry suggests that even if Oregon farmers are meeting the majority of market needs now, continued expansion of grocery chains’ organic offerings will necessitate a crop supply increase to keep up with demand,” report author Tanya Murray wrote.

Generally, buyers want more organic berries and stone fruit and more of the less common vegetable crops, baby vegetables, heirloom varieties and varieties that have exceptional flavor, according to the report. Some also want a certain level of processing — items that are cut a certain way, peeled or roasted, for example.

Other gaps persist. Buyers want producers trained on food safety regulations and grading standards. Farmers are sometimes stymied by the organic certification process, including the need to develop new record-keeping systems, affording certification fees and waiting out the three years it takes to certify a field. Appropriate crop rotations, necessary for field health, have to be planned out as well.

Farmers also need assurance that the market will still exist after the three-year transition period, during which “yields might be down, costs might be up and the premium prices that certified organic crops earn aren’t accessible,” the report concludes.

The analysis suggests one-on-one relationships between buyers and farmers are important. Such relationships can protect confidential company information while shielding farmers from downward price pressure that comes with supply gluts.

To help solve those problems, Oregon Tilth created the Transitioning to Organic Network, or TON, an on-line service directly connecting farmers, processors, handlers, buyers and other service providers and stakeholders. Members can ask questions, share information and stay informed about educational opportunities. The listserv is at

http://goo.gl/forms/iTPJTpeiSa.

In compiling the analysis, Oregon Tilth considered responses from 31 processors and manufacturers, three natural food grocery store buyers and four wholesale produce distributors.

The report was funded by a USDA Specialty Crop Block Grant administered by the Oregon Department of Agriculture.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — One of the four finalists to become chancellor of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln has withdrawn his name.

Several Washington state media outlets have reported that Sabah Randhawa has been selected to become president at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington.

University of Nebraska spokeswoman Melissa Lee says Randhawa told University of Nebraska President Hank Bounds about his decision Wednesday.

Randhawa is Oregon State University provost. His withdrawal leaves three candidates to replace Lincoln’s chancellor, Harvey Perlman: Ronnie Green, University of Nebraska interim senior vice chancellor for academic affairs; April Mason, Kansas State University provost; and Daniel Reed, University of Iowa vice president for research and economic development.

Lee says Bounds doesn’t plan to name Perlman’s successor this week. Bounds’ selection is subject to a Board of Regents confirmation vote.

PENDLETON, Ore. — After five months of pregnancy, “Magnificent Mary” was so big she could barely walk.

Finally on March 24, the nanny Nigerian dwarf goat was ready to give birth. She had four kids in just half an hour, which was remarkable enough. But it was the fifth that came an hour later and really took Mary’s owners, Richard and Jeannie Prowse, by surprise.

“I couldn’t believe it,” Richard Prowse said. “It just blew my mind when number five popped out.”

The Prowses, who live outside Pendleton, have raised dairy goats for 30 years and they’ve never seen quintuplets before. Goats usually have between one and three kids per litter, but five are extremely rare; the odds are about one in 10,000, according to one estimate.

As Mary — short for Marigold — got bigger and bigger, Jeannie Prowse said she knew multiple births were coming. Prowse thought triplets or maybe even quadruplets were possible, but she certainly didn’t count on delivering quintuplets.

“It was total shock and surprise,” Jeannie Prowse said. “It’s pretty sensational to have five live babies.”

All of the kids survived, and on March 30 they were already prancing and jumping lively around the Prowses’ red barn in front of their house. There’s Minnie and Benson (who was born back-end first, Mariota (named after the former Oregon Ducks quarterback), Polly and fifth and final: Cinco.

In all, Marigold gave birth to three billies and two does, each one inheriting the striking blue eyes of their father, Picasso. The Prowses say they will likely keep both females for their herd, which is registered with the American Dairy Goat Association. The rest they will sell the others to families looking for a pet or 4-H animal.

Nigerian dwarf goats are smaller and easier to handle, Jeannie Prowse said, but still deliver a good amount of milk for their size. The Prowses use goat milk to make cheese, yogurt and are venturing into making soap.

It will take two months to wean the quintuplets off their mother. Until then, Jeannie Prowse watches closely over the babies, bottle feeding when they’re hungry and setting up a heating lamp in the pen where they huddle up to sleep.

Successful breeding starts with good genetics and ends with good feeding and care, she said.

“We’ve always worked hard at what we do,” Jeannie Prowse said. “And then, when something like this happens, we just feel very blessed.”

BANDON -- Entries are being sought for the 2016 Will & Celia Piehl Youth Poetry Contest. This year's theme is "What Makes Me Happy" and the contest is open to all students in grades 5-12 who live in Bandon, Langlois…

BANDON -- The Southern Coos Hospital & Health Center will host a show of artworks created reflecting upon the theme of “Home.” The show will feature art from local and regional artists responding to the theme and what home means…

THURSDAY, MARCH 31

The Oregon Department of Agriculture is looking to fill 74 openings on its 23 agricultural and commercial fishery commodity commissions.

That includes seven commissions looking for public members, according to an ODA press release.

Public members cannot be directly associated with the production or handling of the commodity a commission addresses.

ODA Director Katy Coba appoints commissioners and is expected to begin making appointments as early as next month. Successful public member candidates will join producers and handlers — those who are first purchaser of the commodity — to make up each of the commissions.

Commission activities are funded through self-assessments. While those activities and accomplishments vary from commission to commission, each have the same general mission — to fund projects for research, promotion or education.

Commission members meet four to seven times a year. It’s a volunteer position with reimbursement for travel and meals associated with meetings. Sometimes, public members have an opportunity to travel as part of a trade mission involving the commodity.

For information on all commodity commission openings, including public member openings, go to http://www.oregon.gov/ODA/programs/MarketAccess/Pages/OregonCommodityCommissions.aspx or contact Commodity Commission Program Manager Kris Anderson at 503-872-6600.

CORVALLIS, Ore. — Food manufacturers and pesticide applicators could be subject to “stop work” orders under new regulatory authority being considered by Oregon’s farm regulators.

The Oregon Department of Agriculture may seek new regulatory power to halt specific unlawful actions that endanger public safety.

Currently, the agency can suspend or revoke the license of a food establishment or pesticide applicator that’s violating the law, but such sanctions may be overkill in some situations, said Lauren Henderson, ODA’s assistant director.

“We don’t have anything that’s specific to an activity. It’s all or nothing,” he said during this week’s meeting of the Oregon Board of Agriculture in Corvallis.

Revoking a license or obtaining a temporary restraining order in court also involves fairly high legal hurdles, Henderson said.

Taking such drastic steps would be overly burdensome for the agency and the business in the case of minor violations, such as a faulty thermometer in a refrigerated meat cooler, he said.

Under the proposed “stop work” authority, the ODA could simply require a company to cease using that cooler until it’s fixed, he said.

“We’re looking at something very narrow and probably short-term,” Henderson said.

At this point, the proposal is in a very early stage but the agency is considering it as a possible “legislative concept” for the 2017 legislative session, he said.

Henderson acknowledged the “stop work” idea has met with some trepidation among regulated companies.

“The industry as a whole is pretty nervous about us having that authority,” he said.

Aside from possibly affecting pesticide applications, the proposal could impact on-farm processing, such dairymen who make farmstead cheese.

Doug Krahmer, a blueberry farmer and board member, said companies should have a way to challenge a “stop work” order.

“I would caution you to put some sort of judicial mechanism in there, so if a grower or an owner takes issue with a stop work order, there is a quick way to get adjudication,” he said.

The U.S. Department of Labor did not provide such recourse when it issued “hot goods” orders in 2012 that halted the sale of perishable fruit based on alleged labor violations, he said.

Krahmer said he would characterize the DOL’s actions as “tyrannical” and he doesn’t ever want to describe ODA that way.

Katy Coba, ODA’s director, said the agency is still examining similar authority in other states and recognizes the importance of protecting due process while ensuring public safety.

“It’s finding in statute the right balance,” she said.